Antipodean Literature

[rebness]

Throughout the weekend, I found out that I had bags of spare time, just, y’know, floating about. Yes, still, the Computer Says No.

I finally picked up Night Letters, by Robert Dessaix, again. I hadn’t heard of him, either. Well, not until saffronlie sent me a copy of the antipodean writer’s Corfu, and then this book. 90% of the literature I have read thus far has been northern-hemisphere centric, and of that, most of it is Euro-centric.

Granted, this is because I’ve spent the last few years labouring through the classics to become OMG Sooper Sekrit Litry wunder!!1! and being a snooty reader means wallowing through The Illiad by way of Greece, getting lost in Venice with Thomas Mann and reading about selfish horrid people in France through Bonjour, Tristesse.

There have been diversions along the way, in the forms of American and Canadian greats such as Salinger, Jeffrey Eugenides, Douglas Coupland and…er…ah…Anne Rice. Indian literature rocks, and I fell for the charms of The Death of Vishnu and the seminal God of Small Things.

But Australian literature? Why are we often so snobby about it?

Before Robert Dessaix, the only Australian story I remember reading was that one about the bunyips, which scared the hell out of me. (I was about eight, you know.) Perhaps this has been a mistake. There’s a clarity in Dessaix’s writing. He regards Europe with that cool but knowing way. I loved how he summed up so much about hell-island Corfu in the book of the same name, but this book just… I adored it. No jaded narratives, alarmingly evident in a lot of things I read these days, but a new, fresh, exciting perspective. I'm actually pretty damned upset that I finished the book last night and now must return to Cervantes.

At one point in the narrative, he says that being Australian means that people treat him as a kind of blank canvas, a nationality to paint their own identities on. I suppose that’s true, in a sense. However, at the same time, his narrative brings something new and refreshing to the tales of long-dead Venetians and Irish blue-bloods living on strange islands—a sense of enthusiasm, not weighted by the European trappings of class and status.

That sentence wasn’t very clear. Let me explain. My super amazing free time also meant that I finally sat down to watch Keep the Aspidistra Flying, which was taped for me a little while back by the sublime pandorasblog.

It was a great comedy, superbly acted, funny lines, etc… but it was so preoccupied by class. Undoubtedly, this was the point of Orwell’s comedy, but class has always been something that makes me feel haughty, inferior, superior—always at a certain unease with myself, knowing that it defines me in Europe like no other place on earth. Stamped before I even open my mouth. Actually, open my mouth and the idiot assumptions about my status and the verity of my Englishness start up. It’s ridiculous, I know, but there it is. There it always is—and nobody can understand that who has not lived in Europe. More specifically, Britain.

My point is this: Europeans always have, and always will, have hang-ups about class and history and culture. We’re always vying with one another, with our own countrymen, to better ourselves. Sometimes I think we’re as bad as the peacocks in Dessaix’s novel who strut past Camilla’s window, weighed down with gold and fur. It’s interesting to get the perspective of an outsider once in a while. Ann Coulter can still shut her stupid mouth, though.

P.S Also, yes. I totally do rely on my friends for new cultural and literary experiences.

ETA: Rest in Peace, Hunter S. Thompson. You never did fail to shock, you literary wonder, you.

Comments

[ozfille]

Another much-admired author, well at least here in Australia was Patrick White. From an older generation than that of Dessaix and from a very wealthy Australian pastoral family (one of the squattocracy) he had his hang ups about Australia and how inferior he felt it to be to Europe. (I suppose culturally, during most of his lifetime it was.)

He was also gay and probably this coloured his views of Australia, this country being so totally homophobic, misogynist and racist until the 1970's. He was a bit of an old curmudgeon in the end.

[rebness.livejournal.com]

That's interesting... would you, then, recommend I read some of his work? And if so, should I be wary of the way he paints Australia?

I also want to learn about about Australia culturally, not just how Australians view us. Any recommendations will be gratefully noted. ;)

Comprehensive Patrick White site

[ozfille]

Most of his books concentrate on Australia from the 1940s - 1970s. He also wrote plays. If you want to know more than you could ever want to know about him, there is an excellent site -

Why Bother with Patrick White

There are several sections, a timeline of his life, his life details, opinions of him and his works and excerpts from his novels. They'll give you a taste of his writing style and obsessions. In the biography section there is audio as well as he tells anecdotes from his life. It's a very good site.

