Nessie School of Languages

ABOUT THE WRITER

    Despite living in the Olympic city of
Sidney for quite a few years, successful veteran writer David Malouf[1]  comes from Brisbane, Queensland, where he was
born 70 years ago. His father?s family had a Lebanese origin, while his
mother?s came from the United Kingdom. After graduating at the University of
Queensland, where he also spent two years teaching, he decided to move to Great
Britain, where he lectured in London and Birkenhead, and was schoolmaster of
St. Anselm?s College in Cheshire. He also lived in Tuscany, Italy, until 1985,
where he became a professional writer. Back in his country, he taught English
at the University of Sidney and devoted to writing. After so many years of
intensive erudite work, he is considered to be one of the finest present
Australian writers, and he has won a lot of prestigious literary awards[2] worldwide.

    He has published a large number of novels,
which include Johnno (1975), An Imaginary Life (1978), The Child?s play (1981), Harland?s Half Acre
(1985), Antipodes (1985), Fly away Peter
(1982), The Great World, which won the ?Commonwealth Writer?s Prize? and the
French ?Prix Fémina Etranger? in
1991, the Conversations at Curlow Creek
(1996) and Dream Stuff (2000). One of
his best novels, Remembering Babylon,
was shortlisted for 1993 ?Booker Price?
and won the inaugural ?IMPAC Dublin
Literary Award? in 1996. His vast literary career also covers the
publishing of non-fiction, three opera libretti,
some dramas, short stories, and his autobiography, 12 Edmonstyone Street (1985). A special mention deserves his vast
lyrical work, as he is well-known as a poet after bringing out seven poetry
books[3], and an anthology of
Australian verse, Gesture of a Hand
(1975), which would definitely be worthy of a more careful comment in another
kind of university assignment.

    In spite of receiving ?The Age Book of the Year Award? in 1982, Fly away Peter is not one of his most praised works. Some
reviewers do point out, though, that the writer tried to show in this novel[4] that English in
the distant Australian land was experiencing a process of self-definition, and
even redefinition of the self, in its individual and social aspects. We believe
that Malouf is urgently asking for a new Australian voice, which has a lot to
say, as far as both the world affairs and the literary tradition of the common
language are concerned.

BRIEF INTRODUCTORY COMMENT

    Fly away
Peter is a beautifully written short story, which mainly tries to set in
opposition the idyllic setting of a bird sanctuary  on the Queensland coast with the hatred and
consternation that brought about the First World War. David Malouf wrote a
wonderful piece of literature, which introduces a great deal of issues that
easily capture the readers? attention: the horror of the bloody human battles,
the love of nature, the importance and value of friendship, and the necessary
combination of people?s past and future in order to find their own self. This
novel  is specially concerned with life
and the peaceful coexistence of human beings and animals so as to avoid chaos.
Another of the main themes the novel also covers is  the controversial dispute between Australian
patriotism and its relationship with the former colonial power, Great Britain.
As far as patriotism is concerned, Malouf draws a very negative view, as he
wants to show its ominous consequences on people?s lives, as it can lead them
to kill other humans just because of its race, nationality or beliefs. We do
find a collision of worlds, which takes us from peaceful rural Australia to
bloody Europe. The writer wants to portray the transformation of the
characters, depending on their particular settings. He creates an idyllic
world, where nature is the real centre, which is destroyed by the implacable
decision of some country rulers  to take
part in a distant war, which had nothing to do with the necessities and ideals
of the Australian people.

    Malouf is willing to play with language all
the time, in order to give life to a rich plot full of opposites, so that he
can contrast people?s feelings and their personal attitudes to life. The
readers are supposed to understand and learn from the fight between these
diametrically opposed ideals, behaviours, situations and circumstances: Freedom
vs determination, peace vs war, nature vs devastation; settlement vs migration,
and time present vs time past.

    Some reviewers[5] point out that
Malouf?s main aim is to make the readers wonder what life is all about. That?s
why he takes the characters into a mysterious journey that will get rid of
their innocence to welcome experience, all in a sudden. We understand the
themes of the novel through the growth of the characters? personality. In this
way, we should learn from the humanist philosophy that teaches us that the
person is unique and life is very precious. Even though the human existence
seems to be influenced by destiny, a mysterious power that is strong enough to
command our movements and feelings, and lets them be beyond control. At this
point, human identity becomes definitely vital, and the fact that the novel
includes men from different social classes and the controversial way they fall
into the war, questions terribly the real meaning of life. But after letting us
experience the negative sides of the war between nations, Malouf prefers to end
the story  with a bit of hope: the future
may be better.

