MONDAY 3/7/22

(Session #26 - c3300 words MS pp 453-468) Lawrence starts chapter xv, not with the dramatic events of the previous day, but with a continuation of the discursive, chatty tone of the "Bits" chapter. He opens by confessing, frankly, what his major problem is. […Chapter follows chapter, and nothing doing…] (It is possible that the opening of this chapter might have been partly written on Sunday, and thus a continuation of that session.) He upbraids the reader, […If you don't like the novel, don't read it…] reminding him/her what the novel is about […To be brief, there was a Harriet, a Kangaroo, a Jack and a Jaz and a Vicky, let alone a number of mere Australians…] adding some casual domestic detail […Harriet is quite happy rubbing her hair with hair-wash and brushing it over her forehead in the sun…] After bringing in his Dark God again, […outside the gate it is one dark God, the Unknown. And the Unknown is a terribly jealous God, and vengeful…] he moves on to convert the traumatic events of the previous day into text. [...Jack trotted over to Coo-ee on the Sunday afternoon...etc…] We are assuming - as mentioned above - that the published version, written later in Taos, is the more accurate. In the first version, written the day after it happened, there is little threat, and Callcott/Scott is sardonic and sarcastic - or ominous - rather than threatening, and it is Somers/Lawrence who speaks sharply, calling Cooley and Callcott "liars" because they act like "he-men", in contrast to Somers/Lawrence's "she-man". Scott comes on much more strongly - indeed, he is portrayed as downright evil - in the subsequent Taos revised version.

TUESDAY 4/7/22

Not a writing day, as Lawrence decides to go up to Sydney to make inquiries about their onward travel arrangements. He had intended to go to the American consulate in Martin Place to see about their U.S. visas, but he doesn't realise that July 4 is American Independence Day, and thus the consulate is closed. So he will have to go back tomorrow. Nevertheless, as Somers later does in chapter xvii, he no doubt goes to the Union Line shipping office. […Richard spent the afternoon going round to the Customs House and to the American Consulate with his passport, and visiting the shipping office to get a plan of the boat. He went swiftly from place to place…] However, he decides to remain in Sydney that night, so that he can go to the consulate when it reopens tomorrow. The probability is that he stays the night with the Hums in Chatswood, for in the morning he almost certainly goes to Taronga Park Zoo in the company of Hum's young daughter, Enid. (It now seems likely that Lawrence and Hum also spent some time that evening discussing the political situation in Sydney - see below.)

WEDNESDAY 5/7/22

In the morning Lawrence and Enid go to Taronga Park Zoo on the north side of the Harbour. […And yet, when he went over to the Zoo, on the other side of the harbour--and the warm sun shone on the rocks and the mimosa bloom, and he saw the animals, the tenderness came back. A girl he had met, a steamer-acquaintance, had given him a packet of little extra-strong peppermint sweets. The animals liked them…] He is particularly taken with the kangaroos. […The female wouldn't come near to eat. She only sat up and watched, and her little one hung its tiny fawn's head and one long ear and one fore-leg out of her pouch, in the middle of her soft, big, grey body…] He later makes use of this image when he writes his only poem about Australia, entitled "Kangaroo". [Delicate mother Kangaroo / Sitting up there rabbit-wise, but huge, plump-weighted, / And lifting her beautiful slender face, oh! so much more / gently and finely...] But when he gets to the consulate in Martin Place, there are problems. He is told that both he and Frieda will have to have photographs taken for their visas, and that Frieda must come up from Thirroul and go to the consulate in person. […both the Customs House and the Consulate wanted photographs and Harriet's own signature. She would have to come up personally…] So Lawrence had to catch the 2pm train back to Thirroul to fetch Frieda (there was no other way of contacting her, as "Wyewurk" didn't have a telephone). In the evening there is a full moon, and Lawrence probably goes for a walk along the moonlit beach before retiring. [..It was a time of full moon. The moon rose about eight. She was so strong, so exciting, that Richard went out at nine o'clock down to the shore. The night was full of moonlight as a mother-of-pearl. He imagined it had a warmth in it towards the moon, a moon-heat. The light on the waves was like liquid radium swinging and slipping…] Lawrence will make telling use of this "liquid radium" image when he writes his second-last chapter the following weekend. (He is probably also giving some considerable thought to where he was going with his novel, now that his access to King and Empire information has been cut off.)