Same old same old eternal racism slavery sexism feminism lust
violence heroics death
Brief biography
Andre
Philippus Brink on 29 May 1935 on Peace in the Free born. Brink moved to Lydenburg where he in 1952
of the Lydenburg
High School matriculate. He
obtained seven distinctions, the second student of the former Transvaal who could achieve
this. He called for a BA degree in Potchefstroom study and his MA in English (1958)
and African (1959) cum laude. He then comparative literature at the
University of Sorbonne in Paris , France to study.
He
was in 1961 as a lecturer at the Department of Afrikaans-Dutch at the Rhodes University in Grahamstown appointed. In
1962 appearedLobola for life , which is considered his debut work.
Brink's
novel, knowledge of the night (1973) was the first African
book banned the South African government. [1] He translated his
book, Knowledge of the evening in English and publish it
abroad Looking on Darkness . It was the first time he has
translated one of his own works. [2] And Brink his works written
simultaneously in English and Afrikaans. [3]
In
2008, in an eerie echo of a scene from his novel " A Chain of
Voices ", his family was hit by tragedy. His cousin,
Adrienne Brink for his wife and children were killed in their home in Gauteng.[4] [5]
He
is on 6
February 2015 at the age of 79 on a flight from Amsterdam to Cape Town late. He was
on his way home after he received an honorary doctorate from a Belgian university
received.
Brink was married five times. His son, Anton Brink is an
artist. [6]
WIND
Brink has many references to WIND. About 60. Which is once
every 4 pages. And there is only one duplication “Black South-Easter” which
occurs near the beginning and near the end. He must have been keeping track
since there is no way that he could mentally manage all these to avoid
duplication.
There is a reference to the August wind. This is perhaps a
reference to N.P. Van Wyk Louw’s poem
“Dis de Augustus Wind Wat Waai” – a frequent favorite quote by Melanie
After using the following wind descriptors
blew down, blowing in, blown, blown away, breaks loose,
breathing against, breathless, brushing, came , come and go, comes up,
currents, destroyed by, died down, drifting, endless, fierceness, final gust,
floods, gliding, grabs, hidden from, hits, hurls, in, increasing, instant in,
lashing, let loose, nights of, on the increase, plundered by, predominates,
protected from, ravaged by, riding, roaring, rowing against, sailing gently,
signs, starting up, streaming, swaying, tearing, terrifying, thundering,
tumbling, whirling, wild, wind-blown, wind-dried, windless air
After all those, he resorts to the biblical
goeth, returneth, turneth, whirleth,
and even so 2 of the 4 (turn and return) are not duplicates.
SUFFERING
There is a late reference in the book to the title of the
book, an oblique attempt to explain “suffering”
“Suffering: it's like the sky through which a bird is flying. And only occasionally, very rarely—an instant in the wind—it is allowed to alight on branch or burning stone to rest: but not for long.”
“Suffering: it's like the sky through which a bird is flying. And only occasionally, very rarely—an instant in the wind—it is allowed to alight on branch or burning stone to rest: but not for long.”
And the instant, or moment or oomblik is actually a break in
the wind. So “Instant in the Wind” is without wind, just bracketed by it. So
suffering is being compelled to continue with limited brief respites.
So the book is largely about suffering made worse by
respites giving rise to contentment that rapidly end in even more suffering.
SEX
Although there is a sexual undertone, it is perfunctoral, there
is no eroticism, and some foul language used matter-of-factly.
There is a very weak attempted rape scene (Boer, Adam to rescue,
extorting a horse, horse dies, of course…. There was an old lady who swallowed
a fly….)
ENDING
The “Scholarly Article” says “…But they do unite in a
setting of primal innocence, a kind of Eden by the sea, from which they fall
when they must go on to Cape Town, where Adam is killed.”
This is not explicit in the ending, which is immensely
disappointing. The author seems to have tired of the whole thing and rushes something
out and just stops writing. Or, he expects that the reader must know what will
transpire as we fade to black.
The men have come to get him. So does one intuit that he is
a wanted murderer and as such will receive an inevitable death penalty?
NATURE STUDY
Seems at times almost like you are watching episodes of
Nature on PBS. There are almost interminable pointless lists of plant, tree and
wood names and birds and animals, and landscapes. And their edibles. Everything
has a correct name, except one “fishing eagle” rather than Erne or Tern. Was
this showing off Brink’s knowledge, was it homage to Erik Larsson’s work? (“efficient,
calculating, Swedish way”) These listings become insufferable at times. Or is
it making the reader part of the suffering?
ADVENTURE
Gripping adventure stories. Great book filler. Engrossing. Wild,
improbably probable. Except for the learning of the sea (and later the learning
of the desert land) – awful crock.
DEATH
Much present. Murder, slaughter, hunting, ivory poaching,
mercy killing, survival of the fittest. But more the continual confronting of
death by Elisabeth, and of her death wishes at the start and end of every
adventure.
RELATIONSHIPS
·
Mistress/Slave
·
Frienemies
·
Soulmates/BFFs
·
Patient/Caregiver
·
Tourist/Guide
·
Student/Teacher
·
Depressive/Therapist
·
Abettor/Fugitive
·
Damsel/Hero
NARRATION
Every paragraph seems to
jump. Difficult to know immediately or even soon who is narrating.
·
Now?
·
Flashback?
·
Talking?
·
Thinking?
·
Journaling
·
Blogging?
·
Posting to Facebook
·
Dreaming?
·
Delirium?
·
Rambling memories?
·
Own descriptive?
·
Brink's descriptive?
LANGUAGE
What language did Adam and Elisabeth use to speak to each
other? Apparently Dutch. Afrikaans, an offshoot of Dutch, emerged as a language
in the mid 18th Century, the same time period as in the book. Adam
was a cross between Malay or Philippino and black or Hottentot? Can speak
Hottentot. Not sure what language Erik used in his journals and writings, did
Elisabeth understand Swedish? The book was written in Afrikaans, and translated
into English by Brink himself, so it couldn’t be a more perfect translation,
but the lilt and lyricism of the Afrikaans language is not easily Anglicized.
FEMINISM
Discuss amongst yourselves
