The Acolyte
- Author: Thea Astley
- Title: The Acolyte
- Published: 1972
- Trivia: Winner Miles Franklin Award 1972
- List of Challenges 2018
- Monthly reading plan
- #AWW2018 @AusWomenWriters
Epigraph: (see photo above)
- Written by Harry Graham know for his Ruthless Rhymes
- full of black humor.
- Black humor is the humorous portrayal of incidents which should not be laughable.
- We find ourselves laughing, but quickly realize the horror that lies beneath
- …the seemingly amusing situation.
Introduction: (exposition)
- Setting: Grogbusters, Australia
- Timeline: 28 years
- Characters: …a hideous Greek chorus of yes-men (pg 7)
- This story is not a love triangle.…
- …lines that connect but never never never intersect.
- ..You have us, a trapezoid. (pg 88)
- Sisters born in Australia: Hilda and Ilse
- Hilda – Hilda wife of Holberg, retained only the
- cuckoo-clock vestiges of their fatherland. (pg 12)
- Hilda patiently bears his cruelty and indifference,
- …along with his frequent infidelities, and remains
- humble and servile, even to the
- …point of feigning blindness at times.
- Ilse – flax-coloured hair, fragility of bone, cottage cheese skin (pg 12)
- Jack Holberg – …sweated confidence (pg 25)
- …the beer-hall piano player turned
- …high priest of avant-garde serious music.
- “Men can shrivel women in a marriage.
- …I’ve watched Hilda shrivel” (pg 73)
- Paul Vespers – (narrator…and in love with Hilda)
- …non-achiever, no-hoper, failure,
- …parental slap in the face of gratitude. (pg 10)
- ..becomes “valet Vesper” for Holberg.
- Paul describes himself:
- Cyclops Vesper, the twelfth man
- (non-playing reserve in 11-player cricket side)
- a dog in his responses
- ….the gauche butler, harem pander, dusting maid. (pg 115)
- Paul is ‘The Acolyte” in the title
- …willingly giving up his own life, sacrificed for art and celebrity.
What is the first plot point? (act 1)
- “I’ve burnt my bridges” ( pg 67) – Paul makes a major decision.
- This is the point of no return.
- Paul has crossed his personal Rubicon.
- He will soon act in a way that cannot be undone.
- This decision to leave ‘the outside world’
- … drives the plot forward. (tension)
- Paul has no clear idea of what he’s really getting himself into.
Middle: (act 2) (religious allusions)
- Paul feels he is being punished for following Holberg.
- “Holberg is my cross and I’m nailed to him...” (pg 70)
- Paul adresses the reader: “Have you noticed as I have noticed
- …that since the taking of vows (7 yrs with Holberg) my
- …style has been bruised?” (pg 80)
- “This the beginning of the crack-up?” (pg 80)
What is the second plot point? (act 3….and resolution)
- Holberg is totally unconcerned about Paul’s feelings.
- Holberg is the kicker.
- He pushes, jabs, pokes and thumps Paul to a breaking point.
- Paul: major character change…reactive –> pro-active
- Holberg: what does he really want? (pg 117) (..no spoiler)
- Climax: Paul and Holberg clash. (pg 117-118) (no spoiler)
- Resolution: “It was the laugh that did it.” (pg 155)
- Holberg finally comes alive “cracking for the first time” (pg 157)
- He does not care about Paul…until valet Vesper gets in his way!
- Last words of Holberg: ” I’ll finish you Vesper!…Finish you for this.”
Theme:
- Blindness (disability)
- Irony: blindness is something worthy, characters long for it.
- Sense of sight
- Irony: gift of sight becomes burdensome.
- Paul says near the end of the book (reads Holberg’s journal in braille)
- …that he had to throw off his gift of sight to finally see
- …Jack Holberg for what he really is
- …and gain ultimate enlightenment!
Conclusion:
- Strong point: Astley leaves a trail of clues for the reader.
