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Tuesday, April 26, 2022

Resensie | Frederik de Jager – Man op ’n fiets êrens heen | Protea Boekehuis, 2022

Frederik de Jager – Man op ’n fiets êrens heen. Protea Boekehuis, 2022. ISBN13: 9781485312109 

Resensent: Joan Hambidge



Frederik de Jager se Man op ’n fiets êrens - 55 stories van mense onderweg is pas bekroon met die Eugène Marais-prys vir debuutwerk. Dit het die UJ-prys ook as debuut verower in die kategorie vir prosa. Protea het dit gepubliseer.

 

Dit is ‘n hibriede teks weifelend tussen dagboekinskrywing, essay, herinneringstuk, nostalgiese teks (via Hélène Cixous se herinneringe aan Algerië; Derrida wat verwys na nostalgeria) en natuurlik die kortverhaal.

 

Dit is ‘n meesleurende leeservaring. Elke teks loop in die volgende een oor en dit is geskryf deur ‘n volwasse man wat besig is met ‘n bestekopname, soos uit Griekeland, ander kere is dit van hier.

 

Die rypheid is opvallend, nes die verskillende toonaarde: melancholies, humoristies, met ‘n skeutjie humor. Hierdie leser het dit met ‘n “shock of recognition” gelees en via Hennie Aucamp se Kort voor lank weer besef: die huis van fiksie het baie wonings. Die vraag moet nie wees of die werk ouderwets  of byderwets, betrokke of onbetrokke is nie. Die vraag moet wees: het dit gehalte? Dit is alles vrae wat Aucamp vra. 

 

Tans is hierdie leser besig met ‘n kursus oor kortkuns en Aucamp is die basisteks. Aucamp as kortverhaalskrywer, bloemleser, maar ook as teoretikus. Hy beklemtoon immers die skerp sensoriese indruk en hoe die kortverhaal (via Eudora Welty) met iets so nietig as ‘n voëlgesang kan begin (Tafelberg, 1978, 135).

 

Wat De Jager se boek belangrik maak, is dat die intuïtiewe sterk na vore kom. Die skrywer se taalkennis is opvallend en daar is digterlike momente:

 

Ons het hom in ’n terras teen die hang begrawe waar hy vir altyd op die mooiste lentedag ’n uitsig oor die vallei ondertoe sal hê. Olyfbome wat sonlig uitsif oor groen gras met geel madeliefies en die rooi vuur van papawers. Ons het mirre in sy graf gestrooi en onder die silwer klank van ’n silinderbel sy gees aan die absolute natuur gegee. Daar was ’n klip met ’n plat skuins vlak en dié het ons oor sy graf geskuif sonder om sy naam daarop uit te krap. Hy was anderkant skrif, en meer as taal. Om die eerlike waarheid te sê, ons het skuldig gevoel oor sy dood. 

    Waar sou hy kon wees, wonder ons. Dit was ’n uitsonderlik strawwe winter, met halfeeu-sneeuval – dalk het hy dit nie oorleef nie. Maar hoe dan juis hy in wie die vlam so sterk gebrand het? So het ons bespiegel, tot iemand in ons gemeenskappie van mense ’n stoorkamer by die buurhuis oopmaak om lug te gee. En daar, op ’n handdoek opgekrul of hy net slaap, lê Columbo. Ná vier maande feitlik onaangeraak deur verval, sy vag nog glinsterend, sy gestalte net effens ingedoke. Asof hy geen teken van lyding wou nalaat nie. En net so het ons hom terug in die aarde geplaas  … (136)

 

Soos dikwels die geval is in nostalgiese reise vind ons twee vertellers: die ouer persoon wat terugkyk asof hy steeds die kind is:

 

Die vraaglose geloof. As ek my hier-en-nou meet aan my komvandaan voel dit partykeer of daar so min ooreenkomste is dat ek moet wonder of ek een en dieselfde mens is. Die kern van wat mens glo jou self is, is volgens sielkundiges nouliks een aaneengeskakelde kontinuum van jou begin tot jou einde. Is ons weinig meer as ’n voortgesette sameflansing van herinnerings vervaardig deur ’n onbetroubare geheue? (89)

 

Die bespotting van die Ander, verdagmaking, verkleinering en boeliegedrag word tot op die been gesny. Die seun wat bespot word as ‘n sissie, omdat hy klavier speel. Die seun wat met ‘n juffrou wil korrespondeer wat elders in die moeilikheid beland. Hettie wat klavier speel om te ontglip uit haar harde werklikheid. Die woordelose ete tussen pa en seun word pynlik ontbloot.

 

Vooroordele teen Portugese, Grieke (in Suid-Afrika), die ou kleurbeleid, wat mense se lewens verwoes het, word verder onder die loep geneem.

 

Maar die belangrikste van hierdie deurgangsrites is die unieke manier van onthou:

 

Boekomblaai en die rustige asemhaling van die honde was die klanke van die aand. Uil naby, jakkals ver. As jy buite op jou rug in die gras lê, sou die sterre en die krieke oor alles eenstemmig wees (132).

 

Ottermaklotter, terloops is ‘n drankie, maar miskien gebruik die skrywer dit metafories.

 

Hoe teer word oor die verbintenis tussen mens en dier geskryf:

 

Die Tibetane glo as ’n dier naby mense leef, ontwikkel hy ’n siel wat meer mens as dier is. Kan dit ook wees dat ons hebbelike mensesiektes, byvoorbeeld kanker, op ’n dier kan afvryf? (170)

 

Onverontagsaambaar inderdaad, hierdie sirkelteks. “Op ‘n boot na ‘n lotsbestemming” is ‘n hoogtepunt”: ‘n boek in twee geskeur (DeLillo) deur ‘n mede-reisiger word dan die aanwysing vir wat die skrywer later ontdek in sy eie lewe.

