Kangaroo

I've just finished <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/72957.Accidental_Death_of_an_Anarchist" title="Accidental Death of an Anarchist by Dario Fo" rel="noopener">Accidental Death of an Anarchist</a> and this book goes well with it. Political, socialist or anarchist, not sure yet. I have generally identified myself as a socio-anarchist, so I quite enjoy books exploring aspects of this political philosophy.<br /><br />Exchange between two men, one an Australian, one, who is probably the author himself, English:<br /><br />"We won't be having women in if we can help it. I don't believe in it, do you?"<br /><br />"No, not in real politics, no."<br /><br />****<br /><br />I got the wrong end of the stick with the book. So this is a rant. It's nothing to do with anarchism of any variety, more to do with the glory of a dictatorship as the ideal form of government for the White man. Or at least that's the bit I'm up to. Maybe I've still got the wrong end of the stick!<br /><br />in the rag the Dailymail.co.uk there was a report on Tahrir Square in Egypt, where barricades had to be formed between lines the of men protesting and the women who also wanted to protest because the men were beating up the women, for up to 45 minutes at a time and 91 got raped in two days. The comments, the negative ones are almost all, the women knew what to expect with all the men there. The women should stay at home. The women know that this is men's business.<br /><br />Under Sadaat, the women went to universities, wore make-up and any outfits they fancied, as did Sadaat's wife. Under Mubaarak, the same, except for the growing influence of Islamic Fundamentalism. Under Morsi, things grew much worse for them, women were beaten when appearing in public places, raped in prisons when they were arrested for no good reason, subjected to 'virginity' tests when they accused men of rape (a woman who is not a virgin cannot be raped apparently). Things are going to get worse there, they want to see Iran in Egypt or Afghanistan. And all of this we condemn.<br /><br />But do we condemn it when a 'perfectly reasonable' bloke, an Australian guy spouts the same philosophy? <br /><br />That guy's philosophy is behind all the media's discussion of the events in most of the world. That politics and running countries is a man's game and it is men that matter. Women? Women's rights? Uh, what has that got to do with insurrection, independence or anything? Luxuries of the first world is what they are. And that is where they will remain if people just always think of things from the men's side. Luckily in Tahrir Square there were some right-thinking men who formed a long barricade, put space between the men who would rape and beat the women for being there. But there weren't enough for 91 of them. And one of them was raped with a 'long, sharp metal implement' as other men watched this 'punishment' for being out of the house where she didn't belong.<br /><br />Ask yourself this about Afghanistan. What will happen to the women and girls when all the troops go home? <br /><br />That was a rant and a half wasn't it? ;-)<br /><br /><i>I corrected some stuff on this and did not check 'add to my update feed' but it seems it still went. Sorry for that, that's GR for you.</i>

Believe it or not, with all the thousands of books that I have read in my life so far, I had never read a book by D. H. Lawrence. Until now. And unfortunately, I didn't make a very good choice in which novel of his to read first. <br /><br />In fact, it's hardly really a novel at all, as there is almost no plot whatsoever. The book mainly consists of philosophical musings, which to be perfectly honest, I found quite boring, for the most part. <br /><br />What little plot there is, concerns the two main characters, Richard and Harriet Somers, who according to the blurb on the dust jacket, are a thinly disguised D.H Lawrence himself, and his wife Freida. The book is called Kangaroo, not merely because the book is set in Australia and kangaroos are found there, but because Somers meets a man there, who is the leader of a group of would be revolutionaries, and he is known as Kangaroo because he apparently resembles one. A large part of the book consists of this Kangaroo fellow, and his minions, trying to convince Somers to join his band of rebels.<br /><br />Unfortunately, this is about all the action, if you can call it that, that takes place in the book at all. I will admit that the writing is very good. Lawrence's descriptive writing is beautiful, and his sentences describing the landscape, plants and the sea are sublime. This however was not enough to hold my interest and I must admit I actually skimmed the last 80 pages or so. So although this was a fairly major disappointment, I will try another of Lawrence's novels at some point in the future. I'm just not sure which one to try next.

Lawrence's most ideological and political novel, I found this hard going in places, but ultimately rewarding. There are stunning passages describing the Australian landscape and Lawrence explores aspects of the Australian psyche very well - quite an achievement given that he lived in Australia for less than six months.

