'I've put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant, and that's the only way of insuring one's immortality." From a distance, except for the accidental alliteration in their surnames, there is little to connect James Joyce and Markus Jooste. Joyce — the celebrated Irish writer — immortalised himself through the publication of Ulysses in 1922. The book narrates the events of a single day in June 1904 in Dublin. However, so complex and intertwining are its narratives, and so convoluted is its language, that it occupies a rare space in literature as one of those books people prefer to hear about rather than actually read. Joyce himself took pride in this, and, when asked to explain his work, simply uttered the words above. Jooste's Ulysses moment took place in the small town of Stellenbosch in December 2017. With just one simple message opaquely referring to contrition over some "accounting irregularities", he set in mo...
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