Celebration the Light: the Fiction Neil M. Gunn of of John Burns PhD. University Edinburgh of 1982 0E* rn X ctp ý*Af n hereby declare that this tnesis is John Bums a CONTENTS ABSTRACT. i CONVENTIONS ii ACKNOWLEDGEWTS iii CHAPTER ONE 1 CHAPTER TWO 28 CHAPTER THREE 53 CHAPTER FOUR 84 FIVE 113 -CHAPTER CHAPTER SIX 142 CHAPTER SEVEN 171 CHAPTER EIGHT 197 BIBLIOGRAPHY 223 i This thesis re-examines and re-assesses the fiction of Neil M. Gunn in the light Gunn's demonstrable interest in, latterly of and Eastern Zen Buddhism Taoism. These study of, such philosophies as and their belief in the Enlightenment to philosophies with possibility of the "Suchness" the through the reality or of world practice-of meditation, be to illustrate Gunn's offer a philosophical model which can used vision the Delight. Gunn's idea that of world as a realm of wonder and man can does to this "other landscapg" Delight in brief flashes and penetrate of intuitive insight the Zen of closely parallels concept of satorl or 91sudden illuminatioe'. Yet it late in his-life,, towards the was only end his Gunn the between his of writing careerpthat recognised parallels fundamental these long-established Eastern own philosophical stance and thought. And this life Delight-is ways of while concept of as often' ignored disparaged by it is this that or critics, around very concept Gunn's fiction All his interests historical, coheres. other political, - find their here. sociological and psychological - common centre The followed has been to discuss Gunn's method a selection of navels in to the development this chronological order so as show scope and of 6f his fiction. Simultan--Ously, is aspect each chapter concerned with different the is to both aspects of process of meditation which central Zen Taoism, that the is Gunn's interest in and so reader made aware of Eastern living intellectual philosophy as a reality and not simply as an concept. The is that the his conclusion when each of varied elements of fiction is in harmony with this central intuition, then Gunn's vision Scotland, life, is of and of enriched with a philosophical subtlety in Scottish fiction. unique ii CONVENTIONS Each is identified by footnote quotation either a or, where by to Neil Gunn's possible, a pmrenthetical reference one of works identified by initials The to and page number. page references are the first table initials the to they edition and a of and works which is below. refer given Manuscript from the National Library Scotland quotations of are identified by Accession from National number and manuscript quotations Library Scotland Deposit 209 further identified by box of are number then by folder In is identified by number. addition correspondence date the following writer, recipient, and using contractions: JB John Burns IM Iain MacArthur GF Geoffrey Faber TN Tokusaburo Nakamura (Hugh CMG C. M. Grieve MacDiarmid) JBP J. B. Pick NMG Neil M. Gunn WCW William Carlos Williams FBH Francis Russell Hart -0- AD The Atom Deligh 19.56 of B Bloodhunt 1952 BB Butcher's Broom 1934 DW The Drinking Well 1946 GIGD The Green Isle the Great Deep 1944 of W The Grey Coast 1926 HD Hidden Doors 1929 HP Highland Pack 1949 HR Highland River 1937 KC The Key the Chest 1945 of LC The Lost Chart 1949 LG The Lost Glen 1932 MT Morning Tide 1930 OL The Other Landscape. 1954 SS Second Sight 1940 S The Serpent 1943 Sh The Shadow 1948 SB The Silver Bough 1948 SD The Silver Darlings 1941 SC Sun Circle 1933 1951 WWE The Well the World's End at 1939 WGO Wild Geese Overhead t942 YAOH Young Art Old Hector and iii ACKNOWIEDGEMENTS Thanks due to: the Edinburgh Public Libraries are staff of and Edinburgh University Library; to the the National Library staff of of Scotland to Mr Stanley Simpson, Assistant Keeper in the Department and Manuscripts in that Library; to Mr Diarmid Gunn for of allowing access to Neil Gunn's for to from them; to Colin papers and permission quote Nicholson, George Bruce, Alex Reid, Stewart Conn, F. R. Hart and with I discussed Neil Gunn's life to Alan whom various aspects of and art; Spence, William Dolby J. B. Pick and who offered valuable criticism in the the at various stages preparation of manuscript. Finally, I like to thanks to three would extend a special word of this thesis have been to people without whom would never completed: my Supervisor Dr. Ian Campbell; to typist Ayin MacSween; lastly to my and Vivien. my wife CHAPTER 1. I- For Neil Gunn, for the American William Carlos Williams, as poet the to become "a the light", fact act of writing was celebration of a Williams he to Gunn in 1959 Gunn's which acknowledged when wrote about The Drinking Well. Williams' letter is lost but judge novel we can its tone from Gunn's reply: thank for letter "The Drinking Well". That you your about ... kind heartening the was of you, and and more so when you - that both backgrounds suggested we are writing out of and in idioms for their for "establislunent". own sake and not any Though the did full I took the meaning not come*in until air first "The Wanderer". Then I in with your poem, understood - the that is beyond just knowing. The the light, place sweep, the living moment, the livingness of the moment that, there, - behind, it