<b>Senryu Review:</b><br /><br />DHL parcels<br />antipodean anguish<br />in plump pained prosebox<br /><br /><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3597157430" rel="nofollow noopener">D.H. Lawrence RANKED</a>

A strange book that seems to be bits of different writing sewn together with the seams still exposed. <br />Beautiful lyrical writing about the Australian bush, just gorgeous and he does seem to get this country. I came back from the NSW south coast, where much of the book is set. His descriptions of this place are perfect down to the stickiness of the seawater.<br />When Lawrence describes human interactions, he gets them very right. The descriptions of the different types of male silences are very, very good. The ups and down of a domestic relationship are also well done.<br />The book comes apart when he tries to integrate the personal with the political. The current feeling is that Lawrence did stumble upon a proto-fascist movement in Sydney in the 1920s. There is some element of reality being bent into shape by a supremely talented modernist author with romanticist leanings. The irrational politics of fascism could be a fertile field for such an author. And how Lawrence tries, but he does not have the tools. He has an intuitive understanding of the subconscious, but he can't entirely use this to comprehend the phenomenon of fascism. There was/is an appeal to the darker urges of the human psyche with the politics of fascism which Lawrence gropes toward but please do not read this book as an explanation of the Australian right between the wars. He just does not quite get it. <br />He gets into long and involved internal discussions of the nature of love and whether that is enough for politics. This is by far the worst part of the book. It is long and meandering and frankly makes little sense on any level. <br />This groping for understanding that is far from complete is on some levels reflected in the ambivalent character of Richard Lovat Somers. He has the ambivalence of Hamlet. He can almost make a choice, but it is always just out of his grasp because of some newly constructed reason.

Kangaroo is D H Lawrence’s love poem to a strangely beautiful land-Australia. The sense of place he creates is so rich and so deep, you could almost be there among the crystal blue skies, smelling golden wattle deep in the bush, or hear his glassy seas roar against the wild, rocky shores. Weird as this may sound, I have a strange feeling of having experienced Australia (along with a few other countries) in a past life, and this book reinforces it.<br /><br />I picked Kangaroo up on a whim, having heard the title alluded to in a Bukowski short story. It’s a semi-autobiographical account of a man who leaves behind the claustrophobic paranoia of post-war Europe in search of freedom. However the political ghost from his past stalks him in the form of Kangaroo, the leader of a militant/fascist organization. <br /><br />Although suffering from descriptive repetitiveness at times (the book was poorly edited, among other flaws such as the whiny, irritatingly capricious lead character Somers), the book is worth it alone for the chapter Nightmare, which takes us back to his tempestuous time in Cornwall, to which he lends a ghostly beauty. <br /><br />Worth a read if you’re looking for something slow, thoughtful, deep, evocative and philosophical. <br />

As with <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/459082.The_Plumed_Serpent" title="The Plumed Serpent by D.H. Lawrence" rel="noopener">The Plumed Serpent</a> ... the challenge with DH Lawrence is that there's a lot about honesty, frankness ... lots about the nature of being a man and the fundamentals of men relating to each other ... but we never, ever talk about homosexuality. It literally doesn't exist. And if it <i>isn't</i> gay, the modern reader needs to <i>know</i> it isn't gay. Otherwise, we spend the whole time going "Oh. Gay."<br /><br />"And he wanted to know him, to talk to him. He wanted to get to the bottom of him." <br /><br />"Yet Jack did want to get at him, somehow or other."<br /><br />"But Somers was mistaken. He didn't understand Jack's way of leaving seven-tenths of himself out of any intercourse."<br /><br />"'Your instinct brought you here - and brought you straight up against me.'"<br /><br />"Somers gave him his hand, and Jack clasped it fast, drawing the smaller man to him and putting his arm round his shoulder and holding him near to him. It was a tense moment for Richard Lovat."<br /><br />"He knew that her greatest grief was when he turned away from their personal human life of intimacy to the impersonal business of male activity for which he was always craving."<br /><br />"He had all his life had this craving for an absolute friend."<br /><br />"The perfect love that men may have for one another, passing the love of women."<br /><br />The chapter on Cornwall ... "The Nightmare" ... was very interesting. And I liked learning a bit about "counting out". The Prince of Wales (Edwards VIII) was "counted out" by Australian troops in Egypt?<br /><br />Bits:<br />"Verbal agreement and silent opposition is perhaps the best weapon on such occasions."<br /><br />"'somebody will have to water Australia with their blood before it's a real man's country. The soil, the very plants seem to be waiting for it.'"<br /><br />"'and the Japs come down this way. They'd squash us like a soft pear.'"<br /><br />"But if the thing had really happened, it could hardly have happened to him more than in this dream."<br /><br />"'Cripes, there's <i>nothing</i> bucks you up sometimes like killing a man - <i>nothing</i>. You feel a perfect <i>angel</i> after it. ... Having a woman's something, isn't it? But it's a flea-bite, nothing, compared to killing your man when your blood comes up.'"<br /><br />"Love is perhaps an eternal part of life. But it is only a part."

