Mark Behr

Mark Behr (19 October 1963 – 27 November 2015) was a Tanzanian-born writer who grew up in South Africa. He was professor of English literature and creative writing at Rhodes College, Memphis, Tennessee. He also taught in the MA program at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. Quotes The Smell of Apples: Mark Behr Quotes Yet, by now, I know full-well that you cannot satisfactorily understand an event unless you have a picture of everything that accompanies it: the arrival of the visitor cannot be divorced from what preceded his coming. To understand my own choice, I need to muster as much of the detail as possible.Adult Marnus (pg 31). we laugh about the dogma and stupidity of the Middle Ages. But while we may laugh, we forget about the thousands, even millions, of people who were killed before and in order to make greater creativity and freedom possible. Changes which today we accept as given. They were not given – they were fought for. Tannie Karla (pg 110). Why are we educated to be afraid of people who think differently from us, or who do differently from us, or who look different from us? And why is it so easy for that fear to take root and blossom into a weed of hatred, selfishness and terror? Tannie Karla (pg 110-111). Death brings its own freedom, and it is for the living that the dead should mourn, for in life there is no escape from history. Adult Marnus (pg 198). Only one life we have in which we wanted merely to be loved forever. Antjie Krog This is a very revealing story in terms of highlighting the way in which the Afrikaners looked upon the colored Africans, and the way in which they indoctrinated their children into having the same, illogical views. Marnus' mother believes that rather than feeling exploited, or that they are considered less in some way than the white people they work for, the coloreds she employs should feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude that she pays them for the work they do for her. It doesn't seem to occur to her that they might desire something different, or something more, for their lives, or that since they are working hard she jolly well ought to be paying them. It also shows the way in which his mother jumps to conclusions based on color and race. It simply would not occur to her that a passing white criminal might have stolen their fishing equipment. Her logic tells her that their black landscaper, Chrisjan, likes fishing. Since he likes fishing, and is a colored man, he must therefore be the thief. In passing this view onto her son as a fact rather than a suspicion, she is raising him to believe exactly the same things that she does and indoctrinating this negative view of colored people into him. It's also interesting to note that she assumes Chrisjan is the thief; she does not seem to think that a random stranger could have stolen from them. This shows that she is constantly on the look out for ways in which to prove that she is right in thinking that her employees are taking advantage of her. About his work The smell of apples Pop music can cause you to become a drug addict. Before Lucifer was thrown out of Heaven, he was the angel of music, and so it's only logical that the communists will use pop music to take over the Republic. Marnus pg67 This is an illuminating quote on a number of levels. Firstly, it is amusing, as it shows that Marnus' mother is using tactics with no basis in logic to scare her child into conforming to her wishes. However, it also highlights the terrifying lack of logic that permeates all of the beliefs that Marnus' parents are bestowing on their children. The comment also shows that the greatest fear in South Africa at the time was communism and that there was a level of paranoia that, whilst not using obvious means, such as actual warfare, on the republic, the communists would use insidious techniques to take over, one of which was through the messages inherent in music about peace, love, and equality that was popular at the time. It appears that anything that went against the theory of apartheid and segregation was a tool of both communism and the devil. This association relieves Marnus' parents of having to explain why either apartheid or segregation is right; it is simply right because it is the opposite of communism. About his work The smell of apples I teach literature and writing in ways that are deeply and profoundly informed by the activism I believe is a part of the best kinds of peace studies. He describes his work The author Mark Behr was defined by artifice during the first three decades of his life. He passed as a straight Afrikaner when he was really, as he put it, “a closeted queer” more comfortable in English. And he posed as an anti-apartheid student leader when he was also spy for the notorious South African security police. His story was atypical of either calling. He started life in Tanzania, where his Afrikaner mother had married a bilingual farmer. When Mark was two, the family abandoned home and fled to Natal in a small plane, terrified by the prospect of African socialism. Behr was inspired by Ayn Rand’s anti-communism but it was money that prompted his most fateful decision. His mother’s cousin, a general in the security police, invited him to become a “source” in exchange for monthly payments and the “opportunity to study at the prestigious Stellenbosch University. He jumped at the chance, joining the local branch of the anti-apartheid National Union of South African Students (Nusas), becoming its leader. He also joined the End Conscription Campaign and led a group of conscientious objectors, while launching his writing career with his first published short story. Behr confessed to the ANC in 1990 that he had been recruited as a spy by South Africa’s security police External links Category:Authors from Tanzania Category:Academics from Tanzania Category:1963 births Category:2015 deaths