Reading Franklin's Cockatoos

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University of Wollongong Research Online Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers Faculty of Arts, Social Sciences & Humanities 2007 "Only Scratch the Surface": Reading Franklin's Cockatoos Leigh Dale University of Wollongong, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.uow.edu.au/lhapapers Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons, and the Law Commons Recommended Citation Dale, Leigh, ""Only Scratch the Surface": Reading Franklin's Cockatoos" (2007). Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers. 1440. https://ro.uow.edu.au/lhapapers/1440 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library: [email protected] "Only Scratch the Surface": Reading Franklin's Cockatoos Abstract Miles Franklin's novel My Brilliant Career has attracted a great deal of critical attention, perhaps prompted in part by fascination with the way Franklin thematises reading itself. Much less attention has been given to a set of books which can be understood as sequels and interlocutors to Franklin's first and most famous novel. Among these are My Career Goes Bung, written soon after My Brilliant Career but not published until 1946; Cockatoos, probably begun around the same time, but not published until the year of Franklin's death, 1954; her most "genuine"(?) autobiography, Childhood at Brindabella, likewise published in 1954; and On Dearborn Street, set in Chicago, which did not appear until 1981. In this essay I want to examine these later works in terms of the ways in which they thematise reading. Keywords franklin, reading, cockatoos, surface, only, scratch Disciplines Arts and Humanities | Law Publication Details Dale, L. 2007, '"Only Scratch the Surface": Reading Franklin's Cockatoos', Southerly: a review of Australian literature, vol. 67, no. 1-2, pp. 377-390. This journal article is available at Research Online: https://ro.uow.edu.au/lhapapers/1440 SOUTH ERLY 377 LEIGH DALE "Only Scratch the Surface": Reading Franklin 's Cockatoos ... books heigh~cn reality, even for those who live the life depicted.' Miles Franklin's novel My Brilliant Career has attracted a great deal of cri tical attemion, perhaps prompted in part by fascination with the way Frankl in rhemarises reading itself Much less arrention has been given ro a set of books which can be understood as seq uels and inrerlocU[ors to Franklin's first and most famous novel. Among these are My Career Goes Bllng, written soon afrer My BrilliarJ( Career but nor published until 1946; Cockatoos, probably begun around the same time, but nor published umil rhe year of Franklin's death, 1954; her most "genuine"(?) aurobiography, Childhood at Brindabella, likewise publishe-d in 1954; and On Dearborn Street, set in Chicago, whi ch did not appear until 1981.' In this essay I want [Q examine these later works in terms of the ways in which they thematise reading. My Careel' Goes Bung signals its staniS as a sequel, although chere arc a number of important differences between it and My Brilliant Career: Sybylla Melvyn's siblings, for example, magically vanish, while her parents arc transformed. Cockatoos is similar in being begun soon after My Brilliant Care" as a response to chat novel and its reception. However, Cockatoos was published under the most successful and most long sustained of Fran klin 's many pseudonyms, Brent of Bin Bin, and, as stated, not umil the year of her death, 1954. (Franklin clearly and provocatively signalled the relationship by dedicating Cockatoos ro J Sybylla Melvyn. ) Childhood at Brindabella (also 1954) seeks to some extent [Q rewrite the early years, perhaps in some vague sense to "exonerate" various family members_ On Dearborn Street see ms to me connected to this group In parr because It ccntralises a mal e character .

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My Brilliant Career, by Miles Franklin
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Names galore, and the need for disguise Brent of Bin Bin and the scrutiny of family real name for All That Swagger, and a fictitious name for her Brent of Bin Bin novels, several of which are set in much the same locale. When we set out to deceive others, we hope also to deceive Ray Mathew1 says, ‘Disguise is often the clearest expression of self’, ourselves, but the two deceptions may have different aims, pointing and I think he is right in the case of the Bin Bin novels, where Miles us, and the others, in different directions. With this somewhat shows her hand freely while going through the motions of being cryptic statement I start my consideration of the six novels of Brent someone else. More of this later, as and when it’s appropriate. of Bin Bin, an alias used by Miles Franklin for many years. There are six of these novels2, published in the following order, Brent was by no means Miles’ only pseudonym. Many years or out-of-order, as we may feel: ago, browsing through a catalogue of her papers about to be sold • Up the Country, Blackwood, Edinburgh, 1928 by Berkelouw, booksellers of NSW, I came across no less than • Ten Creeks Run, Blackwood, Edinburgh, 1930 fourteen names she’d given herself. These included Blake of Bin • Back to Bool Bool, Blackwood Edinburgh, 1931 Bin, Punica Granatum, Plumb Bob, a number of others and, best • Prelude to Waking, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1950 of all, Mr and Mrs Ogniblat L’Artsau. (This last, read back to • Cockatoos, Angus & Robertson, 1954 front, gives us Talbingo Austral, a tribute to her grandmother and • Gentlemen at Gyang Gyang, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1956 the favorite place of her early years.) Talbingo, Australia; I drove What is the best order for reading them? Does it, or does it not, through it one day, before I’d read any Miles Franklin books, and depend on the period of each book’s setting? Or is there a theme was enthralled.
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