 

Kyk hoe aangrypend vertolk hy kefí en die onsigbare verbintenisse tussen mense. En die mens onderweg wat in ‘n nuwe omgewing homself moet ontdek, word aangrypend belig.

 

(Hierdie resensie word geplaas met vriendelike vergunning van Fine Music Radio)

Monday, April 25, 2022

Resensie | Joanita Erasmus-Alt & H.P. Van Coller (reds.) - Blitsverkopers, beeldvorming & bemarking | SunBonani Media, 2022

Joanita Erasmus-Alt en H.P. Van Coller (reds.) - Blitsverkopers, beeldvorming en bemarking. SunBonani Media, 2022. Sagteband: 399 bladsye. ISBN 9781928 424826

Resensent: Joan Hambidge

 

Blitsverkopers, beeldvorming en bemarking  deur  Joanita Erasmus-Alt en H.P. van Coller is ‘n belangrike studie oor sisteemteorie. Resepsies en persepsies. Van Bourdeau tot Barthes; van Mukarovski tot Meizoz se Modern posterities of posture; van Kannemeyer tot Kyknet; van outonoom tot post-strukturalisme.

 

Dit het oorspronklik as ‘n doktorale studie begin (1991 aan die Universiteit van die Vrystaat) met die titel "Die bydrae van nie-artistieke praktyke tot die literêre sukses van eksemplariese Afrikaanse tekste: ‘n ondersoek na beeldvorming" met Van Coller as die promotor.

 

H.P. van Coller het met Perspektief & profiel as redakteur belangrike werk gelewer tot literatuurgeskiedskrywing en sy werk, veral oor Etienne Leroux, is bakens binne ons literatuurkritiek. Joanita Erasmus-Alt, sy student (hy word erken as mede-outeur) gee ‘n belangrike literatuurwetenskaplike oorsig van formalisme tot sisteemteorie. Vier skrywers kom aan bod: Dalene Matthee, Marita van der Vyver, Francois Smith en Bibi Slippers om die simboliese kapitaal en materiële sukses van hierdie skrywers te analiseer.

 

Die “intrinsieke waarde” van ‘n teks kan deur ander faktore bepaal word. Die uitgewer, wyle Danie van Niekerk van Tafelberg uitgewers, het agter die skerms gesorg dat Griet skryf ‘n sprokie gepubliseer word ten spyte van die aanvanklike skepsis van ander lesers. Daardie soort uitgewer soos Van Niekerk en Koos Human, kon weens hul belesenheid en kundigheid ‘n skrywer se waarde bepaal. Etienne Leroux en Elisabeth Eybers had Human as raadgewer; Elsa Joubert en Dalene Matthee weer vir Danie van Niekerk.


En hierdie kwessies rondom beeldvorming word goed geanaliseer en geanker in bronverwysings.

 

‘n Gerekende voormalige uitgewer, Riana Barnard, het eenkeer in ‘n RSG-onderhoud vertel dat sekere boeke soos klippe in die water sink; ander word kerntekste binne ‘n literatuur wat bewys dat iets anders saamspeel. “Iets onsigbaars word voltrek …”

 

Daar is ‘n teks, ‘n uitgewer, anonieme lesers, publikasie (met blakerteks), onderhoude, Facebook, blogs, resensies, hekwagters, kundige resensente en selfaangestelde imbongi’s, boekhandelaars, biblioteke, lesers wat koop, leeskringe, die voorskryfmark, pryskomitees, boekeredakteurs (wat kan besluit wie sal resenseer of besluit die boek word nie bespreek nie), polemieke, voorlesings van boeke op Media24 …

 

Deesdae is daar minder resensies in dagblaaie en minder bekende persone resenseer o.a. op Litnet. Dan word die simboliese kapitaal verder verhoog deur studies en tesisse oor ‘n skrywer.

 

Dit roep ons kanonisering.

 

Internasionale studies word betrek in hierdie studie om die skrywer se postuur te bepaal. En die studie bring mediastudies, boeksosiologie, beeldliteratuur én literatuurteorie bymekaar. 

 

Die postmodernisme het uiteraard die duidelike skeidslyn tussen hoë en populistiese literatuur afgebreek en die demokratisering van die resensiebedryf sodat ‘n onbekende vryskut-resensent ook ‘n spreekbeurt kry, is ‘n uitvloeisel hiervan. Dan is die ander kant van die munt ook daar: gerekende literatore wil dikwels nie resenseer nie;  om persoonlike redes soos tydbeperkings of eie navorsing.

 

Waarheidsegging by Matthee; die rol van sprokies by Van der Vyver en hoe Ruan Kemp “antwoord” in Gedeeltelik bewolk op haar lewe en die oorlede man; die impak van verkragting en die uiteindelike trauma by Smith met ‘n waarskuwing van Karel Schoeman dat dit gevaarlik is om oor vrouesake soos dié te skryf (208) en ten slotte: die mediageniese beeld van Bibi Slippers waar die digkuns gekoppel word aan die gekonstrueerde persona.


Hierdie hoofstuk is ‘n hoogtepunt: Slippers het hierdie ondersoeker se teorie reg bewys teenoor Van Wyk Louw se afwysing van die skrywer as bemarkbare produk.

