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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'A dark and compelling work by a new voice in Australian – and world – literary fiction
'A nomad swallows poison and drowns himself. Resuscitated by a paramilitary bandit named Aslan, Figure is nursed back into a world of violence, sexuality and dementia. Together, Figure and Aslan traverse a coastline erupting in conflict. When the nearest city is ethnically cleansed, Figure escapes on the last ship evacuating to the other isle of the sea. Crossing village to village largely on foot, a slew of outcasts and ghosts guide him as he navigates states of cultural and metaphysical crisis.
'Scott McCulloch’s debut novel, Basin, explores the axis of landscape and consciousness. Echoing the modernist tradition, and written in an incendiary yet elliptical prose style, Basin maps the phenomenon of a civilisation being reborn – a hallucinatory elegy to the inter-zones of self and place.' (Publication summary)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Figuring-out Basin
2023
single work
essay
— Appears in: Overland , Winter no. 251 2023; (p. 22-38) 'When a novel invites me, as does the title section opening of Scott McCulloch's debut novel Basin — "Figure in Terminal Landscape" — to approach it as I might a piece of visual art or dance or theatre, or even as a piece of music, my whole heart gladdens Yes, and yes! Because this is what happens for me anyway when 1 read a novel, as I have always thought, since it will always be the thingness of the work and how that thingness affects (or not) my being in the world that tells me whether I am likely to keep that novel by me always or not. And so the felt experience of it first, and only later the thoughts. and between one and the other, often a long, slow crawling out into the air — or so I have had to remind my-self. because how else to account for all the difficulty, all the impossibility of working, of writing or even of thinking about this otherwise brilliantly realised novel Basin — all of the long non-writing then (or rather useless writing) that followed my experience of first reading it some time last year? Flow much easier it would have been, as I can only say now, just to have felt what it was like to read this novel — okay, to have felt it with all its force — but then to have wriggled on quick, either into the thoughts and words that most resembled others I have thought or written before — or else into the bliss of some sort of conferred permission to not have to think, to nor have to put into words this damnedest thing that — to stay as close to the truth of it all as I can — led to thoughts not so much about the novel itself but rather to ones that were saying over and over maybe this is it, maybe I will die where this experience of reading Basin finishes in me, wordless, stuck forever as it is inside.' (Introduction)
-
y
Scott McCulloch in Conversation
Justin Clemens
(interviewer),
2022
24911197
2022
single work
interview
'Scott McCulloch in conversation with Justin Clemens about McCulloch's novel, Basin.'
-
The Face of the Deep : A Pilgrimage to the Border of Oblivion
2022
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , August no. 445 2022; (p. 34)
— Review of Basin 2022 single work novel 'On the surface, Scott McCulloch’s début novel, Basin, takes place in a brutal and degenerated landscape; the edge of a former empire in a state of violent flux. Rebels, separatists, terrorists, paramilitary groups, and the remnants of imperial forces clash over borders and interzones in the wake of the ‘Collapse’, an undefined geopolitical and ecological disaster. Print and broadcast media warn of inter-ethnic conflict and Rebel advances. Bazaars, brothels, and a chain of Poseidon Hotels all operate amid industrial waste and military checkpoints, servicing the region’s fishermen, soldiers, smugglers, and drifters. There is a multiplicity of language and religion (Abrahamic denominations mingle with archaic, pagan beliefs). Alcohol consumption and illicit drug use are rife. The climate is oppressively humid.'(Introduction)
-
Books Roundup
2022
single work
review
— Appears in: Kill Your Darlings [Online] , June 2022;
— Review of The Eulogy 2022 single work novel ; Homesickness : A Memoir 2022 single work autobiography ; This All Come Back Now 2022 anthology short story ; Basin 2022 single work novel -
Scott McCulloch Basin
2022
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 18-24 June 2022;
