Jonathan Garnham of Blank Projects and Joost Bosland of the Stevenson Gallery have pulled off a remarkable feat — a collaborative exhibition that centres on a novel, K Sello Duiker’s Quiet Violence of Dreams.Rarely has literature played such a central role in these global postliterate times. It’s a rarity all the more painfully underscored by a conversation I was part of at the Book Lounge in which the audience unanimously began their questions to the panel with the irksome salvo: "I have not read the novel but ..." I had to restrain myself from saying "read the damn novel", or, "we’re in a book shop, how can you say that?"In the end, however, the night resulted in a rich debate on trauma, polymorphous sex and desire, the foul stench of identity politics, the complexity of freedom and self-determination.But the cool disregard for reading still bugged me, and was compounded at the close when a film-maker informed me that he’d be uploading the talk online, and asked if I’d like a copy...
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