Bruce Chatwin's Letters
 

Let's see if this works--it's from the weekend edition of the WSJ:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...LE_Video_Third

Dave

Thanks, this goes on my wish list. Interesting review.

It's an amazingly complex case because he really was a terrific writer. Re-reading The Songlines, his most famous book, I was a bit let down (I much prefer other books I mention in the review), and I would love to hear from OZ folk here what they thought of it...

Just bumping this up...

Dave,

Your article, and Chatwin, and The Songlines, raise so many issues, strum so many chords, touch so many nerves - all of which are so central to my personal life and projects at this time - that the fact you created this thread now seems wholly serendipitous to me.

The reason I can't react is because I am travelling right now - I am stopped on a dusty hot roadside - through the country that Chatwin wrote about. I have been doing this for over a year now ... oh, if I started to tell, it would not end, and the heat here is ferocious, so I must get back on the road.

I am intrigued to know what you make of Chatwin, your impressions when you met him. When Chatwin and/or The Songlines are mentioned, the two words that come instantly to my mind are specious and meretricious.

Alas, I really have no time now. Australia is hot and hard and vast. And I wouldn't look to The Songlines (there! I just corrected a typo where I had written The Songlies!!) to understand this land or the culture that grew out of it.

Chatwin himself is another story. As you say - he is a complex character, and I much prefer to think of his theories on nomad and settled societies out of the Australian context. These questions go to the heart of my life's preoccupations, only I take a more psychological view of it, rather than anthropological or philosophical.

Of course, a writer can be both meretricious and great. There was certainly some kind of powerful daimon alive in Bruce Chatwin.

This is a vast topic - and all the threads it throws out would take time to follow. In a way, it's my life's work - the nature of Australia and travel writing - so do forgive this brief and inadequate reply to a deeply challenging, often disturbing, topic. I did not want you to believe your article had gone unnoticed. It deserves to spawn a huge discussion.

When my present journey is done - this leg of it, at least - I hope to articulate some of my thoughts on things you've raised. But it's hot as hell here right now, Dave, and I need to get to the coast, to my island, and sink into the Coral Sea for a while.

Cally

I really appreciate your taking the time on the road to write a response, Cally. Indeed, I suspected there was something not quite right when I re-read The Songlines, though the bits from his notebooks and the almost mystical notion of some human connection at the source of things are very attractive. But yes, I could guess it wasn't right about Australia and I'm eager to learn more of what you're working on in this regard--or any regard.

In person Bruce was simply quite charming and generous, at least with me--I was a young kid eager to be a writer, and in our brief meeting he took me seriously as a writer, and I think I owe him some small debt for that. But the letters demonstrate that in the years before I met him he could be a terribly selfish fellow--a narcissist, as I say in the review, but perhaps something worse. I do believe he matured, and I would strongly recommend the best of his books--for me On the Black Hill and Utz are the most satisfying, but others continue to praise [i]In [/I]Patagonia. Some of the journalism in What Am I Doing Here is very good.

Anyway, safe home to your island--you can't imagine how exotic that sounds to a guy in the mountains.

Dave

Great article, Dave. I'm confused, though. I thought some of the other reviews mentioned that he really had died of that desert fungus-thing he claimed to have had.

Frank

Thanks, Frank. It's a pretty complicated story...

When one dies of AIDS, it's really of the various things the immune system can't attack, and it's fairly common for a sort of brain fungus to contribute. So yes, Bruce had a fungal infection, but his original story of getting it from eating an ancient Chinese egg has not, to my knowledge, been substantiated. Interestingly, when he was first taken to hospital with symptoms, long before he or anyone else announced anything, the doctor immediately diagnosed HIV.

A lot of reviewers make a big deal about his not having gone public about his sexuality or his HIV status, but I incline to be charitable when another person's privacy is involved, and there is also some evidence that he was protecting his parents in some way. You remember how it was in 1988--a lot of misinformation about HIV and AIDS.

Anyway, the dear friend who showed me where he'd buried Bruce's ashes, Patrick Leigh Fermor, just turned 96, and is doing very well. We read a writer like Chatwin partly through the narrative of the Byronic early death, but I can't help thinking of all the ways he might have grown and developed if he had lived. He was a remarkable talent, even if much of his work is left in some kind of unfinished state....

