Description
Book SynopsisGrounded Visionary: The Mystic Fictions of Gerald Murnane is a reading of Australian writer Gerald Murnane's fiction in the light of what is known as the Perennial Philosophy, a philosophical tradition that positions itself as the mystical foundation of all the world's religions and spiritual systems. The essential tenet of that philosophy is that at a fundamental level all of life is a unityconsciousness and world are the same thingand that it is possible, if extremely difficult, for the discriminating individual mind to experience this wholeness. Murnane's work can be seen not to take its lead from writings in this philosophical tradition but rather to resonate with many of them through Murnane's unique artistic expression of his experience of the world. The crux of the argument is that beneath their yearnings for landscapes and love, Murnane's narrators and chief characters are all in search of the essential unity that the Perennial Philosophy postulates.
Taking it
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments – Abbreviations – Introduction – The Infinite Sentence: Tamarisk Row – Necessary Angels: A Season on Earth – Hiding in Plain Sight: The Plains – Six Authors in Search of a Character: Landscape with Landscape – Find the Lady: Inland – First, Love: Stream System – "Where the Painted Places Ended": Barley Patch – To Literature, With Love: A History of Books – Through a Glass, Darkly: A Million Windows – Radiant Stains: Border Districts – Conclusion – Index.
