Shane Moran - Alternation Journal

Hook Review nvside
Africa's great modernist project, and that it had strong links to the right-wing politic d ill this text is one of sliding into morbidity, sentilnentality or, at the other
European modemism. It is not, for me, a successful experilne~lt in postlnod old callousness. This sentimentality seems to be connected to the fear of
literaty practice. At its best, post~nodernism challenges, if not confounds, the out te South Africalls of a sudden loss of stability and grounding. The text
categories and inodes of modeinist thinking and iiterary practice; at its worst it c is White paranoia at a conscious level, but it would also seem to operate at an
accused of being solipsistic and narcissistic. With Sinking there is an unfortunate s ous level, a level at which it informs the actual writing of this text and as a kind
in elnphasis and primary concern away from the characteristically postmoder~l int
in t11c self-reflexiveness and self-reflectiveness of narrative t'ictions (i.e. wit
riter's critical reflexiveness.
Where Green's use of the sinkhole incident works best for me is where it is
olltological and episte~~iological questions of the text), towards a rather narcis as historical metaphor: it becomes the 'sign' of the impending collapse of a
obsession with the identity ofthe author.
South Africa riding the false economic boom of Velwoerdian apartheid policies,
Sir.zki17~ is divided chronologically into tllree sections: 'Past', 'Me orroded from withill by the ravages of a rapacious capitalisln totally bereft
and 'Present' which are united either thematically in that they are concerned omit or geologicaliecological foresight. Green's use of the disaster as
tragic si~lkhole incident that took place at Blyvooruitziclrt mine in 196
constitutes the 'black hole' at the heart of the text), or with the identity
a societ~'~ malaise, and of the sudden shock of histoly (horrifying its
s much better than his attempts to explore its significance in terms of
poet/author, his history, and the status or significance of what he has written-w fwould appear to see as the bleak, but theoretically essential, axioins of
viewed Srom 'inside' the text, the cycle of poeins dealing with the disaster (See m. Green is able to communicate a strong sense that there is a particular
Past). Viewed froni the 'outside', however, Cawood Green is the author of the w nificance to the disaster as the first rumbling of (however feint it may
text: it is his name that is proudly displayed on the book's cover and on its title pa e Prototype of, the event that will sweep away the delusions of political
we sl1all see, the referential/~netatictional game of Greens and Cawood Greens fety of White South Africans; the Soweto student insurrection of June
that the reader is expected to play. The identities involved here are Michael C
Green the musician and author, and Michael Green, the writer of greeting cardvers
author of the book's 'secret history'. with hints that these textually represented fig
awood Green puts the significance of the sinking into the mouths of his
as an allegory the truth of which they are able to speak. He does this in
]lave some connection with fjgures in the real \vorld, who share their naflles,
have a si~lgle referent. J am not entirely sure what lea sure (in ~arthes' sense of
to allowing the reader to come to his or her own conclusions about the
c meanings of things in the text. Green self-consciously treats the text's
word) the reader, who needs to be familiar with postmodel-n literal7 form
poststructuralist critical strategies, will take in playing these games. The danger
sm as something which is obvious, as a 'given', rather than as something that
course, that the reader will grow irnpaticnt with the whole project, and see it a
rnancd by an authorial pretentiousness. Although there are some attelnpts
dcprccating irony, a sense ofpreciousness edges the text towards sinking into itse
just in time. of course.
or other sorts ofunderground problems
we being subjected to a series of private jokcslironic self-presentations-if so
one possibility is that the text wishes to jump start the process of literary canoniz
witlli~~ its o~v11 pges by advertising its o\vn complexity, thus hoping to q~talify as v
Butwith this the allegory
Becomes rather heavy-handed (74).
acacfem~c comruntlrty
111 CJ,eeil'\ sclicme of tli~ngr tlie rlnkhole d~sastel takes on a s
slRrllficance, providing analogical connect1011 between the tdea of the h~storic
e raises the problem of what the volces 'know' and the degree to which
'mf~nned' by the poet to the extent of becomtng quasi Tlreslas prophet
dlqaster Cawood Green provides a rather dlsarrnlng
e of this knowledge (such as ~t is) before ~t 1s translated
tual fiamework of the poem 'Nothing yet down here/
avebeenlln El3gllsl2, of course' (5 1) The poetry of the first scctlol~ of the book
ohtlcal, geologrcal, scienttfic, ecoiioinic and othet d ~icouis~~ as 11.: o\yn 9 ilw
Slvlng a certain scientific rlgour to what the tevt ~tself ~cfels to as 'g, icls of
the poem becomes chattrly prosale In oldel to Lapt~lre
as far as poss~ble [lorn the inside
T~CWOI~S that l~vc beyond you, 1Icttle
Wr~ttcnon Ilol~day