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
The living stream of sexual desire itself does not often, in any man,
find its object, its confluent, the stream of desire in a woman into
which it can flow. The two streams flow together, spontaneously, not
often, in the life of any man or woman. Mostly, men and women alike rush
into a sort of prostitution, because our idiotic civilisation has never
learned to hold in reverence the true desire-stream. We force our desire
from our ego: and this is deadly.
Desire itself is a pure thing, like sunshine, or fire, or rain. It is
desire that makes the whole world living to me, keeps me in the flow
connected. It is my flow of desire that makes me move as the birds and
animals move through the sunshine and the night, in a kind of
accomplished innocence, not shut outside of the natural paradise. For
life is a kind of Paradise, even to my horse Azul, though he doesn’t get
his own way in it, by any means, and is sometimes in a real temper about
it. Sometimes he even gets a bellyache, with wet alfalfa. But even the
bellyache is part of the natural paradise. Not like human _ennui_.
So a man can go forth in desire, even to the primroses. But let him
refrain from falling all over the poor blossom, as William did. Or
trying to incorporate it in his own ego, which is a sort of lust. Nasty
anthropomorphic lust.
Everything that exists, even a stone, has two sides to its nature. It
fiercely maintains its own individuality, its own solidity. And it
reaches forth from itself in the subtlest flow of desire.
It fiercely resists all inroads. At the same time it sinks down in the
curious weight, or flow, of that desire which we call gravitation. And
imperceptibly, through the course of ages, it flows into delicate
combination with the air and sun and rain.
At one time, men worshipped stones: symbolically, no doubt, because of
their mysterious durability, their power of hardness, resistance, their
strength of remaining unchanged. Yet even then, worshipping man did not
rest till he had erected the stone into a pillar, a menhir, symbol of
the eternal desire, as the phallus itself is but a symbol.
And we, men and women, are the same as stones: the powerful resistance
and cohesiveness of our individuality is countered by the mysterious
flow of desire, from us and towards us.
It is the same with the worlds, the stars, the suns. All is alive, in
its own degree. And the centripetal force of spinning earth is the force
of earth’s individuality: and the centrifugal force is the force of
desire. Earth’s immense centripetal energy, almost passion, balanced
against her furious centrifugal force, holds her suspended between her
moon and her sun, in a dynamic equilibrium.
So instead of the Greek: _Know thyself!_ we shall have to say to every
man: “_Be Thyself! Be Desirous!_”--and to every woman: “_Be Thyself! Be
Desirable!_”
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.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account