sex, marriage, DH Lawrence

hey people,

so i just read Lady Chatterley's Lover by DH Lawrence, and we've been discussing it in my Love and the Novel class, and I just think it's such a great book. DH Lawrence basically creates this whole story about rejecting society or whats not so great about society (materialism, wealth, meaninglessness) and a lot of how he sees people being liberated is through sex.. but not just any sex-- he distinguishes what is "conterfeit sex" and meaningful sex. so i was reading the afterward written by DH Lawrence about his book this morning and i just had this great respect for what he was writing. he had this striking metaphor about love today, and how it's disconnected from the universe...

"Oh what a catastrophe, what a maiming of love when it was made a personal, merely personal feeling, taken away from the rising and the setting of the sun, and cut off from the magic connection of the solstice and the equinox! This is what is the matter with us. We are bleeding at the roots, because we are cut off from the earth and sun and stars, and love is a grinning mockery, becuase, poor blossom, we plucked it from its stem on the tree of Life, and expected it to keep on blooming in our civilised vase on the table"

i really just recommend that ppl read the book, or atleast read the "a propos" at the end of the book, cause it'll make you think. he talks about how christianity's greatest contribution to man is the idea of marriage, but then asks: "is marriage a great help to the fulfilment of man and woman, or is it a frustration? It is a very important question indeed, and every man and woman must answer it."

he then describes marriage as being a fulfillment of the soul during life-- relating it to "saving souls" and protestantism saying if he was bent on saving his soul, he wouldn't need marriage, or if he just wanted to save other ppls souls he wouldnt need marriage, but marriage is for life, for living, not something you "post-pone till the after-death."

so i love all of this excerpt because he's really just speaking about a real kind of love that is able to fulfill, when you're not just trying to get your own personal needs or sexual pleasures individually; that life and marriage and all of it is a shared experience that can be amazing.

he's just a great writer! i mean the book was banned for its sexual content for quite some time... his response is great:

"keep your perversions if you like them--your perversions of puritanism, your perversions of smart licentiousnous, your perversions of a dirty mind. But I stick to my book and my position: Life is only bearable when the mind and the body are in harmony, and there is a natural balance between the two, and each has a natural respect for the other."


so it leaves me feeling inspired and hopeful for a meaningful relationship and experiencing life where the mind and the body work together and neither is ashamed of the other. makes me want something real rather than something rushed or forced. something natural. death cab wrote a song about it on their new cd called "soul meets body." the first verse:

"I want to live where soul meets body
And let the sun wrap its arms around me
And bathe my skin in water cool and cleansing
And feel, feel what its like to be new"

DH Lawrence wrote "Augustine said that God created the universe new every day: and to the living, emotional soul, this is true... And the soul of man and the soul of woman is new in the same way, with the infinite delight of life and the ever-newness of life."


gotta love those NF authors, right down to the core of soul searching for meaning! literature like this makes you alive and aware, mostly out of its honesty i think.