Existing in // out of the mind?
Gudrun takes in all that surrounds her, like a true artist. And apparently/ supposedly, she is a brilliantly talented artist. I don’t think she deserves criticism for not being extraordinary enough, or dynamic enough. Yes, she lives mostly within herself, and I admire her for this. Gudrun is the wallflower of Women in Love -- she witnesses her peers and settings. And because she takes in everything, she (in a way) becomes everything. Gudrun takes what has existed in her head and turns it into art, rather than a built up boiling madness inside herself, or a showy rant, or violent tantrum.
I still struggle with this question from class today: Is it better to exist in or outside the mind? But because Gudrun is a maker, she must process all she sees and knows until she can produce artwork based on these constant observations. I believe she is a great artist because she does observe. I also believe that because she is this type of wallflower character, she does not live less of a life, just perhaps a less typical one.
She is indeed a maker. The question I'd ask is, what *kind* of maker. Gerald, after all, makes things too. Does everyone in the novel make things in the same way?
ReplyDeleteI confess I'd never thought of Gudrun as a wallflower (I'd always figured Ursula more in that role), but in retrospect I think you are on to something.
For me, a significant difference is that Gerald is a producer who makes with the goal of mass production, and Gudrun is a fine artist, a craftswoman who makes with intentions of expressing herself, or her environment.
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