 

Die hele literêre landskap word opgeroep. Met hoofspore en afdraaipaadjies.

 

Daar is ‘n teks, ‘n leser en ‘n skrywer – en al die ánder buite-spelers. Waar die skrywers soms wys op tweemondige gepraat en die verskillende hoede wat gedra word (hier oud-uitgewer, hier blakerskrywer, daar op pryskomitee, daar berader), moet ons dalk net – vir die argief onthalwe onthou – ons is uitgedun met al hoe minder dosente en kundiges in ‘n land waar Afrikaans as doseer- en wetenskapstaal anders beleef en bedryf word. Ook tereg word daar uitgewys dat die dinamikas van pryskomitees telkens verskil (287).

 

Paratekstuele elemente speel altyd ‘n rol: Epitekste (inligting buite die teks soos resensies en onderhoude) en peritekste (omslag, kolofon, titel en subtitel) word geanaliseer nes die simboliese kapitaal wat ‘n skrywer inhou vir die uitgewer (91). Imagologie (beeldvorming) verskil van kultuur tot kultuur (62).

 

Soms word daar intimasies gemaak waaroor daar nie volledige kennis beskik word nie (224) en selfs diegene wat na aan die kulturele bruidskat van die uitgewersbedryf staan (85), wis ook dat van die rolspelers dikwels hul kaarte styf teen die bors hou.

 

Klein foutjies wel:


Dis Geslote baan (nie Geslote boom nie) van die uwe. De Lange se Nagsweet is deur Taurus uitgegee; nie Tafelberg nie (wat die resepsie en persepsie verander.)

Louis Esterhuyse … eerder Louis Esterhuizen.

L.I.Bertyn nie LIBertyn.

 

Dis ‘n belangrike en omvangryke teks wat beslis aandag verdien. Alles in ag genome hoogs leesbaar en insigryk.


(Hierdie resensie word geplaas met vriendelike vergunning van Beeld)

 

Tuesday, April 19, 2022

Resensie | Kelwyn Sole - Skin Rafts. Modjadji | Hands-on Book, 2022

Kelwyn Sole - Skin Rafts. Modjadji / Hands-on Book, 2022. ISBN 978-1-928433-39-2 

Resensent: Joan Hambidge

 

Words are just skin;

the body is the beloved.

 

Die titel van die bundel Skin Rafts deur Kelwyn Sole, ‘n veel bekroonde digter, is ontleen aan John Berryman (1942 – 1972), ‘n bekende Amerikaanse digter:

 

We are using our own skins for wallpaper and we cannot win.

Uit: 77 Dream Songs: Poems (1964). 

 

I

John Berryman, ‘n uitmuntende digter, resoneer ook in die digkuns van Johann de Lange, en meer spesifiek, in Vaarwel, my effens bevlekte held (2012). [1]

 

Berryman as digter van die sogenaamde “confessional school”, skryf oor sy vader se selfdood (en later loop hy dieselfde pad) aktiveer uiteraard weerloosheid. Saam met die ander motto’s voor in die bundel (o.a. Gennady Aygi se “What can you do? We on earth play being people”) word die menslike kondisie in al sy dimensies ondersoek in Skin Rafts, die digter se agste digbundel. [2] So word die bundel bemark:

By highlighting and teasing out the mingled emotions of anxiety, disenchantment, hope and anger which characterise South Africans’ current experienced reality, Sole’s poetry questions and expands on our concerns about identity and belonging. In so doing, the poems in Skin Rafts contemplate the relationships that exist between us on a number of seemingly discrete, but actually intertwined, fronts – the personal relationship between lovers; the wider social and political relationships between human beings; as well as the problematic and contested human relationships that are brought to bear on land, landscape and the non-human. In this collection the reader is confronted with the circumstance that both body and society exist in a fragile dimension of uncertainty, where we all are ‘bobbing / on our raft of skin’.

Sole se gedigte ondersoek die politiek van ons tyd en die slagspreuk: whiteness must fall. Die tyd ná Mandela (en die onsekerhede van die hier en nou) waar ras (en kleur) steeds ‘n bepalende faktor bly, word beskryf. Die ekologie en aangrypende verse oor die oseaan en die ekologie maak van hierdie bundel ‘n ryk geskakeerde een.

 

Die beste manier om hierdie gedigte te beskryf, is via die glissando, oftewel die opwaartse en afwaartse beweging tussen note, van die Frans om te gly teenoor die portamento. Glissando as “slide, sweep, bend, smear, rip, lip, plop, falling hail” … Die opsetlike gly tussen twee note teenoor die einde (portamento) wat iets wil bevestig met ‘n noot. Dit staan alles op die internet. Dank aan Wikipedia.

 

Die digter beweeg moeiteloos tussen verskillende temas en onderwerpe sodat die politieke die persoonlike word, en andersom. Eenvoudige woorde en “oop” gedigte teenoor verse met verhulde intertekste en gebruik van slim woorde soos orotundity, integument, craquelure …

 

Hierdie gedigte gee verskillende toonaarde weer: uiterse melancholie teenoor woede oor onreg; intieme beskrywings teenoor pragtig-eenvoudige beskrywings van “Benign serpents” (66):

 

ii Slugeater


tabakrolletjie – little hero! –

conqueror of magical spiral of galaxies

in its most tangible form:

the fortress of the snail.

