Liked his description of outback Australia

I you are going to Central Australia, then take this book. An intellectually large book that matches the large environment, the large images and the large sensations of being in the desert.

(Read May 2008) ( )

I can't remember when exactly I bought this book but it must have been a while ago. The price is still in guilders. I've reread it a few times now and it keeps impressing me. Bruce Chatwin (1940 - 1989) was an interesting man to say the least. Art expert, student of archaeology, traveller, writer, eternally curious and interested in a wide range of topics. I read four of his books in the last couple of years but I like The Songlines best. I probably need to replace this copy in the not too distant future. It was a very paperback and is going to fall apart.

It's not easy to pinpoint exactly what The Songlines is about. Throughout the book Chatwin talks about writing a book about nomadic people. Which is definitely a theme but doesn't really become important until the second half of the book. It is most widely known as the book where Chatwin presents the hypothesis that the songlines, a concept from Australian aboriginal mythology, are a mix of an map of the land, the story of creation and a sense of identity of the owner of the song. Putting it like that is an oversimplification of course. The concept is very complex. I don't think I could put it in words quite like Chatwin does. And from the book I get the impression even he only scratches the surface. It is an absolutely fascinating concept and although Chatwin doesn't mention it, I think it goes a long way to explaining why aboriginal culture has changed so little in thousands of years.

Gradually the focus in the book shifts from the songlines to the nomadic lifestyle in the widest sense of the word. there's a series of notes he made of his experiences with nomadic people and quotes from all kinds of sources on life, wandering, movement and poetry and linguistics. It touches of the origin of language, the evolution of Homo Sapiens, our primal fears and human aggression. Chatwin argues there's a link between human evolution, increasing brain size, development of language, walking upright and a nomadic lifestyle. It's the story of how we evolved from the hunted to the hunter, how we became the dominant species but also how our environment changed our lifestyle and how this lifestyle changes our behaviour. Suffice to say Chatwin, the eternal traveller prefers the nomadic lifestyle. He even remarks on how little sense it makes to writing a book about this subject.

To make his point Chatwin uses a lot of anecdotes of meetings he had with people over the years. They are interesting but probably not always a truthful report of the meeting. At least that is what a lot of his critics have said. His way of thinking, his way of making a point is very intuitive, not very scientific. I very much doubt some of his leaps would hold up under scientific scrutiny. That doesn't make them any less interesting though. The way Chatwin thinks is what makes the book worth reading. Not if he's actually right or not.

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Chatwin (In Patagonia, etc.) explores the area around Alice Springs, in central Australia, where he ponders the source and meaning of nomadism, the origins of human violence and the emergence of mankind amid arid conditions. Searching for "Songlines" the invisible pathways along which aboriginal Australians travel to perform their central cultural activities Chatwin is accompanied by Arkady Volchok, a native Australian and tireless bushwalker who is helping the aboriginals protect their sacred sites through the provisions of the Land Rights Act. Chatwin's description of his adventures in the bush forms the most entertaining part of the book, but he also includes long quotations from other writers, anthropologists, biologists, even poets. These secondary materials provide a resonant backdrop for the author's reflections on the distinctions between settled people and wanderers, between human aggression and pacifism.

An astonishing account of the world-view of the Australian aborigines and their oral traditions over the millennia preceding European colonisation. Hard to summarise - just read it! Chatwin's account is plausible, but is it true? A second opinion is needed. ( )