DH Lawrence - Letters from Phoenix

Posted by Ray Schaufeld on Thu, 28 Sep 2017

DH Lawrence 1885 - 1930. His star blazed short and bright. I studied some of his novels and poems when young and until now I never delved into his collected essays. David Herbert is always outspoken, a writer who keeps it real. When I was a student my tutor said 'you always know what his characters are feeling.' As an essayist he shares his own feelings. In his essay written in 1929 'On Funk'- funk in his day meant cowardice and fleeing from conflict - he says that English people are funked about money and sex. Very insightful.

DH says that change will always happen. We 'cannot drive it like a steam engine' however we can ride the wave as goodwilled watchful active participants. Change is natural. We handle it every year. We adjust from summer to the warm streetlighted evenings of winter. Spring is our new shared miracle every time. He points out that the 'tadpole must feel very sore when he loses his tail and grows two back legs' as the tail is the most active and sensitive part. The taddie now gains the chance to jump about and thrive on dry land. Go with the flow, don't funk it.

He guesses ahead that working life and money will change and foresees a chance of less slavery to work and money. Underestimated how many people feel they need more and more of the things that money can buy.

He foresees that relationships will change. David confesses that when he was 18 he would wake in the morning after a night of sexual dreams full of shame and fear that people might guess at his sexual existence. He 'hated' the person he was at night and it 'took him many years' to accept himself as a sexual man in addition to being an intellectual. He also could not handle his thoughts of women as sexual beings when young, he was fine when discussing books and politics with a woman but thinking of what lay between his legs and her legs made him feel ill.

'What an utter weirdo!' you may think. Hey, remember he was born when Victoria was on the throne and before modern contraception. He also hates 'heartless sex' and says that sexual 'bullying' and the prostitution industry are the other side of uptight repression. Both are fear and funk. What would he make of modern relationships. How free or unfree would he consider us to be? It's a relevant question.

I have dwelled on only one of his thoughtful and thoughtprovoking essays. The whole book is good. One of life's great thinkers, travellers  and creative ever-evolving amphibians.

Comments

Submitted by celticman on

money and sex, that's about right, but perhaps in the wrong order? 

 

Submitted by Ray Schaufeld on

I can never have too much of both! Dream on.

Submitted by airyfairy on

I'll try and read some of the essays.  I have to say I've never been a fan of the novels, but it's years since I read them so maybe I ought to give it another go.  Sometimes you just read things at the wrong time of life and get a totally different view if you go back to them.  

Submitted by Ray Schaufeld on

Too easy in my experience to be a feminist and simply dismiss his work because he was a man who wrote about being a man and who probably wrote about women's feelings from what women told him and using imagination and fantasy.. Also he was on the A-level curriculum which may have influenced some school students against him.

The novel I may well read again  (I have read Sons and lovers again and liked it both times) is The Plumed Serpent. it is about a bunch of freeliving 1920s literary hippies who set up a commune in Mexico and create their own New Age ceremonies. I trashed it in a 10 minute paper when I was 21 and said the ceremonies were pretty much a load of old drivel. 

Two months later I was living and working in a community that was about helping and sharing our lives with homeless people, accepting everyone for who we all were.This was in an environment that was very foreign to me. Our 'ceremonies' much beloved by Fred our adminstrator who got paid and had his own flat but did not get paid much and the flat was in a not very desirable part of town were meetings. Loads of 'em! House meetings, staff meetings where we were encouraged to share everything we thought and felt. Tough love, crude words, 'letting it all hang out'all over the chairs and floor. Heck were they dire! Our only regular nice ceremony was Sunday breakfast. We spent extra, followed everyone's personal requests be it eggs, porridge, kippers or full-cooked and we all ate well on Sunday morning. Some people, well me anyway followed the quite pleasant Sunday afternoon routine of house cleaning, helped ably by the people living there who wished to help and  then going in the office and doing the very simple lowbudget books in an accurate and non-fraudulent manner. There were also a couple of days of charity collecting in other towns which felt like fun days out and the public gave well.

I was then actively involved on and off in collectives of various sorts for many years after. This year for the first time I took part in 2 Mindfulness retreats, one for 3 days, one for 4. I plan to return to Gaia House for more next year.

I found my 10 weeks as a volunteer at the Belfast Simon Community 'all too much at the time'including  the hardpartying drink and drugs culture we indulged in on our days off.After returning to the mainland it took me a good 6 months to get back on my feet again. These days I consider it to be one of the three experiences that taught and influenced me the most. The first 2, probably in order of importance though not chronologically so were motherhood and leaving North London to go to university in Scotland.

Our set views, morals, dreams and good intentions can all trip us up though this happens to me less as the years go by .I still maintain life is for learning and some of this works best when we learn on our feet. 'No one goes into the wood coming out as they went in'*

BTW Clara in Sons and Lovers is a feminist and an active trade unionist and the Co-op which the local women in the mining village run as a self-help food shop is a woman's thing too.

*italicised lines from the Jonathan Kelly song 'the ballad of cursed anna'. I recently performed it as a ukulele club solo

Submitted by airyfairy on

Been thinking about why I never appreciated Lawrence the way others do, and that has sparked this week's Inspiration Point!  Thank you Elsie!

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

"Freedom" from good and wise laws setting boundaries brings hurt to many and a bondage of thrills that don't satisfy and turn sour, and others get hurt. Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Ray Schaufeld on

Um, I don't think working with the homeless doing 24 hour shifts ,4 days on and 2 days off and getting paid £10 a week was entirely a life of cheap thrills, Rhiannon. However I am glad that you read my writingssmiley

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Hi, Elsie, not sure why you're making that comment! I wasn't thinking about your work there at all. I was referring to your near last comment

What would he make of modern relationships. How free or unfree would he consider us to be? It's a relevant question.

regards, Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Ray Schaufeld on

Oksmiley

Submitted by Ray Schaufeld on

I think modern sex is freer than in Lawrence's day. Contraception brought welcome change. Also there is little shame attached to unwed mtherhood or fatherhood today. Many respectable couples my age and a bit younger find they can afford to raise their children at the time.They may just afford to buy a family size property though this is getting harder. A wedding is sometimes simply a big famiy party while the grandparents are still well enugh to celebrates.

This can be more meaningful. When couples marry they the are often hoping for the best with little notion of what lies ahead. Nobody can foresee the future. A couple who have lived toggether for tweny years or more and are now the senior partners in a loving family have a lot to be proud of. Renewal of vows is an option for the wed.

Today we are often obsessed with sex. But it has to be the 'right sex' Young, good-looking, the same shade of skin, matching faiths or accceptance or other options, and hetero is 'right'. Anything else can sometimes cause adverse gossip, bigotry and coarse comments.

Remember George Orwell's 1984. The sharp division between 'goodsex' and 'sexcrime'.

England never needed Big Brother to watch. We did it ourselves.