intimately, around, what 'was all so marvellously, I about. What in the each recognised other was an ability to penetrate beyond surfaces, to see right into the heart of things, to "the comprehend living the livingness the moment, of the to moment", and ability convey this to his same sense of wonder This is readers. quality encapsulated in Williams'-- "Asphodel, poem That Greeny Flowee' facing where a man death the realises possibility of a moment of timeless peace and light in the before the thunderstroke split second death itself. & of In the huge gap between the flash the thunderstroke and has in spring come deep fallen. or a snow Call it old age. In that stretch havý 1. ived to we see A kick his heels. colt up NMG-WCW, November 19.59. The letter in draft in NLS Dep. 2091 appears bx. l: f. l. 2 W. C. Williams, "Asphodel, That Greeny Flower". in Pictures from 79 Breughel Connecticut, 19ý'Z 178-179- and other poems, PP. -(Norfolk, 2. In this moment of freedom the poet has attained to a state of being in time them have to which space and as we normally experience ceased life is in its immediacy exist and experienced all as a realm of delight. wonder and This irradiates Neil Gunn's fiction, same quality of awareness it is by light itself, his central image of where often symbolised being that literally filled light. complete awareness of a world with the fill The through,, and all world would with sun would pierce the light light; brim tremble and and spill over, and off sped over the grass and in among the wild roses and glittering across had the the The freshness sea. sheer of such a moment surely (HP in it, first spirit of creation a creation. P-157) This light became the vision of a world of still point around which Gunn's fiction his interests historical, coheres; all of many other - find their sociological, psychological, and political common centre - here. This is the 'message' his The Atom of autobiographical work, of Delight, book the his the a published at end of writing career giving his techniques. author's view of subjects and If the reader can grasp this the overriding vision of world as a creative process, then everything 0 in the falls into else novels place. At the heart Gunn's lies the of vision a profound awareness of I life And Ii., he dominant nterrelat ýcliess of all where-s movd of modein - literature is bleak laid the and pessimistic with much stress on alienation the individual both from from his of society and own essential nature, Gunn's fiction integration conveys a real sense of and wholeness -a he to Delight. His books filled this which referred as are with quality Delight intense'awareness the living the of an of variety of sense - involvement in it. The boy, Kenn, in HighlandRiver, and of man's world, life in its down to the village harbour and there encounters all g oes 3. vibrant movement and colour. All the life that little Highland the of world met where the When' the harbour to high tide river met sea. swung and the boats in their herring, human came with shots of activity brimmed the herrings the basket the two over as over cran when the halyard faces to the fist men on rope, sky, pulled over fist, in heaving Limber blue-jerseyed, lean rhythm. men, with belly hips, dancers. And muscles and slender quick-footed as dancers they They dance in the leather great were. could sea- boots that to their thighs, drunk-en in came or sway a public house feet.... on rooted It doing. It had the was a world of action, of warmth of in faces flashingeyes. One to it colour and of could rush (HR 67) with excitement. p. -- And in The Well the World's End, Peter Munro, in his for at quest has this the enlightenment, remarkable vision of world: As he followed the the bushes together into slanting path came low that had looked from distance like a sheltering wood a a the hillside. Stunted birch trees hazels full coverlet on and of small singing or chirping birds: chaffinches, tits, green linnets, blackbird, a scolding flash, a resounding robin; a flight, a a scurry; with bounteous for one green-leaved space Looking and all. upon this he forgot ardent coloured world himself thought and of nothing, his had time for so eye an extra clarity of vision, an unusual capacity to perceive and to distinguish. It delightful, was forever into shading off the the subtle and rare, delight behind delight in an objectivity the birdnotes external as and almost beyond him, like as clear; the fragrant he breathed. (WWE air P-102) 0 Peter Munro's encounter with life in its infinite is variety presented here in the the different the birds, evocation of colours and sounds of r% in the tex turv of the d_'Te: L . rei, t trees an! in the scent u. " their green - leaved lit by the bright space, all sunlight of a northland summer and all held in the rhythm of the language, so that the abstract "delight behind delight" the the birds. This kind echoes actual movement of of is it brings together writing rare; abstract and concrete, and conveys the living in is intimately a real sense of world as a organism which man involved. It describes, but in the that not only also awakens reader beyond logic, is direct "ektma clarity of vision" which goes and a