The Bush p.306 "The bush personality is fed and watered by imprecision. What is useful - or a bastard of a thing - gets a vernacular name. What is neither useful nor a bastard is not worth knowing about. But while there's generally a consesus on what's a bastard, what is useful is a matter of opinion."
The hole at the centre of the story of the bush - Aborigines. Museums in Queensland go straight from dinosaurs to pioneers.
Even the glory years were hard - the imprecision of the book, life was hard the land was hard so if you're not hard you wont survive.
Prickly pear, Acacia - the destruction of the country in the effort to improve it - millions spent repairing the wrong of a moment.
The silence of the stockmen - what is the appropriate response ot the outback but silence? what words can either encompass it or do it justice?
...Which is the ultimate problem with this book - no matter how many words Don gives us - he is merely scratching the surface. How can a book encompass all of the country?
Books read: The bush by Don Watson
No comments:
Post a Comment