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Welcome to the December 2022 bulletin.
In December 1922, Lawrence had moved to the Del Monte Ranch and observed snow on the tips of mountains. There, he had tranquility and peace - as you will read further down the bulletin in the Locating Lawrence feature. The snow he witnessed was very different to that mentioned in his poem 'Winter-Lull' in which we are transported to the temporary silence of a battlefield and soldiers huddled together, fearful of when the next gun will go off and the battle will resume. This, of course, is the reality for Ukrainians, as many face winter without heat or electric. What a pity this poem should continue to have such resonance...
Because of the silent snow, we are all hushed
Into awe.
No sound of guns, nor overhead no rushed
Vibration to draw
Our attention out of the void wherein we are crushed.
A crow floats past on level wings
Noiselessly.
Uninterrupted silence swings
Invisibly, inaudibly
To and fro in our misgivings.
We do not look at each other, we hide
Our daunted eyes.
White earth, and ruins, ourselves, and nothing beside.
It all belies
Our existence; we wait, and are still denied.
We are folded together, men and the snowy ground
Into nullity.
There is silence, only the silence, never a sound
Nor a verity
To assist us; disastrously silence-bound!
Be good to each other, and remember, if you can't afford to put your heating on, it's a good excuse to have a cuddle with him or her indoors to keep warm.
If you want anything included in the bulletin, lob it over to either
james.walker@ntu.ac.uk or brenda.sumner@gmail.com
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Home
Saturday 10th December 2022
Christmas concert at Greasley Church followed by dinner at the Horse and Groom.
Away
Friday December 16th, 18.30pm onwards
Play reading of David at Catherine Brown’s home in Kilburn, London - though also attendable by Zoom. Address and further details to be sent out closer to the time. Wine and nibbles provided.
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On the Box: Nov 2022 Kathleen Vella ‘D. H. Lawrence, Casa Cuseni, Taormina and New Shapes of Consciousness’
A fascinating talk on the home and garden created in Sicily by Robert Hawthron Kitson in the early 1900s. We know Lawrence and Kitson became friends for a while but intriguingly Lawrence never mentions his inspiring home with links to Futurism and Theosophy.
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A Christmas carol service with a difference.
Alan Wilson
As we enter into December, a whole plethora of traditional based Christmas carol services dominate the month, reaching their climax on Christmas Eve.
But December in the Christian calendar is also the month of Advent, which gives one the opportunity to look more deeply into this challenging world around us and to try and understand more directive meanings of this very dark time of year.
We are drawn to candles, with flickering lights on the Christmas trees, by the windows, lighting up the towns, attempting to symbolise that there may be a glimmer of hope even in such depressing times.
Three days after our DHLS carol service, on the shortest day of the year, Saint Lucy, the bringer of light, is remembered. Indeed in Sweden it is a holiday of celebration; also at this time of the year Hanukkah is honoured in the Jewish tradition.
Our ‘reflective’ DHLS carol service will follow the steps of Saint Lucy as we enter into a journey, turbulent and frightening, through poetry, especially hearing a very challenging one by Lawrence. But as we move towards our own Christmas, through other readings, poems and tuneful music, that light will get a bit brighter as we discover another direction.
This service opposes commercial materialism, that has now become so dominant in our present society, exploring something deeper and more meaningful, enabling us to look into the New Year with some degree of optimism, through the great power of art and the depths of ‘spirituality’, whatever flexible interpretation one may choose to apply.
I am convinced that Lawrence was always searching for that ‘oblivion‘ as he called it, and that is surely where we have to head - again putting whatever interpretation on that word we feel appropriate, to guide our own minds and souls into some form of inner peace. He also loved the word ‘silence’ – and that word can also conjure up inner sounds, reflecting the music of our souls.
The beautiful iconic country church, ‘Greymede’ in the heart of Lawrence’s country, is the perfect setting for this alternative carol service. Most likely many of you will not be able to attend, but I still wanted to let you know about it happening.
Maybe some may be able to get along in an act of spontaneity?
It takes place at: Greasley St Mary‘s Church NG16 2AB on Saturday, December 10 at 4 pm, lasting approximately one hour.
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Lawrence and Academia
'Deradicalising the feminine : the evolution of Rachel Cusk’s autobiographical voice.'
Pawney, Andre (2022) (Master’s dissertation).
University of Malta.
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This dissertation aims to address the lack of critical investment in the works of Rachel Cusk, especially with regard to her contributions to the maternal counter-canon, and her overarching interest in the representation of a feminine lived experience. By analysing Cusk‘s themes on a multi-generic level – the memoir, autofiction, and a novel based on a memoir – this dissertation attempts to trace the evolution of Cusk‘s autobiographical voice. The first chapter grounds itself in Cusk‘s main concern with the portrayal of a truth anchored in her own subjective experience. The visceral reaction to her memoirs triggers a chain reaction that results in a shift in Cusk‘s writing voice, leading to a dual desire to project her truth whilst also saving herself from the exposure that occurs when a woman writes in the 'I‘. The second chapter goes into Cusk‘s first transition, as she mobilises the genre of autofiction in order to create distance between her authorial self and the narrator, which is done through a polyphony of characters who share their experiences with Faye, the decentralised 'central‘ character. These experiences are in line with the concerns and themes portrayed in the memoirs, highlighting the fact that Cusk is now given the agency to disseminate her own concerns through the voice of other characters. The last chapter features an in-depth analysis of Cusk‘s latest novel Second Place, where her survival strategy reaches its zenith through a work that is based on a memoir by Mabel Dodge Luhan. Through her depiction of maternity as an artistic endeavour, Cusk reconciles her dual nature as a mother and an artist, two facets which she had believed to be incompatible.
