pretend it is otherwise). To tell the truth in all its substance you must have quiet, and a comfortable chair away from all distraction, and a window to stare through; and then the knack of seeing waves when there are fields before your eyes, and of feeling the tropic sun when it is cold; and at your fingertips the words with which to capture the vision before it fades. I have none of these, while you have all.'' (Coetzee, 89)
             Susan's confession that she cannot capture the substance of the truth is part of the postmodernist idea that ultimately, truth can not be represented, although it may be transmitted. The portrait she gives of the author who has to keep "away from all distraction", so as to be able to write is an obvious hint at the traditional view of the writer as an all-powerful and omniscient god, who perfectly controls his narrative.
             The impositions that Mr. Foe is trying to force upon Susan's story make of him one of the traditional authors, like Daniel Defoe himself. Also, his name is very suggestive: the traditional author violates the actual existence and identity of his characters, and becomes their foe in the process in the process of writing them. This becomes obvious with the presence of the two symbols of otherness and marginal existence in the book: first of all Susan, who represents otherness through her gender, and Friday, the black moreover speechless character. Both of them are victims of colonialism: that form of colonialism which is realized through writing and representation.
             Both racial and gender difference have been silenced throughout history:
             ...