Writing Worth Reading
Writing Worth Reading
This one’s a novel - a rambling narrative of geography, literature and objects and it’s punctuated, as are all of Sebald’s books, by these odd little photographs, which often don’t appear to bear any relationship to what’s in the text at all. I think Sebald was actually sued a couple of times for copyright infringement, because he just photographs things out of books and then sticks them in his novels. He breaks all the rules. He just sticks a picture in the middle of the page. At times they illustrate what he’s talking about, but just as often they don’t. As a novelist, I think he’s spawned a whole industry which theorises the relationship of pictures to words.
Number four.
Book number four is not exactly an art book, but it contains pictures. It’s by W G Sebald – The Rings of Saturn. Sebald is interesting because he published all of his books with photographs in them, and this one is interesting because it’s kind a Wordsworthian walking trip. The character, who is and is not Sebald, walks along the east coast of England and finds odd places, odd people, odd things. It’s just a rambling narrative of geography, literature and objects and it’s punctuated, as are all of his books, by these odd little photographs, which often don’t appear to bear any relationship to what’s in the text at all. I think Sebald was actually sued a couple of times for copyright infringement, because he just photographs things out of books and then sticks them in his novels. They’re not good reproductions. They’re quite small, black and white, often blurred – like bad photocopies or pictures out of a newspaper. He breaks all the rules. He just sticks a picture in the middle of the page. At times they illustrate what he’s talking about, but just as often they don’t. They add another layer, but sometimes it’s hard to say exactly what that layer actually means. As a novelist, I think he’s spawned a whole industry which theorises the relationship of pictures to words.
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Bronwyn Law-Viljoen is managing editor of David Krut publishing in Johannesburg. Besides the many art books she has edited and produced, her articles have appeared in South Africa, the UK and the USA. She talks to FiveBooks about ritual suicide, a swallow called Loplop, and the beauty of Rembrandt’s nose.
