Zoo City
Another gem brought by the Fem Books community.
Honestly, I thought I am not going to like it, as I generally tend not to like things that are extensively liked by other people. It immediately puts me off. But I guess it's time to change the rule, because again and again I find myself liking the books that other FB readeresses suggested.
Something I've noticed first: a classic noir atmosphere of the novel.
1. Distracted, almost detached narrative. It's almost like Zinzi is not living her life but only documents it as a journalist she is.
2. Zinzi is meticulously and without much remorse (Sloth, anyone?) destroying the last remaining pieces of her life & self-respect, like it's her job.
3. Involvement in the minor criminal activity and familiarity with mafia.
4. Serious alcohol abuse. I mean. This is as noir as possible, old-school shit. Nowadays we use drugs, binge-eating and other things, alcohol is for sepia detectives.
As for a blonde assistant-slash-lawyer babe with a grandeur bust, who sleeps with the protagonist occasionally, this role is occupied by Benoit, Zinzi's refugee love(r).
Animals: a more than obvious manifestation of a disfunctional or missing piece of psyche. Could it BE more obvious that the Sloth is functioning as an external guilt unit? And since it's external, Zinzi doesn't have to bear her guilt inside, experience it as her own.
Animal is also a scarlet letter, an exposing mark of one's crime.
By the way, I didn't catch what really happened to her and her brother? When did she get Sloth? When she was five? When she was an adult? I got lost there.
Mashavi: why is this specific magic attached to the crime? Looks like a hypercompensation which people of Zoocity are gifted with for all their suffering. Maybe a way to make their living since they are severely desocialized and segregated.
Undertow: a coup de grace from one's Unconscious, it's even called merely a synonym of latter.
Some things are quite transparent in Beukes debut, and I'm ambivalent about it.
The whole concept of people with aposymbiosis that occurs for some reason is extremely interesting. I didn't see the detailed explanation on the problem, so I have many questions left unanswered.
Do all people who commit crimes get an animal? Are specific animals assigned to people for specific crimes? What if there are people who commit a crime but never get an animal - what would that mean? Are those real animals that simply existed elsewhere, in their respective environments, until they are assigned to a person on the other side of the planet, or they start to exist at the moment of the assignment?
What do you do if you live in Sahara and you get a jelly fish for an animal?
To me, an animal suspiciously looks like a traumatized part of the Self that gets pushed out of the person and establishes itself in the material world as an animal.
Johannesburg is recently a hip-est scenery to expose the subtle ways of discrimination: it's shown in the 9th District, a Neil Blowcamp's film on a similar topic, displaying another caste of sentient beings that are treated even worse than non-white humans.
Similarly, being an animalist in Zoocity is so bad, it erazes all races and other vectors of discrimination.
Johannesburg is a hometown for a fierce Die Antwoord duo who (ag, despite being white) explore race issues in their music and music videos.
Trevor Noah, the Daily Show comic lead, who never ceases to raise a race issue, also comes from Johannesburg.
Beukes obviously is in the wave of rising South Africa stars who use Jo'burg as a stage for their stories.
Anyway, apparently, African continent writeresses are coming on stage and it's massive - they sure have lot's of important things to say.
Honestly, I thought I am not going to like it, as I generally tend not to like things that are extensively liked by other people. It immediately puts me off. But I guess it's time to change the rule, because again and again I find myself liking the books that other FB readeresses suggested.
Something I've noticed first: a classic noir atmosphere of the novel.
1. Distracted, almost detached narrative. It's almost like Zinzi is not living her life but only documents it as a journalist she is.
2. Zinzi is meticulously and without much remorse (Sloth, anyone?) destroying the last remaining pieces of her life & self-respect, like it's her job.
3. Involvement in the minor criminal activity and familiarity with mafia.
4. Serious alcohol abuse. I mean. This is as noir as possible, old-school shit. Nowadays we use drugs, binge-eating and other things, alcohol is for sepia detectives.
As for a blonde assistant-slash-lawyer babe with a grandeur bust, who sleeps with the protagonist occasionally, this role is occupied by Benoit, Zinzi's refugee love(r).
Animals: a more than obvious manifestation of a disfunctional or missing piece of psyche. Could it BE more obvious that the Sloth is functioning as an external guilt unit? And since it's external, Zinzi doesn't have to bear her guilt inside, experience it as her own.
Animal is also a scarlet letter, an exposing mark of one's crime.
By the way, I didn't catch what really happened to her and her brother? When did she get Sloth? When she was five? When she was an adult? I got lost there.
Mashavi: why is this specific magic attached to the crime? Looks like a hypercompensation which people of Zoocity are gifted with for all their suffering. Maybe a way to make their living since they are severely desocialized and segregated.
Undertow: a coup de grace from one's Unconscious, it's even called merely a synonym of latter.
Some things are quite transparent in Beukes debut, and I'm ambivalent about it.
The whole concept of people with aposymbiosis that occurs for some reason is extremely interesting. I didn't see the detailed explanation on the problem, so I have many questions left unanswered.
Do all people who commit crimes get an animal? Are specific animals assigned to people for specific crimes? What if there are people who commit a crime but never get an animal - what would that mean? Are those real animals that simply existed elsewhere, in their respective environments, until they are assigned to a person on the other side of the planet, or they start to exist at the moment of the assignment?
What do you do if you live in Sahara and you get a jelly fish for an animal?
To me, an animal suspiciously looks like a traumatized part of the Self that gets pushed out of the person and establishes itself in the material world as an animal.
Johannesburg is recently a hip-est scenery to expose the subtle ways of discrimination: it's shown in the 9th District, a Neil Blowcamp's film on a similar topic, displaying another caste of sentient beings that are treated even worse than non-white humans.
Similarly, being an animalist in Zoocity is so bad, it erazes all races and other vectors of discrimination.
Johannesburg is a hometown for a fierce Die Antwoord duo who (ag, despite being white) explore race issues in their music and music videos.
Trevor Noah, the Daily Show comic lead, who never ceases to raise a race issue, also comes from Johannesburg.
Beukes obviously is in the wave of rising South Africa stars who use Jo'burg as a stage for their stories.
Anyway, apparently, African continent writeresses are coming on stage and it's massive - they sure have lot's of important things to say.