my ghost in the bush of lies - paul wessels

Deep South Publishing 2005     94 pages    isbn: 0-9584542-8-0    R85.00

Paul Wessels is rumoured to be the reincarnation of the Marquis de Sade, writing furious letters from prison full of pornography, philosophy, politics and poetry to friends and enemies alike. Not yet behind real bars, Wessels incorporates the desperation of saints and monsters imprisoned in the constraints, stupidity and lies of a society bloated in self-righteousness and stupidity.

    My Ghost In The Bush Of Lies starts with the arrest and detention of Paulus Nomad, a providential idler, drug addict, whore, terrorist, madman, farmer, philosopher and writer. This sets off a train of events incorporating poetry, drama, philosophy, memoir, cut-up prose and several strands of narrative.

Critical Acclaim for Paul Wessels:

"Your Ghost had me laughing seven ways" (Lesego Rampolokeng, from back cover)

"I love your punchlines!" (Michelle Matthews, Oshun Books)

"A beautifully bizarre quasi-novel." (Toast Coetzer, Litnet)

"Paul Wessels's poetry and prose ... forces into places that language seems to resist. It's like he makes fictions in order to withstand the unbearable physicality. It's beyond what we can know, so he pushes hard, as hard as a body lunging against a body." (Stacy Hardy, Litnet)

"an unstoppable, genre-defying assault on the senses. Every word is precise, and each page has been honed down to the barest essentials, and yet the language still seems excessive. ... makes a mockery of any desire for the coherence and unity of identity. In permitting this savage explosion, these fractured revelations, the author has obliterated himself. Now we know everything and nothing. He has become the purest conduit of the messages which flow through him." (Anton R. Krueger, Wordfest 6 July, 2005)

“Paul Wessels should not be taken seriously, that is, literally. We should spare him the indignity. He is far too important for that. He cannot stop himself from believing that “every word uttered has a purpose”. And that purpose is to be unmasked! Every artist, every great artist, wants to get busted, to be revealed. My Ghost In The Bush Of Lies cuts through the ossified notions of culture that belong to the analogue period. We’re in the digital future now and our literature should reflect that, our cinema should reflect that. Paul Wessels’ book is a model of this new digital awareness that is medium specific in an entirely novel(?) way”

(Aryan Kaganof, http://www.unlikelystories.org/kaganofreview1205.shtml, Unlikely Stories: a Multimedia Journal of Culture and Art).

Author statement:
"I need some sort of skin. I'm all out of my own."

Paul Wessels was editor of the now defunkt donga webzine, is current editor of www.sweetmagazine.co.za, and publisher of substancebooks. His writing (book reviews, criticism, interviews) has appeared in donga, www.sweetmagazine.co.za, www.artthrob.co.za, Art South Africa, The Cape Times, The Sunday Independent, the Mail&Guardian, ThisDay, www.litnet.co.za, New Coin, and Green Dragon. He has written short monographs on artists Mark Hipper, Aryan Kaganof and Nicola Deane. This is his first book.

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