Nthikeng Mohlele chats about the road to ‘Illumination’

Nthikeng Mohlele once described himself as a “cerebral idealist who’s sometimes frustrated by life’s limitations”. Considering he’s written six books and scooped a number of highly coveted awards in such a short space of time, the latter part of his statement certainly holds true.

With his latest, Illumination, having just hit stores, Mohlele takes time off from book-signing and tours to chat about when his love of writing began, his reimaging of JM Coetzee’s Life & Times of Michael K, and why Illumination took such a long time to create.

When did your love of writing start?

It started in high school — with language studies compositions in English, Sepedi and Afrikaans. It was an unformed, misdirected, nascent, largely formless and distant dream to create and explore alternative worlds, to imagine.

I wouldn’t call it love, that is too strong a word, but a hazy and distant compulsion consistent with my tender age at the time and an ignorance of the true purpose and range of art, including literature. That instinct, rudimentary and fragile then, was further emboldened by my fascination with and the pleasure I derived from motion pictures.

Training in calligraphy assisted me greatly in writing love letters for many, a preoccupation that gave me access to and lessons in the inner workings of the hearts of people.

Is there a certain public perception of what kinds of books local black writers should be writing?

I haven’t the faintest clue if there is or isn’t. Either way, I wouldn’t worry much about such postulates and grand generalisations from faceless sources.

I consider myself to be a writer, an artist who happens to be African, who has no time for territorial art, ie the phrase “local black writers”.

Public perception presupposes a dominant social or intellectual trope that infuses agency or form of such a debate in relation to art. I don’t think this is necessarily the case with South African literature in its totality.

Nthikeng Mohlele

When you reimagined Michael K, were you afraid you’d get it wrong?

Such a fear would imply artistic doubt and a lack of creative confidence. It would also mean a very shallow reading and understanding of literature and other art forms as intertextual in nature and essence.

It is one thing to pay close attention, to exercise care, and quite another to submit to artistic cowardice; fear. Art is not perfect, nothing is, so it is futile worrying about getting it wrong, particularly because the reading and interpretation of art is such a subjective and personal matter.

The totality of my answer cancels out any implications of backlash.

Why did it take so long to write Illumination?

Music is an extremely big theme and an artistic discipline in its own right. It is, therefore, an intricate undertaking to cross-pollinate literature and music in a way that avoids navel-gazing and cliches.

I think it does – and should – take some time to distill the personality and temperament of a musician in fiction, more so in character-driven narratives like Illumination. In a nutshell, there is little room for errors when exploring emotive arts like music because music is very much a soul thing.

Where do you find the time to write such good books and juggle other responsibilities?

Thank you. There is no time, but one has to make the time or the art suffers.

Info

Illumination

Rating: ★★★★☆
Author: Nthikeng Mohlele
Publisher: Human & Rousseau
Price: R199
Pages: 223
ISBN: 9781770106253

On the edge of despair

Multi-award-winning author Nthikeng Mohlele brings us yet another masterful piece of literature with Illumination, his sixth in an unforgettable list of books.

Inspired by Mohlele’s immense love of music, the narrative is centred on Bantubonke, an accomplished and revered jazz trumpeter, composer and band leader who is in decline.

An absent-present and inadequate spouse, Bantubonke lives for art at the expense of all else. The imbalance eventually derails his life and propels him to the brink of madness and despair.

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