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een suppressed in the masculine, positivist existentialism of 20 th century society, but seems
doomed to failure when limited by its ephemerality.
D’Alpuget sticks by her basic assumption that Judith, as an Australian who like most
Westerners is closed to Eastern ideas, just cannot understand how Asian philosophy might
offer her a more lasting way to wholeness. Kanan tries to reduce it to a level she might
understand, and reflects his own westernised, intellectual side, saying, ‘There is no god in the
cave. There is only yourself. Power over yourself is the only power’. She interrupts,
expressing in her liberal feminist terms, ‘It isn’t religion either. It’s mutilation of children!’
Kanan tries to argue that the ‘parents don’t mean to harm him. They believe they are doing
something wonderful for him. The philosophy of Hinduism is harmlessness to all living
things’. Kanan realises, however, that it is ‘like reasoning with an imbecile’ (TB, 153). He
admits that ‘we Hindus take a pessimistic view of life. It must be lived, that is all. These
things, these hours of release, make it seem more bearable’ (TB, 155). Having justified his
disinterested moral attitude of life, he then removes himself from Judith by joining the
dancing:
Kanan liked dancing, liked the feeling of his limbs flowing loose and his hair
giving soft blows to his cheeks as he shook his head. It was lovely dancing on
the wet grass with all the other dancing people, the sky pink and blue with
dawn, incense rising from the altar fires. (TB, 153)
The dance is the Hindus way of forgetting the crush and regaining the marvel of life. Shiva the
Destroyer is said to dance the universe to atoms—destruction being the necessary prologue to
creation. Kanan’s act of harmless, yet profound, participation is too much for Judith, and she
runs away, ‘her hands covering her ears against the drums’ (TB, 153), as if running away from
Kanan’s interpretation of the festival’s message of suffering and succour. Yet there are in the
festival elements of the message Mascaró described about the nature of man, and Judith’s
running away is a rejection of the fact of her ‘non-knowing’; an unfortunate act, for Kanan’s
intent is to help Judith apply the message to her own search for answers to her crumbling life.
Judith’s final assessment of the festival is overwhelmingly negative. As she is escaping
it all in a crowded vehicle, she notices how ‘one of her fellow passengers—perhaps the hippie
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