D.H. Lawrence, part 2

Anais Nin's first book was called D.H. Lawrence, An Unprofessional Study and was published in 1932. She wrote that Lawrence was a naturally religious man who had an instinctive sense of religion and said, "One can save one's pennies. How can one save one's soul? One can only live one's soul. The business is to live, really live. And this needs wonder." One character in Kangaroo says, "if a man is truly a man, true to his being, his soul saves itself in that way."

Lawrence further said, "great religious images are only images of our own experiences, or of our own sate of mind and soul." He worships the sun and the moon and goes on pilgrimages as part of his religion.

Anais writes a short chapter on Lawrence's take on death. One of his characters feels that emptiness in life (i.e. death in life) is worse than physical death. She feels the body is only one manifestation of the spirit and when you die, you move on to the invisible.

In a chapter called "Woman," Anais states that the core of a woman is her relation to man. Most men create the images and patterns, and a woman's role is to carry them out to please the men. The exception is women who are artists; they can create the images and patterns themselves. Lawrence says the men's images and patterns aren't that good in the first place.

Lawrence says there are two kinds of women: cocksure - up-to-date, modern women who have no doubts, and hensure - old-fashioned, demure women who go about their duties. He says there is no perfect relationship between man and woman because there is always conflict when each carries out his or her individuality. We think in terms of how things should be based on our own individuality rather than trying to understand how things are from the other individual's perspective.

In Kangaroo, a marriage is observed; the wife is smiling at another man and the husband is fine with this. They are husband and wife, and as long as she honors this connection/root between them, he does not care what she does with the rest of herself because there is a part of each of them that does not belong to the other. This part does not need to be asked about or even known because if it were, neither person is free. As long as the husband and wife are growing from the same root, all is good, even when there is resistance. In fact, Lawrence thinks resistance is good - the give and take creates strength, balance and unison.

Lawrence says, "Human love, human trust, are always perilous, because they break down. The greater the love, the greater the trust, and the greater the peril, the greater the disaster. Because to place absolute trust on another human being is in itself a disaster, both ways, since each human being is a ship that must sail its own course, even if it go in company with another ship." There are two ships and two captains in a relationship between two people.

D.H. Lawrence, part 1

Anais Nin had a fascination with D.H. Lawrence, probably because she felt they were like-minded. He awakened her sexually, and she looked at her marriage and men differently after reading him. She was so affected by him she wrote her first book, D.H. Lawrence, An Unprofessional Study, in 1932.

She writes that one must approach Lawrence with intellect, imagination and with physical feeling, in other words, with both body and soul, because he is a passionate poet. Anais quotes him as saying, "if a man loves life" he is obedient "to the urge that arises in the soul." Lawrence has an artist's eye, much imagination, and wants to experience everything and creates characters in his books that portray this; they are artists. He felt that what the body felt was real and natural; the mind interfered with the body by creating what it deemed as right and wrong. Listen to the body and let it lead us to fulfill our dreams. Openly express our feelings. Follow the flame. Be intuitive, sensitive. Participate in life with feeling.

Anais writes that "life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death." Lawrence's philosophy was to live life deeply even when it is filled with failures and contradictions.
Swing from one extreme emotion to the next as poets do. Go through experiences then you'll have understanding.

Lawrence feels that human relationships between lovers involves finding a balance, leveling it out. Many relationships see-saw during interim periods before they achieve this balance and will likely continue to see-saw throughout the duration of the relationship as life happens to each person. There is a desire for connection, but it is difficult and takes time and patience and endurance and perseverance.

Anais loves to delve into analysis: she writes, "the first analysis of an event or a person yields a certain aspect. If we look at it again, it has another face. The further we progress in our reinterpretation, the more prismatic are the moods and the imaginings coordinating the facts differently each time. People who want a sane, static, measurable world take the first aspect of an event or person and stick to it, with an almost self-protective obstinacy, or by a natural limitation of their imaginations. They do not indulge in either deepening or magnifying."

She further states "the imagination is a constant deformer." Think of all the imaginary conversations and interactions you've had with people - all in your mind. Reality is so different from our obsessions. But what is life without wild imaginations that lead to dreams that transform you?