 

Ander kere skryf hy sterk bewoorde verse oor wat na bevryding gebeur het soos in die gedig “Comprador” (35), wat saam met Frantz Fanon, die ellendes van hierdie land uitwys: diefstal, werkloosheid, verkragting, regsverydeling …

 

Vir my is die ars poeticas uitstekend en daar is beelde wat ‘n mens altyd sal bybly. “Two oceans: a yearning (16) is ‘n sentrale vers, soos “The empty space we call Mandela” (32); “Body language” (37); – met kommentaar oor die onmoontlikheid om iemand anders se verdriet en ellende te verwoord en ‘n aanklag teen die kaping van iemand se pyn - ; “What needs to be said” (45) met die belangrike motto van Phillippa Yaa de Villiers “I don’t belong in demographics” waar Sole skryf:

 

Words are just skin;

the body is the beloved.

 

Tenoor Berryman se motto, vind ons die belangrike leeswyser van Phillippa Yaa de Villiers,  ‘n bi-rassige digter, (Australiese moeder en haar vader uit Ghana) bekend om haar “performance poetry”. Sy is grootgemaak deur wit ouers in die ou-Suid-Afrika en hiermee aktiveer Sole die kompleksiteite van ons samelewing. Hierdie “Thursday girl” se naam moet in haar land van oorsprong Yaa, Yawo, of Yaya wees. Haar eenvrou-vertoning heet immers Original Skin. [3]

Gunstelingverse vir hierdie leser:

 

“Orature” (55), ‘n liefdesvers waarin die onmoontlikheid van seksuele ekstase beskryf word; “Woodpecker”, ‘n slim ars poetica (63); “Benign serpents” (66) – waarin slange tot in die essensie beskryf word -; “Breathless creatures” (67) waarin o.a. ‘n haai konkreet tot lewe geroep word. Hierdie twee reekse plaas alles in jukstaposisie: die mooie teenoor die onveilige, gevaarlike …

 

“One breath, away”:


we learn, finally, that death is

an easy menu to order … (77); 

 

“Thorns” (87) met die implisiete gesprek met Wallace Stevens [4] en die ouderdom wat woorde en woordspel op die negatief (not) laat uitval en ten slotte: “Imaging” (89):

 

a comma looking for its silence,

a curled snake at the portal

of meaning.

 

Kyk wat maak hierdie digter met die “vocables” en hoe hierdie liriese stem telkens gedigte laai met musiek: van die Vuvuzela tot jazz.

 

II

Soos dit ‘n behendige digter betaam, kan hy met ander stemme praat (en buikspreek soos in “Yours hopefully”, 84) en ander mense aan die woord stel.

 

Dit is ‘n uitsonderlike bundel geskryf deur ‘n beleë, volwasse digter wat jou ontroer en bewus maak van die ewigdurende spanning tussen die private en persoonlike. Soos ‘n musikant, beweeg hy flink tussen die note.

 

Soms op die drome, soms met ‘n saxofoon …

 

Veral relevant hoe Berryman deur hierdie bundel beweeg en terugpraat met ander digters.


Praatverse teenoor slim intertekstuele gedigte wat inspeel op die ryk tradisie van sowel die orale gedig as die intellektueel-gedistansieerde vers. 

 

Biodiversiteit en die komplekse kultuur van ons samelewing word oopgemaak. “My skin the wind, it’s gone / kiting”, waarsku Vahni Capildeo.

 

Hierdie bundel het my weer teruggeneem na Eileen Simpson se studie: Poets in their Youth (MacMillan, 1982) en hoe sy digters onthou soos John Berryman, Robert Lowell, Delmore Schwartz, Randall Jarrell, T.S. Eliot.

 

Hierdie bundel herinner ‘n mens aan Neruda se stelling: daar is geen digters nie; net die digkuns wat soos die see eb en vloed.

 

Die bundel is besonder mooi uitgegee. Hierdie bundel is soos Gershwin se Rapsody in Blue: melancholies en oorrompelend sterk.

 

Endnote:


[1] So klink Johann de Lange se gedig:

 

Skielik skemer

 

– What happen then, Mr Bones?

– I had a most marvellous   piece of luck. I died.

John Berryman

 

Hoe dikwels het jy nie deur jou kantoorvenster

na die brug gestaar nie. Gewonder of dit jou weg

kon vat. Soos Hart Crane oor die relings

van die ss. Orizaba & in sy vaar-

waters in. Hy het glo sterk & doelgerig wéggeswem,

sy skoene netjies op die dek.

 

Art Hitman, skryn-

werker op kampus het jou op die brugreling sien sit,

met ’n streep weg & teen die grein,

voor jy sonder terugkyk vooroor gekantel het

om buite sig skipbreuk te ly, die grys beton te vlek.

Uitgeken net aan jou bril & ’n blanko tjek.

 

Jou laaste gedig is sonder slot: ’n eerste weergawe

van jou dood wat jy op jou lessenaar vir Kate wou los

om te lees. Ten slotte trek jy ’n laag-

waterlyn daardeur & smyt dit in die snippermandjie vir Kate

om op af te kom. Maar toe was jy al oor die muur

& water onder die brug. Vaarwel, my effens bevlekte held.

 

[2] Kelwyn Sole webruimteBesoek 18 April 2022


The Blood of Our Silence, Ravan, Johannesburg, 1988

Projections in the Past Tense, Ravan, Johannesburg, 1992

Love That is Night, Gecko, Durban, 1998

Mirror and Water Gazing, Gecko, Durban, 2001

Land Dreaming, University of Kwazulu-Natal Press, Pietermaritzburg, 2006

"Absent Tongues". Hands-On Books, Cape Town, 2012

Walking, Falling, Deep South, 2017


[3] Phillippa Yaa de Villiers, Excerpt Original skin. Lyrik-line. Besoek 18 April 2022.