I'll just mention that Nicholas Shakespeare also wrote the authorized biography "Bruce Chatwin". I remember that I enjoyed it very much when I first read it, but B.C. was terra incognito then.

That was several year ago but after this thread appeared I pulled it off the shelf to reread prior to tackling the "letters".(When I've finished my current marathon read/re-read on Egypt.)

Looking forward to Cally's return on this subject.

I think Shakespeare's bio is very good--doesn't shy from the dark side, either.

I have to admit I don't know much about Chatwin (although the title "In Patagonia" rings a bell). But I know & love the works of Patrick Leigh Fermor, and was delighted to learn that he is still among us at 96.

For the record, I'm a great reader of travel books (especially by women, but I like all kinds) - & if you and Cally are working on such projects, I will follow with great interest.

Gail - it means a great deal to learn of your interest! My PhD thesis was on travel writing—D.H. Lawrence's travel books, actually. Travel writing marries my passions: movement, geography, writing. And when I met Richard Holmes at Melbourne University a couple of years ago, and listened to what he had to say, I knew what I had to do, and I am now at the fascinating stage of exploring the ways of doing it! And never ceasing from travel, of course!

It's a wonderful spur for me to think of you as a potential reader. Could you tell me some of your favourite books of travel writing by women?

Cally

Yes indeed, Cally.

Mary Kingsley - TRAVELS IN WEST AFRICA.

Alexandra David-Neel - her books about Tibet.

Ella Maillart - THE CRUEL WAY, TURKISTAN SOLO, and
FORBIDDEN JOURNEY.

Freya Stark - ALEXANDER'S PATH & other works.

Also loved DESERT QUEEN, the life of Gertrude Bell.

What's cool about women travelers is that, since they aren't wanted on all-male expeditions, they are usually traveling alone. (Send me your e-mail address and I'll send you my "Ballade of Women Travelers").

Gail,

I am even more thrilled that you wrote about "travelling alone". That is the core element of my personal experience - I always travel alone - and so it is one of the pivotal preoccupations of my writing project. People who learn what I'm doing, how I'm living, invariably say to me "gee, that's brave!" or "aren't you afraid?" I have heard these words thousands of times! And the truth is, I don't feel either of these things.

But - oh, this is great to feel you are part of this journey now, too, Gail! I value your recommendations. I've read Bell and Kingsley - will get onto the others.

Have you read "Revolt in Paradise: One Woman's Fight for Freedom in Indonesia" by K'Tut Tantri? Someone recently recommended it to me, and I am waiting for my ordered copy to arrive.

My paradoxical position is that despite my constant travelling, I fully believe the Chinese proverb that goes something like "you do not need to cross your own threshold to know the world".

Email address now winging its way to you, and excitedly awaiting your Ballade!!!

Cally

David,

Thank you for the link. A most interesting review. I received Chatwin's In Patagonia as a gift in 1993 and, as a result of its impression on me, vowed I would make that same trek one day, which I finally did in 2003-2004.

Damn, Catherine, say more!
What did you find? Was your experience better than the book (as I guess any real experience must be by definition)? Did the book hold up in any way? What would you tell a pilgrim to do if headed in that direction.

Cheers,
Dave

David,

Unlike Chatwin, I didn't consider my trek a "ridiculous journey". However, although I did eat the calafate berry, I doubt if I will ever actually return. The town of Ushuaia was a major letdown (I wrote a poem, "Ushuaia", on the subject), though the view from the cumbres was breathtaking. However, I came closest to meeting my Maker when our catamaran got caught in a sudden storm in the Beagle Channel.

Of course, I didn't spend six months there as Chatwin did, so I didn't meet up with many of the strange characters he depicts in his book (and, as some would say, he invented!), but I must say the boat ride through the iceberg-filled Lago Argentino and the trek up to the Río de los Perros waterfall were thrilling and its the clean, cold water was the best I have ever tasted!

This review has much to be said for it:

http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and...chatwin-review

"Unclassifiable" is right. I think it's pretty classy to come up with an unclassifiable genre! I'd love to be called unclassifiable!! But 'travel writing' is an intensely shifty genre. That's partly why I love it.

