(Lauren Beukes)
Recyclart’s next edition in their lecture cycle on architecture and urban design is focusing on Johannesburg, the city in which sci-fi writer Lauren Beukes grew up. “It’s a shining city. A city of gold and dreams, where people come to try and make it. But dreams have a dark side as well. People fall through the cracks.”
The South African author may look very innocent, with her blond hair and blue eyes, but don’t judge a book by its cover. Lauren Beukes writes award-winning science fiction – or high-concept thrillers, as she describes them herself – that eagerly explore the “dark side”. Moxyland, Zoo City, and The Shining Girls are brilliantly written but violent, grim, and sombre. Apartheid, South Africa, and an inspiring and very exciting Johannesburg are never far away.
Lauren Beukes explores the dark side
Johannesburg has an incredible art scene. Why do artists like Roger Ballen, Jane Alexander, or the movie District 9 create the same distorted, dystopian world that you do?
Lauren Beukes: I don’t know. Maybe it’s the only way we can deal with it. I think we all are echoing the monstrosities we see around us, like Jane Alexander’s most famous work The Butcher Boys. It reveals the monstrousness beneath the skin. It’s the power of allegory.
(Jane Alexander’s The Butcher Boys)
Your books serve as gateways into difficult issues. Is reality too harsh?
Beukes: Yeah. In general, not just in South Africa, we have issue fatigue. People don’t want to deal with all the real world crap. We want easy sex scandals. That’s what we like in the news: a good political sex scandal. That’s something you can understand. When somebody puts his penis where he shouldn’t have, it causes all kinds of trouble. But trying to figure out what’s happening in the Ukraine or Syria, that’s another story. Fiction – District 9 is a great example – distorts reality enough to give you a fresh perspective on it. It’s fundamentally a movie about xenophobia, but if you made it about real refugees, it wouldn’t have nearly the kind of audience that it did. Fiction allows you to deal with big issues in a refreshing way without people wanting to change the channel.
Your books serve as gateways into difficult issues. Is reality too harsh?
Beukes: Yeah. In general, not just in South Africa, we have issue fatigue. People don’t want to deal with all the real world crap. We want easy sex scandals. That’s what we like in the news: a good political sex scandal. That’s something you can understand. When somebody puts his penis where he shouldn’t have, it causes all kinds of trouble. But trying to figure out what’s happening in the Ukraine or Syria, that’s another story. Fiction – District 9 is a great example – distorts reality enough to give you a fresh perspective on it. It’s fundamentally a movie about xenophobia, but if you made it about real refugees, it wouldn’t have nearly the kind of audience that it did. Fiction allows you to deal with big issues in a refreshing way without people wanting to change the channel.
(Neill Blomkamp's District 9)
You are greatly inspired by Johannesburg. You even stated that Johannesburg is science fiction. Why?
Beukes: You have these incredible high-rises and glossy shopping malls that are full of luxury brands, while a kilometre away, there is a sprawling township with a high crime rate. It’s also very high-tech, but at the same time you have people who have very traditional beliefs, such as in the spirits of our ancestors. I met a woman who is a sangoma, a traditional healer. She’s a mediator between our world and the spirit world. So she fundamentally believes in this, but she works as a palaeontologist. She is able to balance science and magic. It is the contrast that is so striking and so very science fictional.
You are greatly inspired by Johannesburg. You even stated that Johannesburg is science fiction. Why?
Beukes: You have these incredible high-rises and glossy shopping malls that are full of luxury brands, while a kilometre away, there is a sprawling township with a high crime rate. It’s also very high-tech, but at the same time you have people who have very traditional beliefs, such as in the spirits of our ancestors. I met a woman who is a sangoma, a traditional healer. She’s a mediator between our world and the spirit world. So she fundamentally believes in this, but she works as a palaeontologist. She is able to balance science and magic. It is the contrast that is so striking and so very science fictional.
(Johannesburg)
You grew up in Johannesburg and experienced Apartheid first-hand. What was it like?
Beukes: I was lucky because my parents were very liberal. I even have a black brother. It was my nanny’s son, but he grew up with us and my dad sent him to the best private school in the country. There were black kids at my school, so I was very aware of the injustices. But the government kept a lot of the Apartheid secret. They were really trying to hide the full extent of what was happening from us. The poisonous tree of Apartheid is cut down now, but the roots are still there and they are still going to trip us up for decades to come. Poverty, crime, and the lack of opportunities that people face now, can absolutely be linked to what people had to endure then. Families were broken up and people were shoved out to outlying areas. But our memories are short. Kids nowadays don’t want to talk about Apartheid. They think it’s boring and you can’t make them see otherwise. But I plan to write a book about Apartheid. Fiction, a really good thriller, but it’s going to be all about Apartheid. And that’ll show them!
LAUREN BEUKES: GREETINGS FROM...JOHANNESBURG • 9/4, 20.00, €3, Congres Station, boulevard Pachécolaan 38, Brussel/Bruxelles
PORTFOLIO SOUTH AFRICA • 10/4, 20.00, €3, Recyclart, Ursulinenstraat 25, Brussel/Bruxelles, 02-502.57.34, www.recyclart.be
You grew up in Johannesburg and experienced Apartheid first-hand. What was it like?
Beukes: I was lucky because my parents were very liberal. I even have a black brother. It was my nanny’s son, but he grew up with us and my dad sent him to the best private school in the country. There were black kids at my school, so I was very aware of the injustices. But the government kept a lot of the Apartheid secret. They were really trying to hide the full extent of what was happening from us. The poisonous tree of Apartheid is cut down now, but the roots are still there and they are still going to trip us up for decades to come. Poverty, crime, and the lack of opportunities that people face now, can absolutely be linked to what people had to endure then. Families were broken up and people were shoved out to outlying areas. But our memories are short. Kids nowadays don’t want to talk about Apartheid. They think it’s boring and you can’t make them see otherwise. But I plan to write a book about Apartheid. Fiction, a really good thriller, but it’s going to be all about Apartheid. And that’ll show them!
LAUREN BEUKES: GREETINGS FROM...JOHANNESBURG • 9/4, 20.00, €3, Congres Station, boulevard Pachécolaan 38, Brussel/Bruxelles
PORTFOLIO SOUTH AFRICA • 10/4, 20.00, €3, Recyclart, Ursulinenstraat 25, Brussel/Bruxelles, 02-502.57.34, www.recyclart.be
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