SATURDAY 8/7/22

But this long, discursive opening to chapter xvi poses a problem, for it really shouldn't be there. Plotwise, the chapter should begin with an account of Somers's trip up to Sydney to attend the "big public meeting" (as does the second session in the chapter, section #32). That is what Lawrence's "research" in Sydney earlier in the week would seem to have dictated. Presumably, that major-key ingredient or plot-element was already in his mind, and waiting to be put down on paper. One is tempted to assume that the "herd-instinct" opening to "A Row in Town" was written earlier, and is linked in some way to - perhaps a continuation of - the discursive section at the start of the previous chapter, "Jack Slaps Back", about bullocks being trapped in a muddy waterhole. (On the other hand, it might have already been partly "processed", and thus was "in the queue" waiting its turn to be written, for it is likely that Lawrence composed or prepared his text in his mind before putting it down on paper - "as if he were taking dictation" - see above.) Yet it is in its correct place, for immediately above it Lawrence wrote the name of the chapter, "A Row in Town", which implies that he indeed intended to go on to recount the story of the riot in "Canberra House" in this chapter. So why does he begin, apparently irrelevantly […The thing that Kangaroo had to reckon with, and would not reckon with, was the mass-spirit…] rather than [...Richard came up to the big mass meeting of Labour in the great Canberra Hall, in Sydney…]? One is tempted to sweep this question under the carpet. Ordinarily, the answer would be that he is "filling in" or "padding out" the text until he had something more active to write about. But that cannot be the case here, as it undoubtedly is elsewhere, for he had "more active" ingredients at hand. Two possible explanations present themselves. The first is that he needed to absorb or digest the more eventful material before it was ready to be written down. The other is that he is not "filling in" at all, and that he indeed wants to talk about herd-instinct, before going on to the action at "Canberra House". Perhaps in this "herd-instinct" sub-section there is something more substantive than we initially realise. Certainly some significant issues are raised in it...the actions of the mob, communication between various animals and humans, the role of dictatorial leadership (Lawrence mentions D'Annunzio), and the increasingly-present Dark God that enters from below. It's just that they have little, apparently, to do with advancing the novel's political "action". Yet it may be that this "minor-key" chapter-element points to something more significant. Perhaps these "discursive" ingredients are, for Lawrence, an equally-important part of the text, and the "action" some sort of framework on which to attach what he really wants to write about. Surely he did not seriously think that a diary of his daily doings - his comings and goings - in Sydney and Thirroul would rivet his readers. No - it is his thoughts and comments woven into them which they would be interested in. Hence, perhaps, his flagrant lack of concern about the possible "real life" consequences of what he was doing - reflected in the otherwise incredibly-naive question later addressed - from Taos - to his U.S. publisher, Seltzer: […Do you think the Australian Govt. or the Diggers might resent anything?...] Perhaps, for Lawrence, the ostensible central plot-element of the activities of the Diggers and Maggies is of no more importance to his overall purpose as is, for example, his bus-trip from Wollongong to Thirroul, as described above in the "Bits" chapter. It may be that these "minor-key" and "major-key" ingredients are of a piece - all equally-necessary parts of the framework for his "gramophone of a novel"...his intended "diary/romance". Be that as it may, the main - second - section of chapter xvi duly describes Somers/Lawrence's fictional trip up to town to meet Struthers/Garden […Richard got up in the dark, to catch the six o'clock train to Sydney…] and goes on to relate the two meetings (the morning one being a reprise of the original meeting with Garden in chapter xi, "Willie Struthers and Kangaroo") in the Trades Hall/Canberra House (session #33 MS pp 492-518 - more than 5000 words, from going up to Sydney, to the end of "A Row in Town").