60 pages • 2 hours read
Tim WintonDirt Music
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2001A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Fishing
White Point is a fictional place, its industry invented. The fishing motif helps to explain the character differences between rivals Jim Buckridge and Lu Fox. Jim, the town’s most prolific and successful fisherman, lives for the large hauls, which the town celebrates with rancorous festivities that border on zealotry. He fishes for quantity, hauling the bounty of the sea in by the kilo. He is a legal fisherman who has paid large sums for his licenses and permits, and who suffers the burden of taxes. To him, fishing is a business, and he is a manager of men and machinery. He is not friendly with his crew and can exchange one crew member for another without commentary. His use of the sea is emotionless, though he adamantly refers to himself as a fisherman. Jim uses the sea, shows little affection or appreciation for its bounty, and takes no joy in the art of it. It is merely an occupation.
In contrast, Lu is an illegal fisherman whose encounters with the ocean are described as near-orgasmic experiences that bring Lu relief from his reality. Lu goes to the water to escape, to be embraced by the ocean, consumed by it, and appreciative. He marvels at the beauty of the reef, the creatures, and the ecosystem that exists out of sight of those above water. In Coronation Gulf, he befriends sharks, pays homage to the marlin who steals his rod, and cherishes the water like a second home. Lu is not a fisherman for the money but for the experience of it.
These two perspectives on fishing exemplify the men’s different approaches to the sea and life.
Dirt Music
Dirt music is a motif used to explain the delicate, beautiful, and magical moments of joy experienced in simple exchanges between loved ones. The author states, through the character of Lu Fox, that although life can be difficult and brutish, if there are moments of dirt music then it is all worth it. Importantly, this message comes from a character so beaten and destroyed by the hard sides of life that he is alone and slowly dying when he realizes his life has meaning because of the dirt music moments.
The dirt music motif is strung throughout the novel, with references to the musical style as well as what that style means to Lu. The style is described as country, blues, or folk music played with soul. The more honest the music gets, the more Lu hears the message behind the music.
Lu experienced such a moment playing dirt music on the verandah with his family. They had the remnants of a meal enjoyed together on the table, their lips still buttery as they lounged on the veranda and sang, played instruments, or simply listened.
On Lu’s journey toward Coronation Gulf, he rides with a man who plays music loudly and without joy, and this torments Lu. He travels with a woman who is transported by rich, elaborate music, and this makes him miserable, too. It isn’t until he strings fishing line between two branches and hears a twang that his soul awakens, slowly, to music. The sound is so close to nature that it has removed everything man-made but the string. It has been stripped down, made raw and fresh and earthy, and in this form, it begins to revive Lu’s passion for song.
Coronation Gulf
In a moment of emotional intimacy, Georgie tells Lu about a sensation she felt while looking at an unnamed island in Coronation Gulf three years prior. The sensation was one of nostalgia, longing, and of belonging. She has never experienced a sensation like this and is sad to leave the gulf. She marks the page in Lu’s Atlas after telling him about the magical location.
Coronation Gulf is a symbol of home. Home is a place of belonging, welcoming embraces, acceptance, and affection. For Georgie and Lu, home is only an idea. For Georgie, her childhood home is a complicated place filled with judgment and drama. She walks away from that life without looking back because it does not offer belonging or acceptance. For Lu, home has become a place of grief and loss. It is only when Lu arrives at Georgie’s symbolic “home” that he begins to heal his past wounds. Likewise, Georgie finds home not on the island, which she visits without emotion in her search for Lu, but in his farmhouse, which becomes her refuge and the place that encourages her to redesign her life.
Related Titles
By Tim Winton
