A look back on The Cockatoos after 26 year

When Margaret and I where staying with The Brisbane Starrs there was a time when we were looking for work so had time to fill. We went to the library in Indooroopilly and read books.  A book I have never forgotten is 'The Cockatoos' by Patrick White, a book of short stories published in 1974.

What I recall from the story entitled 'The Night Prowler' was the passage below:-

Felicity has taken to breaking into neighbouring homes, perhaps just for the thrill.  In an apparently derelict house she finds an ancient naked man, lying on a mattress.

He gives her these words of wisdom.

He opened his eyes. "I was thinking of the days when I could still enjoy an easy piss. And stools came easy. That's the two most important things you find out." ....
"Trouble is," he continued, "you find out too late to appreciate the advantage." 

Profound stuff I think you must agree.  Then I reread the story and marvelled that I had remembered poo and piss over its controversial plot.  'White' a male writer, describes a story where a male intruder climbs into a young woman's bedroom.  She is engaged to a fine worthy man called John.  Her respectable middle class parents sleep in a room nearby. The next thing they know 'Felicity', with torn nightdress, reports that she has been raped.  The police are called but she declines to give evidence.  We later learn how in the excitement of the moment, she has had sex with this strange man, he being overwhelmed by her power. Felicity then breaks off her engagement, and set about on a night career of breaking in and snooping on neighbouring homes.  She does not steel, but is disrespectful and agressive.  She appears to become arroused by the secret lives of these stranger-neighbours. The story ends when she meets an unloved vargrent old man in the squat, who promptly dies in her arms.

The story reminds me of the rotting apples of the Dutch masters, or the hypocritical lives in 'Revolutionary Road, or 'Death of a Salesman'.  My assumption when I read this story is that Filicity has been sexually abused, perhaps by her father, but I can see nothing in 'White's' plot to affirm this.

I do not like the implication that this woman enjoys or thrives on this rape.  This is not a healthy contention, feeding the rapist's fantasy.  We can see and feel the sad emtiness of the meaningless life; John, the parents, the neighbours.  That is why I like the old man's wisdom.  As with the struggles of our earliest existence, which was all about emptying our bowels successfully, so with old age.
And let's not forget it.