GT105 in 1986 was assessed by two assignments of 10% and 30% and a 60% examination.

The first assignment was due in May 1986 and had three alternatives. We had an extensive bibliography for each question, which was needed for external students away from the library databases in a preinternet world. It looks like I just asked the Thatcher library for the first ten or so suggested books as most of them turn up in the bibliography.

Topic C

Roger Scruton has defined conservatism as : “The political outlook which springs from a desire to conserve existing things, held to be either good in themselves, or better than the likely alternatives, or at least safe, familiar, and the objects of trust and affection.” (A Dictionary of Political Thought) Discuss, making some reference in your discussion to the opposing socialist view that conservatism is an ideology of class privilege and class exploitation.

Conservatism

… and what an angry little snot I was. The lecturer gently pointed out the many flaws in my arguments and kindly ignored most of my typos and referencing lapses. Having got my wife to type this from my execrable handwriting, I was at fault as a lousy proof reader and remain so to this day. ( I  know she typed it from the absence of correction fluid.)

Apart from a lamentable tendency to repetition, I noted on rereading this as I typed it into Word that I dropped in some religious matters. Later when doing more advanced government subjects I gravitated to the Christian thinkers and eventually I recall that I switched to studying the history of Christian thought instead.

Until I actually looked at my notes for this subject I had assumed that this was second semester in 1986, because that is where the grade was placed on my academic record. In fact this was a year long subject so I was actually studying two arts subjects in the first semester of 1986 along with working in a hospital etc etc. I must have been mad.

Although in the government department by coding, this subject originated in external studies and the lecturer is identified as from external studies rather than from the government department. The course materials were extensive, comprising 26 lectures and augmented by bibliographies and course readings. I also bought seven of the recommended texts, which were noted to be essential minimal reading, and some of which I have still to get around to. After introductory lectures on ideology and politics, the lecturer covered Liberalism, Conservatism, Democracy. Socialism, Marxism and Nationalism.

The lecturer was Dr Neil Thornton. I can find little trace of him on the net. I found an article from 1986 on “The Politics of Pornography.” It also appears he was Sigrid Thornton’s father. Other than that I can find nothing biographical about the lecturer, the absence of which implies either retirement many years ago or death before the internet tracked our lives.

Looking at my written work there was the problem that English and Government had differing citation styles. Government was old fashioned and similar to that required in Medicine at the time.  English was MLA and therefore sensible but with a learning curve.

The Introduction mentions a weekend seminar, which I was not able to attend and something about country visits. I don’t think he got to Bundaberg, but the thought of lecturers travelling to meet their external students does seem like something from another universe.

I have no recollection of why I chose this subject other than it looked interesting. My father was involved in union and Labor party politics, but I never, unlike my wife, studied anything specific to Australian politics. I suspect this was the start of my study in religion, about which more anon.

Halley’s comet had come and gone, my wife was 32 weeks pregnant, I think I should have been at work, but no, in June 1986, I was doing an introductory English Literature examination worth 50% of the course mark.

Barbara Garlick had given us extensive notes on the form of the exam and a sample paper. I suspect she had grave fears that as we were both first year Arts students and well dispersed in a pre-internet world, we external students needed all the help we could get.

We were allowed to keep the paper that has my notes made during the ten minute perusal. From these scratchings it looks to me that for the poetry section, I selected Milton’s sonnet “On the Late Massacre in Piedmont” and Owen’s “Anthem for Doomed Youth” to compare. For plays it was comparing the final scenes of “The Importance of Being Earnest” and “Saint Joan.” For prose writing there was a question that allowed me to comment on specified images from novels and short stories.  Given the option to discuss the cathedral in “The Spire” and snow in “The Dead”, it appears I took the opportunity to regurgitate some of my second assignment.

I must have done OK as I got a good mark for the subject, although as was customary, I got no specific feedback on the exam itself.

Reviewing the course materials, I’m taken by the depth of provided bibliographies, although how anyone would have had time to take advantage of the assistance is beyond me.

I’m up to May 1986, still before children, still working long hours at Bundaberg hospital (pre Dr Patel) and apparently I was spending my spare hours reading novels and short stories from the EN104 reading list. Bundaberg was dragging, as we had gone to every half decent restaurant enough times to be blasé and I was doing the same job as the previous two years. On the plus side we had moved out of the hospital flats and were renting a nice house on the other side of town. My wife was pregnant with our first child and she was finishing work about this time I think and the second assignment is better typed, so I strongly suspect I did not type this assignment. I found what looks like an attempt at a full hand written version that was probably the manuscript for her labours.

In a delightful turn around, a daughter nowhere near born in 1986 was kind enough to retype her mother’s typing into Word for me.

I recall being most impressed with “The Spire” but have little recollection of Joyce’s short story.