This was a difficult book to read, as for the most part I didn't really like it. I found hardly any of the characters to be particularly appealing, the politics simplistic, and the frequent racist overtones quite disheartening from an author I admire so much.<br /><br />The book was saved for me (and largely contributing to its 3 stars) by the brilliant chapter entitled 'The Nightmare', based upon Lawrence's experiences during the First World War when he and his wife Frieda were continually harassed by the police and authorities after he had been declared unfit for active service. This actually struck me as the reason behind the writing of the book. He had turned his back on England, and during his travels had ended up in Australia, if only for a few weeks, but something must have struck him in order to write this novel. <br /><br />The politics in the book touch on the rights of the working class people (Lawrence's own background), and whether the writer character Richard Lovat Somers should give his support to one of two political leaders, either the benevolent would-be dictator, Kangaroo, or the more socialist Willie Struthers. Set and written at a time that had recently witnessed the Russian Revolution, this would have been a key reference point to any thought about improving the lot of the working man (and less-so women, who are ignominiously set aside in the political geography of this book, as they were in the real world to a greater extent at the time). With Lawrence's recent experiences at home he may have seen Australia as a 'new' land of possibility, but it is the people in his book who prevent the possible from happening (Somers eventually rejects both of the leaders and indeed the country itself).<br /><br />Overall unsatisfying, but with moments of genius, and great style. Some have said it is essential reading to discover the real Australia, and the descriptive passages of the bush and nature are impressive, but Patrick White for both people and place, and Frank Moorhouse for people do it better for me.

This Lawrence book was written while he was "stuck" in Australia. The entire time he was on the continent he wavered between desparately wanting to leave and deciding it wasn't so bad and he would stay for awhile. He eventually decided he HAD to leave but had a month before a steamer would be leaving from Sydney.<br /><br />He wrote this book, largely about his experiences there with an attempt at adding a plot concerning a group of mainly ex-soldiers (WWWI) who want to change the government. They are lead by a man whose code name is Kangaroo. The group wants Lawrence (under the name of Somers) to join. He meets several times with Kangaroo and has extremely conflicting views of him and the group.<br /><br />Kangaroo was written in 6 weeks and never edited and it shows. The "plot" isn't really a plot, the characters seem to change unpredictably, and the main reason for writing the book appears to be Lawrence's angst and wish to be left alone by the world.<br /><br />If you are a dyed-in-the-wool D.H. Lawrence fan you should read this to get a full picture of his writings. However, if you've only ever read Lady Chatterly's lover and THINK you like Lawrence, don't bother.<br /><br />(An interesting aside: This edition was published by the Viking Press and on the back of the cover, it lists an entire page of books it has published by D.H. Lawrence. However, one is missing: Lady Chatterly's Lover.....)

This book purified a part of me and restored my faith in what it is to be human. Lawrence's honesty and artistic integrity made me realize how far the modern world wants us to travel from being human - what makes us valuable and vital.<br /><br />His words are so beautiful. Many of the chapters are deeply moving and full of personal experience and emotion. The book is also semi-autobiographical. This is Lawrence's greatest work. It is full of who he is and how he loves the human condition and yet struggles with mediocrity and the mass hatred of those who are on the outside.<br /><br />You can really begin to love the characters he encounters. They often grow to hate him but he always bears a place for them in his heart. Lawrence is indefatigable and brave. <br /><br />He never enlisted in the army for the 1st world war but you will know by reading this book - what a great warrior and artist this man was. And of course - Harriet. She is the hero of this book and Lawrence knows it. He makes way for her.<br /><br />Just by writing these words I feel myself being moved. This is a book I will always treasure. An experience I will never forget.<br />