Re: Comprehensive Patrick White site

[saffronlie.livejournal.com]

Haha, I was so wrong. I'll blame my uni for only setting A Fringe of Leaves and Voss.

Re: Comprehensive Patrick White site

[rebness.livejournal.com]

At least they set them. I should write to my university asking them to explain the lack of world literature on our world literature programme.

Thanks for the link, Karen. This will make some diverting afternoon reading. >:)

[saffronlie.livejournal.com]

I would recommend Patrick White as well, but with a note of caution. I love what I have read of his in the sense that I can recognise his genius, but his books don't invite emotional engagement. It's not like reading Robert Dessaix, where I feel an outpouring of emotions and love and start gushing about wanting to marry the text. With Patrick White, it's like... always held at a distance. Which is interesting, given that he was our first Modernist novelist, and Modernism is so often concerned with the inner lives of characters.

ozfille can feel free to correct me on any of this, but I think White also focussed on Australia pre-Federation. Of course, he was writing in the 20th-century, so just because the stories are set earlier doesn't mean they reflect nothing of the time he was writing in.

Anyway. Doesn't Night Letters just break your heart?

[rebness.livejournal.com]

I can honestly say, hand on heart-- I haven't read a book that moved me and lit my imagination so much as Night Letters in a very long while. Questions of mortality, time and European history-- it really gets me.

RECOMMEND ME ONE TO BUY THIS WEEK, ANNA.

(That is how loud my need for more Dessaix is now.)

[saffronlie.livejournal.com]

If you read more Dessaix you'll be one up on me! I have A Mother's Disgrace sitting there waiting to be read, but I won't get to it for ages. :( It is his autobiography, about being adopted and gay and stuff. Twilight of Love is his new one, which I totally thought was called Travels with Turgenev, but I think that's the subtitle. By the way, I totally can't pronounce Turgenev. I heard him do it on the radio and I was so wrong.

You probably won't be able to find (and so forth), a collection of short writings and things. There's a copy on our bookshelf that I haven't yet touched. :(

[rebness.livejournal.com]

LMAO! Poor lass. ;)

I don't know...Waterstones had a few of his works in. I remember feeling very superior for having read a title in the international section. I shall look out for Twilight of Love and hope for the short story collection.

[rebness.livejournal.com]

Oh my God I loved that book.

(Thought I should share that with you yet again.)

[saffronlie.livejournal.com]

Yeah.

But my professor is stalking me and I have to read 232 lines of Piers Plowman before tomorrow and I don't think I like this uni thing anymore. :(

[rebness.livejournal.com]

Is this the professor who was going to give you the book?

[saffronlie.livejournal.com]

I had the book, right? His copy and then I bought my own. I gave it back today but he made me take it back again and gave me a bunch of other books. AND ALSO CALLED MY PHONE A LOT AND KEPT TALKING TO ME AFTER THE CLASS SO I WAS WAY LATE GETTING BACK TO WORK AND HAD TO RUSH TO GET THE MAIL DONE.

[rebness.livejournal.com]

He is weird. o.O

Dammit! you're still doing mail? WE HAVE TO FIX THIS, ANNA. And blonde hair be damned!

[saffronlie.livejournal.com]

BLONDE WHAT HUH? Wednesday is my last day of full-time menial meaningless. I can't wait, because I'm so behind with the reading already. :(

[rebness.livejournal.com]

Oh, you know. Causing a secretary's hair to fall out just to prevent walking purgatory.

(Doesn't Dessaix make Dante sound like an arse?)

[saffronlie.livejournal.com]

Oh, that. I did a Settlement Statement on Friday and today I updated the Family Law Handbook, so that was exciting.

Haha, yes, he does a bit. Aww.

[ozfille]

Actually I wasn't accurate. I should of said "some", not "most" of his work deals with the period 40's to 70's. Now that I think of it, the balance over all his books is more towards the earlier part of the 20th Century and some like Voss back into the 19th Century. I think he never caught up with the Australia of the '60s and '70s. I think like most writers he tended to look back to the days of his youth. Understandable I suppose, as that is usually the most painful and the most joyful, or it is often perceived to be so.