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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'This new work by Gerald Murnane is a fictionalised autobiography told in thirty sections, each of which begins with the memory of a book that has left an image on the writer's mind. The titles aren't given but the reader follows the clues, recalling in the process a parade of authors, the great, the popular, and the now-forgotten. The images themselves, with their scenes of marital discord, violence and madness, or their illuminated landscapes that point to the consolations of a world beyond fiction, give new intensity to Murnane's habitual concern with the anxieties and aspirations of the writing life, in the absence of religious belief.
'A History of Books is accompanied by three shorter pieces of fiction which play on these themes, featuring the writer at different ages, as a young boy, a teacher, and an old recluse.' (From the publisher's website.)
Notes
-
Epigraph: After a certain age our memories are so intertwined with one another that what we are thinking of, the book we are reading, scarcely matters any more. We have put something of ourselves everywhere, everything is fertile, everything is dangerous, and we can make discoveries no less precious than in Pascal's Pensees in an advertisement for soap.' - Marcel Proust, Remembrance of Things Past
Contents
-
A History of Books,
single work
short story
(p. 1-123)'A History of Books', a 'work of fiction', 'explores the relationship between reading and writing in twenty-nine sections, each of which begins with the memory of a book that left an image in the writer's mind'. (Back cover)
- As It Were a Letter, single work short story (p. 125-165)
- The Boy's Name Was David, single work short story (p. 167-188)
- Last Letter to a Niece, single work short story (p. 189-205)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Also large print.
Works about this Work
-
What Kind of Literary History Is A History of Books?
2020
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Gerald Murnane : Another World in This One 2020; (p. 153-164)'This is one of those occasions where I feel I am wearing too many hats, and I am not sure what to do with the excess ones. This is because I am speaking of Gerald Murnane in a number of different roles – as a friend, a critic, a publisher, an editor – though I should admit that Murnane doesn’t need much editing, at least in my experience, since what I suggest as an editor tends to get rejected anyway. As he busies himself behind the bar in the room here as I talk now, I cannot be sure whether he’s listening , or whether, like the narrator at the beginning of Border Districts, he has resolved to guard his eyes, so as to be more alert to what might appear at the edges of his attention.1 But perhaps the greater discomfort for me, is to talk as both a publisher and as a critic. As a publisher there’s a sense of excitement when you’re producing a book, a kind of intimacy in the production of it, which as a critic you’re not meant to feel; you keep the book at a distance, the better to form a judgement of it. Nevertheless, when I’m preparing a book for publication I do read it critically and develop ideas about it that I think are significant, and should be conveyed to readers, particularly those who have not read Murnane before. I’m only allowed a little over one hundred words, in the blurb on the back cover, to address the reader directly, and there is not a lot one can say there, though there is a lot one wants to say. I have found, especially being here today, that much of what I wanted to say has now already been said, or is being said, as the critical discourse catches up with Murnane’s works of fiction, and his idiosyncracies as an author. And though this makes me feel proud as a publisher it makes feel humble as a critic, because it’s other people making the points that I would have liked to make, and they are making them more thoroughly than I could have done.' (Introduction(
-
Memory, Image and Reading Traces of the Infinite : A History of Books
2020
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Gerald Murnane : Another World in This One 2020; (p. 127-142) 'The experience of reading books is integral to the registration of consciousness and memory. The mnemonic traces of a lifetime of reading offer an imaginative reservoir. It can also work as experimental material for fiction writing. From the oral to the written and from reading out loud to silent articulation, reading has always influenced the mode and style of writing. When we read and process the material in a conscious way in order to make sense of the reading, a cognitive collusion takes place between word and image. Writing is yet another engagement of thinking through this word-image complex. As a literary writer, Gerald Murnane is interested in thinking through cognitive images and his fiction presents a dialogue of image and memory, mediated through the experience of reading. As Anthony Uhlmann reflects: “The reader of A History of Books wants books to leave him with images that will persist, that will outlive the books themselves”. What are the images that remain and what resonance urges them to live on long after the reading? These are Murnane’s zones of fascination. In this chapter, I trace the contours of specular thinking in Murnane’s novella A History of Books (2012) in terms of the interaction between the memory of reading traces and the imagery of thought. From Murnane’s network of interconnected reading traces and their images, we will see if thinking in fiction can approach an infinite structure of thought by tapping on the interplay of book as a container and life as a material that is difficult to be contained.' (Introduction) -