    Just to finish with this short introductory
comment, which has allowed me to introduce diverse significant ideas and
matters, I need to say I?ve read carefully several interviews and dialogues
David Malouf has given to some literary magazines, through which we can
understand much better most of the principles that have led him to write his
already impressive literary work, including obviously the novel we are
analyzing now. I have chosen the following paragraph[6], which can be
found in one of those instructive interviews previously mentioned (the
interviewer of the one we are referring to was journalist Ramona Koval),  as it shows the writer?s motivation in
establishing a clear conception of past, present and future, which will
unquestionably help the Australian people to finally find their own identity.
The questioning of time is highly present in Fly away Peter.

    We
want to believe that the past is not obliterated, that the past is not erased,
that somehow it?s inside the present and in us. and you know I?ve always
thought one of the things you learn in a place like Australia, which doesn?t
have – for us anyway – a long visible history, is that you can really imagine
as much of the future as you can fully imagine of the past. And one of the
things that has changed utterly, say, in this country, in the way we do things,
is we do now think, ?What will happen 200 years from now? Because we have become
at last aware of what a long time 200 years of the past is. And I think that
since we have a way of positioning ourselves, positioning the present as
something that fully contains the past or as much of it as you can drag up and
make real, imagine, be aware of; but that also contains the future. I think
that is something you come to as you get older.

CHOSEN ISSUE:

JIM?S STEPS IN LIFE

             We shall start by
stating again that David Malouf?s Fly
away Peter is  a novel that  is basically trying to teach the readers a
very important lesson: life is truly priceless. Even though our existence
appears to be in many ways extremely similar to an exhausting ?hurdles run?
race, since we have got to jump over a large number of obstacles in order to be
happy and feel our most intimate wishes fulfilled. Moreover, social
relationships too easily become a rather outstanding part of ourselves. Thus,
we must keep in mind all the time that we are social creatures, who don?t live
alone in this world, and we aren?t always allowed to enjoy the kind of life we
would like. We do belong then to the society we live in, which undoubtedly
controls our movements and shapes our personalities. The community  has the power to enslave all of us, as we
have to live according to some disturbing rules. Furthermore, some
controversial political decisions can totally ruin our lives.

             This is certainly
what happened to Jim Sadler, the main protagonist of the story. The author drew
a complete journey through Jim?s life, which will make us understand his
personality and, above all,  think deeply
about mankind and its paradoxical role on this planet. The readers soon learn
that he has been able to create an ideal world, in which he experiences a total
isolation, that  allows him to grow as a
person, and consequently fills him with all sorts of positive feelings. He is
the one who gets to know the real meaning of happiness, which he  can uniquely achieve  in the simplest way: through his narrow
relationship with birds of all kinds and green nature. He highly appreciates
the role of every single bird, as they are free creatures who enjoy their
environment as they don?t have to keep to any rule. This private world of his
keeps him utterly away from any of the external conflicts. Even though it was
not a locked door with no key. All in a sudden, he realizes he has neither a
close friend nor anybody to truly rely on. This shocking discovery will force a
quick opening to the real frightening world, which is full of difficulties
rather unknown to him so far.

             Thus, a new
challenge appears before him, as quick as lightning, which will make him start
a new race that is not going to be easy for him at all: to establish a bridge
of communication  with other young
people. His naive relationship with Ashley and Imogen is based on their mutual
passion for nature. It is the only way we can understand it, as they come from
different social classes. We, the readers, can appreciate at once this strong
link, which makes them feel really special. They learn to love one to another,
because they have found out that they have got the same sensations and, as a
result, feel mutually understood. The following paragraph[7] is just one of the
large number of examples we can find in the novel about Jim?s fascination for
the natural life. Actually, birds become good teachers for him, as they are
intelligent enough to know all their steps at the precise time, as they never
mistake their way.

             He was watching a sandpiper in a patch of
marshy bank, one of the little wood sandpipers that appear each summer and
come, most of them, from Northern Asia or Scandinavia, nesting away at the top
of the world on the tundras or in the Norwegian snows and making their long way
south. It amazed him this. That he could be watching, on a warm day in
November, with the sun scorching his back, the earth pricking below and the whole landscape dazzling and shrilling, a
creature that only weeks ago had been on the other side of the earth and had
found its way here across all the cities of Asia, across lakes, deserts,
valleys between high mountain ranges, across oceans without a single guiding
mark, to light on just this bank and enter the round frame of his binoculars.

             It goes without
saying, that the bird sanctuary becomes a sacred place for the three of them.
Bird-watching allows them to get a very special state of mind, as they were
badly looking for quietness and beauty. Ashley, Imogen and Jim already belong
to one to another, but there are other characters which will help Jim to grow
as a person, as the following worth reading 
review[8] remarks:

             Ashley and Imogen are certainly significant
factors in Jim?s journey. They play a part in his final understanding and
affirmation of self. However they are not the sole deciding factors. He also learns from the criticism of his
father and the bullying of Wizzer. In his father, Jim sees a possible mirror
that could well reflect what Jim will become if he doesn?t hold him ?at arm?s
length? to keep from being ?infected?. Through Wizzer, Jim becomes aware of his
own capacity for black anger. Wizzer is significant because of what he reveals
to Jim of his own character. The confrontation bring out another side to Jim.
Wizzer is in fact doing him a favour in terms of personal growth, but Jim
doesn?t like what he sees.

