Zoo City

by Lauren Beukes

People want to believe: you just have to feed them plausible constructs.

Not a bad life philosophy. Stick close, keep your head down, and you won’t fall to pieces.

Fashion is only different skins for different flavors of you.

“Hackers are Eastern Bloc scammers. The Company relies on good old-fashioned African business as taught to us by our colonial masters.” “Bribery and corruption?” “So much more efficient.”

It’s the broken windows model of law enforcement, the notion that smothering the sparks of civil entropy will help stomp out the embers that flare up into serious crime. No loitering, no littering, no soliciting—although it seems the

sharply dressed dealers standing chatting on the corner have diplomatic immunity, as long as they stay out of reach, like the homeless sleeping in rotten sleeping bags across the road.

It has taken this to make me realize that dehumanizing is not only something that other people do to you. It can be self-inflicted too. Switch off the light behind your eyes. Focus on the lowest rungs of Maslow. Get through the day, however you can.