Holiday Road

NVDL: Below is the final paragraph of Cormac McCarthy's post apocalyptic novel, The Road. It was while reading this book that I was inspired to write HOLIDAY, a far less gloomuy, brighter, more tropical version that explores the theme of global disintegration/collapse and our human response to it ('Is it really happening...?')

"Once there were brook trouts in the streams in the mountains. You could see them standing in the amber current where the white edges of their fins wimpled softly in the flow. They smelled of moss in your hand. Polished and muscular and torsional. On their backs were vermiculate patterns that were maps of the world in its becoming. Maps and mazes. Of a thing which could not be put back. Not be made right again. In the deep glens where they lived all things were older than man and they hummed of mystery."

He is talking about the post apocalyptical world here. ONCE there were fish in the very mountains where this father and son crossed to get to the sea. But no longer. And things will never be put back right again. In the deep glens where the fish lived, all things were older than man. But yet man - the newcomer on Earth - the last to arrive here - is the one who ends up taking control and eventually destroying the planet. And it can never be made right again. Because the conditions that existed in the beginning when man evolved from the sea will never exist again.

This is a warning. This is the point of the book. This is a work of speculative fiction. It is taking a situation in the present and projecting it into the future. He is saying that if man continues on his present course, this will happen. But you will notice he is very careful never to actually tell you what happens that kills the majority of the people on earth. We only know that something happened and happened fast and simultaneously all over the world. You can really make one of two choices. Either man destroys itself through bombs or pollution. Take your pick. The result is the same. Once we destroy the world, we can never get it back again.

From Yahoo.com

A View From The Couch

Last night I slept on the couch, and thus woke up this morning 5 metres closer to my bicycle. I expected rain but as usual, the air was dry as a cork and so by 5am I was out the door. Was a pretty nice ride against the backdrop of an oily, visceral dawn. The sort of thing my brother paints in his boompie bergie huise Western Cape landscapes.

Phedra Cut is definitely working it's magic, and the side-effects are also becoming increasingly obvious. I feel jittery and irritable, and am able to hit much higher heart rates during training (up about 10). On Sunday I hit 174, which is 10 beats above my maximum in the 94.7. That's er...A LOT.

Ryk Neethling, I'm told, has flown to Durban on some charity mission on behalf of Madiba. He has injured his shoulder and may require surgery, although it seems that is no longer on the cards - or at least - not as on the cards as it was a few days ago.

I've submitted HOLIDAY today to ZEBRA Press, another Struik imprint. See how that goes. Meanwhile I am looking forward to Friday and the weekend:
Friday: The Golden Compass opens.
Weekend: Gauteng swimming champs and a triathlon.

Human & Rousseau Review of My Book - HOLIDAY

Holiday is a weird piece of writing.

NVDL: You mean sexy weird, or weird as in Marilyn Manson + Whacko Jacko.

Initially I was struck by the idea that this was a kind of apocalyptic version of The Beach.

NVDL: Pity you weren’t struck by a bolt of lightning.

This idea was built on the first few pages of this manuscript where I could detect something of Alex Garland in the author’s style, but, perhaps more than that, in his choice of setting for this novel.

NVDL: Are you a detective? So you’re saying because this story is set in the Far East, in the Philippines, it’s interchangeable with the only other novel you have ever read, set in Thailand? Do you ever get out of the house? My guess is you wouldn’t detect a fly even if it flew straight into your eye.

Garland has written quite extensively about Southeast Asia-

NVDL: Did he write anything beyond The Beach that was set in Southeast Asia?

-but in essence this work boils down to a succession of sweaty, run down hotel rooms with fans that don’t work properly.

NVDL: It’s a nice bunch of words to string together, but actually that’s not even close to what HOLIDAY is about. It’s about Climate Change. That’s the backdrop. Interesting that you didn’t detect that, but instead focused on interior decorations. Probably reflects the extent to which you remain indoors, contemplating your own dismal surrounds, and finding yourself utterly bored beyond belief and unable to produce anything of merit yourself.

As I started to read HOLIDAY I was struck by a certain kind of kinship with this kind of post-Apocalypse Now vision.

NVDL: Jeepers. Are you able to stick to the actual work at hand, or is something always a reflection of something else? Can you see something for what it is, or does it have to be judged in comparison to a hierarchy of your own selected works. Doesn’t say much already for your ability to think fresh thoughts.

However, as I read further this kindship rapidly dimished until there was little if anything of it left.

NVDL: That’s because HOLIDAY is initially and intentionally set in a reality that you might be able to identify with, i.e. one that is familiar. From there it takes you into an environment you’re not familiar with. Quite a few stories work this way, but you probably wouldn’t know that.

This is, in my opinion, due to the nature of the story that the author is trying to tell in this manuscript.

NVDL: Ya think?

The story is one of global catastrophe and this of course overrides any other stories to do with human relationships or hotel rooms, sweaty or otherwise.

NVDL: You got the a third of your information right in that sentence. You’re saying stories about global catastrophe somehow earn a license to break away from other formulaic stories? You’re really stuck on formula aren’t you? Possibly, you’re on anti-depressants and any departure from what you perceive in your microcosm of existence petrifies you.

So, an Alex Garland-esque disaster thriller, what more could we ask for? Well, quite a lot actually.

NVDL: This should be good.

As I mentioned above this manuscript fragments after its initial impact and ‘fragmented’ is a good general description for this manuscript.

