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Thread: Lady Chatterleys Lover

  1. #1
    Walter Susa
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    Lady Chatterleys Lover

    When I was a teenager, it was popularly thought Lady Chatterley's Lover was all about erotica, and I read it to get to the best parts. Years later it seems nearly impossible to find much erotica in it. I don't know if that is a comment on our cultural desensetivety, our becoming jaded by our emersion in a more openly pornographic society or to my age. There is little in it now to seem titilating and I now read it with a more meaningful intent. In my edition there is an introduction by Kathryn Harrison where she says the the novel is about grief, and I can see her point. D.H. Lawrence grieves for the loss of old England with it's picturesque cottages natural woodlands and the great estates. He despises the modern mechanical age. The major source of his grief deals with the loss of his own libedo. D.H. Lawrence is all of the charactor's in the book. He is Clifford, Lady Chatterley's husband, because Lawrence himself due to illness suffered from impotence, and Freida his wife had adulterous lovers . Despite this connection he treats Clifford without sympathy. Clifford might be intelligent but in so many ways he has become mechanical and souless. Lawrence is Lady Chatterley in her conclution that her sexuality is even more important then a high station in life or the value of pure thought to be anything other then hot air. That without sex, life and thought is unnatural and shallow. Often I see in romantic male fiction that the male will seek to have a sexless and somehow a more honerable life ie. the cowboy kisses his horse and rides off into the West. Western thought has often held that man in order to achieve perfection in his thinking must stay pure and of the spirit and ignore the body. The body and it's demands were ugly and putrid. Thoughts should be clean and of the sky and the nasty ugliness came from the mud of the earth. Lawrence points out in this book that thought without the body is shallow. I would compare it to a hollow apple without a core and what we see in Clifford is the internal rotting. Mellors is also a version of Lawrence. He is the natural man, a woodsman. He is unhealthy because life no longer offers him a habitate that he can fit in. Lawrence found it difficult to settle. During his life he lived all over Europe and even South America. Mellors has little charactor other then to be a helpless in his passion and the final knowledge that it is right. He is the symbol of a meritous man powerless in the existing society. There are issues about class system of England that undergird the novel and Lawrences inability to shake it's influence. Lady Chatterley's Lover is a novel that acknowledge's a truth that many men have a lot of trouble coming to terms with and that is that they are utterly and inescapably prisoners of love.

  2. #2
    Our wee Olympic swimmer Janine's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Walter Susa View Post
    When I was a teenager, it was popularly thought Lady Chatterley's Lover was all about erotica, and I read it to get to the best parts. Years later it seems nearly impossible to find much erotica in it. I don't know if that is a comment on our cultural desensetivety, our becoming jaded by our emersion in a more openly pornographic society or to my age. There is little in it now to seem titilating and I now read it with a more meaningful intent. In my edition there is an introduction by Kathryn Harrison where she says the the novel is about grief, and I can see her point. D.H. Lawrence grieves for the loss of old England with it's picturesque cottages natural woodlands and the great estates. He despises the modern mechanical age. The major source of his grief deals with the loss of his own libedo. D.H. Lawrence is all of the charactor's in the book. He is Clifford, Lady Chatterley's husband, because Lawrence himself due to illness suffered from impotence, and Freida his wife had adulterous lovers . Despite this connection he treats Clifford without sympathy. Clifford might be intelligent but in so many ways he has become mechanical and souless. Lawrence is Lady Chatterley in her conclution that her sexuality is even more important then a high station in life or the value of pure thought to be anything other then hot air. That without sex, life and thought is unnatural and shallow. Often I see in romantic male fiction that the male will seek to have a sexless and somehow a more honerable life ie. the cowboy kisses his horse and rides off into the West. Western thought has often held that man in order to achieve perfection in his thinking must stay pure and of the spirit and ignore the body. The body and it's demands were ugly and putrid. Thoughts should be clean and of the sky and the nasty ugliness came from the mud of the earth. Lawrence points out in this book that thought without the body is shallow. I would compare it to a hollow apple without a core and what we see in Clifford is the internal rotting. Mellors is also a version of Lawrence. He is the natural man, a woodsman. He is unhealthy because life no longer offers him a habitate that he can fit in. Lawrence found it difficult to settle. During his life he lived all over Europe and even South America. Mellors has little charactor other then to be a helpless in his passion and the final knowledge that it is right. He is the symbol of a meritous man powerless in the existing society. There are issues about class system of England that undergird the novel and Lawrences inability to shake it's influence. Lady Chatterley's Lover is a novel that acknowledge's a truth that many men have a lot of trouble coming to terms with and that is that they are utterly and inescapably prisoners of love.
    Walter Susa, Hi, are you a new member here; I don't understand why under your user name it says n/a? One question, I am curious; are you quoting this critic you mentioned, Kathryn Harrison? Is this written in your own words or hers? If this is her words, you should have this in quotes and stated that it is an excerpt, from that commentary or introduction. I have read "Lady Chatterly's Lover" now several times and several versions. We plan a discussion group on this site in the coming summer months, most likely.
    You do realise this is one of Lawrence's late works? It is one of his last, in fact.

