Posts
Of all the writings of Patrick White, those I enjoy most are
about his journeys with Manoly Lascaris in Greece, as contained in the
autobiographical self-portrait “Flaws in the Glass” (1981).
I couldn't help chuckling while re-reading his two sections about some
of the Aegean islands. They are full of his extremely frank and forthright
perceptions, his occasionally cruel, provocative but wittily satirical observations:
“Difficult to remember in which order we visited the Greek
islands. I see them as a patchwork, or collage, or progressive disillusionment,
not only with Greece
“Who, among the Greeks, as time goes on, has not
collaborated with Germans?”
“In Greece
On Chios :
“In the evening as we sat on the quay, drinking ouzo or a
coffee….the bourgeoisie strolled up and down, island style, the ladies armed
with handbags, no doubt planning next season’s Athenian handbag and their
costume for the evening stroll”.
“Much of Chios looks
extinct. Apathy has settled where passions erupted in the past; blood flowed
without acting as a fertiliser”.
On Samos :
“The word ‘ennui’ might have been coined in connection with
the evening stroll in island ports and the provincial towns of mainland Greece
On Patmos :
“If it seemed probable that the Prophet Elias haunted his
chapel, nobody would climb the peak to find out. On the saint’s feast day a
priest was reputed to pay his respects, but from what I had seen of Orthodox
priests, I doubted”.
They thought seriously
about buying a house on Patmos (pages 181-182):
“The house was too large by practical standards, but ideal
for one who likes to walk from room to room while stuck for a word”.
“It was a relief when our dream of Patmos
petered out finally. If we had forced our fantasies as far as actuality,
schizophrenia and bankruptcy would have got us as we jetted between the
hemispheres”.
“I don’t remember coming across either a lesbian or a bugger
during our stay in the flat, characterless town of Mytilene
“Molyvos, a pretty village perched above the sea on the
north coast, has become the victim of international intellectuals and artists.
They return year after year, to paint, write, and discuss the reasons why their
marriages should break up, even type poems to the marriage which has broken
that morning. We ran away from Molyvos”.
On Santorini:
“Tightened girths made the mules arch their backs, inflate
their bellies, and fart like machine guns at the jab from a knee.”
On Skiathos:
“Skiathos has been developed as a retirement village for the
well-to-do British middle-class, who discuss passionately in buses the
difficulties they have found in what had been represented as a geriatric’s
paradise. Plumbing of course enters into the conversation…You wondered how long
they would accept exile from their natural neo-Tudor world, and hoped for their sakes that Papdiamantis and Greek plumbing would send them packing before
complete senility set in”.
Ouch!
Buy "Flaws in the Glass" on Amazon.co.uk
Patrick White, Nobel Prize in Literature, 1973
Patrick White Biographical Note (Nobel Prize)
"I was born on May 28th 1912 in Knightsbridge, London, to Australian parents. Victor White was then forty-two, his wife, Ruth Withycombe, ten years younger. When I was six months old my parents returned to Australia and settled in Sydney, principally because my mother could not face the prospect of too many sisters-in-law on the property, in which my father had an interest, with three older brothers. Both my father’s and my mother’s families were yeoman-farmer stock from Somerset, England. My great-grandfather White had emigrated to New South Wales in 1826, as a flockmaster, and received a grant of crown land in the Upper Hunter Valley. None of my ancestors was distinguished enough to be remembered, though there is a pleasing legend that a Withycombe was fool to Edward II..."
This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel. It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures.
Buy "Flaws in the Glass" on Amazon.co.uk
Patrick White, Nobel Prize in Literature, 1973
Patrick White Biographical Note (Nobel Prize)
"I was born on May 28th 1912 in Knightsbridge, London, to Australian parents. Victor White was then forty-two, his wife, Ruth Withycombe, ten years younger. When I was six months old my parents returned to Australia and settled in Sydney, principally because my mother could not face the prospect of too many sisters-in-law on the property, in which my father had an interest, with three older brothers. Both my father’s and my mother’s families were yeoman-farmer stock from Somerset, England. My great-grandfather White had emigrated to New South Wales in 1826, as a flockmaster, and received a grant of crown land in the Upper Hunter Valley. None of my ancestors was distinguished enough to be remembered, though there is a pleasing legend that a Withycombe was fool to Edward II..."
This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel. It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures.
No comments:
Post a Comment