I was, while walking through Glasgow, listening to the audiobook of Tony Judt’s Reappraisals – a collection of essays largely written for the New York Review of Books. It is a book that changed my mind on many things not least on Israel and Palestine but also thankfully on Judt’s friend Edward Said. This is not to say that I have changed my mind on Said’s, I believe, … Continue reading The South Africa of the Mind
This essay is a draft of a work in progress concerning postcolonial rewriting I The notion of the rewriting or retelling of established works of fiction within the canon suggests, particularly in a postcolonial context, not merely critique but a dialectical approach to critique. In other words, it is not merely a pointing out of the deficiencies of the canonical work but an attempt, in … Continue reading The Collaboration of Kamel Daoud
It has been argued by certain economists that freedom can be measured by evaluating the amount of economic choice available to the individual. It seems true that the collocations of these words ‘freedom’ and ‘choice’ – ‘to freely choose’, ‘freedom of choice’ and ‘free choice’ – are almost tautologies. I believe, however, that there seems to be an inherent misunderstanding of the concept of liberty … Continue reading What, if anything, does the size of my economic choice have to do with my freedom?
Standing on the beach/With a gun in my hand/Staring at the sea/Staring at the sand/Staring down the barrel/At the Arab on the ground/I can see his open mouth/But I hear no sound/I’m alive/I am dead/I am the Stranger/Killing an Arab. These were the lyrics of an almost discarded Cure 1979 b-side recording, whose production quality – with its strident tinny guitar, its labouring bass and … Continue reading Amorlist or a moralist? Celebrating 100 years of Albert Camus
The Department of Arts and Culture (DAC) has stated that ‘we have no reason to doubt the professionalism of the audit company’ who audited South Africa’s R10-million participation at the 2011 Venice Biennale art exhibition. This is despite the fact that the department has been made aware that at least two of the invoices in the audit were faked. This was discovered after ArtThrob gained access … Continue reading Department of Arts and Culture states it has no reason to doubt faked invoices
