Title: Dispatcher : lost and found in Johannesburg /
Authors: Gevisser, Mark,
Year: 2014
Subjects: Gevisser, Mark.; Authors, South African Biography.; Journalists South Africa Biography; Johannesburg (South Africa) Biography.; Johannesburg (South Africa) Biography.
Abstract: As a boy growing up in 1970s Johannesburg Mark Gevisser would play 'Dispatcher', a game that involved sitting in his father's parked car (or in the study) and sending imaginary couriers on routes across the city, mapped out from Holmden's Register of Johannesburg. As the imaginary fleet made its way across the troubled city and its tightly bound geographies, so too did the young dispatcher begin to figure out his own place in the world. At the centre of Dispatcher is the account of a young boy who is obsessed with maps and books, and other boys. Mark Gevisser's account of growing up as the gay son of Jewish immigrants, in a society deeply affected - on a daily basis - by apartheid and its legacy, provides a uniquely layered understanding of place and history. It explores a young man's maturation into a fully engaged and self-aware citizen, first of his city, then of his country and the world beyond. This is a story of memory, identity and an intensely personal relationship with the City of Gold. It is also the story of a violent home invasion and its aftermath, and of a man's determination to reclaim his home town.
Contents: Machine generated contents note: pt. ONE DISPATCHER: OUTWARD BOUND -- Closed City -- Treasure Valley -- Tompkins's Folly -- In Search of the South African `Huzun' -- Zita's Map of Zelva -- `Ulysses is About Us' -- Forests of the Dead -- Wall of Ancestors -- `Venus de Milo "Suspect"' -- Yidden -- Sandspruit -- Bird's-Eye View -- Fringe Country -- `Psychopathia Sexualis' -- Xai-Xai -- The Fischer Pool on Beaumont Street -- The Fort -- Town -- Black Bells -- `Jim Comes to Joburg' -- In the Third Basement -- Underground Underworld -- Bachelors and Maidens -- Spyglass Hill -- Umtshotsho -- Edenvale -- The Ballad of Phil and Edgar -- Ultimate Dispatcher -- `The Venice of the South' -- The Ecstasy of Immersion -- The Wilds -- pt. TWO ATTACK -- pt. THREE DISPATCHER: HOMEWARD BOUND -- Hope in Alexandra -- `Open City'.