Last Wednesday was my last Coetzee class at Leiden University. (I co-taught this class, so the real last class will be today.)
Last Wednesday the students and I discussed whether the penis could be considered an external soul. Avid readers of “Slow man” will be able to find the source of this discussion.
At a certain point I said to one of my students: “Perhaps it’s a great pick-up line. ‘Do you want to see my external soul?’”

I thought about this discussion while reading a piece by Samuel Bauer in The Herald Tribune about his mother’s Internet date.