Library of the Australian Defence Force Academy University College The University of New South Wales Donor: Steven Conte PLEASE TYPE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES Thesis/Project Report Sheet Surname or Family name: COIiXE- .... Firstname: SXEVJEIJ. Othername/s: Abbreviation for degree as given in the University calendar: MA... School: Faculty: ENjGLISH.... Title: Abstract 350 words maximum: (PLEASE TYPE) Gordian Satire is a study of the novels of David Foster, focusing on the effect of their complexity on reader reception. The main Foster novels under consideration are those he has produced since the beginning of the 1980s, namely: Moonlite (1981), Plumbum (1983), Dog Rock (1985), The Adventures of Christian Rosy Cross (1986), Testostero (1987), The Pale Blue Crochet Coathanger Cover (1988), and Mates of Mars {1991). In five chapters, the thesis examines how Foster's fractured and idiosyncratic vision affects different facets of his fiction. Chapter One concentrates on the structures of the novels, using the notion of entropy as an analogue for the way Foster's plots tend to fragment and disintegrate as they progress. Chapter Two examines the complexity of Foster's use of language. The unusual nature of the novels' satire is the subject of the third chapter, which draws on Mikhail Bakhtin's theories on the French satirist Rabelais to highlight the medieval and Renaissance qualities of Foster's satire. Chapter Four explores the texts' repression of emotive themes such as death, love and sex, while Chapter Five discusses the implications of the politically extreme tone of many of die novels. The question of reader accessibility is never far away from the analysis of the complexity of various aspects of the novels. In the context of the threat posed to fiction by the increasing popularity of other entertainment media, the thesis periodically weighs the merit of Foster's characteristic refusal to orient the reader against a more accommodating, "seductive" approach to fiction. Declaration relating to disposition of project report/thesis I am fully aware of the policy of the University relating to the retention and use ofhigher degree project reports and theses, namely that the University retains the copies submitted for examination and is fiee to aUow them to beconsulted or borrowed. Subject to the provisions of the Copyri issue a project reporter thesis in whole or in part, in photostate or microfilm or other copying medium. lakoauthorisethepubUcationbyUniversity Microfilms ofa350word^tractinDissertationAbstractsIntemati^ Signature Witness Date The University recognises that there maybe exceptional circumstances requiring restrictions on copying or conditions on use. Requests forrestriction for a period of up to2yearsmustbemade in writing to the Registrar.Requestsforalongerperiodofrestrictionmaybeconsideredinexceptio^ aletter of support from the Supervisor or Head of School. Such requests must be submitted with the thesis/project report FOR OFFICE USE ONLY Date ofcompletionofrequirements for Award: R^gistrarand Deputy Principal TmS SHEET IS TO BE GLUED TO THE INSIDE FRONT COVER OF THE THESIS Gordian Satire The Novels of David Foster by Steven Conte Thesis submitted for the degree of Master of Arts (Honours), Department of English, University College, Canberra, University of New South Wales. 1994. 304916 Abstract Gordian Satire is a study of the novels of David Foster, focusing on the effect of their complexity on reader reception. The main Foster novels under consideration are those he has produced since the beginning of the 1980s, namely: Moonlite (1981), Plumbum (1983), Dog Rock (1985), The Adventures of Christian Rosy Cross (1986), Testostero (1987), The Pale Blue Crochet Coathanger Cover (1988), and Mates of Mars (1991). In five chapters, the thesis examines how Foster's fractured and idiosyncratic vision affects different facets of his fiction. Chapter One concentrates on the structures of the novels, using the notion of entropy as an analogue for the way Foster's plots tend to fragment and disintegrate as they progress. Chapter Two examines the complexity of Foster's use of language. The unusual nature of the novels' satire is the subject of the third chapter, which draws on Mikhail Bakhtin's theories on the French satirist Rabelais to highlight the medieval and Renaissance qualities of Foster's satire. Chapter Four explores the texts' repression of emotive themes such as death, love and sex, while Chapter Five discusses the implications of the politically extreme tone of many of the novels. The question of reader accessibility is never far away from the analysis of the complexity of various aspects of the novels. In the context of the threat posed to fiction by the increasing popularity of other entertainment media, the thesis periodically weighs the merit of Foster's characteristic refusal to orient the reader against a more accommodating, "seductive" approach to fiction. Acknowledgements I wish to express my gratitude to my supervisor Dr Susan Lever for her advice and assistance during the preparation of this thesis. Additional thanks