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?