Kangaroo / by D.H. Lawrence.

  • D. H. Lawrence
Date:
1923
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Kangaroo / by D.H. Lawrence. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    form. The sky is open above you, and the air is open around you. Not the old closing-in of Europe. But what then ? The vacancy of this freedom is almost terrifying. In the openness and the freedom this new chaos, this litter of bungalows and tin cans scattered for miles and miles, this Englishness all crumbled out into formlessness and chaos. Even the heart of Sydney itself -—an imitation of London and New York, without any core or pith of meaning. Business going on full speed : but only because it is the other end of English and American business. The absence of any inner meaning : and at the same time the great sense of vacant spaces. The sense of irrespon¬ sible freedom. The sense of do-as-you-please liberty. And all utterly uninteresting. What is more hopelessly unin¬ teresting than accomplished liberty ? Great swarming, teeming Sydney flowing out into these myriads of bungalows, like shallow waters spreading, undyked. And what then ? Nothing. No inner life, no high command, no interest in anything, finally. Somers turned over and shut his eyes. New countries were more problematic than old ones. One loved the sense of release from old pressure and old tight control, from the old world of water-tight compartments. This was Sunday afternoon, but with none of the surfeited dreariness of English Sunday afternoons. It was still a raw loose world. All Sydney would be out by the sea or in the bush, a roving, unbroken world. They all rushed from where they were to somewhere else, on holidays. And to-morrow they’d all be working away, with just as little meaning, working without any meaning, playing without any mean¬ ing; and yet quite strenuous at it all. It was just dazing. Even the rush for money had no real pip in it. They really cared very little for the power that money can give. And except for the sense of power, that had no real significance here. When all is said and done, even money is not much good where there is no genuine culture. Money is a means to rising to a higher, subtler, fuller state of consciousness, or nothing. And when you flatly don’t want a fuller con¬ sciousness, what good is your money to you? Just to chuck about and gamble with. Even money is a European invention—European and American. It has no real magic in Australia.
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