[ilds] Haughty Gideon and peasant dialoque

[Denise Tart & David Green]

two marked pages after reading LD this morning. On page 17 of my Faber paperback edition of Reflections we come across the ungentlemanly conduct of Captain Gideon towards the well-meaning Sergeant Croker. Croker had gone to the trouble of reading up a little on the history of the place which, given the erudite company he was walking with, was probably a mistake. Neverless, Gideon's response is unworthy

'My dear man, it is no good you rambling on about it. the thing is horrible. A design for a Neapolitan ice perhaps.'

'very good, sir.'
'Anyone who thinks it is beautiful is an idiot.'
'Very good, sir.'
'And stop repeating "Very good, sir" like a parrot.'
'Yes, sir.'

While I got a laugh out of this wodehousian exchange, it made me wince also. maybe in 1945 this relationship between officers and NCO's was acceptable, but it is a blight upon Gideon's character, regardless of his abomination of Italian design. I certainly know what an Australian sergeant would possible have done, irrespective of the charges.

I turn now to Orientations in Sunlight where the Grecian characters begin to emerge and a new layer of island exploration is enjoyed through them as well as the English characters. for the first time we encounter LD dialoque with a local Greek, Manoli the fisherman. Durrell clearly loves the idea of the peasant philosopher, but we must be careful with his reported dialogue - how much is reportage and how much is fiction.

'But you could reach the saddle with better education, book - learning.'
'Who can say what I should gain - and what I should lose?'
Who indeed?

This makes a nice point, I suppose, but it is easy to sentimentalise the peasants - and Durrell himself is aware of this. He warns against it in Prospero's Cell, but in both books he has his peasant philosphers; Father Nicholas and Manoli. Maybe the Greeks have a philosophical turn of phase, afterall it is their word, going right back to the ancients. An old Greek bloke I worked with years ago said:

'Davie, in Australia I am King!'
'Why is that Stavro?'
'I have house, I have garden, I have fruit tree to sit under and what for I worry for the broom?'

Stavro swept the factory floor and did general odd jobs around the plant that needed doing. a low stress job.

Durrell's peasant dialoques are an interesting study.

David




Denise Tart & David Green
16 William Street, Marrickville NSW 2204

+61 2 9564 6165
0412 707 625
dtart at bigpond.net.au
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