    I have read many biographies on Lawrence's life and he lived, not only in Mexico, but also in Italy, France, Autralia and America (NM); this last location his wife held the deed to his ranch, which can still be visited today. This was the place he hoped to return to and settle, but that never did happen unfortunately, due to his failing health. His last days were spend in France. His ashes now rest at the ranch in NM.

    The themes that are mentioned above, concerning the difference between the 'intellect' and the 'body' are recurrent themes in Lawrence work and most of his works explore this idea extensively. Much of this idea was born out of his own parents' relationship and their influence on his early life: his mother being aristrocratic in nature, the father more in-touch with the physicality of his being, and the conflict between them that insued. This tug of war and struggle between the two wills, exists throughout Lawrence's large body of work.

    I will try and write more later. If interested in Lawrence short stories, we currently have a very good active short story thread in progress. Feel free to stop in and join the discussions.
    "It's so mysterious, the land of tears."

    Chapter 7, The Little Prince ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

  3. #3
    Vincit Qui Se Vincit Virgil's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Janine View Post
    Walter Susa, Hi, are you a new member here; I don't understand why under your user name it says n/a?
    Janine, Walter posted that almost three years ago. The forum may have discontinued him or something. Or the forum changed some critical structure since then and old members were kind of left in limbo.
    LET THERE BE LIGHT

    "Love follows knowledge." – St. Catherine of Siena

    My literature blog: http://ashesfromburntroses.blogspot.com/

  4. #4
    Our wee Olympic swimmer Janine's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Virgil View Post
    Janine, Walter posted that almost three years ago. The forum may have discontinued him or something. Or the forum changed some critical structure since then and old members were kind of left in limbo.
    Gee, what a waste of my time. Why did it then appear high up in the listing and in bold when I put Lawrence into search? Odd, guess this guy above posted. I wondered about Walter. Hahehe....back to short stories...someone might show up there.....
    "It's so mysterious, the land of tears."

    Chapter 7, The Little Prince ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Janine View Post
    We plan a discussion group on this site in the coming summer months, most likely.
    Did that discussion on this novel ever take place, didnt see any here. I wasnt regular on litnet for quite a while now, so it could be that i didnt notice.

    Anyway, now that my exams are over i thought i'd relax and bought some books today. And i just started reading this novel this evening.
    Though i'd be quite busy with all those practicals and vivas still running ( ) and presumably very slow, I may glance through the discussion once i'm done with the book. So i hope someone will care to link me to it if there's already been one. Thank you.
    .
    ...the smell of flowers through metal labyrinths.

  6. #6
    Vincit Qui Se Vincit Virgil's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by symphony View Post
    Did that discussion on this novel ever take place, didnt see any here. I wasnt regular on litnet for quite a while now, so it could be that i didnt notice.

    Anyway, now that my exams are over i thought i'd relax and bought some books today. And i just started reading this novel this evening.
    Though i'd be quite busy with all those practicals and vivas still running ( ) and presumably very slow, I may glance through the discussion once i'm done with the book. So i hope someone will care to link me to it if there's already been one. Thank you.
    No, we have never discussed this novel or had a group read either.
    LET THERE BE LIGHT

    "Love follows knowledge." – St. Catherine of Siena

    My literature blog: http://ashesfromburntroses.blogspot.com/

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