David Malouf- my old teacher at Sydney University in the early seventies- agreed to come and speak to the handful of Clemente students studying "Remembering Babylon" as part of the Sacred Australia unit that I am teaching at Mission Australia in Surrey Hills. The book is such a beautiful celebration of the real importance of the marginalized to the health of the nation as a whole. Gemmy Fairley- as a result of his complex and traumatic experiences- brings to the coastal community of North Queensland an insight and understanding that many of us are in need of. Sadly the novel shows that only a few are capable of understanding and learning from Gemmy. The epigraph to the book - from William Blake- "whether this is Jerusalem or Babylon we know not"- is a sobering reminder of the key question we might ask about contemporary Australia: is this a place of potential harmony between human beings of all races ( a potential Jerusalem), or is it the place in which cacophonous voices of misunderstanding and hatred will continue and grow???? Malouf's answer to this implicit question is ambiguous. In a real way he leaves it up to the reader to decide whether the outcome of these events will be positive or negative. It is ultimately up to us whether it will be a Jerusalem or a Babylon. Here we are, arrayed around the literary master. Thank you all for taking part and for so eagerly bringing your questions to the exchange with David.
Michael
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Hi all- don't miss out on this amazing artistic feast that is sitting temporarily right next to the doors of the NSW Art Gallery. Japanese artist Tatzu Nishi has converted the two statues that sit boringly and unrecognizably next to the doors of the gallery into something that reflects astonishingly on the place of War and Peace in the contemporary world. Don't miss it. Here is a quick shot... which shows nothing of the impact you will receive when you actually go there. And if you are doing your essay on David Malouf's Ransom then this "event" will deepen your understanding of what Malouf is saying about War and Peace in this novel... indeed it was he who recommended strongly that I go and see this "event".... it is free, and on for a little while longer... but you will need to go during Art Gallery Hours (10-5)..... see you there!
And I am not going to show you "War" here in case I spoil the impact when you get there.... |
Hi all: you may have noticed that I have posted a couple of entries in relation to the group of disadvantaged Clemente students completing the unit “Sacred Australia” through Mission Australia. These students, when they complete four Clemente units have completed a Certificate that allows them to enter university and complete a full degree. Many of these students have had very difficult lives but clearly have acquired a real wisdom and a deep insight. When they complete units in literature, the discussions we have in class are quite extraordinary in the range and depth of ideas that are produced. All these students are also being encouraged to develop a WordPress Literature unit in order to give them the freedom to express their own experience creatively. It would be very helpful if you -as fully fledged university students- could visit and support some of these students in their blogs. You will find them all in the WordPress StudentBlogs: “Group: Sacred Australia”. Some have not yet posted their first blog, others have and are worth reading and commenting on. As a group, comments from students on campus can really give them a sense of inclusion in a wider community.
Best wishes
Michael |
We had an extraordinary visit to this amazing collection of Blake's engravings, owned by the NSW Art Gallery, but only put on display very rarely. They depict Blake's unique interpretation of the timeless story. It is an interpretation that brings Job's predicament very much into the 21st Century. It was our task to try to enter the questions that Blake poses about the nature and purpose of human existence through his dramatic, radical re-interpretation of this ancient biblical text. Most wonderful is the way that he transforms the word-bound adherent of formal religion in the first plate into the leader of a group of musicians in the last plate. Here Job empowers himself and is family to open their hearts and minds to a different order of spiritual experience. Gone are the books, now the spirit is embodied in this vision of harmony with the cosmos.
And all who came had an enriching experience complete with lunch under the cascading fruit bats in the botanical gardens. Thank you all for making this such a memorable morning.
MG
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Suggestions for Week 9. All have until 11.59 on Saturday to complete these entries- remember these are just suggestions, you are encouraged to write from your own experience in response to the literature we have been studying and/or your own life experience
OzLiteans
Can you think of a moment in your own life which was irradiated by Grace? Try to describe it as best you can... transform this into a poem if you wish. Or you might like to imagine yourself as an inanimate object (a pool, a tree, a stone.....) what does the universe look like from where you are? What event is really important to you? Is it the rising of the moon???
Blakeans.... you can of course piggy back onto any of these creative topics suggested for OzLiteans.... but for you the special challenge:
Chose any four lines from the Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Write them down and then try and write another 16 or so lines of your own that follow in the style, mood and imagery of William Blake. Surprise yourself!.... You might be amazed how this exercise of living yourself into part of William Blake's skin help you understand something of the process he was going through....