 

This day branded me with a warning:
emotions, long bottled, breaking free
cause destruction. A cycle of pain
coming back to haunt us again.

 

[4] The Snow Man

Wallace Stevens

 

One must have a mind of winter

To regard the frost and the boughs

Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;

 

And have been cold a long time

To behold the junipers shagged with ice,

The spruces rough in the distant glitter

 

Of the January sun; and not to think

Of any misery in the sound of the wind,

In the sound of a few leaves,

 

Which is the sound of the land

Full of the same wind

That is blowing in the same bare place

 

For the listener, who listens in the snow,

And, nothing himself, beholds

Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.


Poetry Foundation. Besoek 18 April 2022.

 

 

Sunday, April 10, 2022

Polemies | Stevie Wonder | 2022

Skaars het ons herstel van Will Smith se gedrag by die Oscar-aand en Steve Hofmeyr laat hom uit oor komplekse gendersake. 

Vir die rekord: Steve Hofmeyr se loopbaan as sanger en liriekskrywer val buite hierdie bespreking; nes my waardering vir hom as prosaskrywer. Sy Vier briewe aan Jan Ellis (Zebra Press, 2010) bly ‘n klein hoogtepunt in onderstelling en deernis met gewone mense.

 

Destyds het ek geskryf in Rapport

Die novelle is pakkend geskryf en besonder mooi uitgegee met afskrifte van ‘n resep, ‘n psalm, ‘n staatsdokument en ‘n LP, onder andere, wat die verhaal dan ‘n bepaalde historiese aanslag gee. 

 

Dit is ‘n teks wat besonder vernuftig omgaan met die leser se fantasie en kommentaar lewer op die politieke ongeregtighede van die verlede en hoe identiteit gekonstrueer word.

Daar was ook Kapabel (Zebra Press, 2012) en Die Onaantasbares (Zebra Press, 2017), boeiende spanningsverhale.

 

Wat is dit met Steve en sy mannewales (sic!)? Wat is dit met mans wat ander beledig en dan ‘n paar dae later hoed-in-die-hande terugkrabbel met ‘n ek-is-so-jammer?

 

Steve wat Die Stem sing by ‘n kultuurfees en borge ontstig en ander kunstenaars benadeel; Steve wat tee uitgooi oor ‘n joernalis; Steve wat ‘n joernalis oor ‘n tafel bliksem by Oudtshoorn, omdat hy nie van sy kritiek hou nie; Steve se rusie met MTN en Afrikaans is Groot (MTN to 'cut all ties' with Afrikaans is Groot over Steve Hofmeyr's involvement in the show | Channel24. Besoek 10 April 2022).

 

In 2014 het hy gemeen Swart mense was die argitekte van apartheid? 


Deur die jare het ek lowende resensies oor sy prosatekste geskryf en, soos altyd, die mens van die boek geskei.

 

Die jongste uitspraak – waarvoor hy alreeds verskoning gevra het – is binne die huidige tydsgewrig onaanvaarbaar. Om Charlize Theron te kritiseer, omdat haar seuntjie rokkies dra, kom uit die plek van machismo. Meerderwaardigheid en gewaande normaliteit.

 

Miskien weet hy nie van die onlangse debakel by DF Malan-hoërskool in Kaapstad en onsensitiwiteit oor gay-kinders nie. Miskien weet hy nie hoe ouers eerder kinders verplaas het na ‘n ander skool oorlewing ontwille nie. Miskien weet hy nie van groot Hollywood-akteurs (soos Warren Beattie en Annette Bening) wat hul kind in ‘n geslagsbevestigende operasie ondersteun het nie? Of van Cher se kind?

 

Toe ek ‘n kind was in die ou-Suid-Afrika was alles gelaai met eenvoudige opposisies: blou en pienk. Houtwerk/Metaalwerk en Huishoudkunde. Rugby en netbal. Inmiddels het hierdie kwessies verander. Daar is Kokkedore en Koekedore.

 

In standerd drie in die Laerskool Annlin in Pretoria moet ek ‘n babatruitjie brei. Ek kan nie. Ek kom nie verder as die derde ry nie, later bruin gevlek soos my sweterige handjies die wit wol vuilvat. Ek beleef intense spanning.

 

Ek smokkel die onklaar truitjie uit en neem dit huistoe in my bruin skooltassie. My moeder – sonder om iets te sê – brei dit klaar. ‘n Pronkstuk. Ek smokkel dit terug in die klas en plaas dit in die hokkie langs die breipenne. 

 

Die onderwyseres – goddank – dink dis snaaks. Sy weet my moeder het dit gedoen. Saved by the bell!

 

Maar net sowel: ek kon voor die hoof se kantoor gestaan het.

 

Die jongste uitspraak oor waarvoor die + sou staan by die afkorting LGBTQ+ van “andersoortiges” is benede alle peil en onherhaalbaar.

 

Sy verdediging dat hy nie sal toelaat dat Disney se kinderfilms sý kinders “groom” vir aweregse seksuele gedrag nie, is gewoon verspot. ‘n Mens wonder of hy enigsins weet dat gay-mense ook kinders het en liefdevolle, ondersteunende ouers is? Dat hy kinders wat wil uitkom, benadeel?

Steve Hofmeyr het op ‘n keer na homself verwys as ‘n lewensvraat. Reg so. Maar jou mense-van-jou-asem is nie die enigste mense wat asemhaal nie. 

