I hope the title caught your attention, hehe.
First of all, let me address my horrible English mishap earlier with the misuse of the term pandering. That is obviously not the word I was supposed to use in that context, and I made myself look a little silly. My bad.
I'll try and make up for it here with this first blog post of mine.
I feel like the topic of sex and sexuality was left out of our discussion in class today, so I hope I can spark a little bit more of an in-depth conversation on here. There is obviously mention of it in "Class-room," which we touched on today, but I feel there are several other rather sexually charged passages we've encountered (and I am certain they won't be the last.) First and foremost, the passage in which Hermione decides to "biff" Birkin describes the experience as a rather erotic one: "A terrible voluptuous thrill ran down her arms -- she was going to know her voluptuous consummation. Her arms quivered and were strong, immeasurably and irresistibly strong. What delight, what delight in strength, what delirium of pleasure! She was going to have her consummation of voluptuous ecstasy at last. It was coming! In utmost terror and agony, she knew it was upon her now, in extremity of bliss. Her hand closed on a blue, beautiful ball of lapis lazuli that stood on her desk for a paper-weight. She rolled it round in her hand as she rose silently. Her heart was a pure flame in her breast, she was purely unconscious in ecstasy. She moved towards him and stood behind him for a moment in ecstasy." (105.) Hermione seems to be having an almost orgasmic experience in the moment she almost obtains her freedom from Birkin.
The other passage I am referring to is actually one we discussed in class today, in the chapter "Coal-Dust": "A sharpened look came on Gerald's face. He bit himself down on the mare like a keen edge biting home, and forced her round. She roared as she breathed, her nostrils were two wide, hot holes, her mouth was apart, her eyes frenzied. It was a repulsive sight. But he held on her unrelaxed, with an almost mechanical relentlessness, keen as a sword pressing in to her. Both man and horse were sweating with violence. Yet he seemed calm as a ray of cold sunshine." (111.) Now obviously, this second passage is a lot more brutal and implies a sort of rape of the mare, but I was wondering why no one else commented on the very obvious--at least in my opinion--sexual imagery going on in this passage. Or it may be possible that I just have a dirty mind.
Thoughts, anyone? (On my discussion post, not on whether or not my mind is in the gutter or elsewhere...)
You weren't silly to misuse a word--it happens to all of us. I think you're absolutely right that the novel often describes things that aren't, on the face of it, sexual as, in fact, quite sexual or at least sexualized. (Lawrence is famous, after all, as a writer about sex.) What I'm curious about is what we make of Lawrence's language here? What's it's effect on us as readers?
ReplyDeleteMauren, I agree that the passage with the horse is very sexual. In fact, there are other places where talk about horses comes up later on in the novel and it still has a sexual charge to it (of course, I can't find the page numbers right now to support my claim!). From these passages I find that Gerald's domineering personality is really brought out, and I get the message that if he can tame this mare, then he can most certainly tame a woman - which is such an interesting contrast (this very manly, domineering attitude) to his frequent role as gracious host...
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