The assignment was:

Modern theories of narrative have placed stress on the elements of repetition and pattern in fiction. Choose two pieces of fiction studied this semester and show how repetition is used and how it builds the pattern of the work.

The Spire and The Dead

I was rightly chipped for appalling referencing and can only assume I forgot to indicate the pages of the quotes or had yet to master MLA style, but I was pleased to have it labelled excellent apart from that. As further evidence of the hard work going on in this first year subject we were sent a copy of a really good essay with which to compare our own. I can guarantee that in a lot of study since, I have seen very little to match the thoroughness of this initial Arts subject. I certainly don’t recall that sort of interest in those running the medical course at the time.

I’ve recently seen the Spire at Salisbury Cathedral that inspired the book. It certainly looks a risk.

My first assignment in EN104 (and Arts) was:

Write an Essay in which you locate and describe the speaking voice in “To his coy mistress” and “My last duchess.”

To his Coy Mistress
by Andrew Marvell
Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness, lady, were no crime.
We would sit down and think which way
To walk, and pass our long love’s day;
Thou by the Indian Ganges’ side
Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide
Of Humber would complain. I would
Love you ten years before the Flood;
And you should, if you please, refuse
Till the conversion of the Jews.
My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than empires, and more slow.
An hundred years should go to praise
Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze;
Two hundred to adore each breast,
But thirty thousand to the rest;
An age at least to every part,
And the last age should show your heart.
For, lady, you deserve this state,
Nor would I love at lower rate.

But at my back I always hear
Time’s winged chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.
Thy beauty shall no more be found,
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound
My echoing song; then worms shall try
That long preserv’d virginity,
And your quaint honour turn to dust,
And into ashes all my lust.
The grave’s a fine and private place,
But none I think do there embrace.

Now therefore, while the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin like morning dew,
And while thy willing soul transpires
At every pore with instant fires,
Now let us sport us while we may;
And now, like am’rous birds of prey,
Rather at once our time devour,
Than languish in his slow-chapp’d power.
Let us roll all our strength, and all
Our sweetness, up into one ball;
And tear our pleasures with rough strife
Thorough the iron gates of life.
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.

My Last Duchess

by Robert Browning

My first proper Arts subject was Barbara Garlick’s “TheStudy of Literature.” Garlick went on to become very influential in gender studies. My daughter tells me gender studies were abolished at UQ because it was no longer an issue. Sure.

I’m not sure how appalled I was to discover there were 60 poems, 5 novels, 4 short stories and five plays to be studied, with at least a half of these requiring close study. This was along with an introduction to literary terms and how to read literature. There were five thick volumes of course materials plus a bibliography. We were even given sample assignments of varying quality to let us know what was expected.  There was an optional “Brisbane School” which I am sure I was unable to attend due to work commitments. There were two assignments and an examination that I recall taking with little company at the Bundaberg outpost.

Novels: Sense and Sensibility, Great Expectations, Mrs Dalloway, The Spire, Heart of Darkness

Short Stories: The Dead, The Prussian Officer, Mary Postgate.

Plays: The Tempest, The Beggar’s Opera, The Importance of Being Earnest, Saint Joan, The Birthday Party.

I suppose I read them all.

Fast forward to 1986. I have been practising in Bundaberg at the hospital for two years and finding it all a bit mind numbing.

From where I don’t know, I found out that a medical degree gave credit towards an arts degree and, this is a long time ago, it didn’t cost anything to study!

I choose to study English to start with. Now in 1977 when deciding on further study I wanted to be an engineer, having shown some aptitude in maths and sciences. I went to several information evenings where the presenters told us we were all mad and that there was no demand for engineers at all and we should look elsewhere.  Not surprisingly I believe there was a shortage of engineers in 1981. I was so keen to try engineering I even applied for a cadetship to work and study part time as an engineer. Months later having by then chosen Medicine as a trade with prospects, I received an acceptance for a cadetship in architecture! I had forgotten by then that a second preference had been required and I’d ticked architecture out of necessity rather than enthusiasm. To the lasting benefit of the industry I declined.

The truth is that without a vocational imperative I would have studied English, but not having the financial backing, courage nor imagination to think of a career to which that would lead, Medicine was scary but secure. The guidance counsellor told me I could apply for a state scholarship to support me from Year One so I applied for Medicine.  This turned out to be nonsense and, fortuitously as it turned out, I didn’t get a state scholarship until third year and so only had to work four years in the hospital system.

So here was my chance to study English. External studies at UQ in those days was a joy and a model of efficiency until it was dismantled half way through my degree. You had detailed notes mailed to you, a dedicated library (the Thatcher) at your service, and patient lecturers. Exams were held in regional centres and when you requested books the library would send what you asked for but also added what you should have asked for!

A practical issue was the 50+ hours a week of exhausting work at the hospital. I can only think that since my wife and I were doing the same job we were often alone for long hours while the other was working.