Hello world!

Hello, my name is Brannavan Gnanalingam.  I’m a writer based in Wellington, New Zealand.  I do a lot of film and music reviewing for a website called the Lumiere Reader, and I write occasionally for Werewolf Magazine and the Dominion Post. I also have a 9-5 which I like very much. But I also like writing. And have finished a novel “Getting Under Sail”. Yes, that’s a Rimbaud title. And like Rimbaud I went to Africa. Unlike Rimbaud I don’t have cancer. Or a body of critical opinion. So let me know what you think. I like feedback.

A blog seemed like a good way to get excerpts of the book in the public domain, and hopefully be a calling card/motivation for it to be published. Also, the whole purpose of artistic endeavours is to share something with others – so opinions, criticisms, or queries on the work would be really, really appreciated.

The book is called Getting Under Sail. It’s an account of a road-trip I did with two friends from Morocco to Ghana. The characters are fictionalised, but many of the events are true (arrested for mass murder, being dropped off in the middle of the desert, sickness etc.) I also try to critically analyse the purpose of travelling, and reveal myself and my characters to be nothing more than conservative, racist hypocrites. Kerouac be damned.

I also try to attack the idea that “Africa” exists. And attack how language lumps diversity and difference under single terms: Muslims, Africans, blacks or whatever, and how when we use that language to describe others, we can’t help but stereotype and simplify them. But enough of some of my thematic ideas, the next post will have the opening of the book.