DANCE OF THE NOMAD DANCE OF THE NOMAD A Study of the Selected Notebooks of A. D. Hope ANN McCULLOCH Published by ANU E Press The Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200, Australia Email: [email protected] This title is also available online at: http://epress.anu.edu.au/dance_nomad _citation.html National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication Entry Author: McCulloch, A. M. (Ann Maree), 1949- Title: Dance of the nomad : a study of the selected notebooks of A.D. Hope / Ann McCulloch. ISBN: 9781921666902 (pbk.) 9781921666919 (eBook) Notes: Includes bibliographical references. Subjects: Hope, A. D. (Alec Derwent), 1907-2000--Criticism and interpretation. Hope, A. D. (Alec Derwent), 1907-2000--Notebooks, sketchbooks, etc. Dewey Number: A828.3 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or trans- mitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. Cover design by Emily Brissenden Cover: Professor A. D. Hope. 1991. L. Seselja. NL36907. By permission of National Library of Australia. Printed by Griffin Press This edition © 2010 ANU E Press First edition © 2005 Pandanus Books In memory of my parents Ann and Kevin McDermott and sister in law, Dina McDermott LETTER TO ANN McCULLOCH ‘This may well be rym doggerel’, dear Ann But the best I can manage in liquor so late At night. You asked me where I’d begin in your place. I can Not answer that. But as a general case I might. Drop the proviso, ‘Supposing That I were you’; I find it impossible to think myself in your place But in general almost any writer would do: The problem is much the same in every case. Where to begin? — No matter where you start, You will find three persons in one at least, All real, All with different roots; How can you tell them Apart Each entwined as they are with the others With whom you must deal? So it doesn’t much matter where you decide To begin; You cannot trace ends without encountering Them all. So the only advice I can give you is just Dig in Where you come on a light or a lead however Small And resist, if you can, the biographer’s natural urge To tidy the subject up and deliver him neat. Remember loose ends hang loose, won’t mix Or merge But without them the portrait must always be incomplete. page viii Dance of the Nomad And Negative Capability, don’t forget that, The thing that marks off a poet from other men! If you forget what I wrote, wearing my other hat, I suggest you read ‘The Three Faces of Love’ again. But more important, and perhaps hardest of all, What most biographers tend to ignore or dismiss Are the random decisions, the cross-road choices I call My Otherwise Mountain. Its shape and importance is this: We are shaped by our choices, even those that We did not make Or which were made for us, sometimes against Our will. Where pathways diverge, the ones that we did Not take Mostly forgotten, serve to determine us still. So the Otherwise Mountain is a tremendous pile Built of the choices whose ends are still unseen, Peopled with ghostly shades, mile upon mile, Ghosts of the countless persons we might have been. Would they have been more fortunate or less? Looking back I can see pitfalls side-stepped, Chances lost. But mostly they keep their secrets. I cannot Guess Had I dared more or cared less to count the cost. These are the things a biographer cannot Know Yet must somehow try to envisage and calculate. Like those shadowy possible selves drifting To and fro, All they can do is ponder the problem and wait. page ix Dance of the Nomad They wait for a moment when at last we shall Meet The only moment that gives me no choice at all, The moment that makes me whole, all my Acts complete When I see the Otherwise Mountain crumble And fall And merge the things that I did with those Undone Since I am the product of everything that I Rejected or chose to do in the long run And I shall not reach it until I come To die. That is all I can do. It is you must record And create. From now on it is you must decide what you Think about me. I cannot contribute opinions or join in Debate But to check matters of fact of course I am free. Good Luck to you! Your amorphous Biographee! A. D. Hope page x Dance of the Nomad ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Conversations as much as the writings of A. D. Hope have been the impetus of this book. I have learnt from colleagues, students, and respon- dents to conference papers who either initiated or participated in these conversations. Their questions and subsequent discussions were invalu- able in my construction of an overview of Hope’s thoughts whilst attempting to honour my pact with him that he was not ‘to be delivered neat’. A special thank you is extended to Penelope