Peter Goldsworthy: Distinctively Visual

In what ways does the distinctively visual influence your understanding of people and events within texts?
Distinctively visual is a term that is used to describe written or visual images that express a particular idea or belief to a responder. Composers use distinctively visual to bring their characters to life in the responders mind, this clear image of the character or thing helps the responder to believe or receive the idea that the composer is trying to convey to them through this vector of words or images. Peter Goldsworthy uses the distinctively visual to create characters and events in his 1989 novel, Maestro, which is a bildungsroman story centred on Paul Crabbe and his journey from childhood to adulthood and all the events in-between
Early on in Maestro we are given contradicting distinctively visual images of Edward Keller, an example of this contrast is “the pitted sun-coarsened skin- a cheap, ruined leather…but then the suit: white linen, freshly pressed”, this conflicting images Goldsworthy gives us are there to create the enigma known as Edward Keller. Though we are given these conflicting images of Keller, this is merely to help the reader to paint a clearer picture of him in their minds and because of these clearer images the ideas Goldsworthy is using Keller to convey become more obvious. Keller is a guide and a teacher for Paul
Darwin is shown as a lush and fertile place that is alive, “green five o’clock shadow”, this personification of natural world of Darwin shows that the land itself is a live and conscious and because of this we should pay more attention to it and how it affects Paul. Darwin is also called the city of “city of booze, blow, and blasphemy”; the town to which, “all the scum in the country has somehow risen” this is a contrast to the lush green images we are given earlier on in the book, Goldsworthy uses this to show how the event of moving to Darwin is important to Paul because he has begun to emulate the environment in which he lives in. Much like Darwin, Paul is bright, gifted and special but underneath this pleasant surface is a dark underbelly that influences Paul and leads him off this path to things such as sex and rock and roll. A similar event occurs when Melton’s every man, after watching an act of love that is conveyed through the moves of statue costumed acrobats, is confronted by a devilishly costumed stilts man who offers him a choice which in turn leads the everyman of this path of love and purity to money and evil. This evil is signified by dark storm clouds that represent change and evil, the most obvious symbol is a gold hat that the everyman has chosen over his classic normal bowler hat that represented who he was. As the everyman