 

Ek sal steeds jou tekste beoordeel. Miskien moet jy eerder skryf (en sing) as om hierdie potsierlike, kwetsende opmerkings openbaar te maak. LGBTQ+ sluit meer in as wat mense dink. Dis ook ‘n akroniem vir vernedering, vermindering en bespotting in jou jeugjare. “Othering” as jy wil.


Steve Hofmeyr, al sê jy jammer, you can’t unring the bell, honey.

 

Joan Hambidge is gay, hou van mans, maar verag machismo.

 

© Joan Hambidge

 

Friday, April 8, 2022

Interview | with Linda Ann Strang | 2022

Linda Ann Strang – Star Reverse. Dryad Press, 2022.

Interview @ Exclusive books, Cavendish, 7 April 2022

 

Hierdie aangrypende en slim debuut aktiveer Julia Kristeva se Black Sun – Depression and Melancholia (1987) en daar is vele toespelings op sterre en sterkonstellate. Van ou kennis (soos die Tarot) en mitologie vind ons in hierdie bundel wat imponeer met die uitsonderlike taalgevoeligheid. Ook die multiverse word ontgin: die idee van verskillende universums wat tegelykertyd bestaan.



1. You have written a compelling volume of poetry. Are you aware that Johann de Lange published a volume Die meeste sterre is lankal dood en Joan Hambidge a volume Nomadiese sterre. Jungian syncronicity this obsession with stars before lockdown?


Thank you. The short answer is that I was not aware, no. I’ll make a point of reading them. 

 

The collection had a different title, Blood on the Sextant, but I decided to call it Star Reverse in early 2019, when I noticed how I could order a meaningful pattern in the poems. That’s also when I started realising that ‘Nagasaki Deconstructed’ was a poem that could tie all the others together. ‘Nagasaki Deconstructed’ can be seen as an atom-like poem from which all the others concatenate and spin, in a story that is told backwards.

 

The title was going to be Star Averse, briefly, which is a quotation from one of the poems, but then the idea of Star Reverse occurred to me, by phonic association, a version with more reverberation. From there it all began to fall into place, quite strikingly.

 

Synchronicity, panpsychism, morphic resonance! They are all intriguing theories but who knows? Stars and planets as images / tropes / symbols / leitmotifs, appear in so many poetic works. Some of my favourites include Ben Okri’s ‘And if you should leave me’, Mxolisi Nyezwa’s ‘Quiet Place’, Thom Gunn’s ‘My Sad Captains’, Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon’s ‘Bop: The North Star’, D.M. Thomas’s ‘Lorca’, and Bruce Smith’s ‘Devotion: Redshift’. Smith’s poem first appeared in Tin House and was later republished in the Pushcart Prize Anthology series. Looking back, I think that his poem has influenced some of my more recent writing, probably subconsciously. 



2. How do you understand the multiverse? Versions of different realities?

 

You’re referring to the poem ‘Everything’s Real Somewhere, They Say’ from Star Reverse. I can’t remember when I first heard of the ‘Many Worlds Theory,’ with which I associate the multiverse. It was probably through reading speculative fiction. 

 

The concept is so appealing – imagine every possible course that one’s life could have taken actually occurring in alternative realities. This would be the opposite of the ‘unbearable lightness of being,’ as defined by Milan Kundera. If the multiverse is understood as everything being real somewhere, then no tragedy completely defines one’s life – some other versions of you are happy, albeit in other universes. 

 

I admit that I understand the concept in literary rather than scientific terms. 



3. I find the reference to Chagall relevant for the understanding of your poems: spirituality and love.

 

You’re referring to this poem from Star Reverse:

 

Marc and a New Theory of Moment

 

Lovers do levitate as depicted by Chagall,

but only after a spectacular accident:

a motorcycle crash, a train off track,

an airplane exploding on impact, perhaps.

After the bad aster comes a circus hush

as the lovers rise above the rest of us.

 

If you don’t blink you can see them smiling

on a trapeze as trite as a V of geese. 

They gaze enraptured at the flow of moments, 

taste angel food cake, wear long velvet gloves, 

play Chinese checkers, fast and loose, swinging 

on gamely for the sake of love – and, carelessly, 

they swear that until death do them part

they will live in mid-air.

 

Then the lion tamer loses his head. 

A scream flaps away with the tent.

The lovers fall as we fret. 

The lovers fall. There’s no net.

 

The spectators forsake all silence – 

and the helicopter doctors come in 

with their coats, and their goats, and their violins.

 

Chagall often depicts goats and violins in his art, and, for me, those are key images for understanding the collection.

 

Obviously, such images are open to various cultural interpretations. Although, personally, I associate violins with spirituality; in folklore violins and fiddles have oftentimes been seen as leading people to dance and therefore sin – instruments of the devil. But for me they represent beauty.

 

Goats, on the other hand, are a powerful symbol that can be interpreted variously too. Historically, in Europe, they’ve represented all things satanic and evil, or in terms of rampant sexuality and fertility (in the morally neutral sense), they’re also associated with Pan, and, in the purely Western sense, they invoke the ancient Greek ‘goat song,’ tragoidia, which is what we now know as tragedy. Certainly, Chagall’s combining images of goats and violins invites the ‘goat song’ and the ‘temptation to sin’ interpretation, simultaneously. If one reads Star Reverse as a coherent narrative work of interconnected poems, it is a tragedy.