y
Grounded Visionary : The Mystic Fictions of Gerald Murnane
Oxford
:
Peter Lang
,
2019
22038132
2019
multi chapter work
criticism
'Grounded Visionary: The Mystic Fictions of Gerald Murnane is a reading of Australian writer Gerald Murnane’s fiction in the light of what is known as the Perennial Philosophy, a philosophical tradition that positions itself as the mystical foundation of all the world’s religions and spiritual systems. The essential tenet of that philosophy is that at a fundamental level all of life is a unity―consciousness and world are the same thing―and that it is possible, if extremely difficult, for the discriminating individual mind to experience this wholeness. Murnane’s work can be seen not to take its lead from writings in this philosophical tradition but rather to resonate with many of them through Murnane’s unique artistic expression of his experience of the world. The crux of the argument is that beneath their yearnings for landscapes and love, Murnane’s narrators and chief characters are all in search of the essential unity that the Perennial Philosophy postulates.
'Taking its cue from Murnane’s self-description as a "technical writer," this book examines each of the author’s works in detail to reveal how structures and themes are seamlessly woven together to create artworks that shimmer with mystery while at the same time remaining thoroughly grounded in the actual.
'Grounded Visionary is the first full-length study of Gerald Murnane’s work to tackle head-on his underlying mystical sensibility and is also the first to deal comprehensively with the author’s complete fictional output from Tamarisk Row to Border Districts. This book will be of interest to all lovers of modern literature and will be of special interest to students of Australian literature and those concerned with the interface between art and spirituality.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
-
What I’m Reading
2018
single work
column
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2018; -
Steve Jeffery Wherefore Good Talk about Science Fiction?
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: SF Commentary : The Independent Magazine About Science Fiction , April no. 87 2014; (p. 106-110)
— Review of Through Splintered Walls : A Twelve Planets Collection 2012 selected work short story ; A History of Books 2012 selected work short story
-
[Review] A History of Books
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: Bookseller + Publisher Magazine , February/March vol. 91 no. 7 2012; (p. 32)
— Review of A History of Books 2012 selected work short story -
Whorls of Thought
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , June no. 342 2012; (p. 20-21)
— Review of A History of Books 2012 selected work short story -
[Review] A History of Books
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 9 June 2012; (p. 22)
— Review of A History of Books 2012 selected work short story -
Explorer in a Novel Landscape
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 9-10 June 2012; (p. 22)
— Review of A History of Books 2012 selected work short story -
Secret Society
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 16-17 June 2012; (p. 32-33)
— Review of A History of Books 2012 selected work short story -
A Year of Experimentation: Australian Fiction Moving On
2013
single work
review
— Appears in: Westerly , June vol. 58 no. 1 2013; (p. 92-108) -
Memory, Image and Reading Traces of the Infinite : A History of Books
2020
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Gerald Murnane : Another World in This One 2020; (p. 127-142) 'The experience of reading books is integral to the registration of consciousness and memory. The mnemonic traces of a lifetime of reading offer an imaginative reservoir. It can also work as experimental material for fiction writing. From the oral to the written and from reading out loud to silent articulation, reading has always influenced the mode and style of writing. When we read and process the material in a conscious way in order to make sense of the reading, a cognitive collusion takes place between word and image. Writing is yet another engagement of thinking through this word-image complex. As a literary writer, Gerald Murnane is interested in thinking through cognitive images and his fiction presents a dialogue of image and memory, mediated through the experience of reading. As Anthony Uhlmann reflects: “The reader of A History of Books wants books to leave him with images that will persist, that will outlive the books themselves”. What are the images that remain and what resonance urges them to live on long after the reading? These are Murnane’s zones of fascination. In this chapter, I trace the contours of specular thinking in Murnane’s novella A History of Books (2012) in terms of the interaction between the memory of reading traces and the imagery of thought. From Murnane’s network of interconnected reading traces and their images, we will see if thinking in fiction can approach an infinite structure of thought by tapping on the interplay of book as a container and life as a material that is difficult to be contained.' (Introduction) -
What Kind of Literary History Is A History of Books?
