The haunting presence of lost futures in The Third Reel by S.J. Naudé

Abstract

In Mark Fisher’s Ghosts of My Life he describes various small-scale utopian projects dating from the 1960s to the 1980s, including brutalist architecture, squats, industrial music and experimental film. According to Fisher, contemporary popular culture is mainly concerned with reworking these decades (instead of conceiving new utopian or formally experimental projects), partly because the 21st century is still haunted by these trajectories for the future that never realised. Fisher argues that the haunting of these lost utopian projects can be considered as fissures indicating alternatives to the accepting of contemporary capitalism as the only viable social structure. S.J. Naudé’s novel, The Third Reel, which is set in 1986-1990, references the utopian projects mentioned above. In this article, Fisher’s writing is used to read The Third Reel as a cultural product haunted by these lost visions of the future and their radical potential. Fisher’s theorisation of countercultural utopian projects during the 1980s is also supplemented by a discussion of the potentially radical queer practices of that decade, as represented in The Third Reel. The influence of the past on the present is explicitly thematised in the novel through references to Walter Benjamin’s Angelus Novus and characters’ attempts to recover their family histories. These attempts often prove to be complex and serve to vitiate any attempt to interpret the implications of history for the present in simple terms. This article thus speaks to Louise Viljoen’s in this issue and although it focuses mainly on Naude, overlaps in Koos Prinsloo’s oeuvre will be signalled.

In Ghosts of My Life beskryf Mark Fisher verskeie kleinskaalse utopiese projekte wat dateer uit die 1960s tot die 1980s, insluitend brutalistiese argitektuur, squats, industriële musiek en eksperimentele film. Volgens Fisher is hedendaagse populêre kultuur hoofsaaklik gemoeid met ’n herwerking van hierdie dekades (in stede daarvan om nuwe utopiese of formalisties eksperimentele projekte te bedink), gedeeltelik omdat hierdie trajekte in die 21ste eeu steeds spook vir ’n toekoms wat nooit gerealiseer het nie. Fisher voer aan dat hierdie “spook” van verlore utopiese projekte beskou kan word as breuke wat dui op alternatiewe tot die aanvaarding van hedendaagse kapitalisme as die enigste lewensvatbare sosiale struktuur. Die Derde Spoel deur S.J. Naudé speel af van 1986 tot 1990 en bevat verwysings na al die bogenoemde utopiese projekte. In hierdie artikel word Fisher se werk gebruik om te betoog dat hierdie verlore perspektiewe op die toekoms en hul radikale potensiaal by Die Derde Spoel spook. Die radikale potensiaal van die queer praktyke van die 1980s wat in Die Derde Spoel uitgebeeld word, word ook bespreek as toevoeging tot Fisher se teoretisering oor daardie dekade. Die invloed van die verlede op die hede word eksplisiet in die roman getematiseer deur middel van verwysings na Walter Benjamin se die Angelus Novus en karakters se pogings om hulle familiegeskiedenisse na te speur. Hierdie pogings word uitgebeeld as ingewikkeld, en dien as waarskuwing dat enige poging om die implikasies van die verlede vir die hede te interpreteer, nooit eenvoudig kan wees nie. Dié artikel kan dus beskou word as in gesprek met Louise Viljoen se artikel in dieselfde uitgawe en alhoewel dit hoofsaaklik op Naude fokus, dui ek soortgelyke temas in Koos Prinsloo se oeuvre aan.