Rian Malan’s Resident Alien Launched at the Radium Beer Hall

by Claire on Nov 12th, 2009

The Launch of Resident Alien, Rian Malan’s first book after My Traitor’s Heart was an extraordinary, even somewhat avant-garde event.

The Radium Beer Hall in Orange Grove – where Malan has often played music, being an “Afrikaaner Minstrel” in addition to a writer – set the scene for a laid-back yet edgy event. It was clear that Malan, true to form, was keener to express his oft-times controversial opinions, on a range of issues, than he was to hard-sell his book. His conviction and his wit gave the air a surfeit of charge, making the launch a spectacular event, despite its lack of pomp and ceremony. The guests were treated to intellectual stimulation and a turn of stand-up comedy by the speakers.

Steven (Boytjie) Sidley, a friend of Malan’s since they were nineteen, said, “On one of our many drink- and drug-filled evenings in a particular bar in LA, where we would debate great lofty ethical issues such as the meaning of life and the meaning of death, and which always ended with the conclusion that we were not having enough sex, Rian said, when the conversation turned literary, that he was ‘partial to a well turned phrase’. This book is, above all, a collection of opinions rendered with a startling, dangerous and utterly unique usage of the English language – and this alone, no matter what you think of Rian’s opinions, makes the book deeply effective.”

Up next, Dennis Beckett opened with a rhetorical question, “Why does Rian’s stuff work so well?” The answer? “He writes well and he sees well, he sees beyond horizons and it is quite a jolt to be let in on what he sees.” Beckett spoke about going to the recent Boek Bedonnerd Richmond Book Fair with Malan. “Rian mainly talked about all the things that he had failed at. The thing that he does best however, is that he writes the world as he sees it; he writes it not to impress, not even to make a point, but what he is looking for is the truth, at whatever cost. He even changes his views, which of course is very bad in the way of consistency – but if consistency is the last refuge of the stalled mind, I am happy to say that Rian’s mind is definitely not stalled.”

Finally, to the main act: Rian Malan said his title is “an oblique reference to white people in Africa”. His speech was centred on what he called his “journey of alienation”, a journey occasioned by his contrary opinions. “This alienation is useful in a way because it gives me a great deal of time to think about what the underlying issues are and get away from the drama – to think the thoughts forbidden by the thought police. A lot of people would disagree but I see myself as a regular, ordinary guy. I’m not a bad guy – I also like to have a dop, have a braaivleis, watch the rugby – and I’m certainly not an intellectual.”

Malan continued, “When my first book was published, I was like a prophet and people would come and asked me what would happen in South Africa and I would say it’s all just fucked. I later saw we were living in a pretty happy state and I was essentially just to drunk to register it. So I decided to turn liberal again but this just alienated me further. So I decided to take up boeremusiek and find a gang that would have me.

“Just when I thought my alienation was complete and I was never going to recover, something very unexpected happened: the lights went out. It was the Eskom crisis of 2008, and the collapse in confidence of most people in the future of South Africa. I had been out there in deepest darkest ideological hyperspace for so many years and suddenly found people were joining me.”

After Malan’s speech, the event, barely holding on to its pretense as a launch, succumbed to the pressure and became a fully-fledged party, spilling on to the street. The jol lasted, we’re told, until the wee hours of the night – and, it might be added, the electricity didn’t trip once.

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