Figs by D H Lawrence (read by Tom O'Bedlam)
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- Опубликовано: 15 ноя 2014
- Lawrence is best known for Lady Chatterley's Lover, privately published in 1928 in Florence, Italy, by a local bookseller. It was banned in Britain but the ban was overturned in a celebrated court case in 1960. Lawrence never knew of the victory or how he opened the floodgates for pornography because he died in 1930.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe...
His portrayal of the sexuality of women in Lady Chatterley's Lover is, from the viewpoint of most women, either wrong, unhelpful or merely silly. That didn't matter because the majority of purchasers were men looking for excitement or enlightenment. . Not that there's anything particularly wrong with excitement or enlightenment.
At best, he reveals what men thought about women at a time when - because of censorship - there had been no reliable sources of information. At worst, he's a man writing about sex in the guise of a woman for reasons that he may not have been willing to admit to himself.
Its most famous predecessor in the pornography market was The Pearl, an unground Victorian magazine, and that didn't give a damn about how women felt. Similarly The Life and Loves of Frank Harris. Male pornography was about the 'art' of seduction.
Women had never been much inclined to talk about their sexuality and men have never been much inclined to pay attention anyway - or even notice signs of female approval or disapproval. In fact I don't know of any equivalent piece of literature written by a woman from a woman's viewpoint, not at that time, nor since then. Women are more interested in situations and feelings, they don't tend to care about the mechanical details or body parts. I'd guess that the sexiest writer for women is Jane Austen.
The problem of pushing a belief system is that it can do lasting harm. People will take up a set of concepts and adjust the world they "see" to fit the model. It's called 'confirmation bias'. It depends on the adoption of a set of beliefs and labels which have no real meaning outside the model. Morality is like that. So are many models of the human condition used by the medical profession. The labels have no referent - meaning they don't refer to anything but a conviction on the part of the user. Go back or forward fifty years and the concepts have changed and the labels mean something else.
Sure, this is a sexy poem but it's misogynistic too. It expresses both attraction and revulsion for the vagina, the woman's 'secret'. It criticises how women use their secret to gain advantage over men, saying that they're all whores. It ends with the notion that once a woman's secret is revealed it soon becomes overripe and passes its "use by" date. It would seem that this distaste is a projection of Lawrence's sexuality which was ambivalent and a source of inner conflict. It is certain that he did have homosexual feelings and experiences, he said so himself.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._H._La...
The idea that certain objects look vaguely similar to genitalia is only of interest to somebody who doesn't know what the real thing looks like - and wants to visualise it. There are no useful inferences to be drawn from this accidental resemblance.
Lady Chatterley's Lover - you can read some of it here:
www.amazon.com/Chatterleys-Lov...
"From Twigs to Figs" - a gardening guide
figs4fun.com/basics2.html
A well-written essay about figs "every fruit has its secret" well worth reading. It also has the text of the poem.
gerryco23.wordpress.com/2014/0... 
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A joy to listen to as usual Tom. I've never studied Lawrence, and as a consequence have never heard this poem before. I was both repelled by it and drawn to it at the same time. Your notes are very interesting and helpful, thank you.
Buk loved DH Lawrence. It makes me so happy to hear you read them. You're the best!
Thank you for your many wonderful readings over the years. This is no exception.
Sheer brilliance.
I'll never look at figs the same way again.....
I heard this same poem read in Women In Love, the movie not the book. Its quite beautiful and quite disturbing also.
I didn't expect it to go in that direction at all...
Dang! and once again: dang!!! ::fanning self:: thanks for the great reading.
....HI, TOM.... I HOPE - YOU KNOW: YOU'RE THE BEST POET & NARRATOR ... ...COMPLIMENTI MILLE !!!! ALL THE BEST TO YOU & TO YOUR LOVED ONES ¡¡
SENSUAL !!!
When Lawrence writes "Ripe figs won't keep" do you think he means the women condemn themselves with self-destruction through disease and low morals, or do you think he means the beauty-crushing skeletal hand of old age is inevitable, beauty won't keep?
Great reading and good choice of visuals as always, thank you.
wow and I thought porns were dirty
What a reading. Thank you.
God bless you.
Thanks for this. I enjoyed your reading as usual, but I enjoyed your notes even more. DHL has always left a bad taste in my mouth. So to speak.
You seem to have chosen the pictures with relish -- oh, I mean gusto.
You must be very proud of this piece because many (most?) of your videos end with a link to it.
This poem is the truth. Nothing has yet to persuade me otherwise.