Working in black and white
is easier than doing
anything else, even
considering the shadows.
No need to try and name
a color never before seen,
for instance, or a blend of two
or more, no need to explain
how they mixed by accident or
design. No need to learn
how to treat them when they show up,
no need to even see them;
seeing only in black and white
is in fact more difficult
but can be mastered
if one has a early enough start
on the process.
To be able to see
infinite, velvet grays
between the black and white
in place of color
is not
entirely admirable
in a world
where red
exists, but it’s more parsable
and eventually (if shouted often enough)
may become the default.
Of course, red and all the other colors,
all hues and shades,
are not just forms of gray,
and you are going to fail somehow
if you live that way.
But no matter…just find enough of you who only see
the black and the white. Shout them down.
Drown ’em
right the fuck out.
Dark Matter 
September 6th, 2012 at 2:40 am
Olivier argues that “There is no obvious reason why it should be unhealthy or abnormal for different literatures to co-exist in one country, each possessing its own infrastructure and allowing theoreticians to develop impressive theories about polysystems”. Yet political idealism proposing a unified ‘South Africa’ (a remnant of the colonial British approach) has seeped into literary discourse and demands a unified national literature, which does not exist and has to be fabricated. It is unrealistic to ever think of South Africa and South African literature as homogenous, now or in the near or distant future, since the only reason it is a country at all is the interference of European colonial powers. This is not a racial issue, but rather has to do with culture, heritage and tradition (and indeed the constitution celebrates diversity). Rather, it seems more sensible to discuss South African literature as literature produced within the national borders by the different cultures and language groups inhabiting these borders. Otherwise the danger is emphasising one literary system at the expense of another, and more often than not, the beneficiary is English, with the African languages being ignored. The distinction ‘black’ and ‘white’ literature is further a remnant of colonialism that should be replaced by drawing distinctions between literary systems based on language affiliation rather than race.