Read it here
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Former council member Malcolm Matthews sent through this clipping from the latest issue of The Nugget, a magazine dedicated to strengthening local communities.
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On 1 December 1922, the Lawrence’s moved to the Del Monte Ranch after finally escaping the clutches of Mabel Dodge Sterne. In full gossip mode, Lawrence writes to his dear Schwiegermutter, explaining Mabel Dodge Sterne is ‘rich – only child – 42 year’s old – short, stout – looks young – has had three husbands…Has now an Indian, Tony, a fat fellow."
‘It is snow here,’ he informs Mary Cannan ‘coyotes howl at night – sun very hot during the day. America makes one feel one has swallowed a rather big pebble.’
Lawrence has the simple life that he claims he needs – ‘Life has been just a business of chopping wood, fixing doors, putting up shelves, eating and sleeping’. But he’s not happy. ‘There is no inside life-throb here’ he complains to Catherine Carswell.
The solution is simple: ‘I know now I don’t want to live anywhere very long’ and thus, a mere 17 days into his latest residence, he begins hatching new adventures. ‘I belong to Europe. Though not to England. I think I should like to go to Russia in the summer. After America, it appeals to me.’
Although the reason for this mood has nothing to do with country or culture: ‘Am not writing here’
To read a longer version of this, see The Digital Pilgrimage blog here.
To watch a YouTube video of Lawrence in December 1922, click here. The purpose of these videos is to raise awareness of Lawrence's letters and to direct readers to the original source.
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Here are the TTA posts from November...
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From the JDHLS
Sue Reid
D.H. Lawrence, Men Bathing (1926)
Every year I marvel about how much we can still discover about Lawrence and from ever-evolving perspectives. The forthcoming number of JDHLS offers new readings of two of his most studied texts, Sons and Lovers and Women in Love, alongside more neglected texts, Kangaroo (in its centenary year) and the non-fiction, with approaches ranging from the historical and art historical to the ecocritical, philosophical and psychoanalytical. JDHLS 6.2 (2022) is now in the hands of the printer and will soon be on its way to members: I hope you will enjoy it.
Amidst all the newness there is much in the JDHLS archive that remains perennial. Fresh from a visit to the Cézanne exhibition at Tate Modern (until 12 March 2022) – which foregrounds the “appleyness” that Lawrence so admired – I was delighted to rediscover Howard Mills’s 1991 essay on ‘Lawrence, Roger Fry and Cézanne’, available here: https://dhlawrencesociety.files.wordpress.com/2020/08/4-mills-1.pdf
Questioning Lawrence’s alleged distance from Fry and the aesthetics of the Bloomsbury Group, Mills excavates an “underground alliance” (28) between them, in a thoughtful comparison of Fry’s Cézanne: A Study of his Development (1927) and Lawrence’s ‘Introduction to these Paintings’ (1929): respectively, for Mills, “the greatest book of art criticism I have ever read” and one of Lawrence’s best essays. In his reading of Fry “reading” Cézanne, Significant Form is not some “Platonic essence of reality” but a close relation to Lawrence’s “world of substance” (qtd. p.30).
Tate Modern’s current show presents Cézanne as an artist’s artist, who elevated the genre of still life and applied what he learned from everyday objects to his portraits (“Be an apple!” he told his models, as both Fry and Lawrence recall). Cézanne’s bather works are highlighted as a particular inspiration: proportionally, artists (including Matisse, Picasso, Henry Moore and Jasper Johns) have bought more of these than any other subject. Which reminded me that Lawrence didn’t only write about Cézanne: Cézanne’s bathers also inspired his painting Men Bathing (1926).
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Reviews of Lady C on Netflix
It's finally here on Netflix. Please do let us know what you think. Here's what the critics had to say...
'Sensuality as an almost religious revelation.' 4 Stars Guardian review here.
'An invigorating spin on the pioneering novel.' 4 stars. RadioTimes review here.
'Lady Chatterley’s Lover Review.' 3 Stars. Empire review here.
'From Di to Chatterley, but Emma's romp is all too tame: Brian Viner reviews Lady Chatterley's Lover.' 3 stars. Daily Mail review here.
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D.H. Lawrence Dialect Alphabet
From 6 September to 25 October we had a baffling little 'ussy as our prime minister. In just under two months, Liz Truss nearly made Britain bankrupt with her 'trickle down' economics. Nigel Farage called it “the best Conservative budget since 1986”. Oh dear.
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DH Lawrence who died at the age of 44 has left us novels that grow in complexity and sensuousness.