Alternatively:
William Wordsworth remarked in 1812 that "there was something in the madness of this man [William Blake] which interests me more than the sanity of Lord Byron and Walter Scott". Imagine you are a friend of William Blake. Write a letter back to William Wordsworth confirming for him [Wordsworth] the accuracy of his remark.
 Wordsworth
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I am having such a great time working with this group of Clemente students at Mission Australia. They are such a lively, interested and passionate group of students who really have a need to connect with the core meanings of the literature we are studying. So far we have looked at poetry by Judith Wright- her amazing alchemical "The Wattle Tree" and her meditative "Pool and Star" - poems by dispossessed Australian Indigenous poets, yearning for a connection to their traditions, their culture and finally some wonderful passages from David Malouf who expresses so pertinently the power and importance of poetry in a person's life. We looked especially at this passage of his from his novel "The Great World":
“He was speaking of poetry itself, of the hidden part it played in their lives… How it spoke up, not always in the plainest terms, since that wasn’t always possible, but in precise terms just the same, for what is deeply felt and might otherwise go unrecorded: all those unique and repeatable events, the little sacraments of daily existence… To find words for that; to make glow with significance what is usually unseen, and unspoken too – that, when it occurs, is what binds us all, since it speaks immediately out of the centre of each one of us; giving shape to what we too have experienced and did not till then have words for, though as soon as they are spoken we know them as our own. (283-284).
Here is the flier that has attracted students to this unit. As you can see we have Bell Shakespeare coming to work with us at the end of semester. There is going to be a fabulous performance of key (Shakespearean) sections of Michael Gow's play "Away" in later November- will keep you posted on the date and location:
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Blakeans- can you begin to speculate why Blake wants a marriage between Heaven and Hell? How can he dare to yoke these opposites together. Did he have a death wish? Was he determined to be burned at the stake?! Can you write an entry which gives voice to your confusion or your understanding of this weirdly subversive artistic work....
Or maybe you would like to speculate on why the rock band the Doors found so much power in the phrase "The Doors of Perception..." how can this apply to a contemporary rock band? What is the context of this phrase and what light does it shed on Blake's overall creative purpose.....???? Questions follow questions.....
And OzLit-eans: a week moving towards Judith Wright- whose book has not yet appeared in the bookshop! (I know!).... but you have a few poems already and some more will be appearing on-line for your delectation.... Can you try writing a poem about some manifestation of spring, of something happening in nature right now, that seems to contain the whole of life, the magic of creation. Go close to it and describe it in vivid detail: bring it to life and bring the undercurrents of life to life... so that we can see the gold underside of whatever it is you are describing..... does that make any sense? Perhaps you could have a closer look at her poem "The Wattle Tree"- could that give you any inspiration to follow in her footsteps.....
Over and out
MG
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Hi Folks- remember that you now have time extended to 11.59pm Saturday to get your entries for each week up and tidied.
For this week our Blakeans could dramatize Earth's answer to the summons given to it by the Bard. Use your own words and your own language. How does Earth feel? What does Earth experience as it is being told to wake up! Or you might reflect on an experience in your own life where a bond of friendship has helped you to overcome some real communication difficulty... I am thinking here of Blake's "The Poison Tree"... do you have any parallel experiences in your own life that you might turn into a poem?
O Earth O Earth return!...
Night is worn,
And the morn
Rises from the slumberous mass.....
OzLiteans.... I strongly suggest thinking about the relationship of birds to human life from your own experience. What meaning do birds have for you? How do they interact with your experience. Can you write down a series of attributes of the birds that you know- what you like and what you don't like... and then possibly shape these into a poem or a reflective prose passage.
Or you might like to think about what the cartoonist Michael Leunig meant by this poem he wrote about Birds in his own life:
Magpie, magpie, dive on me,
Swoop down from your holy tree;
As I pass the flower bed
Stick your beak into my head.
Magpie, magpie, make a hole,
Through my head into my soul;
As I pass beneath the sun
Bring my troubled head undone.
Magpie, magpie, it is spring,
Is my soul a happy thing?
As I pass around the tree
Make a hole so you can see.
