![]() However, Humphrey Bower's reading of the novel, with the myriad voices he assumed, was quite brilliant from beginning to end. White no doubt counts as a genius himself, but my once-high view of his writing has gone way down. I had a great sense of letdown while reading this novel. His disgust for his sister Rhoda, from the moment he sets eyes on her, is reported as being quite forgiveable, and his attitude to the unfortunate Cutbush is never less than lordly. ![]() And he believes his role and talents (genius, rather) give him the right to sneer constantly at all the 'ordinary' people with their banal lives and boring utterances. Duffield paints as he is 'meant to' - choice and rational processes have nothing to do with it. He sees the artist as almost a godlike figure, to whom ideas and paintings are 'given'. There is little doubt that White enshrined his vision of the artist in the mind of the painter Hurtle Duffield of The Vivisector. Coetzee and Thomas Keneally in rediscovering Nobel Laureate Patrick White Hurtle Duffield, a painter, coldly dissects the weaknesses of any and all who. However, nearly 50 years later I find the novel quite distasteful, though full of White's characteristic poetic prose. Buy a cheap copy of The Vivisector book by Patrick White. The Vivisector study guide contains a biography of Patrick White, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. ![]() The Vivisector was the first novel by Patrick White which I really enjoyed, having failed to do so, with Voss and The Tree of Man. ![]()
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