4. Tell us something about Chinese Checkers and games as a variation of Halma.

 

I use the concept of ‘Chinese Checkers’ in ‘Mark and a New Theory of Moment’ as shorthand for – um – any trivial pursuit. I’d never in my life heard of Halma, so thank you for that. I looked it up and there are some poetic possibilities there. To be honest, I don’t like board games, though I enjoyed Snakes and Ladders and Cluedo when I was a child. In 2019, as a concession to family members who do like board games, I bought one called ‘Pandemic’. Unsurprisingly, none of us want to play it anymore. 

 

But, of course, ‘Chinese checkers’ and similar tropes hint at the ludic thread running through the collection. Many of the poems are playful, flippant, irreverent, in the spirit of French feminism – the Medusa is laughing, as Hélène Cixous might say. 

 

As I’m sure you noticed, the star names forming each section are in reverse alphabetical order as a reference to the title of the collection. As a defamiliarization technique, I also moved from the most obscure star names at the beginning, to the more familiar ones at the end. The structure itself then generates meaning.

 

But there is no single view and perspectives vary. The connections between the sections and their titles are meant to be evocative, opening themselves to multiple interpretations; so, they are not necessarily supported by strict linear reasoning. 


My writing engages with feminist theory – mostly, but not exclusively, écriture feminine, as defined by Cixous. Consequently, in Star Reverse, broken patterns are preferred to complete ones; derangement take precedence over organised logic and there’s rupture over continuity. At the same time, playfulness and seriousness continually compete. While in the ordering of the poems there is some conventional thinking, it is a logic that is consciously subverted and disrupted.



5. And you also refer to the Tarot. I have different tarot packs. I consult the Morgan Greer for guidance. Yours?

 

Of course, one allusion in the polysemic title of the collection is to the star, reversed, as in a tarot reading. In the reversed position the star indicates disillusionment and despair, among other things. There is an astrological meaning too – planetary retrogrades – which is when planets appear to be moving backwards, inviting us to reassess the past.  

 

There are so many beautiful tarot decks, such as ‘Luna Somnia,’ for example, which, incidentally, is reminiscent of the lovely cover of your Nomadiese Sterre. I have Brigit Esselmont’s Everyday Tarot. I enjoy dabbling in tarot and astrology, I must admit. Conversely, I also love science, even though I deplore the damage caused by some scientists. So, every time I consult the cards, I condemn myself for being superstitious. You could say I’m conflicted. But, in the collection, the swirling together of competing discourses is an intentional feminist device.



6. The only difference between a geode and a nodule is that a geode has a hollow cavity, and a nodule is solid. Please tell us more.

 

You’re referring to the line: “No geode is bursting / with magnificent God”. I haven’t thought of nodules in terms of being solid as opposed to a cavity. I tend to associate the term with the nodes and internodes on plant stems and, root-wise, with nitrogen fixing. But, yes, in terms of studying rocks, there are nodules, which are lump-like. The word geode is just so much more evocative – Ge, the personification of Earth, and the pun on ‘ode’. Then there’s that wonderful word ‘geodesy’.

 

Structurally, geodes are nature’s pleasant surprises, and lovely things to use in metaphors, so unremarkable on the outside with all that beauty hidden within. As far as I know, nodules don’t provide an aesthetically pleasing and surprising display of crystals. A geode is a womblike structure, which is relevant to the poem ‘Visions in a Drought’.

 

Visions in a Drought

 

My ex-husband and my ex-father 

are engaged to the rain gauge. 

 

Today I have become a granadilla,

withered, my skin pitted and cracked.

 

Even the agave has given up. 

There are no mescaline epiphanies

 

in the Kalahari, no amusing mirages

in the ochre above. No geode is bursting

 

with magnificent God. The sky tastes of dust.

Paint is peeling all over the desert,  

 

a bitter pill – my placebo for love. 

Caprivi, strip because everything’s naked,

 

the sun’s carnal knowledge

in the corps of our bones. 

 

The terrified stars see their long hair on fire, 

their tresses fall on the earth in ash.

 

My salt rose is burning. 

My armpits are charred. 

 

Agave Maria, the poison bush weeps, 

the lions pick up my bones like sticks. 

 

Forgive them, my lavender snakebite, 

my Cleopatra pitter patter. 

 

Despite the night ocean, 

gelignite shattering the trachea, tripe,

 

offal – jackal benedictions,

please give them respite.



7. Betelgeuse, also called Alpha Orionis, second brightest star in the constellation Orion, marking the eastern shoulder of the hunter. Its name is derived from the Arabic word bat al-jawzāʾ, which means “the giant's shoulder.” Betelgeuse is one of the most luminous stars in the night.  This – according to the internet – and you reflect on the importance of stars for astronomers and astrologists. How do we understand this? 

 

This is Tracy Shaw from her weekly newsletter:

Dear Reader,

My computer was out of action, so I wasn’t able to send out my usual New Moon reflection on Wednesday.  As the New Moon offers us inspiration not only for the day but also for the lunar month, I am sending it out anyway.

 

The New Moon in Pisces conjunct Jupiter on Wed 2nd offered us a magical reminder that there is an intangible dimension to Life.  A dimension that is as real as the realm of concrete reality.  A dimension that transcends logic and reason, but is accessible to feeling knowing, intuition, imagination and the heart-mind.  A dimension we most often sense when we slow down and become quiet… spend time being in nature… immerse ourselves in poetry or beautiful music… sit and reflect besides water… meditate or any of the many other ways of coming back to our essential self.

 

When we touch into this timeless, wordless dimension, even for a moment, a peace, a healing, a feeling of wonder, gratitude may arise.  For a moment we sense that all is well, we are not alone and love is present.  The stresses, fears and challenges of our life don’t disappear, but they are not all that there is.