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Blakeans have entered the complex and paradoxical world of Innocence and Experience. How can Experience, that sullying of the purity of innocence, actually be the gateway to the innocence that the human spirit desires? Can you write a short prose piece or even a poem that captures this paradox.... and do we have any artists out there who can -Blakeanwise- illustrate their own work??? If you want a more straightforward but equally enlightening task, why not take any two radically different versions of the plates for any of the songs of I and E (you can find these at http://www.blakearchive.org/exist/blake/archive/work.xq?workid=songsie&java=yes) and discuss the ways in which these differences influence your understanding of any part of the poem they are related to......
OzLiteans: Draft a short letter to Alexis Wright and tell her how her novel Plains of Promise has helped you to see the Aboriginal situation with new eyes. Tell her exactly, as a friend, what you have liked and what you have not liked about the way she has presented her narrative.
Based on your insights into Indigenous Art and Literature over the last two weeks write a paragraph which reflects on what you have discovered: what do you now know that you did not know before? Have you been surprised by the creativity you have touched -if only briefly.....
MG |
HI all- this has been a busy week for us all. Now how to bring real focus into your experience of literature this week. For Blakeans I believe it is time for you to write a short piece on Blake's sexual radicalism. Do you think he is still challenging in today's society? Or perhaps you might like to take one of his deep psychological poems (like "The Poison Tree") which was discussed in the film and create your own version of such a situation in poetry. Why not give it a try? Nothing to lose!
This, by the way, is Blake's self-portrait of himself as a laughing demon!
And my Australian Literature crew- I think it is time for you all to digest some of those powerful and confronting ideas that were presented in the plays we saw last week. Try writing in the voice of one of the characters that you felt you disliked most. Can you taste something of their personality in your own voice. Why not give this a try. It can be a wonderful way of discovering your own hidden thoughts about a subject.
And please remember in your Literature Journal you are at liberty to write or create whatever you wish as long as it has some tangential relation to the work we are doing in the literature unit. And please start making your WordPress Blog a thing of beauty. Try importing images and video clips... experiment to make your Literature Journal something that you will be really proud of at the end of the unit. And remember you will be able to export this Journal into WordPress.com and/or LiveJournal once the unit is finished.
MG |
| » Vale John Van Gulik |
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It is with great sadness that I have to write of John Van Gulik's passing. He was a brilliant, gifted student with great insight and enthusiasm for the things that really mattered in literature. He had a tough life but he brought his hard-won insights to every class that he participated in. I/we will miss him greatly. In the last week before his death I was working with him on his last essay. Last semester he had acted the part of Shakespeare's Caliban in a group performance of "The Tempest" and brought Caliban to life on the stage in an incredibly original way. He seemed to KNOW the character of Caliban from the inside. You will recognize him in this amazing blue garb, striding at the centre of this collage and in the bottom right, being persuaded by Trinculo and Stephano to join their plot against Prospero.
During John's last week I was working with him on an essay on Shakespeare's "The Tempest". This was the last assignment that he needed to complete in order to pass the unit on Shakespeare. His marks so far had been of a High Distinction level and his essay was also promising to be a High Distiniction. I am sure John most keenly appreciated the key lines in "The Tempest" where the central character Prospero reflects on the fleeting but precious nature of existence itself, mirrored in the life of the actor on stage:
Be cheerful, sir.
Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air;
And like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud -capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve;
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
But I think John would be best remembered -and would love to be remembered- by the lines in the "Epilogue" to the Tempest -often seen as Shakespeare's own farewell to the theatre- in which the character Prospero asks the audience to clap their hands in order to fill the sails of the ship that he, Prospero, plans to sail back home to Naples
Now my charms are all o'erthrown
And what strength I have's mine own,
Which is most faint. Now 'tis true
I must be here, confined by you
Or sent to Naples. Let me not,
Since I have my dukedom got,
And pardoned the deceiver, dwell
In this bare island by your spell
But release me from my bands
With the help of your good hands.
Gentle breath of yours my sails
Must fill, or else my project fails,
Which was to please.
John pleased so many of us, and his contributions to our classes and our lives will be sorely missed
MG
Aug. 27th, 2009 @ 04:13 pm
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| » Blogging Suggestions for Week of 17th August |
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Blakeans:
Write a letter to Samuel Palmer commending him for his insight into Blake but also asking him two other questions about Blake that you would really like to know.
Respond to someone’s letter in the Blake group, pretending that you are Palmer and offering answers to the questions you have received.
