Wild Cat Rising Essay

Wild Cat Falling was a major breakthrough when it was initially published in 1965, hailed as the first Aboriginal novel. Colin Johnson, as Mudrooroo was then known, saw the book republished again in 1992. Despite its age, Wild Cat Falling is still a disturbing story, not least of all because almost forty years after its first appearance, and the improvements in Aboriginal conditions and rights that have occurred, the book still resonates far too strongly with the less than satisfactory current life conditions of a number of indigenous Australians. In the book, an unnamed (this can be read as symbolising the effacement of Aboriginal culture or as an Aboriginal way of referring to others) young black man takes on white society, believing it to
Beckett is quoted at length in the novel, and many passages are influenced by the beats.

At times the novel is so derivative of the beat writers and existentialism, and effused with the swaggering and affected indifference and disdain of the youthful narrator towards everybody and everything, one could almost become bored with his predicament — if it were not for the fact that these devices are used as shields to protect his damaged, lonely, confused and troubled young black self. Notwithstanding the strong message of Aboriginal injustice, the popularity of the novel must also reside in historical, and perhaps even sentimental interest as the first Aboriginal novel.

Of course, Wild Cat Falling does not have to be an artistic gem. Its prime value may be its message. Mudrooroo has argued elsewhere, for example, that black writing should be for blacks and does not have to fulfil the aesthetic standards of white publishers and readers. This may well be true, although Mudrooroo does not seem to rigorously apply this to his own writing, including Wild Cat