Last evening I encountered Fred de Vries and the lovely Jo-Anne Richards at the launch of Mampoer (interesting that if you mis-type the second M and drop a W in, it becomes "manpower"), a new venture for Seffrican non-fiction writing in cyber space, the brainchild of Anton Harber, Antony Altbeker, Fred Withers, Irwin Manoim and someone called Noko Makgato, though the last-mentioned, mentioned in an earlier letter, was not mentioned last night.
Now, although "Mampoer" seems to me to be a tad "nineties" (mampoer, Herman Charles Bosman, early Jo'burg, drinking at the Troyeville Hotel, being really cool, hanging out with Rian Malan, though he wasn't there, etc, etc), it seems a great project, a wonderful idea - and I hope it all goes well.
Of course people such as the Bullfinch and I are not going to make it since we deal strictly in fiction ... but hey, maybe we could broaden our horizons.
But back to De Vries. He's a kaaskop, a Hollander, and, as you might know, Hollanders are not exactly famous for their subtlety. And he said to me - at which point Jo-Anne, a well-brought-up, young (well, sort of) lady from the Eastern Cape, was cringing - he said: "Why don't you shorten your pieces? Often I think to myself, ‘Well, ok, ok, you've made your point already, so ..."
I replied; "Well, you know, the discursive Gordin essay, kayaking from one part of my cerebral cortex to another, is a particular sort of art form, much loved by Politicsweb readers ..."
But Fred wasn't having any. And I thought: "Geez, if Fred has the same feeling as my various arch-enemies on Politicsweb, such as Plutarch (could Plutarch be Fred de Vries? Or could Plutarch be Denis Beckett?), well then, maybe I had better remember Hamlet's comment to Polonius (2.ii.462): "It shall to the barber's, with your beard." I.e., it's going to be bloody well trimmed, as is your beard.