             At this point, we
should get in touch again with opposites. This time we are forced to analyze
both sides of the same coin: on the one hand, his relationship with people who
understand him; and on the other, the ones who misunderstand his behaviour and
feelings. Jim has to learn from hard criticism, too. Life is not so blue, and
there are a lot of dark shadows over his head. I am sure, Jim himself would
enjoy reading these last poetic sentences. Criticism against poetry bursts out
as a new fight in his private thrilling world. He no longer lives alone. He has
already experienced rejection and affection. He has to learn to grow on his
own, as his life is worth by itself not just as a result of his contact with
friends and relatives. The former reviewer also mentions that a new and crucial
journey is going to take place in his life, this time on a personal level:

             A realisation of his core being and a coming
to terms with his place in the world. It is no one else?s decision that Jim
would go to war, this was not influenced by his father or anyone else. Rather,
Jim acknowledges the need to extend his knowledge of life in the face of the
inevitable changes war will bring. Jim felt he had to go to war, ?otherwise he
would never understand… why his life and everything he had known were so
changed… and nobody would be able to tell him?. This self-admission that his
quest for understanding was entirely up to him stands in contrast to the belief
that his understanding of self was achieved solely by his contact with others.

             At the end of the
story, after so many changes and sufferings, Jim becomes a completely new man.
He has had all kind of experiences, all of which have helped him to fulfil his
long journey in search of his own self. He already knows what reality is like,
and seems to know perfectly what his place in the society is. Jim?s own
meditations will give a new meaning to his life. However, unfortunately, it is
too late for him. Human cruelty has got rid of him. Malouf himself admits[9] that he is very
interested in endings, and he always knows what the ending will be. He has
built this time, as he is said to have done in many other novels[10], a mythic figure,
who is going to experience all kind of contradictions, and who is going to keep
completely the readers? attention. We shall read his own words:

             I like very much, for example, to begin with
characters who look like stereotypes, and then slowly, as the novel goes on,
complicate those characters or make them so contradictory that not only do they
escape from the stereotype they appear to be in but they question altogether
whether the notion of stereotype has any existence except in the way in which
we read or misread or lazily misread what is there. In the same kind of way I
do quite like setting up expectations which are not going to be fulfilled.

5

MY OWN VIEW

    Fly
away Peter is the first novel I have read by an Australian writer, even
though it has been the second time I have got in touch with an  author from this distant country. The first
time was Robert Hughes, who published a very interesting book about the people,
history, language, traditions, leisure and political institutions of the city
of Barcelona. Although in the last decades there have been a great deal of
prestigious reviewers and intellectuals who have taken an interest in
Australian Literature, most of these writers are still quite unknown in
Catalonia, as not many of their novels have been translated into our language,
and the original versions in English are difficult to find, too. What?s more,
the name of David Malouf, despite being considered one of the best modern
Australian writers and being highly awarded, has not been included in the Britannica (Encyclopaedia), as neither
have other important ossie novelists
such as Peter Carey, Ned Kelly or David Foster. This is definitely shocking to
us, as the English language is their literary tool. Besides, nowadays there are
quite a few thinkers, writers and poets from different former British colonies,
or even others who were born in the British Isles but with colonial family
roots, who are said to have a strong influence on most British and American
authors.

    I must say, it?s been really curious and
appealing to read the vision of the war given by an Australian writer. It is
always interesting to know how a conflict like this affects a whole country and
its people, and analyzing the different attitudes to cope with it. The writer
makes us wonder about the meaning of delicate themes such as patriotism,
friendship, nature, ideals and human passions, all of which have a lot to do
with life itself. He introduces so many matters to build a vivid story, where lots
of things happen. He definitely uses  a
dynamic style, which allows him to show the readers that  through the love of nature the protagonists
can learn easily the meaning of friendship, and when the world politics go
wrong, they cruelly realize how their idyllic 
world is completely destroyed just for the lack of understanding and
love. Their vision of the world totally collapses, as they experience the
horror of life and the disappearance of beauty.

    When I finish reading a novel I have liked,
I always promise myself I have got to read other books by the same author. One
of the reasons is that I appreciate a lot the writer?s work and I feel
interested in his style and specially in his literary career, as I love
analyzing the complete works of a good literary person. Unfortunately, most
times, once I get in touch with another book, I forget too easily my previous
wish. I can?t say whether I will do the same this time, too. But I?m really
interested in David Malouf?s literary career, and absolutely I?ll keep an eye
to the reviews of his novels and essays. I would also love to know his poetry
properly, which is said to be both original and didactic. And  it goes without saying, that I hope good
Australian writers will be highly appreciated in the future, as they are a very
important part of the wide heritage of the English language and common culture.

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