[ilds] Robert Dessaix on islomania

[Denise Tart & David Green]

To my mind the below text applies to LD in some measure - remembering that his last island was Cyprus, a bad experience and he never lived on one again

Islands are not just islands, are they? I mean, they are not just bits of land surrounded by water, they also stand for something less tangible, always half desired. When you look across the water and see an island, part of you wants to go there, don't you find? I can't help thinking it has got something to do with sudden resolution. there you are floundering in all that eddying, featureless water, with unseen horrors you can only guess at prowling beneath the surface, when suddenly an island appears on the horizon; such a blessedly fixed point, a place of longed for release from anxiety and aimlessness, not too mention the lurking monsters of the subconscious. So an island, even the flattest or rockiest or most barren, seems beautiful. It's the self we'd like to be. Dante of course, if you recall, says that Purgatory is an island, the realm of those who have not wilfully sinned, is an island. There reason still has some hope of becoming a vision.

- Robert Dessaix Night Letters.
Robert Dessaix is an Australian writer and radio commentator.


David Green
16 William Street
Marrickville NSW  2204
+61 2 9564 6165
0412 707 625
dtart at bigpond.net.au
www.denisetart.com.au
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