In late 1973 I began working on a novel drawing together my thoughts, experiences and literary influences from this very volatile time in Brisbane. Manacles was a mix of Brisbane scenes, Flann O'brien "novel within a novel" structure and Joycean internal monologue. Mostly the novel was a collection of vignettes describing times I spent with a couple of close friends, named Charles and Maria in the book.
Some of the sections are excercises in form rather than content - the dense passages are versions of the book with repeated words removed. The fictional Brisbane was unstable (not well constructed). It burned, and then sank into the sea. The second dense passage is made from the dialogue in the book, condensed and drifting in bubbles to the surface of the ocean under the starry night sky.
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