Reflections on the death of a porcupine and other essays — John Shaqi
Reflections on the death of a porcupine and other essaysLawrence, D. H. (David Herbert)
Philosophy
Reflections on the death of a porcupine and other essays
Lawrence, D. H. (David Herbert)
English essays -- 20th century
Destruction and Creation are the two relative absolutes between the
opposing infinites. Life is in both. Life may even, for a while be
almost entirely in one, or almost entirely in the other. The end of
either oneness is death. For life is really in the two, the absolute is
the pure relation, which is both.
If we have our fill of destruction, then we shall turn again to
creation. We shall need to live again, and live hard, for once our great
civilized form is broken, and we are at last born into the open sky, we
shall have a whole new universe to grow up into, and to find relations
with. The future will open its delicate, dawning icons in front of us,
unfathomable.
But let us watch that we do not preserve an enveloping falsity around
our destructive activity, some nullity of virtue and self-righteousness,
some conceit of the “general good” and the salvation of the world by
bringing it all within our own conceived whole form. This is the utter
lie and obscenity. The ego, like Humpty Dumpty, sitting for ever on the
wall.
The vulture was once, perhaps, an eagle. It became a supreme strong
bird, almost like the phoenix. But at a certain point, it said: “I am
It.” And then it proceeded to preserve its own static form crystal about
the flux of corruption, fixed, absolute as a crystal, about the horrible
seethe of corruption. Then the eagle became a vulture.
And the dog, through cowardice, arrested itself at a certain point and
became domestic, or a hyæna, preserving a glassy, fixed form about a
voracious seethe of corruption.
And the baboon, almost a man, or almost a high beast, arrested himself
and became obscene, a grey, hoary rind closed upon an activity of strong
corruption.
And the louse, in its little glassy envelope, brings everything into the
corrupting pot of its little belly.
And these are all perfectly-arrested egoists, asserting themselves
static and foul, triumphant in inertia and in will.
Let us watch that we do not turn either into carrion or into carrion
eaters. Let us watch that we do not become, in the vulgar triumph of our
will, and the obscene inertia of our ego, vultures who feed on
putrescence. The lust for death, for pain, for torture, is even then
better than this fatal triumph of inertia and the egoistic will.
Anything is better than that. The Red Indians, full of Sadism and
self-torture and death, destroyed themselves. But the eagle, when it
gets stuck and can know no more blossoming turns into a vulture with a
naked head, and becomes carrion-foul.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account