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January 31, 2006

sms sugar man: A journey up the arse of god

Filed under: 2008 - sms sugar man, trevor steele-taylor — ABRAXAS @ 9:54 am

A journey up the arse of God

Sugar Man and Other Bitter Stories
Aryan Kaganof
2002
Pine Slopes Publications

Aryan Kaganof’s second novel begins with quotations from Puerto Rican singer Jesus Rodriguez and Baudelaire and is informed by a quotation from Heraclitus: “Nothing worthwhile is gained without strife”. Existing within the same essentially South African Hell which informed his earlier novel Hectic!, Sugar Man is a work of many levels. Hectic went for the gut with the clarity of a Charles Bukowski. Sugar Man plumbs the depths of a Hell that is on Earth with the precision of Georges Bataille or Edgar Allen Poe. The eponymous Sugar Man, a drug-dealer and philosophical low-life is searching for the drug lord known as the Dark Magus. To truly know the Dark Magus he must become the Dark Magus. This is a journey that leads to death or possibly to realising that he is dead already. Street girls with drug habits pepper the narrative with names such as Nameless Nobody. There is also an array of blondes, perhaps all of them one blonde, perhaps not. Their melanin deficiency is a sign of a particular form of vampirism.

And then there are the meetings with film producers. Kaganof as a successful filmmaker knows this world well, especially the bullshitters, liars, pretenders, sniffers and snorters that do penance in these halls of Karma. Sugar Man takes time out for three such meetings within the narrative. Many of the characters described are mighty close to real celebs of South Africa’s belicose film industry. For those who haunt the places where people with projects congregate, these narrative asides are worthy of note.

No easy read, Kaganof takes his search into the dark side, even unto the very ends of the cosmos, up the very arse of God. J.K.Rowling beware. Sugar Man is a mature Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is the Chamber Pot of Secrets. The final revelations exist in the scatological

South African literature has been waiting a long time for the incisive brilliance of Kaganof. Only two South African authors I can think of are his equal. Etienne le Roux and J.M.Coetzee. The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Trevor Steele Taylor
this review originally published by African Review Of Books

17 Responses to “sms sugar man: A journey up the arse of god”

  1. owen early Says:

    Dear Aryan

    How are you going to pay those expensive film-star hos, except from the well-gotten gains from selling jou ma se poems?

    Happy 2006/year of the dog

    Owen

  2. professor jan simons Says:

    Shit! I just finished a book on cinema and thought I was rewriting the book on cinema.

    Professor Jan

  3. nicole rouillard Says:

    hello

    Genius! What a brilliant concept. Thank you for the
    email.

    nicole

  4. muff andersson Says:

    Dear kaganof

    am proud of you, i read the media release they put out
    about sms sugarman.

    so you have made the first digital movie and now the first
    cellphone movie. it’s impressive.

    when is the preview or premiere?

    muff

  5. james webb Says:

    Just got the press release for your new film.

    Sounds fucking incredible!!! I can’t wait to see it.

    Leading the pack, as always

    Much love

    James

  6. rudolph vavruch Says:

    core! That’s great, I’ve been waiting for someone to do this.

    How long can each cellphone film for or do you pipe it directly into the laptop? Have you fashioned some sort of tripod for the cellphone?

    Looking forward to this

  7. karen bradtke Says:

    Hey, I saw this and am sssoooooo proud of you!!
    I hope when my cellphone contract needs renewing that
    I can get one of those with the SMS Sugar Man trailer on it. Has Rodriguez seen it yet?
    Best wishes from us both,
    Karen and Claus.

  8. krip yuson Says:

    Hey, good for you, Aryan. Great idea, too. Hmm, a notion I can copy here.
    The technological technique isn’t copyrighted, i presume. :-)

    Wish you all the luck on the production. And if you can send a copy over, I may be able to get you invited to a digital filmfest.

    Warm regards

    — Krip

  9. liesl jobson Says:

    You never fail to amaze me, Aryan. This is genius stuff.

    I hope this recognition is truly gratifying and gives you a deep sense of your value to our society as an asskicker of note. Let nobody be caught napping by an AK with a cellphone.

    I salute you, pal.

    Hope I don’t sound too breathless and gaspy…

    Just go do it again, man.

    Liesl

  10. langelihle khanyile Says:

    hi aryan,

    i hope you’re doing well. i read the article about you on the sunday
    times, and think you’re fucking crazy, but am glad you’re doing what
    you’re doing because the world would not change without people like
    you. me: a few years ago i wrote a song called the ’sms song’, it’s
    short and sweet, and think that it would be really ironic if played on
    the kind of film you’re currently completing. i would love for you to
    hear the song, i stay in joburg and would be willing to meet you to
    listen to it.

    i know this is a bit of a wildcard, but i ask you to consider it, i
    truly believe you could make great use of it.

    faithfully,
    langa.

  11. nonkululeko godana Says:

    Can’t wait to see it!

    Well done Kaganof…

  12. andrea stuyfersant Says:

    I’m marveling at the pictures..including the actresses..Those breasts are huge…Kan je een bierglas opzetten

  13. andrea Says:

    Ai..this is some sort of Roman Catholic mystery..You send an e-mail and like magic it appears on somebodies blog…Huuhhhh weird man..OK..Must go..I am meeting a close friend of my sister..She is an evangelic (my english is crap sorry) alcoholic and tonight she is going to convert the two of us to alcoholism..By making b52’s (she also works in a bar..perfect combo..she drinks 42 b52s in a row without getting drunk,mixes that with huge quantities of camels sigs and large amounts of hashish… she is made out of concrete )
    God I feel like a teenager..but with wrinkles

  14. storm janse van rensburg Says:

    CONGRATULATIONS! Cannot wait to see it. Congratulations.

    Regards,

    Storm

  15. mike rumble Says:

    wesome stuff. when and where can we see?

    Mike

  16. robert simon Says:

    the first cellphone movie–is this interesting? bear with me my dear pal. 2 minds here, one is publicity, first of this or that, so what. the other, well, your commitment to real (i mean real, not avantgardist bullshit) exploration has always been tremendous and tremendously interesting. so: i’m absolutely thrilled you did this thing and can’t wait to see it. great!
    love r

  17. kagablog » mary corrigall interviews aryan kaganof about sms sugar man Says:

    […] This particular narrative was drawn from my novel SUGAR MAN AND OTHER BITTER STORIES which was published by Pine Slopes Publications in 2001. It’s a novel in splinters and ruins about the sleazy underbelly of South Africa. […]

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