Antarctic Hoosh - The Genesis of a Keneally Novel

Abstract

"The cook ... proceeded to prepare the ingredients of the 'hoosh', by which term the hot, thick soup that constituted the sledging meal was generally known." (R.F. Scott, Voyage of the 'Discovery' Vol.I (1905), p.445) ... This article is concerned with the sources, actual and implicit, external, and from the writer's own earlier fiction, which make up the texture of his last published novel, 'A Victim of the Aurora' (1977), a work only released in Australia in the autumn of 1978. The method of attack was to read the book, reflect on its probably sources, investigate these thoroughly, and then to discuss them briefly with the novelist. The text given here is, it is hoped, a judicious blend of literary deduction, historical and literary biography, and a revelation of the novelist's creative speculations as to possible motor forces behind some of Antarctica's greatest heroes and most dedicated scientists. While the interpretations run the risk of appearing even more subjective than the novelist's several recensions, it is the critic's intention to show what was made of an apparently unexceptionable prototype) and how the possible psychological insights were turned to fictional use. In a number of cases the original's (subsequent) career was often surprising enough to furnish ample justification for the old adage that truth is often stranger than fiction.