are due to Associate Professor Joy Hooton for making possible my initial enrolment in the Masters program. Peter Looker and Catherine Pratt provided valuable inspiration and dissent. Table of Contents Abstract Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1 The Entropic Novel 15 Chapter 2 Preaching in Gibberish 51 Chapter 3 Joking in Earnest 85 Chapter 4 The Absent Subject 121 Chapter 5 Offending the Zeitgeist 144 Conclusion 181 Bibliography 185 Introduction No one ever liked modern jazz, it was like modern poetry. Though it compelled a kind of reluctant, begrudging admiration, it wasn't pleasant to listen to. .. It was difficult and thoughtful music, and even difficult, thoughtful people like mindless, simple music to relax with. Plumbum (p.388) On the evening of the 12th of September 1991, shortly after 9 p.m., David Foster clambered onto the small stage at the end of the bar of Tilley Devine's, a popular cafe in the Canberra suburb of Lyneham that had once catered exclusively for female customers, and which still retained the atmosphere of a feminist enclave. On this evening the cafe had attracted slightly older patrons than usual, including members of the Canberra literati and interested readers of Australian literature, as well as a sprinkling of Tilley's habitues, all present to witness readings by distinguished Australian writers. A video camera recorded the night's proceedings.! The author, wearing a black leather jacket, pulls up a bar stool, draws heavily on a cigarette and rests a bottle of beer on the keyboard lid of the piano provided for visiting jazz musicians. After adjusting the 1 Videorecording No. 1256, Australian Defence Force Academy library, Canberra. microphone he observes to the audience that the last time he came to Tilley's he was refused entry, and without further preamble begins to tell a fishing story, frequently pausing to pull on his cigarette and drink his beer. Foster is promoting his latest novel. Mates of Mars,^ but at no stage does he actually mention the book, choosing instead to recount his experiences as a deckhand on a prawn trawler in the Gulf of Carpentaria, experiences which provided part of the background material for the novel. He speaks softly with a broad Australian accent, smiling rarely and conveying the impression that he couldn't care less whether the audience likes him or not. Several minutes into the talk he contradicts this apparent indifference by pausing, and in exasperation urging the silent people to "Give us a go". Oddly enough, this plea seems to work. Foster's one-liners and wry observations begin to meet with laughter. His foreign accents and sound effects go down well. Against all expectations the author is proving to be a performer, but just as he appears to have won over the audience he makes a comment that seems calculated to cause maximum offence to these particular people. Having described the sight on a passing trawler of a woman at the sorting trays wearing only a G-string, he pauses and smiles: "Shameless tart, ay." I have recounted the "reading" in Canberra that night because it reproduces many of the key features of David Foster's fiction, as well as illustrating some of the problems of its reception. The subject matter, for example, is vintage Foster: hard manual labour in a meticulously observed Australian environment. The uncompromising, almost hostile delivery is equally typical, as is the apparently contradictory desire to be understood ("Give us a go")—contradiction of any kind is especially 1 Foster, Mates of Mars, Penguin, Ringwood, Vic., 1991. 7 typical of Foster's fiction. Slow, understated beginnings followed by accelerations are also a feature of many of the novels, and Foster is of course a comic writer, a manufacturer of gags. The similarities don't end there. David Foster is an author who plainly enjoys subverting the reader's expectations, and his refusal to read at a book reading is in this sense characteristic. The failure to mention the book at all, the sense that the real subject matter is missing, or present only by virtue of its absence, also typifies his fiction. But Foster is never content just to surprise, he must also provoke, as his selection of a sexist remark at a women's venue demonstrates. In life, and especially in his satire, he is a kind of reverse chameleon, emphasizing particular political colours in order to stand out in whatever environment he finds himself: red amongst conservatives, blue amongst radicals. At a fashionable book reading, no less than in his novels, this can lead to ambiguity. Do chain-smoking and drinking, for instance, signify bohemianism or working-class pride? Is the male-chauvinist wisecrack a kind of vulgarity, or evidence of a profound and sophisticated conservatism? It's difficult to escape the conclusion that Foster's guises actually represent an attempt to discomfort as many people as possible as often as he can, and it is surely significant that the Foster persona which would have been least threatening to an audience at a book reading, the quiet scholar we sometimes meet in the novels, was absent that night at Tilley's.