NVDL: That’s sort of what happens when the world comes to an end. The centre cannot hold and things fall apart. You don’t tell a story about breakdown from a vantage point of complete access to information, and physical integrity. I’ve considered asking printers to approximate burnt pages, oil smears and water drops mixing with ink, to further promote this idea of disintegration. The point is, you appear too STOOOOPID to see that this fragmenting of the story is a metaphor for the story itself. KOO KOOOO!

There are great general descriptions of the Philippines and some good plot development, but the novel doesn’t hold together and the reason it doesn’t hold together is because it lacks the emotional investment and imaginative creativity necessary to make it work as a piece of fiction.

NVDL: So you initially criticize this for being too creative for a formula you had in mind, now it’s not creative enough? It lacks emotional investment? Have you heard of understatement as a technique to elicit emotion? The whole idea is to present a gray area and not have the characters solve the problems for the reader. The reader is faced with these problems, and is asked to consider a solution. So the lack of investment appears to come from your brain, and I’d diagnose a certain amount of schizophrenia here, disguised as ‘academia’.

There is no doubt in my mind that this author can write (and his covering letter shows that he has been published in various magazines), but writing fiction requires emotional intelligence that journalism does not.

NVDL: This is priceless! Now I’m accused of being a journalist. And you imply I am an author already? I think I need to pass on Human & Rousseau altogether if this is the sort of mindrotted moron you employ to do your reading.

This is what is lacking from this manuscript and this is why it will continue not to work. I would suggest that the author revisit the work that made him want to become a novelist and learn all he can from it.

NVDL: Thanks guy. If you don’t mind, I am now going to bin your letter. My suggestion is that you do a treatise on Harry Potter or Winnie the Pooh. Start off by giving all the reasons you wouldn’t publish it, thereby echoing the hollow, mindless clatter that so many unimaginative, uninspired souls have produced over the ages. Join the throng of the wrong. And then ask yourself how much those reasons you hold so dear, how much do they really matter. What does matter? An imaginative story; a fresh approach.

Unfortunately, I see a rather old human being, if not in years, then in the sense of too little butter spread over too much bread. I see someone pretending to have a sensible view, when all they really know is the inside of a library, the bottom of a whiskey glass, the feeling of a cigarette butt between their fingertips. You’re unable to know anything for what it is, probably because you are not an identifiable being yourself, but someone who drifts, who voyeurs on the hopes and dreams and musings of others. As such, having learnt nothing from life (or even how to think about it), do yourself and everyone around you a favor: get busy living, or shut the hell up.

North Sea surge brings flood risk (BBC NEWS)

A storm in the North Sea has left Britain and the Netherlands facing the worst flood threat in decades with tidal surges predicted early on Friday.

Flood defences have been put on alert on the entire Dutch coast and flood warnings are in place for the eastern and northern coasts of Britain.

A tidal wave in 1953 killed more than 2,000 people in both countries.

Parts of UK struck by tornadoes
Thousands evacuated in flood zone
New insect species arrives in UK


Oil platforms have been closed off the Norwegian coast and gales are expected in Germany and Denmark.

The Dutch transport ministry said this was the first time since 1976 the whole North Sea coast was under alert.

Maritime traffic in Rotterdam was halted, as the authorities closed the giant Maeslant barrier that guards entrance to the largest port in Europe for the first time since its construction in the 1990s.

It took half-an-hour for the two doors of the barrier across the Nieuwe Waterweg to meet, spanning a channel 360 metres wide.

Rotterdam will remain closed until 1700GMT on Friday, a port spokesman said.

One-third of the land mass of the Netherlands is under sea level.

Flood warnings

In Britain, the Thames River and Dartford Creek barriers are being shut as waters are forecast to surge 1.5 metres (5 feet) above normal sea levels.

Families along the Norfolk coast have been protecting their homes

UK government warned large areas of Norfolk and Kent coasts were at risk of severe flooding and the Met Office warned of gusts of up to 145km/h (90mph) for the Orkney and Shetland islands in Scotland.
The storm surge is expected to peak around dawn on Friday, and several hundred people have left their homes near Great Yarmouth in Norfolk.

Severe gale warnings were issued in Germany and Denmark, with wind gusts of up to 125km/h (80mph) expected.

In Germany, regions around the Elbe and Elm rivers were under flood warnings.

The North Sea storm affected oil industry in Norway, the fifth largest exporter of crude in the world, with the closure of oil platforms off its coast.

Norway's oil production of 220,000 barrels per day is expected to be slashed by 10% possibly leading to increases in the price of crude, already at record levels, experts say.

NVDL: The UK is basically the world's canary in terms of climate change. It has thrived so far thanks to an exceptional belt of warming water being diverted towards its shores - we all know the schpiel. We know that polar melt will shut it down. Since ice sheets the size of South Africa (or Texas and California combined) have melted and not frozen back, it's logical to assume that it is only a question of time before the British Isles reverts to a more Ice Age type of climate. That said, perhaps we will first see a temporary phase of extraordinary warming, as we are seeing in Canada, and extreme storms, as is also the case in Canada (spewing tornadoes and the like).

Once again we have this apparently unique situation where the world's weather has an impaqct on global fuel prices, and that has an effect on every person. The next time you catch yourself wondering where you fit in, in all this, remember that every time you drive your car, you and everyone else is doing your bit to inject energy (heat) into the atmosphere. We're now at a point where there is so much energy in the atmosphere, that extreme weather becomes the convention.

Yesterday I submitted HOLIDAY to PanMacMillan. It's obviously encouraging to hear that one person who read my book, then read it again 3 times. Another woman who read it had nightmares. A teenager read it within 2-3 days. It basically paints a picture of living in the world where weather patterns have gone beyond tipping point, and we see the atmosphere basically transitioning into a slow chemical reaction.