Kathryn White Launches Things I Thought I Knew at 70 Juta
Kathryn White‘s new novel, Things I Thought I Knew, was launched at 70 Juta, Braamfontein on a gentle Highveld evening. Several enlarged pages from the novel were displayed on the walls of the gallery alongside contemporary prints and artwork. “I didn’t want to read from the novel, so I thought guests could read random pages themselves,” White said.
Michael Titlestad, professor of English at the University of the Witwatersrand, introduced White. “I was introduced to Kathryn’s love story and from my narrow reading tastes I was somewhat dubious, but as I started working with Things I Thought I Knew I found it compelling and unique. Writers need to engage the world afresh and lift the veil of familiarity,” he said.
“When I started the novel I had the title and the last line written on a Post-it and stuck on my TV. It remained there for four years,” White said. In terms of the structure of the novel, White remarked that she writes the chapters in a fixed way – scene, setting and dialogue. Titlestad responded to this, saying it was evident in the printed manuscript and added a progression of rhythm to the novel. “I struggle with plot. The description is there in my head, I prefer the structure of words. Plot changes over the writing of the novel,” White said.
Although White admitted that it is the daily discipline of writing that finally resulted in the completed novel, it was also a personal journey. “I was asking questions all the time. How do people overcome grief, how do people get over relationships that haven’t worked? Why do people react in the way they do to people who have illnesses? This questioning took me through stages of absurdism, nihilism and Zen Buddhism.” This interior journey paralleled the themes of the book, for example absurdity in the character who is psychic.
“I wanted to write a traditional story, I was interested in placing one person in a triangle – one person with two options. I had a character who had the skill to change her future (she is psychic), but ultimately that’s not what happens.”
White admitted that she experienced a good deal of anxiety writing about issues she really didn’t have a lot of knowledge about – the diaspora, epilepsy, the psychic realm, children from mixed parentage, writing from a male perspective. However Titlestad applauded her foray into these topics saying, “In South Africa we are so precious about identity politics, writers who don’t stretch out of character and shrug off these restraints become stultified. White has found a new way of looking at the world. It is a memorable novel, original in a way that is not clever.”
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Fiona Snyckers tweeted from the launch using #livebooks:
Not the usual book launch crowd at Kate White’s ‘The Things I thought I Knew’ launch. Everyone young & hipsterish here at 70 Juta #livebooks
Fiona Snyckers
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Michael Titlestad introducing the text. Says he would not normally choose to read love story, but found this endlessly intriguing #livebooksFiona Snyckers
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Titlestad: what Kate manages to do is to come at the world in a way that compels us to view it afresh. #livebooksFiona Snyckers
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Titlestad: Narrative voice is entirely sincere & unpretentious. I tend to forget plots these days, but will never forget this one #livebooksFiona Snyckers
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White: I wanted the narrator to be omniscient in a real sense. I made her psychic – able to see past and future. #livebooksFiona Snyckers
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White: People often say they ‘know’ things about love. Knew they’d get married etc. I decided to interrogate these certainties. #livebooksFiona Snyckers
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White: I felt guilty about tackling a mixed-race character, an epileptic character – things I knew I didn’t know. Did it anyway. #livebooksFiona Snyckers
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Titlestad: What impressed me most about the book was its commitment to imagining the lives of others. #livebooksFiona Snyckers
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Michelle Magwood: Your exquisite use of language is what stood out for me. Does that come easily to you? #livebooksFiona Snyckers
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White: The use of language comes easily to me, but the plotting is what takes 9 drafts to resolve. #livebooksFiona Snyckers
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And that’s a wrap. The achingly hip & well-dressed crowd was clearly moved by Kate’s talk, which was eloquent & fascinating. #livebooksFiona Snyckers
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Kate White furiously signing books at her launch. #livebooks http://t.co/ICitKiKJFiona Snyckers
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As @ChrisRoperZA points out, entire crowd at @KateWhite_ZA‘s book launch could’ve been teleported to #RollingStone launch no questions askedFiona Snyckers
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Book details
- Things I Thought I Knew by Kathryn White
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EAN: 9781415201220
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