Dave, it's pleasing and interesting to me to read that he viewed The Songlines as fiction, as invented. That cheers me up enormously about him! As an Australian, it never rang true to fact for me (along with many other Australians!), but it does ring true to other things. I would have thought authors would have authority over how their works are classified?

Travelling stirs the imagination, whips it to a peak! It's creative. So how could creativity not saturate the facts? I love saturated facts!

Catherine. WOW. What an adventure, especially the peril on the cat!!!

Cally

Not to divert from the real thread subject, but (Cally and Cathy, I am a solo traveller too. If I change my name to Canny, can we start a club?)

(Of course you can, Canny! Now, all we need is four more "C" members, and our club could be called The Seven C's.)!!!!!!!!

C

LOL, Cally! Actually, as a joke I call my husband and I "The Old Man and the C", although when I translated it into Spanish for him, he didn't think it was all that funny!

Does anyone remember that British band who had a travel-themed hit in the 1980's that went "I ran, I ran so far away..."

Wait, wait, I've got it--A Flock of C Girls!

For your inventiveness, you are hereby admitted as the fourth member, Culie!

(so funny, Cathy! If I ever get a husband I'm going to use that one!)

Thanks! Actually, my married name is pronounced C--people are forever asking me what it stands for.

[It's kinda pathetic that this is all I can contribute to this otherwise well-read and inspiring conversation!]

First, David, thank you for the review!

Second, if no one minds, any mention of Patagonia immediately brings to mind the
astonishing deadpan surreal comedy "Eversmile, New Jersey", which features Daniel
Day Lewis as an itinerant dentist spreading dental hygiene consciousness on his
motorcycle as he drives across Patagonia.

Coming in late, David, to say thank you so much for posting your wonderful review. It captures the Chatwin flavour, and the quotes remind me why I love his writing, as so many do.

I liked The Black Hill though I seem to recall it as very melancholy despite the ten magnificent minutes of flight--must re-read. Haven't read Utz and will now. Absolutely loved In Patagonia. Also was seduced by The Songlines and am, as others have said, very interested that Chatwin saw it as a strange kind of novel.

N Shakespeare's bio is excellent and I also like Susannah Clapp's With Chatwin.

Will get the letters and am so glad to know about them!

Wonderful to hear you mention Patrick Leigh Fermor--96, my goodness. Wasn't everyone waiting for another promised or in-progress
book by him? did he ever complete it?

Christine

And thanks for posting the link to the review in New Republic as well...though it wouldn't let me read the whole thing as not a subscriber..not sure if the two-week offer is really free, will check.

I love the quote from and connection with W.G. Sebald whom I also adore.

At least Chatwin himself was honest in insisting In Patagonia and Songlines were fiction or fictionalized, his editors should have listened to him, but I guess there was fewer writing then along the fiction/non-fiction boundary?

I think it's fine, and wonderful fun, to play with this boundary as long as the reader is dealt with honestly and told when a book that appears factual is actually not....

Christine

Just popping it to say thanks, and it seems wonderful to me that such rich rivers of conversation have sprung up from the publication of his letters. They can't be mined for perfect gems the way Keats's letters can, but there are some marvelous statements that didn't get into the reviews.


Quotations from Under the Sun: The Letters of Bruce Chatwin:

“This is my ambition—BOTANIST written on my passport. The sale of works of art is the most unlovable profession in the world.”
-To Cary Welch, 27 July 1964

“I am going to be a serious, and systematic writer.”
-To Elizabeth Chatwin, 21 July 1969

“Why are all one’s friends lunatics?”
-To Elizabeth Chatwin, 15 November 1970

“England is now little England with a vengeance, the world of boutiques and bitchery and little else.”
-To James Ivory, 8 April 1972

“I have dined with a man who knew Butch Cassidy and other members of the Black Jack Gang, I have drunk to the memory of Ludwig of Bavaria with a German whose house and style of life belongs rather to the world of the Brothers Grimm. I have discussed the poetics of Mandelstam with a Ukrainian doctor missing both legs….”
-To Elizabeth Chatwin, 21 January 1975

“Aren’t Victoria Falls a surprise? Nowhere else in the world, perhaps, can we look down on the sublime.”
-To Murray Bail, December 1984