David Green on Patrick White and Lawrence Durrell

[Patrick] White was a strange character.  When he went into the city to shop or have lunch, he wore suits but with a beret and or scarf (rather Parisian boho).  At home he was more casual in trousers and button down short leave shirts.  In the 60s and 70s affecting a European boho look was common amongst artists and intellectuals many of whom had done the London and Paris sojourn before returning to their native shores.


I think White came to terms with his homeland, but he said he never felt particularly Australian.  What does that mean?  With Australia Day coming up on January 26th, there is of course the usual media debate about what it means to be Australian.  Of course what they are often trying to get is a sense of national conformity within a multicultural context.  I am Australian, but I don't need to prove it by wearing shorts, thongs (not the kind you are thinking of), and firing up the barbie or playing beach cricket.

Is there a certain national outlook?  I don't know.  What does it mean to be American these days?  I have always been sceptical about national identity and false patriotism — the refuge of scoundrels.  My parents and grandparents were born here.  I was born here and have lived most of my life here.  No more to be said.  Durrell lived in many places, but I think he found a home in Provence.  How he really thought of himself is worth investigating.  He liked to think of himself as "European," and yet Gordon Bowker [in his biography of LD] says he lived in a "Tibet of the mind."

* * * * *

"Himmelfarb the outcast grew from his own (White's) sense of being always a stranger:  first as a child with what kind of strange gift nobody quite knew; then as a despised colonial boy in an English public school; finally as an artist in horrified Australia."

 —  David Marr

"I know that a great many native-born Australians (and nothing can be more ignorant that certain native born Australians) who go out of their way to encourage New Australians (migrants) to drop their own standards in favour of the dreary semi culture which exists here at present.  However, there are also a great number of civilised Old Australians who are hoping that the migrants from European countries will bring something of their own cultures with them, so that we can incorporate them into what will someday be a true civilisation of our own."

— Patrick White

NOTES

There is some stuff here that applies to Larry:  despised colonial boy, exile from his own land, stranger in a strange land, etc.  White saw in 1950s Australia something of the Pudding Island that Larry saw in England of the 30s and 40s.  White's words are prophetic:  the European and now Asian migrants are transforming Australia into a vibrant hybrid culture which is generally a positive thing, although there are a few ragbags out there.