Essays: Quicksilver N. Rothwell
- Author: N. Rothwell
- Title: Quicksilver (6 essays)
- Published: 2016
- Trivia: Awarded Prime Minister’s Literary Award Non-fiction 2017
- Trivia: Short List Multicultural NSW Award 2018
- List of Challenges 2018
- Monthly reading planning
- Lists of Awards
- #DealMeIn2018 Jay’s Bibliophilopolis
Australia: Essay nr 2: Quicksilver
- Theme: crossing the sacred line
- European colonization upset the balance of the Australian Aboriginals.
- Missionaries imposed their belief – colonial administrators imposed order.
- The title of the book Quicksilver represents the ancestral powers that were stirred.
- “…once the sacred, that quicksilver, has been put in play
- …you can never tell where it will go.”
Australia: Essay nr 4: The Mirror that Creates
- Theme: outsiders
- Rothwell sketches Australia’s foundation
- …its physical and mental development.
- It is often the European visitors – D.H. Lawrence or Bruce Chatwin
- …who are sensitive to the landscape.
- Australia served as a refuge for writers from Europe shattered by WW II.
- “Outside eyes determined what Australia…..was felt to be.”
Australia: Essay nr 5: What lies Beyond Us
- Theme: the landscape behind the landscape
- This was the most interesting essay in the book.
- I learned about landscape literature by Eric Rolls
- …his book (1981) won many prizes but it is impossible
- to find a copy of the book… A Million Wild Acres !
- I also I learned about the ionic Australian poet Les Murray.
- He celebrates country virtues in his poems and
- …has me baffled at times by the metre he uses.
- This is part of his uniqueness…. metre always matters.
- He has been tipped to win a Nobel Prize in the future!
Conclusion:
- My notes include just a few thoughts
- ….that impressed me in this book.
- I really enjoyed Nicolas Rothwell’s analysis
- …of culture and identity in this collection of essays.
- If there is a weak point
- ….it would be Rothwell’s ’round-about’ way of approaching
- …the central issue in his essay.
- It took a dosis of patience on my part
- …to keep reading when I thought:
- “What does this have to do with Australia?”
- But I persevered and enjoyed Rothwell’s thoughts.
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Sounds really interesting. I’ve marked this one as to read on goodreads. I really like the cover also. 🙂 Someday I will visit Australian & New Zealand. Definitely a bucket list must for me.
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I’ve been reading Australian authors for a few years with Brona’s Books #AusReadingMonth every November. A trip to Aussie – New Zealand is definitely on my bucket list…don’t forget to visit Tasmania!
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Yes, Tasmania too! You are probably aware that the Travelling Penguin blog (another Deal Me In participant!) is based there. 🙂
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I did not know that…I will look at Travelling Penguin’s blog!
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