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The ooh la la of Lady Chatterley: What attracts French film-makers to the DH Lawrence novel that scandalised Britain?
Read more at The New European.
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Biography Masterclass: Lara Feigel | How to write a biography. Lara Fiegal
More info here.
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The 'Stuff you missed in History Class' has an episode dedicated to the Lady C Trial. It was broadcast on 30 Nov 2022.
Listen to the podcast here.
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Lawrence and me: Marc Bacon.
 I was born in Ilkeston, Derbyshire and grew up in nearby Heanor and then Waingroves. For various reasons, I'm convinced Waingroves was DHLs inspiration for Tevershall Village and Waingroves Hall the inspiration behind Wragby Hall in Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Like for DHL this is the country of my heart. My grandfather (Bill) worked as a miner from the age of 14 until his retirement, mainly at Shipley Colliery. Bill was from the same generation as DHL and although he never met him Bill did know his father Arthur Lawrence. Sadly, I didn't get to ask Bill if Arthur was indeed as "irritating, disgusting and selfish as a maggot" as Reverend Reid claimed but I suspect he wasn't.
I went to Aldercar School, just down the road from Eastwood, before heading off to Kingston University in 1987. After graduation I set off on my own "savage pilgrimage", travelling around Africa, Australia and Asia in 1991. I then started my career as an IT consultant which took me to America, Norway and Switzerland before I settled in France from 2000 until 2018. During this time I had several creative writing side projects, I've written one novel, two screenplays and have a theatre play still in progress all inspired by DHL. My first screenplay was a juxtaposition of Lady Chatterley’s Lover entwined with an account of DHLs own fascinating life story. Sadly none were published but I noticed with mixed feelings how the start of the 2015 BBC adaptation of LCL mirrored the start of my story, which I'd sent to the beeb in 2012. I can't help but feel Jed Mercurio made a grave error with this version of LCL, mixing up traits of modern and unlovable Hilda with her sister, the eternal and very lovable Connie Chatterley.
My relationship with DH Lawrence started at school studying his novels for English literature and has, over the years, grown into something of an obsession. I've read all his major novels, my favourites are: The Lost Girl, Aaron's Rod and Lady Chatterley’s Lover. I also liked The Plumed Serpent not least because DHL gives us his version of Nietzsche's Ubermensch. I've also read most of his short stories, some nonfiction and poetry and several biographies including John Worthen’s Life of an Outsider, Ronald Pritchard's Body of Darkness but the one which had the greatest impact was: The Visionary DH Lawrence by Robert Montgomery. This was a real eye opener and I soon realised that two of my life passions had just collided. The first, my literary and local hero DH Lawrence and the second being philosophy, in particular French existentialism and the preceding naturalist philosophers: Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Hume and my namesake Francis Bacon. The Priest of Love had a predecessor in the 'High Priest of Sense' (perception).
I really don’t understand why DHL isn’t considered an Existentialist. Robert’s tour de force gives a fascinating insight into DHL's personal philosophy and shows that there is an entire branch of philosophy that underpins DHLs radical ideas on human nature and the human condition. DHL, as I found out, was in excellent company rejecting the conflation of the intellect by 'thin minded' Idealists and their denunciation of the body, of instincts and of sense perception. There was a very good reason why Clifford was confined to a wheelchair! I was particularly impressed by DHLs concept of a "blood consciousness" in The Fantasia of the Unconscious and his ideas on how the brain and central nervous system interacts with the body and the peripheral nervous system. After much research, I see that one hundred years later science is finally catching up with DHL’s ground breaking ideas. There seems to be no end of proof to John Middleton Murray's assertion that DHL was "a sort of animal with a sixth sense" with an "occult penetration into the being of other creatures." (Keith Sagar)
Some aspects of DHL's brilliant extended reflections on modernity are more relevant than ever, e.g., otherness; the disconnection from our own instincts, nature and the cosmos; the fading of life and the embrace of weakness; the fall of spontaneity and vitality and the rise of apathy and introspection. Other aspects, such as the crisis of consciousness, has turned full circle, with some problems being the exact opposite of what they were a hundred years ago. The populist 21st century is proving to be an age of the death of reason, intellect and liberty. A post truth era of "over-morality" and "exalted swindle", with worrying and striking parallels to DHL’s best friend Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Yet besides or because of this Lawrence is highly topical and his refreshing down to earth "enough is as good as a feast" / "earth bound not ego bound" back to nature, eco-friendly worldview is a powerful antidote to the current cultural malaise, personified by: the rise of censorship and taboos; the loss of freedom; ressentiment; the poisoned well of political correctness; the feminisation of men and the masculinisation of women; the life zapping, judgemental woke generation and the "nay saying" cancel culture etc. I can’t help feeling that western culture has taken a giant step backwards in recent years much to the detriment of the legacy of DH Lawrence.
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From the Archives
While watching the Netflix version of Lady Chatterley's Lover, here's what The Times had to say about the Ranji Udeshi V. Maharashtra. court case. From Thursday, Aug 20, 1964; pg. 12.
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To be included in the newsletter contact james.walker@ntu.ac.uk or brenda.sumner@gmail.com
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