4 Quotes from Nietzsche
In this sense the Dionysian man has similarities to Hamlet. Both have had a real glimpse into the essence of things. They have understood, and it now disgusts them to act, for their actions can change nothing in the eternal nature of things. They perceive as ridiculous or humiliating the fact that it is expected of them that they should set right a world … Continue reading 4 Quotes from Nietzsche
The Second Man: An autobiography concerning a sense of belonging – 3
Like Crusoe, I wanted to escape my country when I was young. I had, as a boy, identified with England. Not only because of an ethnic similarity and a shared language but because it seemed to me progressive and open. It also seemed a land where culture was rooted deep and a place where the empty cultureless life, of what Stephen Watson referred to as … Continue reading The Second Man: An autobiography concerning a sense of belonging – 3
The Second Man: An autobiography concerning a sense of belonging – 2
A lot of work has been done on Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe in relationship to its colonial and postcolonial positions. Edward Said said of Robinson Crusoe that he is the perfect example of the historical colonial invader who ‘rules and reclaims for Christianity and England…[and] is enabled by an ideology of overseas expansion’. What rarely seems the focus of criticism these days is Crusoe’s solitude and his earthly … Continue reading The Second Man: An autobiography concerning a sense of belonging – 2
The Second Man: An autobiography concerning a sense of belonging – 1
I arrived back in South Africa in October 2008. My mother died that year and a three-year relationship had just ended. While I was on holiday in South Africa in January I had walked into my mother’s bedroom to find her dead. We carried her out of the house. I did some form of CPR but it was hopeless. I went to see her body … Continue reading The Second Man: An autobiography concerning a sense of belonging – 1
Concerning: The Rise of the Private Art Museum in Cape Town
In 2015 I wrote an open letter to Mark Coetzee, the now ex-director of the newly opened Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) at the Waterfront in Cape Town. Coetzee, who resigned from his position on 16 May 2018 after trustees initiated an inquiry into his professional conduct, did not respond to the letter nor to subsequent attempts to clarify his and his institution’s position. The circumstances surrounding his resignation are yet to be fully uncovered, but at the root of it is perhaps the culture of unaccountability that he fermented. Continue reading “Concerning: The Rise of the Private Art Museum in Cape Town”
The Palestinian flag is fluttering outside my window
The Palestinian flag is fluttering outside my window. It is not my flag. I do not have a flag. I mean, personally, I do not own one. My mother had an American flag. She lived in America and she told me that a man had once climbed up a flagpole and had taken the flag off it and given it to her as a present. This … Continue reading The Palestinian flag is fluttering outside my window
The Story of Matthew
Matthew had been playing in the swimming pool with Matthew. His white skin was burnt red. Matthew had forgotten to put sun cream on that day and his shoulders and the backs of his knees were so painful that he begged both his fathers to put camomile lotion on him as he lay on the couch watching cricket highlights and stroking Timmy the dog. The … Continue reading The Story of Matthew