— Review of Basin 2022 single work novel'In Scott McCulloch’s debut novel Basin, an aimless nomad called Figure traverses an interminable landscape that feels similar to the impossible staircase in Escher’s lithograph Ascending and Descending. Figure roams the territories bordering the Black Sea, forever moving onwards and forever circling back onto himself. His wayward journey recalls a bad dream: “I feel I’m a ghost who’s wandered into the odyssey of a lunatic,” he reflects.' (Introduction)
-
‘Propulsive’, ‘Evocative’, ‘Brilliant’ : The Best Australian Books Out in June
2022
single work
review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 1 June 2022;
— Review of Horse : A Novel 2022 single work novel ; Our Members Be Unlimited 2022 single work graphic novel non-fiction ; Basin 2022 single work novel ; An Exciting and Vivid Inner Life 2022 selected work short story ; Talking About a Revolution 2022 selected work essay ; Pomegranate and Fig 2022 single work novel ; Dirt Town 2022 single work novel ; The Eulogy 2022 single work novel -
Scott McCulloch Basin
2022
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 18-24 June 2022;
— Review of Basin 2022 single work novel'In Scott McCulloch’s debut novel Basin, an aimless nomad called Figure traverses an interminable landscape that feels similar to the impossible staircase in Escher’s lithograph Ascending and Descending. Figure roams the territories bordering the Black Sea, forever moving onwards and forever circling back onto himself. His wayward journey recalls a bad dream: “I feel I’m a ghost who’s wandered into the odyssey of a lunatic,” he reflects.' (Introduction)
-
Books Roundup
2022
single work
review
— Appears in: Kill Your Darlings [Online] , June 2022;
— Review of The Eulogy 2022 single work novel ; Homesickness : A Memoir 2022 single work autobiography ; This All Come Back Now 2022 anthology short story ; Basin 2022 single work novel -
The Face of the Deep : A Pilgrimage to the Border of Oblivion
2022
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , August no. 445 2022; (p. 34)
— Review of Basin 2022 single work novel 'On the surface, Scott McCulloch’s début novel, Basin, takes place in a brutal and degenerated landscape; the edge of a former empire in a state of violent flux. Rebels, separatists, terrorists, paramilitary groups, and the remnants of imperial forces clash over borders and interzones in the wake of the ‘Collapse’, an undefined geopolitical and ecological disaster. Print and broadcast media warn of inter-ethnic conflict and Rebel advances. Bazaars, brothels, and a chain of Poseidon Hotels all operate amid industrial waste and military checkpoints, servicing the region’s fishermen, soldiers, smugglers, and drifters. There is a multiplicity of language and religion (Abrahamic denominations mingle with archaic, pagan beliefs). Alcohol consumption and illicit drug use are rife. The climate is oppressively humid.'(Introduction)
-
y
Scott McCulloch in Conversation
Justin Clemens
(interviewer),
2022
24911197
2022
single work
interview
'Scott McCulloch in conversation with Justin Clemens about McCulloch's novel, Basin.'
-
Figuring-out Basin
2023
single work
essay
— Appears in: Overland , Winter no. 251 2023; (p. 22-38) 'When a novel invites me, as does the title section opening of Scott McCulloch's debut novel Basin — "Figure in Terminal Landscape" — to approach it as I might a piece of visual art or dance or theatre, or even as a piece of music, my whole heart gladdens Yes, and yes! Because this is what happens for me anyway when 1 read a novel, as I have always thought, since it will always be the thingness of the work and how that thingness affects (or not) my being in the world that tells me whether I am likely to keep that novel by me always or not. And so the felt experience of it first, and only later the thoughts. and between one and the other, often a long, slow crawling out into the air — or so I have had to remind my-self. because how else to account for all the difficulty, all the impossibility of working, of writing or even of thinking about this otherwise brilliantly realised novel Basin — all of the long non-writing then (or rather useless writing) that followed my experience of first reading it some time last year? Flow much easier it would have been, as I can only say now, just to have felt what it was like to read this novel — okay, to have felt it with all its force — but then to have wriggled on quick, either into the thoughts and words that most resembled others I have thought or written before — or else into the bliss of some sort of conferred permission to not have to think, to nor have to put into words this damnedest thing that — to stay as close to the truth of it all as I can — led to thoughts not so much about the novel itself but rather to ones that were saying over and over maybe this is it, maybe I will die where this experience of reading Basin finishes in me, wordless, stuck forever as it is inside.' (Introduction)
