John Safran by no means imagined his newest author’s retreat would contain crawling via fences to squat in Kanye West’s deserted schoolhouse.
Nevertheless, for the 52-year-old creator and documentarian, this appears very on-brand.
Accompanied by his companion Antoinette, Safran describes infiltrating West’s deserted Donda academy — an unaccredited Christian non-public college arrange by the rapper — solely to seek out himself surrounded by unsettling reminders of ‘Kanye’s world’: Forgotten fan mail, dust-covered utility payments, Bible verses scrawled on partitions, his each day objectives record — an eclectic mixture of seemingly mundane clues like “canine walker?” — to his plans on sketching an thought for a brand new ‘compound’.
When describing the writing course of for his newest e book, Squat, Safran says he threw warning to the wind.
For the primary time, he did not have an in depth plan for the challenge. He was merely fueled by his ardour for hip-hop and a urgent curiosity to grasp and the ensuing backlash.
“I had this realisation once I obtained to his mansion … I will lean into this, make it introspectively about my Jewish id, and never play video games with it,” Safran says.
Individuals need me to be doing this: to go on harmful adventures and make them humorous.
John Safran
John Safran versus Kanye West
Each Safran and West are provocateurs in their very own proper — unafraid to tread controversial floor of their artistic work, which brings collectively artwork and cultural inquiry whereas difficult the boundaries of religion and id.
Like West, Safran has had his share of notable controversies, together with his notorious mock exorcism in his documentary sequence for SBS TV John Safran vs God, which drew criticism from the Christian group. Equally, his use of blackface to disguise himself as an African American man throughout his TV present Race Relations ignited discussions about cultural appropriation and the bounds of comedy.
However Safran is not frightened about cancel tradition.
“In relation to my work. I am in it for the lengthy recreation and completely assume it may age nicely,” Safran says.
“The very fact is, we’re not on the finish of historical past.”
Safran says his new e book Squat is the primary challenge he is began with no clear plan. Supply: SBS Information / Ben King
Exploring Jewish id
Safran’s introspection about his Jewish id reaches new depths on this e book, opened by a ahead recounting his expertise attempting to attend a pro-Palestine rally shortly after coming back from Los Angeles.
“Previous to the rally, NSW Police informed Jewish Australians they need to steer clear of the Sydney Opera Home,” Safran remembers.
“So, I turned up on the Sydney Opera Home.”
When requested to go away the occasion after being singled out as Jewish, Safran discovered himself as soon as once more in contested territory.
It is from the primary time Safran’s id has made him concurrently an insider and an outsider particularly circles. That twin actuality is one thing he shares in frequent with most of the vibrant characters he meets on his journey into West’s world.
He explains probably the most surprising encounter he had over the course of writing Squat got here whereas exploring the nuances of West’s sturdy opinions about Jewish folks. Safran was inspired to fulfill with a rabbi (non secular chief) within the secluded Hasidic Jewish group of Monsey, New York.
I used to be simply actually blindsided by the rabbi.
John Safran
The rabbi defined to Safran that he believed that antisemitic views held by the likes of West had been, in truth, a blessing and designed to maintain Jews separate from non-Jews “for their very own good”.
“He held a view that I hadn’t come throughout earlier than,” Safran says.
Throughout the assembly, Safran says the rabbi interpreted a latest machete assault on his synagogue (place of worship) not as a tragedy however as “virtually like a very good factor”, explaining it was a divine warning to stay insulated from worldly influences and to “preserve their Judaism”.
This second was a revelation.
“It was like I would entered this little world and uncovered one thing that most individuals won’t ever get,” Safran says.
From fringe to the mainstream
What units Squat other than Safran’s earlier initiatives is his improvised strategy to storytelling, making the reader his confederate by offering them along with his signature quick-witted aspect commentary whereas documenting his experiences.
Whereas Safran is well-known in Australia, he largely flies below the radar in locations like the USA, which allowed him to take a fly-on-the-wall strategy to snooping on West. His comedic but cerebral writing model may be likened to a literary love youngster between British comic and screenwriter Sacha Baron Cohen and British-American documentarian and creator Louis Theroux.
This challenge, nonetheless, feels much less like a stunt than a few of his earlier escapades and extra like a quest to grasp the polarising impact of a cultural determine like West.
“It was so weird that these eccentric fringe ideas that not way back virtually no person would find out about had been now mainstream,” Safran says.
I felt like my entire life had been pulling me to this second in Kanye’s mansion.
John Safran
“It is the very last thing you’d count on, but in addition probably the most inevitable.”
