A fate worse than tragedy? Who They Was by Gabriel Krauze

This book has been dubbed a kind of A Clockwork Orange, both for its consistent onslaught of ultraviolence and also for the language which seeks to include the individuals who choose to use it. It is the opinion of narrow-minded people that the use of this language is indicative of gang members and, therefore, people not considered useful members of society. Krauze sets up an argument that the language isn’t a choice as people are a product of their environment – in this case South Kilburn – and they act exactly how society expects them to act. It is fate that decides and there is no opportunity to break the mould.  

Fate is a situation that ancient tragic heroes find themselves a victim of and the protagonist leans into this. The anti-hero, who is revealed to be Krauze himself consequently creating a memoir-adjacent story, has a keen interest in English and this extends to a more classical knowledge of story-telling, including ancient Greek mythology.

I watch dawn’s pink fingers claw the sky open and sun spills from its guts (167)

Those familiar with Homer, the ancient Greek poet, may be able to recall the epithet of Dawn whose rosy-fingers often brought forth the sun into the glory of day. I have read a few translations of The Odyssey but my favourite by far is the one by Emily Wilson as she makes her version more approachable for contemporary readers. Rather than merely repeating rosy-fingered she describes Dawn with blooming fingertips like petals or appearing with hands of flowers. Similarly, Krauze is taking Homer’s familiar epithet and twisting it into a violent metaphor as the ultraviolence seeps into nature, landscape mimicking individual and individual acting as part of a group. Who They Was is literarily rich with these references. The preoccupation with ancient Greece is interesting as their stories were told through the oral tradition rather than written which is echoed in the voice of Krauze who aggressively confronts the reader, entangling the words on the page with the sounds of his story.

         Names hold power, become even more than the people who actually own them

they start to live in people’s words (183)

There is danger, fear and the immortality of legacy in a person’s name. It can outlive the possessing body of it. The name Homer is known yet the man (or men) behind it isn’t. Krauze talks of one of his friends Kaos, a name that precedes the man, who is bare rated by mandem, as they bun zoots they discuss the origin of his name which means emptiness or infinite darkness in ancient Greek [180]. That infinite darkness is what infiltrates the words of the speaker’s of Kaos’ name.

It is the meaning of all culture to breed a tame and civilised animal… out of the beast-of-prey, man

Nietzsche, The Genealogy of Morality (250)

In referencing this quote from Nietzsche, it appears that Krauze is talking about culture, which is a creation of society, and made up of a tamed collection of creatures. A wild creature can never be truly tamed, however, and so an individual is forced to live with this secondary creature that has been taught to them by culture but this will never eradicate the wild primary beast that represents who they actually are, who they was. Krauze continues to use Nietzsche to argue that he is not evil but acting like the wolf whose instinct is merely to hunt the lamb (215). He doesn’t feel bad for doing eats, doing robberies, as the name suggests, it is integral for survival. Does this make him less like man as he is not ascribing to societal norm or more like man as he is not a slave to his secondary creature produced by culture and civilisation?

Missing our days of hunger, nights of eats (315)

The English language can be considered as a place of exclusivity, beyond correct grammar, there are invisible rules around politeness that seem to shun those that don’t abide by it. Who They Was has used a language created by people who feel excluded. It is clever and full of double meaning. The title itself is almost a play on words as ‘was’ suggests who they have been and who they are now. Whether the two are the same or not comes down to the individual.

I go upstairs, feeling like something heavy is pressing down on my shoulders, like the ghosts of all my memories and everyone who used to be here left behind a scream and

Final Page

and jump out the whip and I’m hitting the pavement and it’s this moment

First Page

It also begins and ends on the uncapitalised word ‘and’. This could be suggestive of the inescapable cycle that Krauze finds himself trapped in, where the only way to feel alive or even stay alive is with these ultraviolent visceral acts of power. There is no journey for him to go on in order to learn something like ancient heroes. The reality beyond this story is that society and systems are stacked against a lot of people and they find themselves trapped. The only time attention is paid is when they have an interesting to story to tell. But no one is willing to listen to the ancient Greek oral tradition, they’d rather use the elitist form of the novel - another way to exclude using language and keep people out.