First there was chick-lit: the brazen and boozy sexploits of contemporary adventuresses, latter-day Lola Montezes. Then, last month, came ‘fratire”, an American coinage for books about the boorish and boozy sexploits of contemporary American fraternity-house denizens. (See Christopher Turner’s story alongside for more on ‘fraternity-house satire”.)
Now there is dick-lit, and it’s homegrown, nogal. As of next week, you won’t have to look abroad for lad-mag literature. With the launch of Two Dogs, South Africa has its own contribution to a genre that serves up (marginally) more substantial fare than those glossy, ‘quality” men’s mags.
Published by SchreiberFord Publications and Struik, Two Dogs is an unashamedly guy thing, conceptually the counterpoint to an imprint such as Oshun, which specialises in writing by and for women. The imprint Two Dogs telegraphs it all, leaving its target market to supply the missing word, a sturdy Anglo-Saxon coinage which happens to begin with ‘F”, and turn it all into a little story of biological communing.
There are quite a few deliberately missing ‘Fs” in the Two Dogs marketing pitch. Take this from their testosterone-charged (but very effective) self-description: ‘Two Dogs publishes books men read. So join us in getting stuck into the Big Fs — fitness, friendship, fast cars, fashion, food and fornication — plus a whole lot of stuff that leaves the F off.”
This is really an advertisement for extended coverage of those men’s mag and lad-mag favourites: fitness, friendship, fast cars … but you’ve seen the list above. Having these subjects in book, rather than magazine format is potentially appealing — as the pay-off line goes: ‘… no Two Dogs man will ever say ‘I don’t read books’ as if it’s a badge of honour”.
So, it’s about encouraging a culture of reading (books), then? Surely not a bad thing. And the enterprising folk at Two Dogs reckon they produce books ‘you’re as likely to be seen with on the beach or in the pub as you are with your feet up at home”. They offer ‘quick reads, long reads, books you can dip into, books you can get your teeth into, pages you can flick through again while you’re waiting for her to do her hair”.
Oh dear. Though one supposes there’s nothing like a bit of gender stereotyping to get across what you are and to whom you’re appealing. Leaving aside gender politics and sensitivities, Two Dogs appears to be a very focused publishing venture, secure in who its readers are and what they want. This is most evident in three of its four launch titles: 293 Things Every SA Man Should Know by Dennis Cavernelis; In Search of South Africa’s Perfect Woman by Kevin McCallum; and I Can Do That! Fitness for the Lazy Guy by Blair Ludbrook.
The first thing to note is how the subject and content of the books are spelt out. It’s not only those weighty academic tomes that get to have long titles. And, in the same vein, the first two books mentioned carry even longer, blurb-like sub-titles on their covers. The Cavernelis reads ‘From extreme sex to safe sport, from fashion, film, fax and food to lighting your cigar and killing zombies”. So, no ‘F” left unmentioned there.
On the McCallum, we read that this is ‘one man’s journey through bars, clubs, dinner parties and dating agencies”. That solo voyager is McCallum himself — barkingly described in the publisher’s blurb as ‘the ultimate sports-loving single guy” and as ‘the archetypal South African bachelor”. Maybe. Could be. But the Kevin I remember was a very funny (read: humorous) guy who wrote rather well about sport and even more engagingly about beer. (I’m certain the people at a certain large South African brewing would-be monopoly have him inscribed in their Hall of Fame; if not, why not?)
Ludbrook’s book purports to provide the dream fitness regime, a sort of how to shed the skin of a couch potato and turn into a marathon achiever.
So, two humour titles and a how-to, self-improvement volume in the launch package. The fourth book comes over all soft and huggy: My Dad by South African Sons. But don’t rush to the bookshops now: the daddy tome will be released on June 18, Father’s Day, showing that Two Dogs doesn’t miss a trick and isn’t averse to a dollop of sentimentality alongside all those included and missing ‘Fs”.