In an “au courant” piece on new SA-related books, Jeremy Gordin, author of Zuma: A Biography, pooh-poohs the concerns about South Africa raised by Paul Trewhela (Inside Quatro) and Rian Malan (Resident Alien), with regard to the rising influence of the Communist Party here.
But this hasn’t stopped Trewhela from sounding the warning klaxons against allowing the SACP a greater say in SA’s future:
I’ll forgive a man who can write well just about anything - which is why the first book I want to mention is the recently-published Inside Quatro: Uncovering the Exile History of the ANC and Swapo (Jacana Books) by Paul Trewhela. Trewhela writes wonderfully, with passion and enormous clarity, and anyone interested in our “real” recent history should read this book.
The reason I have to “forgive him” is that I find him annoying - like a neighbourhood dog that barks at 3am every day and won’t stop. And one of the issues about which he bangs on incessantly is Jacob Zuma’s alleged complicity in the death in Lusaka of Muziwakhe Ngwenya, better known as Thami Zulu.
Gordin complains that my book is “annoying” because I sound “like a neighbourhood dog that barks at 3am every day and won’t stop.” But isn’t that what a dog is for, when danger is inside the gate?
It is time for South Africans to read again those classic investigations of totalitarianism: George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia (1938), Animal Farm (1945) and 1984 (published 1949), Arthur Koestler’s Darkness at Noon (1940), Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951) and Czselaw Milosz’s The Captive Mind (1953) - all written while Comrade Stalin was alive, the idolatrous subject of the adulation of the CPSA/SACP.
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November 17th, 2009 @14:55 #
This is Jeremy Gordin. This article is codswallop. I never hounded anyone - merely expressed my opinion. What does Sophy think this is? A tabloid. Nor did I ever say Trewhela was more talented - no need for cheap shots, Sophy, jfg
November 17th, 2009 @15:00 #
November 17th, 2009 @15:24 #
Hi Jeremy - I think that's the first time we've seen the word "codswallop" on BOOK Chat. Thanks for writing in.
In your article, you say, about Trewhela, that "It's just that he never stops" talking about the death of Thami Zulu, etc. Sounds like he's hounding you - and now you're giving back a little. Given the tone of your article, I'd say "hounding" was fair rhetorical use in this instance, as a device to get the reader's attention.
As for the "Trewhela was more talented" bit, I think that's more an awkwardly-written segue from your piece to Trewhela's than anything else. Sophy was trying to say that you admire Trewhela as a writer, that's all. Have cleared that up with an edit.
Appreciate your helping us refine the post.
November 17th, 2009 @15:53 #
Gordin wrote:
"...like a neighbourhood dog that barks at 3am every day and won’t stop..."
November 17th, 2009 @16:14 #
yup, you write that, you don't get to whine about "hounds".
Am tempted to say much more about glass houses and throwing stones... but what I don't understand is why a veteran journalist, who surely has a skin thickened by decades of experience, would swing so viciously at someone of much tenderer years, who in her stint on this site, has always written (under huge time pressures) with considerable maturity and balance.
November 17th, 2009 @16:27 #
I doubt that Gordin would know who Sophy is, so we can definitely give him a pass on that. Am glad he's reading BOOK SA - he features often enough on our network.
And - good point, Liesl.
November 17th, 2009 @16:58 #
Mebbe so, dear Ben, but when I get swiped in the media (and you all had ringside seats the last time this happened), I spend a few minutes researching the swiper and set my phaser to zing/stun/fry/reduce-to-rubble accordingly. That being said, it's good to know that as respected a writer as Gordin visits the BookSA corner of the universe.
November 26th, 2009 @10:38 #
Here's what Jeremy Gordin had to say about this thread:
Thanks, Paul, for the reading list. The suggestion and explanation are, as we used to say in the old Seffrica, very white of you. But what makes you think that we Seffricans haven't read those books? Are you not talking down to us just a trifle? Just a little? Why, just the other day Little Julie was saying to me, following a Yoof League press conference, that he thought that Koestler had captured the soul of totalitarianism to a much larger extent than Arendt.
http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page71619oid=151725&sn=Detail
November 26th, 2009 @10:43 #
He also added:
...Some whippersnapper, or so she would appear to be from the ensuing comments, went after me on "Book SA-News" for "hounding" poor, defenceless Paul Trewhela - on this very site! Remember? I said he reminded me of a dog that barked every night at 3am. Geddit? Dog, "hound"? (Whereas, as you will have noticed, about five paragraphs back, I am the dog - or so a former fiancé of mine always used to say).
Anyway, I responded in the robust manner learned here on Politicsweb, and it seems I upset some of the delicate souls at Book SA. Sorry, guys, it's simply that I come from a tough neighbourhood. Justice Malala and Denis Beckett live here; you don't mess with us.
November 26th, 2009 @12:09 #
"Whippersnapper"? in addition to "codswallop"? Maybe there's a Beano-meets-Biggles dictionary somewhere that good ol' boys use... it might explain the macho tone of the above. Now off to pluck comfrey and rosemary to brew my own sal volatile.
November 26th, 2009 @14:18 #
He sounds quite, well, upset, really. I wistfully wish I would get called a whippersnapper. They usually go on to great things.
November 26th, 2009 @15:47 #
@ ar: That will be our Sophy, achieving great things to be sure. Watch this space!
@ helen: Gordin is a poet:
"An accomplished journalist and poet, Gordin was also the recipient of the WWB Legal (Print) Journalist of the Year Award (2007) and has two poetry awards to his name – the Vita/Arthur Nortje Memorial Poetry Award (1992) and the AA Mutual Life/Vita Poetry Award (1987)."
http://web.wits.ac.za/Alumni/News/NewsBytes/JeremyGordinAug2009.htm
Now I'm curious.
November 26th, 2009 @16:57 #
is this for real? - this sort of kaffeeklatsch of (apparently) young broads rabbiting on about biggles, beano and being macho? i feel like alice in wonderland. anyway, i'm not at all upset - promise, on biggles' honour. and, ar, you can be a whippersnapper, with my blessing. And whaddyamean by saying with such surprise that "gordin is a poet"? don't you chicks read anything? try Pomegranates for My Son by JG, Random House poets 1998 isbn 0 9584195 2 3. c'mon guys,get some lives ..
November 26th, 2009 @17:12 #
Man, you totally made my day.
Just this morning I was researching Arthur Nortje for a prospective Poetry International feature and discovered the award you got. Forgive my surprise, but you are a dark horse. And I will certainly be looking for Pomegranates for My Son. Forthwith.
November 26th, 2009 @18:50 #
He thinks we're young! *blush*
November 27th, 2009 @07:39 #
"broads", now there's a word to roll around on the tongue
November 27th, 2009 @07:51 #
Mr Cronin is an Eclectic Poet. There's "codswallop" and "whippersnapper" of Bigglesian vintage, and "broads" and "chicks" of Brooklyn circa 1925. Why, it's a breath of fresh breeze, I do declare.
November 27th, 2009 @11:22 #
I had to smile at "kaffeeklatsch". We should invite him to our Monday night tea. Helen: add him to the list. We'll broaden his horizons.
November 27th, 2009 @16:57 #
Hysterical... JG is forthwith invited to Monday bloggers' teas, to discover that in this neighbourhood, we have full lives and black belts in taking the mickey... am still laughing at "chicks" -- at least 30 years since I heard that! (I'm sure Sven, Andre and Co won't mind the gender confusion...)
November 27th, 2009 @19:32 #
Jeremy, that won't do. I want to be called a whippersnapper in plummier tones, please, and without blessings. Else it doesn't ring true.