Books: D. H. Lawrence: Sons and Lovers

 I never understood the fuss about D.H. Lawrence. While in college, I tried reading one of his novels; maybe Lady Chatterley's Lover. That was the novel I knew about (as did so many) then, and I remember TJ and me going to see a movie version of Lady Chatterley's Lover (a soft-core version starring Sylvia Kristel, of which I can only remember feeling dissatisfied by the movie's silliness; it did not encourage me in reading Lawrence.) That took me being in prison, and deciding if I was to write, then I needed to fill in the holes of my literary education. I read Lady Chatterley's Lover, and every other of his novels in Fort Dix FCI's leisure library, without ever really understanding what was so important about Lawrence. Maybe I came too late to be impressed by free love; certainly, his ideas of gender roles left me cold.

Still, I am trying, so I tried listening to the video below. It is a post-grad lecture from an Indian university. Parsing the accent, I decided there were things being said worth listening to - it may be I found the time spent better than with the novel! 

I recollect my feelings towards Lawrence as not being so warm towards human relationships. Perhaps, this comes more from his later novels than with Sons and Lovers. There does seem less of an ideology to his first novel - as I try to push my memory.

That Freud entranced Lawrence does not surprise me. Sigmund's influence ran long and wide. Is that why I find Lawrence's characters so... schematic?

Other than his willingness to put himself into his writing, to follow his own muse wherever it went, I am not sure - even now - what to learn from Lawrence. Perhaps, his willingness to buck the crowd is more than enough.

sch 6/30