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Notes
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Author's note: 'An architectural draughtsman, I have sustained an interest in the influence of architecture upon fiction in essays (Crew, 1992, 2001, 2009), short stories (Crew 2004), and novels (Crew 1999, 2001, 2009). The creative extract attached is from an unpublished novel entitled The Architecture of Song in which the protagonist, Augustus, a dwarf, emerges from the womb-like space beneath his mother's Laurentian piano to re-construct a variety of architectural sites using the poetics of song. Extending Heidegger's concept of the 'poetically constructed man', the extract suggests that such a character has the poetic means to 'reconstruct' persons, even as Augustus alters the character of Rosa, and ultimately, as the entire novel reveals, through the employment of the poetics of his sublime voice, to reconstruct 'the temple' of his own dwarfish body in a celebration of self.'
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Related Works
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y
The Architecture of Song
Sydney
:
HarperCollins Australia
,
2012
Z1858728
2012
single work
novel
'Small, but perfectly formed. Augustus is not a dwarf. He is perfectly proportioned, just on a smaller scale than other people. Abandoned by his mother at the circus, he is taken on by Rosa, a fiery and supremely pragmatic girl who sees great opportunity in the power of Augustus's voice. For when the little boy opens his mouth and sings, everyone's most personal and cherished memories are evoked, reducing even the most belligerent to tears ...' (Trove record)
Last amended 28 Aug 2024 08:16:44
