Reviewed by Ian Hamilton
It may be that there are more periods of history when this book would have been banned than periods of history when this book would be published. Think back to the test cases of the twentieth century, perhaps most famously that of D. H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
Although published in Italy (1928) and France (1929) unedited versions were banned in places such as the USA, Britain and Australia. It was censored because it was considered obscene.
This may seem like a quaint notion to present day readers but the book was “put on trial” in London in 1960. The jury found the unedited version “not guilty”. The text was considered to have literary merit and the publishers (Penguin) acquitted of any breach of the Obscenities Act of 1959.
Rite of Spring is set on a rugged Tasmanian island. A couple (Miranda and Richard) apply to be lighthouse keepers for six months, apparently in response to a mysterious diving accident which has happened in Miranda’s immediate past. What happens on the island is some form of intense mental and sexual awakening.
Can the explicit sexual descriptions found in The Rite of Spring also be seen as an integral part of a work of literary merit? Perhaps that is not even a pertinent question anymore, none- the- less it is one possible portal to reviewing the book.
The Case for the Defence
It might be said that this book exemplifies daring and original writing. Kris Kneen draws the reader into a complex world of affective experiences manifested both in an interior world of submerged imaginings and an exterior world of bodily caressing.
The use of watery motif and surreal sequences draws us into our protagonist’s troubled recovery from a near-death accident. (Although the writer does somewhat play with us about whether Miranda is actually alive: “She was nothing in this place but a ghost” p208)
There are elements of archetypal identity too, as the relationship between genital identity and selfhood ebb and flow throughout the text with splendid tidal vigour. One of the great themes of literature is transformation and this novel belongs to that tradition.
It has human characters, strange/ very strange sea creatures, and animated landscapes. Just as the landscape in, for example, Wuthering Heights may be interpreted as having a personality, so too, the furious sea and fierce storms that batter the Lighthouse Island have an ominous presence. They amplify the moods and dilemmas faced by Miranda (and to a lesser extent Richard).
Because of the author’s use of third person narration the reader has, potentially at least, omniscient access to the primal images and emotions found in the book. These are complexly interwoven and can be a little like drowning. Such powerful writing may be said to take skill and bravery.
Lastly, the text belongs to a literary tradition of allusion. It is Miranda in The Tempest who is given the famous line: “O brave new world/ that has such people in’t.” (V i 269) Like the novel, Shakespeare’s last play has a grotesque presence (Caliban). So too, Kneen’s Miranda is surrounded by strange and disturbing creatures, real? or imaginary? There are also Biblical references, although the dualism of God/ Devil may seem archaic to many readers: “Oh my Lord protect me from consummating this demonic union again.” (author’s italics) (p152) Lastly, the title reminds us of Stravinsky’s shocking departure from musical politeness, which lead to a riot at the Paris premier of the ballet (1913). Book and score: both successfully raw, primal and disturbing or needlessly shocking?
The Case for the Prosecution
It is possible to accuse the text of a wordy development of a thin and confusing plot. Perhaps the storyline only exists so that the erotic needs of Miranda can be revealed in detail.
While some readers will respond positively to the gothic conventions (isolation, bleakness, lurid imaginings and dubious sanity), others may not. The sea creature’s fantastic sexual abilities are not placed into a world of credible events and when Richard also sees it, the book moves into magic realism (For many readers magic realism is an acquired taste). Those generic devices may not justify the oceanic journey into what the blurb describes as a “psychosexual page turner”. The book does have an identifiable denouement but the final section “The Abyss” has some melodramatic aspects which might be seen to push the book out of the type of writing most critics think of as literature. If this is so, we may recall that it was the judgment of Lawrence’s literary merit that saved Lady Chatterley’s Lover from the censors’ condemnation.
Rite of Spring
[2026]
by Kris Kneen
Transit Lounge Publishing
ISBN: 978 1 9230 2358 1
$34.99; 263pp