the risk

The risk that Marechera as a shaman/writer faces is portrayed in Mindblast in Part 2 of the prologue: It is in loss of his soul. It is precisely in starting to feel empty, to believe that his writing has no particular qualities, like Donna’s poetry: “They were not childish. They were not mature.” In affirming the woman admirer’s amateur poetry, he is accepting the deathknell that sounds for his own. “They stirred within him that great hollowness from which he sought to escape everyday. He tried to read them through the eyes of his own poetry and discovered a strange affinity between Donna’s and his own poetry. ( p 71)” The rest of the story deals with the poet’s unravelling. His bloody throwing up is an expurgation of his soul. His drunken reeling is an acknowledgement of soul loss.