 

Pisces symbolises the at-oneness at all life.  So, when we touch into these moments, not only we benefit, we become a conduit for peace, healing, wonder and magic to flow into the world.  Likewise, when we hold the suffering of others in our heart, meditation or prayers, we are bringing the power of the inner, intangible realm to bear on outer situations. 

 

The presence of Jupiter heightens the expansive, positive energy of the New Moon, inviting us to have faith in the Pisces realm and its felt, intuitive realities.  To believe in the power of the heart, prayer and reaching out to others.  To keep hope alive, not hope as an abstract ideal or wishful thinking, but as hope that feeds acts of love, beauty, creativity and generosity… energises visions… fuels life-affirming action without attachment to outcomes.

 

This beautiful Pisces messages comes at a time of heightened tension on the world stage.  A tension that reflects the intensity of the Mars conjunction to Pluto in Capricorn that has been building over the past weeks, culminating yesterday on the New Moon.  As Mars is powerful in Capricorn and Pluto intensifies the planetary energy it touches, this combination can manifest as brutal aggression or powerful acts of courage in meeting overwhelming odds.  These are the extremes.  Of course, there can be many other variations on the theme. 

 

Personally, it is a reminder to each of us to look at our own reactivity, unconscious anger, polarising projections and dysfunctional avoidance of confrontation. Venus is also in Capricorn with Mars and Pluto calling with peace, negotiation and accord.  However, she is having to work hard to embody, protect and stand by what she values.  We, too, are called to commit to doing the same in our daily lives.

 

So, the cosmos is speaking right now to our human capacity to walk with both feet firmly on the ground, while being guided by the truths of the heart and the sacred wondrousness of Life.

Wishing you the gifts of inner peace, healing and compassion for yourself, others and our suffering world, this Pisces Moon month. 

J: I have a chart from her included in Nomadiese sterre.

 

L: I love it that you used an astrological chart in your work, and I love that you mention Pisces. I am a Pisces. You’re a Virgo, I believe.


To go back a bit, what you say is completely correct, the name Betelgeuse is derived from the Arabic word bat al-jawzā, which means “the giant's shoulder”, but Betelgeuse has been known by many names and there are conflicting accounts. According to The New World Encyclopaedia, for instance, the name Betelgeuse is a corruption of the Arabic yad al-jawzā, which means “hand of Orion”. European mistranslation in Medieval times led people to believe that the star was called ‘the armpit of Orion’. The various interpretations and explanations sounded pleasingly deranged to me, so, I placed some of my more surreal and experimental poems in that section. I confess that I also chose the name because of my fondness for the 1980s movie Beetlejuice, which is how Betelgeuse is commonly pronounced, of course.

 

It’s interesting that for centuries astronomy and astrology were one discipline and then, during the Enlightenment, the discourses separated, and astrology lost its scientific credibility. That aside, humans seem to have found stars and other night sky phenomena fascinating since the dawn of time. In cities, with all the electric light, we often forget what an overwhelming display the night sky provides. If you gaze at the sky in some remote corner of the Karoo, for instance, you can see what all the fuss is about. In the desert it isn’t difficult to associate the stars with all things distant and divine. I suppose this sounds like the opposite of immanence.

 

I feel compelled to add that I was influenced by watching Carl Sagan's Cosmos when I was a teenager. That was where I first learned many words from astronomy, such as ‘supernova’ and ‘redshift’. I think Sagan helped to popularize many scientific terms, inviting us into the poetry of astronomy. Incidentally, thinking of Johann de Lange, that’s where I first learned that when we look at the stars, we are looking at the past. Stars are ghosts, then.

 

8. Aokigahara, also known as the Sea of Trees, is a forest situated beside Mt Fuji in Japan; many people go to commit suicide there. Please comment.

 

I first became aware of Aokigahara by coincidence when I was reading about Mount Fuji. I feel drawn to Japanese culture because of the long history of women being respected as writers in that country. Women’s history – especially art history, and I mean ‘art’ in the broader sense – is a particular interest of mine – Herstory. You may have noticed that I also allude to The Tale of Genji in this collection, in ‘Seaward’. It can be argued that Lady Murasaki’s The Tale of Genji was the first novel ever written.

 

That aside, the poem ‘Sea of Trees: Aokigahara’ foreshadows ‘Nagasaki Deconstructed’. The link between the poems suggests that ongoing emotional suffering in Japan may be traced back to the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. I think it may have been in Shirley Hazzard’s The Great Fire that I read about a Japanese man killing himself after being insulted by post-war American occupiers. That stayed with me and indirectly found its way into my writing.

 

I wrote “Nagasaki Deconstructed” in 2006. Since the pandemic, however, my perceptions have changed and I understand the poem somewhat differently, with the concepts of ‘enveloped’ and ‘non-enveloped’ viruses gaining ascendency in my thinking. All corona viruses are in the ‘enveloped’ category, which gives the poem implications it didn’t have originally. So, meaning is a moving target and interpretation never ends.

 

9. Please read this riveting poem:

 

Nagasaki Deconstructed

 

after Yoko Danno

 

Mozart in a cherry

blossom, Sagami adorns

her hair with music.

 

Sei writes butterfly-

netting villanelles.

Flautist of the floating world,

 

Lady Ise kisses chiaroscuro,

long-necked lovers,

burnt sienna, water,

 

colour; then the bomb,

quaint as a catfish

hiccoughing an earthquake –

 

a cancer Chanel, a fell

message. This is how to fold

an envelope into everyone.