{"id":2996,"date":"2018-09-08T20:38:42","date_gmt":"2018-09-08T18:38:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/?p=2996"},"modified":"2018-09-08T20:38:42","modified_gmt":"2018-09-08T18:38:42","slug":"notes-quotes-at-open-book-too-close-for-comfort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/?p=2996","title":{"rendered":"Notes & Quotes at Open Book: Too Close for Comfort"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Authors Joanne Jowell, Mphuthumi Ntabeni and Mandy Wiener talk about getting too close to their subjects. Photo: Bulumko Gana<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the room at Too Close for Comfort at 12pm on Day 3:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mphuthumi Ntabeni \u2013 author of The Broken River Tent<\/i><\/p>\n

Joanne Jowell \u2013 author of Winging <\/i>I<\/i>t<\/i><\/p>\n

Mandy Weiner \u2013 author of Ministry of <\/i>C<\/i>rime<\/i><\/p>\n

Palesa Morudu \u2013 chair<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish there was a threat on my life, it would give me some street cred.\u201d – Investigative journalist Mandy Wiener, who interviewed well-known criminal bosses for her book Ministry of Crime<\/i>, responding to chair Palesa Morudu\u2019s question.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very rare that a crook will say to you, \u2018I\u2019m a crook\u2019… I didn\u2019t expect that many of them to confess to what had happened.” On the other hand: \u201cPolice officers always told me they\u2019d been stitched up as part of some sort of conspiracy.\u201d -Mandy<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very hard to be a human lie detector. But if I give them enough rope (to spin their stories) they hang themselves.\u201d – Mandy<\/p>\n

\u201cRadovan Krejcir had really good PR… there were so many police officers on his payroll.\u201d – Wiener again, responding to a question as to whether writing about underworld bosses doesn\u2019t run the danger of turning them into legends.– Mandy<\/p>\n

\u201cThe English and Xhosa fought for 106 years. That\u2019s longer than anyone. Except maybe the Irish.\u201d – Mphuthumi Ntabeni, who wrote Broken River Tent<\/i>, a book that finally provides the Xhosa point of view of the century and more of war in the Eastern Cape.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat bastard haunts me still.\u201d Mphuthumi again, who said the spent 20 years working on his book, commenting on his fictional character.<\/p>\n

In his research he read the journals of British soldiers stationed in Grahamstown during the Frontier Wars and was shocked by \u201cthe cruelty\u201d and \u201cthe crudeness\u201d of their language when writing about the Xhosa. \u201cAnd back then it was the norm.\u201d Things haven’t changed much, check out Adam Catzevelos<\/p>\n

\u201cI only know about unhealthy distance.\u201d — Joanne Jowell, author of Winging It<\/em>, the biography of celeb rugby ref Jonathan Kaplan\u2019s journey to fulfill his desire to be a solo dad, in response to a question about how does she set healthy boundaries between herself as writer and the person she\u2019s writing about.<\/p>\n

Going on to say: \u201cI spend a lot of time, probably more than I should, with them, and we always have a relationship afterwards…there are about four missed Whatsapp calls (from Kaplan) on my phone right now because he knows we\u2019re talking about him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGrahamstown needs to be renamed. (Lt-Cnl John) Graham was a psychopath. If he was alive today he would be charged with genocide. No jokes.\u201d — Mphuthumi, who went on to say Grahamstown, which has recently been renamed Makhanda, should be called Ixoyi (check spelling), which was the Khoi name for the river which flows through it, now known by its bastardised name, the Kowie.<\/p>\n

Then: \u201cI\u2019m almost certain that in 10 to 15 years time, our children are going to change the name again.\u201d<\/p>\n

And: \u201cTable Mountain should be called Umlindi.\u201d — Mphuthumi, saying Umlindi was the original Khoi name, meaning \u2018someone who receives visitors\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Xhosa weren\u2019t really defeated by the British, it was self-sustained suicide.\u201d — Mphuthumi<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to write the book I wanted to read after matric, when I was stepping out into the world… something that would help me find my identity.\u201d — Mphuthumi.<\/p>\n

The irony award:<\/strong> \u201cThey have this inherent belief that journalists are evil.\u201d — Mandy, talking about underworld bosses such as Krejcir.<\/p>\n

Overheard<\/strong> from an animated group of four women in The Fugard foyer: “You don’t stop masturbating…”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the room at Too Close for Comfort at 12pm on Day 3: Mphuthumi Ntabeni \u2013 author of The Broken River Tent Joanne Jowell \u2013 author of Winging It Mandy … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2998,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[6,12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2996"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}