Dusklands

Dusklands Summary | The Vietnam Project Summary

Dusklands is the combination of J.M. Coetzee's two stories, "The Vietnam Project" and "The Narrative of Jacobus Coetzee." Although three hundred years apart in their plot lines, the stories explore the eternal concepts of power struggles through both physical and emotional intimidation.

The narrator of the story introduces himself as Eugene Dawn, who is compiling a report called the New Life Project that covers the role of propaganda used by the United States during the Vietnam War. Eugene labors over his report, trying to incorporate his own need for free expression with the needs of his supervisor, Coetzee, to criticize both form and content.

Eugene feels that Coetzee should be better able to manage creative people, having been one himself at one time. Coetzee, however, has moved into management and has taken on the critical and sometimes impersonal role.

Eugene is nervously anticipating his meeting with Coetzee. At the meeting, Coetzee tells Eugene to write with a more common touch, as the audience will be military men not aesthetes. Coetzee describes the military men as "slow-thinking, suspicious and conservative" men, who will not understand Eugene's intellectual conceptual thinking. This rejection is devastating because Eugene admires Coetzee's opinion very much, and Eugene is not accustomed to rejection in his creative endeavors.

In order for Eugene to continue his project with a more focused approach, he spends his afternoons in a basement cubicle of the Harry S. Truman Library in the city where he lives, San Diego, California. Eugene becomes aware of the library clerk named Harry, who works diligently to keep the bookshelves in order and resents any disruption to this sense of order. Eugene would like to know Harry a little bit better and regrets that there is no room for information about Harry in this story.

Eugene does his creative writing in the mornings when his mind is free to wander and to explore before any outside forces have the chance to enter his head and distract him from his vision and inspiration. Eugene's rambling moves to his thoughts about his wife, Marilyn, and the lackluster marriage that they share. Marilyn does not understand Eugene's work and wishes he would take a simpler job so that she could spend more time with her. The fact that Eugene cannot share with Marilyn the documents related to his project sets up a wall of suspicion that keeps the couple in a negative space at all times.

To add further suspicion to the marriage, Eugene thinks that Marilyn is having an affair with another man. Each Wednesday Marilyn drives into San Diego for a therapy appointment, and Eugene finds himself sniffing her body and hair when she returns, expecting to detect the presence of another man. Although their marriage is not a happy one, Eugene feels addicted to it because it is a "surer bond than love." Eugene thinks now about the photographs in his briefcase, which show atrocities against the Vietnamese people and which Eugene looks at periodically for inspiration in writing his report.

Eugene then provides the details of the project's report, which he submits to Coetzee. The report naturally covers the psychological influence of propaganda on the affected people as well as the impact on the overall war effort. Eugene is moved by the contents of the report but feels an obligation to publish the facts for those who lived through it and for those who will come and hopefully learn from it.

Eugene moves from the present day to memories of his childhood, spent in study and scientific experiments. Eugene feels as if he is one of his crystal garden experiments, where formations seem to come out of nowhere and take root in his psyche. Eugene abruptly thinks about Coetzee once more and his wish to be more like him even though Coetzee is distant and clinical as a boss. This feeling of abandonment and not being involved at work makes Eugene feel bored most of the time, and sometimes he calls Marilyn to see if she will pick up the phone.

One day when Marilyn does not answer, Eugene leaves work early and drives home. Seeing Marilyn's car in the drive, Eugene peeks into the bedroom window to find Marilyn reclining and reading a magazine. Eugene feels a vicarious thrill about his activity and hopes the neighbors do not see spying in his own window.

On another day, Eugene takes Marilyn's young son, Martin, with him to a motel near the San Bernardino Mountains. It is Eugene's intention to find some peace and quiet in this remote place so that he can write without interruption from Marilyn. For the first four days of their stay, Eugene and Martin function quite nicely.

Eugene writes in the mornings while Martin plays with the toys brought along for the trip. Meals in the motel's restaurant are uneventful, and Martin is pleased to be able to order anything he likes. Eventually though, Martin wearies of the slow pace and the lack of activity in this new daily schedule and is anxious to return home.

Eugene feels that he should be happy living in the motel because he has cut his ties with Marilyn and has the opportunity to raise Martin without his mother's constant coddling. A feeling of despair begins to wash over Eugene as he plunges deeper into a melancholy and waits for something to happen.

Unexpectedly, a brisk knock comes on the motel room door, and Marilyn has arrived accompanied by two police officers. Eugene is only vaguely aware of what is happening because he is only spending time with his son. It never occurs to Eugene that Marilyn has reported that Martin has been kidnapped and that Eugene is in very serious trouble.

Eugene holds tightly onto Martin and hears one of the policemen tell him to put it down, but it is not until Eugene feels the fruit knife in his hand piercing Martin's skin that he realizes what the man means. Eugene can feel the knife go into Martin and stop due to the hindrance of the handle.

Eugene hears Marilyn's screams and smiles at the others in the room. He suddenly finds himself pushed to the floor and recalls the smell of the carpet as being the same as when he used to lie on the carpet at home and think as a young boy. Eugene is aware of pain and that someone is really hurting him, and he is amazed at the sensation.

Eugene's nervous breakdown has landed him in a mental hospital for men where he chooses not to receive visitors. Finding comfort in the routine and the orderliness of life in the hospital, Eugene tries to be the perfect patient and prides himself on the fact that he is not really crazy, just afflicted with an episodic hysteria.

The doctors at the hospital seem to think that Eugene's study and analysis of the Vietnam propaganda initiated his hysteria and made Eugene oblivious to pain. It is a mystery as to why Eugene has chosen to turn his inner rage and turmoil on Martin, someone he loves very much, but Eugene is willing to work with the specialists to understand.

Eugene also thinks of Coetzee and the work done at the Vietnam Project and remembers a night when a stranger tried to steal Eugene's briefcase. It is clear that what Eugene knows and what he has committed to paper will never be revealed by Coetzee or anyone else, and Eugene vows to rewrite his paper once more when he is feeling better.

Of course the doctors try to pin Eugene's mental distress on his childhood, and Eugene thinks there may be some culpability there but strongly suspects that the information on the horrors of Vietnam has had more of an impact than anyone realizes. Eugene tries not to diagnose his own case, leaving himself in the hands of the experts. He ends the story with high hopes of "finding whose fault I am."