Write an entry for a new Blake Dictionary on the relationship between “eye”, “sight” and “vision” as you found it expressed in the letters read this week.
Imagine you have visited Blake in his rooms towards the end of his life. Describe what you see and how you find Mr and Mrs Blake.
Oz- eans:
Write reviews of either the gallery visit or the theatre visit or both for this week’s entry.
Aug. 19th, 2009 @ 12:46 pm
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| » Art Gallery Visit 2009 |
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Fabulous visit to the Art Gallery of NSW yesterday exploring links between Australian painting and Australian Literature. The tour started down in the aboriginal exhibition "The Dreamers" where the focus was on Ronnie Tjampitjnpa, especially his “Tingari Story at Walungura” 1981. He was one of a number of artists who went to settle at Papunya which became an artistic centre for Aboriginal artist keen to restore artistic connections with their land. See http://www.papunyatula.com.au/
Ronnies’s art pushes his painting techniques to an ever increasing use of optical effects to create a kind of visionary art that opens up new, mystical relationships to the landscape.
We then explored Ginger Riley: another Aboriginal artist in this group of “Dreamers”- an artist who followed in the footsteps of Albert Namatjira. Riley uses his art to forge reconnections with his mother landscape…
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/09/02/1030953437224.html
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25781439-16947,00.html
Systematically the tour then went through Margart Preston, Russell Drysdale, James Gleeson, Sidney Nolan and Arthur Boyd, finishing off with glimpses of the early and late 19th Century. Full details of this tour have been posted in Blackboard.
MG
Aug. 19th, 2009 @ 11:59 am
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| » J.K. Rowling's Favourite poem |
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I was intrigued to discover that this deeply reflective poem by Walt Whitman- from his "Leaves of Grass" was/is Rowling's favourite poem:
Of the terrible doubt of appearances,
Of the uncertainty after all—that we may be deluded,
That may-be reliance and hope are but speculations after all,
That may-be identity beyond the grave is a beautiful fable only,
May-be the things I perceive—the animals, plants, men, hills, shining and flowing waters, 5
The skies of day and night—colors, densities, forms—May-be these are, (as doubtless they are,) only apparitions, and the real something has yet to be known;
(How often they dart out of themselves, as if to confound me and mock me!
How often I think neither I know, nor any man knows, aught of them;)
May-be seeming to me what they are, (as doubtless they indeed but seem,) as from my
present point of view—And might prove, (as of course they would,) naught of what they appear, or naught any how, from entirely changed points of view;
—To me, these, and the like of these, are curiously answer’d by my lovers, my dear friends; 10
When he whom I love travels with me, or sits a long while holding me by the hand,
When the subtle air, the impalpable, the sense that words and reason hold not, surround us and pervade us,
Then I am charged with untold and untellable wisdom—I am silent—I require nothing further,
I cannot answer the question of appearances, or that of identity beyond the grave;
But I walk or sit indifferent—I am satisfied, 15
He ahold of my hand has completely satisfied me.
Aug. 15th, 2009 @ 04:41 pm
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| » STOP PRESS- The Effectiveness of LiveJournal in the ClassRoom |
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Former ACU Student Justine Zarebski has given a lecture to ACU Third Year Students sharing with them the challenges of her current teaching, but also the creative power that was given her by being introduced to LiveJournal while a student at ACU. Here is the Article in ACU Update:
http://www.acu.edu.au/191426
And here is a link to two of her success stories with using LiveJournal as an effective blogging tool in her classrooms:
http://9b2-2009.livejournal.com/
http://english-year10.livejournal.com/
Aug. 13th, 2009 @ 07:26 pm
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| » Teaching Week 3 |
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William Blake and Henry Lawson! What an amazing feast to have these two radically different authors on my teaching diet this week. Lawson so earthed, so in touch with the immediate feelings and aspirations of his bedevilled Australian characters, Blake so in touch with the cosmic import with the contrary living forces around him, for example the tyger and the lamb. Yet both authors produce in me a sense of the creative human spirit engaging with what really matters in human existence. Lawson in "Brighten's Sister in Law" captures powerfully the fears, doubts and desperate hopes of a young man facing the imminent death of his own child and then uncovers this amazing strength in the woman who saves both the child and the parents from their own fears and dysfunction. Lawson's compassion into others allowed him to detect human sources of strength that we all need to survive in a complex world. And Blake challenges us to understand much more deeply the nature of the contrary forces in and around us: how are all these things a necessary part of the universe we inhabit and that inhabits us. We had some excellent discussions about the way "The Lamb" in Songs of Innocence and "The Tyger" in Songs of Experience were in fact complementary views of the world and of human nature itself.
