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Explanatory Notes
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55 Swinging the Maelstrom explanatory notes As is the case with the text of the novella published above, these notes towards Swinging the Maelstrom are based on the unpublished manuscript (UBC 157 , made in 1942–44; and UBC 15-8, a carbon of a new typescript of the same version, made in 1951) as representing the most substantial version of the text. UBC 15-7 was the text translated into French by Michèle d’Astorg and Clarisse Francillon, and published in Esprit 2, 3 & 4 (1956; the pages in Lowry’s copies at UBC are uncut); 15-8 adds in its final pages a few new elements for a more positive reading (see Introduction above). For Lowry’s far-ranging speculations about these matters and his wider intentions, see his letter to Robert Giroux (CL 2:498–506 [17 January 1952]), in which he suggests that the various versions might one day be published as an interesting trilogy. This is a later response to much earlier work, but it affirms Swinging the Maelstrom as the text by which the potentialities of the other versions should be judged. In particular, Lowry identifies its rhythm, its exhilaration, its expressionism, as “a sort of jazz record” (505), however cracked it might be. The approach adopted here is similar to that assumed in A Companion to Under the Volcano, in my [Chris Ackerley’s] Annotations to Kathleen Scherf’s edition of The Collected Poetry of Malcolm Lowry, and in my Notes to the screenplay of Tender Is the Night (Ackerley 31–50). The first principle is that “each interpretive problem requires its own distinct context of relevant knowledge” (Hirsh vii). Thus, the notes attempt to define the problems and present the necessary information. The second principle is that of literary tact, of not imputing to the text more significancethanitcanreasonablybear.Yetthereistheproblemofthepalimpsest in Swinging the Maelstrom, more so than in Lowry’s other works: his revisions led to a “smoothing” of the text, the erasure of the more obvious signs of literary and other influence. Why, for instance, should the various “horrors” be associated with Conrad? Answer: because earlier versions of the text make clear what was later less evident. What about changes of direction and intention? There are difficulties, practical and hermeneutical, in swinging this swirling maelstrom, but references to The Last Address and other versions have been invoked only where Swinging the Maelstrom 56 obviously pertinent. I have tried to maintain a simple equilibrium, bearing in mind the response of Blondin, tightrope-walking across Niagara, and told that he must be mad: “Oh, no, I have to be particularly well-balanced.” note: Cross-references to this edition of the manuscript of Swinging the Maelstrom are in bold type, e.g., 21:28 (page 21, line 28); those to other entries in this commentary are of the form #21:28 (my note to page 21, line 28). Double quotation marks are used for quotations. Punctuation that is part of the quoted text is included within the quotation marks; that which is not part of the quoted text is placed outside them. “LA” indicates citations from and references to The Last Address. Title. Swinging the Maelstrom: invoking jazz rhythm as metaphor, and with reference to the infamous whirlpool off the Norwegian coast, Poe’s vortex, the haunt of Leviathan and entrance to the Abyss (see #20:10). In “Forest Path to the Spring” (Hear Us O Lord 252), the jazz composer narrator suggests this to his friends as a possible title for a number they are recording. The novella remained unpublished save in the French translation until 1963, when Earle Birney and Margerie Lowry published in the Paris Review 8 (1963) an amalgam of the two versions under the title of Lunar Caustic. The reference is to silver nitrate, as used for cauterizing, the removal of warts, or (Lowry believed) in the treatment of syphilis. This version was republished by Cape (1968), Penguin (1979), and included in Psalms and Songs (1975). Lowry’s desire to expand earlier variations is outlined most fully in a letter of 17 January 1952 to Robert Giroux (CL 2:498–507), where the jazz rhythms are analyzed in detail, as a form of expressionism that finds its literary equivalent in the pages to follow. The Last Address had as epigraph thelastverseofKennethFearing’s“Dirge”(fromCollectedPoems),whichcelebrates (if that is the word) in exuberant terms the downfall (“And wow he died as wow he lived”) of a citizen; Swinging the Maelstrom, somewhat uncharacteristically...