2020
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Gerald Murnane : Another World in This One 2020; (p. 153-164)'This is one of those occasions where I feel I am wearing too many hats, and I am not sure what to do with the excess ones. This is because I am speaking of Gerald Murnane in a number of different roles – as a friend, a critic, a publisher, an editor – though I should admit that Murnane doesn’t need much editing, at least in my experience, since what I suggest as an editor tends to get rejected anyway. As he busies himself behind the bar in the room here as I talk now, I cannot be sure whether he’s listening , or whether, like the narrator at the beginning of Border Districts, he has resolved to guard his eyes, so as to be more alert to what might appear at the edges of his attention.1 But perhaps the greater discomfort for me, is to talk as both a publisher and as a critic. As a publisher there’s a sense of excitement when you’re producing a book, a kind of intimacy in the production of it, which as a critic you’re not meant to feel; you keep the book at a distance, the better to form a judgement of it. Nevertheless, when I’m preparing a book for publication I do read it critically and develop ideas about it that I think are significant, and should be conveyed to readers, particularly those who have not read Murnane before. I’m only allowed a little over one hundred words, in the blurb on the back cover, to address the reader directly, and there is not a lot one can say there, though there is a lot one wants to say. I have found, especially being here today, that much of what I wanted to say has now already been said, or is being said, as the critical discourse catches up with Murnane’s works of fiction, and his idiosyncracies as an author. And though this makes me feel proud as a publisher it makes feel humble as a critic, because it’s other people making the points that I would have liked to make, and they are making them more thoroughly than I could have done.' (Introduction(
-
What I’m Reading
2018
single work
column
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2018; -
y
Grounded Visionary : The Mystic Fictions of Gerald Murnane
Oxford
:
Peter Lang
,
2019
22038132
2019
multi chapter work
criticism
'Grounded Visionary: The Mystic Fictions of Gerald Murnane is a reading of Australian writer Gerald Murnane’s fiction in the light of what is known as the Perennial Philosophy, a philosophical tradition that positions itself as the mystical foundation of all the world’s religions and spiritual systems. The essential tenet of that philosophy is that at a fundamental level all of life is a unity―consciousness and world are the same thing―and that it is possible, if extremely difficult, for the discriminating individual mind to experience this wholeness. Murnane’s work can be seen not to take its lead from writings in this philosophical tradition but rather to resonate with many of them through Murnane’s unique artistic expression of his experience of the world. The crux of the argument is that beneath their yearnings for landscapes and love, Murnane’s narrators and chief characters are all in search of the essential unity that the Perennial Philosophy postulates.
'Taking its cue from Murnane’s self-description as a "technical writer," this book examines each of the author’s works in detail to reveal how structures and themes are seamlessly woven together to create artworks that shimmer with mystery while at the same time remaining thoroughly grounded in the actual.
'Grounded Visionary is the first full-length study of Gerald Murnane’s work to tackle head-on his underlying mystical sensibility and is also the first to deal comprehensively with the author’s complete fictional output from Tamarisk Row to Border Districts. This book will be of interest to all lovers of modern literature and will be of special interest to students of Australian literature and those concerned with the interface between art and spirituality.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
Awards
- 2013 longlisted ASAL Awards — ALS Gold Medal
- 2012 shortlisted Victorian Premier's Literary Awards — Prize for Fiction