Here are some suggestions for Creative and Critical Work for both Henry Lawson and William Blake.
Henry Lawson:
In “Middleton’s Rouseabout“ Lawson characterizes what for him is a typical Aussie. Can you write a short sketch -either as a poem or as short descriptive paragraph- that captures your sense of the the typical contemporary Aussie?Incidentally did you know that a Rouseabout could also be female:
Check out this prizewinning book at http://www.penguin.com.au/lookinside/spotlight.cfm?SBN=9780143007890
In ”Brighten’s Sister in Law“ Lawson captures the fear and terror faced by a father in the face of the imminent death of his only child. Try to capture in your own words an experience which has produced a similar state of fear and terror. Write a short appraisal of what it is about Lawson’s writing that still makes him relevant to readers in the 21st century. Imagine you are writing this appraisal for a popular journal in which you are trying to encourage readers to read Lawson. Which of Lawson’s writings did you most enjoy and why?
William Blake
We discussed the ways in which “Home is where the heART is” reflects the continuing application of Blake’s ideas in the contemporary world. Do you have any examples of where Blake’s ideas are either relevant to your own life or to aspects of society that you see around you? The prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament foresees a time when “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.( Isaiah 11: 6). The lion and the lamb are also brought together in the New Testament in Revelations 5:5-6 (and elsewhere) Much ink has been spilt over the relationship between lion and lamb - these two opposite forces- in the Bible. What does Blake make of the relationship of these two forces? Are they diametrically opposed to each other? Are they the necessary two sides of a complex creation? What were some of the thoughts these two poems inspired in you? Write a poem or a short prose piece in which you present stark opposites.
Aug. 13th, 2009 @ 06:35 pm
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| » Former Student Turned Poet |
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Young Jang who completed Literature at ACU a few years ago now is still a very active on-line poet, writing in both LiveJournal http://youngjang.livejournal.com/ AND in WordPress http://youngjoon.wordpress.com. It is well worth checking out his poetry: he has come a huge distance since finishing uni and seems to write something almost every day.
MG
http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/85420229/6243147
Aug. 6th, 2009 @ 09:38 pm
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| » Happy Birthday |
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Let's hope you can really study welll this semester and make a good meal of Mr Blake....many happy returns for your B'day! MG
Aug. 6th, 2009 @ 09:27 pm
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| » The beginning of Multi-Blogging |
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I am experimenting with a number of Blogging options, one here suggested by one of the wise bloggers in our community: post to LiveJournal then import to ACU WordPressMU (as well as to WordPress.com)... an interesting palette of purple possibilities opening up here....
Aug. 5th, 2009 @ 09:30 pm
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| » Entry Suggestions for Writing |
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William Blake and Associates
Critical and/or Creative
Describe an experience that you have had that picks up some of the miraculous quality that Ginsberg describes in his essay on Blake.
or
Imagine an experience that a character (in your next novel) might have that mirrors something of the quality that Malouf is able to present in his depictions of Jock and Janet McIvor.
Chose one of the poems that we have examined this week in lectures or tuts and write a short response to it, seeing if you can fathom some of the depths that Ginsberg seems to be capable of. Begin by pondering on all the connotations in Blake’s words and images.
Write a short journal entry beginning:
Why I think Blake will be important in my life……
OZ Lit
Creative Topics
Describe an Australian landscape that you are familiar with. Describe it in as much detail and with as much feeling as you can. Afterwards comment on your description (this is not essential): what does your description show you about yourself, about your inclinations?
Use either poetry or prose as the genre of your description.
Lawson loved writing zany, comic sketches of life in the bush, often aiming at the authorities who were doing nothing to help those living there. Following Henry Lawson, can you write a comic sketch of life in the suburbs pointing out the iniquities and inequities of contemporary life. Critical Topics
Does the description of the Drover’s Wife have any relevance to the lives of women in Australia today?
Write a brief interpretative commentary on a painting by Margaret Preston depicting Aboriginals.
Aug. 5th, 2009 @ 12:50 am
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