- “…an epiphany that brought me to a self-sense for the minute…”
- parable of trees (pg 22) (Judges 9: 8-15 …look it up!)
- Every character is either physically or metaphorically blind!
- Astley fills the novel with subtle references
- ” I buried my outrage in sherry.” (not wanting to see) pg 7
- Sadie (Holberg’s guardian)
- fakes blindness herself…
- “Sadie has sensibly turned her back on all of us.” (pg 119)
- Statues in garden
- “Their blind eyes stare at…fruit the will never touch”(pg 67)
- While you read the book…just notice who cleverly Astley does this!
- Strong point: Astley writes a roman à clef
- “…she vented her rage at ‘followers’ of all kinds
- …a critique of ‘followers’ of the literary critical establishment.”
- ref: Thea Astley: Inventing Her Own Weather by K. Lamb, pg 214)
- Pg 153: Holberg plays with a sling-shot Paul made:
- “What’s the purpose of it? Let me guess…Beleaguered by the
- public and the critics, we aim this pretty thing in our defense. Is that it?”
- Astley’s book represents the ‘sling-shot’.
- Pg 55: The wolf-pack will be on to me.
- Bite and snap till you’ve made it,
- …then fawn to the very end.”
- ….sounds like Thea Astley speaking!!
- Strong point: clever metaphors, allusions to music,
- …Catholic rituals and history, poetry.
- Half the fun is trying to find all
- …these ‘gems’ hidden in the text!
- Weak point: ch 3 and ch 7 where the story
- …begins to drag and feels stretched
- …but just keep on reading!
Personal favorites:
- pg 15: “Pulling on my clothes was like robing for tenebrae. There was a death somewhere and no communion” This is a brilliant allusion.
- Tenebrae is Latin for “darkness”. It is a religious service consisting of matins and lauds of the last three days of Holy Week. (Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday.
- Tone: ominous, gloom.
- pg 17: ” I was whacking away towards Canossa in an instant, putting genuine arms around her this time…..and sensing Hilda’s curious eyes!” (Paul seeking pardon from mother.)
- In January 1077 the Holy Roman emperor Henry IV did penance at the castle Canossa to obtain a pardon from his excommunication by Pope Gregory VII.
- Tone: funny
Last thoughts:
- I had to re-read chapter 1.
- I have missed so many clues.
- The first four paragraphs are in the far future.
- Don’t worry about Nielsen, music critic, in the first sentence…
- “true earthworm in the garden of art (pg 149)
- …he pops up in the last chapter.
- I tell you this so you won’t make the mistakes I made!
- Paul is older and his remarks reveal how he feels.
- “ I’d been in the habit of giving for years.
- …But my tongue was in clamps.”
- I have to finish The Acolyte today but it will be rough going.
- The book is intense every word packs a punch and
- …this takes a toll on my brain.
- It is an exhausting book….but also exhilarating.
- I see the craft in the writing and this comes
- ..from Astley’s depth of knowledge of syntax, poetry,
- literary devices (irony, anaphora, metaphor, homonym).
- Her Catholic heritage and love of music add the finishing touches.
- Astley uses latin phrases, catholic history ( “…wacking towards Canossa” pg 17)
- autos-da-fé (ritual of public penance of condemned heretics) pg 147.
- details of the catholic rituals (tenebrae) and many
- references to composers, (Dag Wiren) their works and the
- vocabulary of music (cadenza, allegro, triad, allegretto (pg 139).
- Astley’s story structure is nothing more or less than a
- ..recognition of how life works.
- She recreates it in a dramatic, satirical way on the page.
- It took Astley 3 years to write this book.
- It took me 4 days to read….158 pages!
- I was relieved, nobody died at the end.
- No headaches….tonight…just a feeling that I have
- …read great literature!
- #MustRead
Cover:
- This book is not available as an E-book
- so I had to order it from Australia.
- This is the cover I received from University Queensland Press
- …and is not available on Amazon.
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