Hope with whom I spent many wonderful hours. Early conversations with participants in the six documentary video programmes which formed an integral part of the research for this book were pivotal; my gratitude therefore extends to: Hilary Webster, Chris Wallace Crabbe; Bill Ramson; Bob Holden; Arthur Burns; David Brooks, Nicki Stasko,The poet, πó; George Watts; Harry Heseltine and to others who formed a significant part in the representation of this research: Adrian Murrell Barker and Francis Treacey. Particular thanks to Tony Hood and Rita Kryshkovski who, during this period, assisted me with the editing of the film script, and at critical times since, have proved to be valued listeners, questioners and friends. The years of research at the National Library of Australia involved numerous trips from Melbourne to Canberra. I was fortunate that friends in Canberra not only took care of me on my visits but also often assisted me in my research inquiries. Bob and Rosemary Brissenden were crucial in this regard. Indeed it was through them that I gained the initial desire to pursue this work. I thank Sally Burns and Andrew Hope, who, during the years when Alec Hope was in their immediate care, always welcomed me into their home despite the inconvenience this must have caused. I will always be grateful to Mart Idnurm for the high quality of his close reading and analysis of Hope’s notes on cosmology, and to Prillie Idnurm, whose wisdom extends into all areas of human endeavor, and served as one of my most insistent and valued ques- tioners. I am also grateful to Gun Ringwood, who provided me with friendship, informed advice, accommodation and critical assessment at a moment’s notice and my sister Joan Ritchie who wove into my Canberra visits welcomed meetings, lunches and general support. Given the often illegible script of Hope’s Notebooks I became reliant on a network of friends, family and colleagues who helped deci- pher the screed.They include: Aliki Pavlou; my sister Chris Chalmers; my children Kate and Alexander; my nephew William McDermott, Ron Vowles and my parents Ann and Kevin McDermott. Rai Sahib was not only an invaluable de-coder of the sometimes illegible script, but also of great assistance in word-processing early documents selected for the book. I also thank Caroline Williamson for her patient and meticulous work on the manuscripts.There were also others whose interest in my work sustained my perseverance: David Brooks, Kati Berenson, Helen Tebble, Justin Clemens, Peter Davis,Tim Megihan, Deborah Walker, John Forrest. Corin Spenser, and perhaps especially, Dameon Vesquez. To particular friends and colleagues I owe a great debt. To Aliki Pavlou and Alan Woodruff for keeping my spirit alive during the later stages, rigorously checking corrections made, and assisting me in tracking down elusive information; to Adrian Alder, a doctoral research student at Deakin University, who gave considerable time, creative imagination and rigorous research skills to gathering source material for the construc- tion of endnotes. Ron Goodrich and Paul Monaghan warrant thanks for the time each gave to translations from Latin. Ron Goodrich’s assistance covered many areas; his perceptive and rigorous reading of the manu- script at crucial times provided a depth of wisdom, searching scholarship and creative thinking that enhanced the work. I thank John Ritchie for his general support and, in particular, for suggesting that I submit this work to Pandanus Books. It has been a pleasure to work with the production editor, Justine Molony, whose dedi- cation, enthusiasm and intelligence has played a large part in the realisation of this work I wish to thank the officers from the National Library of Australia whose assistance has always been exact, friendly and persistent. Finally I am grateful to Deakin University for providing me with research leave at crucial times, both in the early years of research and in more recent times when final drafts were being written. My greatest debt goes to A. D. Hope who gave me not only the opportunity to have access to his work but who gave tirelessly of his time, wisdom and humour. Ann McCulloch CONTENTS Letter to Ann McCulloch viii Acknowledgements xi Preface xv Overview and Argument: Mapping the Maze xxi I A. D. Hope: Dance of a Nomad in Flight from 1 the Doppelgänger II Negative Capability 35 III Anti-Modernism 61 IV Argument and Commentary on Critics and Writers 97 V What is Art? 137 VI Source of His Poetry 165 VII A Sense of Detachment 187 VIII Cosmology 219 IX Wine,Women and Insectual Song 245 X A Sense of Destiny 279 XI The Dream-Team 303 XII Argument by Analogy 333 Bibliography 357 PREFACE A chance meeting with A.