Art & Books

THE SONGLINES
Bruce Chatwin

An adventure in Australia? No. A traveller's log? No. An aboriginal rite of passage tale? No. A historical account? No. Songlines is the story of the Dreaming. It is a book about all the above in no particular order.

The story unfolds when Bruce, the author and narrator starts his learning about Australia and the Aboriginal people through Arkady, a Russian-born Australian with a thorough but not glamorous understanding of the Aboriginals. Bruce is searching for himself the true meaning of the Songlines. This is his Work. By listening to Arkady, he learns. By going to Australia, he understands, or does he?

The Aboriginals are a people who trod lightly on the Earth. The land should be left untouched since the Ancestors sang the world into existence during the Dreamtime. Each Ancestor is a self-molded god who rose from the clay to represent a particular species. Species here is defined broadly to mean a wallaby, a virus, or even a stone. Each Ancestor travelled across Australia leaving behind an imprint of lyrics and notes. These Dreaming-tracks are a ways of communication between far-flung tribes who don't share the same conventional language but who understand the lexicon of that Songline. It's more than a ticket or a passport, it's a story. A spaghetti of Iliads and Odysseys told through the Earth. Every part of the Earth was a story, a songline for some tribe. Every feature of the landscape was a piece, an episode, or a story; some masterpieces, some banal. The conception of the Earth during the Dreaming was the ultimate in perfection; the Ancestors practiced, in the truest sense of the word, creation. Each Aboriginal's Self is his Songline and his Work is to practice the ritual of following his songline on his Walkabout to find his conception point, his tjuringa. Country is not area, it is a network of lines. (Sounds like we've come full-circle with the Internet?)

The conflict arises from the railroad's need to draw a straight line from point A to point B; destroying all the songs in its path. Arkady's Work is to teach as many non-knowing people as possible about the importance of the Aboriginal's land. Another conflict is Bruce's struggle to learn. Don't forget the unforgiving climate and the challenge to stay alive. Or the Aboriginal's struggle to rid itself of its vices like drink to face the white world. Or Old StanTjakamarra's struggle to realize that the paintings he sold to Mrs. Lacey were of far greater value than he realized. Or Arkady and the beautiful Marian and the weave of their occasional love affair.

The story centers around a trip from Alice Springs to the outback and never back again. Arkady and Bruce get stranded and learn to cope. It smells of Lawrence of Arabia without the War. A man's learning and appreciation for his hosts.

Bruce continuously tries to reconcile the Songlines with his absolutely unbelievable and extensive knowledge of Westren literature and philosophy. By stretching his mind around all that he knows, he finally escapes the linearity of time and the rationality of comparisons. Nearing the end of his account, he abandons all form and just writes all the notes from his journal, separated by dimaonds.

Bruce's Work is the exploration of Life itself. A noble and satisfying task. And more than any other text I have ever read, The Songlines makes some inroads.
…but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day.
Deuteronomy 34:6
You cannot travle on the path before you have become the Path itself
Gautama Buddha
It is good to collect things, but it is better to go on walks
Anatole France