Thank you, Mr Lawrence – I think.Much to think about here, but also much that isn’t acceptable or comfortable in a 21st Century world. As the academic wrote in the Introduction to my edition: “if you want a handbook for how to set up your own Fascist group this has it all.” The main theme of this book is the establishment of a Fascist group in Mexico using pre-European type gods to influence the native Indian population to join. The publication date is really important when reading this book, because if you don’t then you can easily run along claiming Lawrence is a supporter of Mussolini & Hitler. The fact that he pre-empts them for almost 10 years says a lot. Intellectual adults who had survived the Great War wanted a change in how governments were run: they felt the previous types – monarchy & democratic capitalism had failed the people. It was a common belief that a charismatic person could rise & save the populous; the two extreme ways were socialist/ communism, or right-wing oligarchies. It is really important that people in Britain thought Mussolini & Hitler were doing great things as they repatriated Italy & Germany. So, I feel we must not condemn Lawrence for his intellectual experiment in this novel. Why he supported an oligarchy of men, ruling over others is a little beyond me- especially as he was a collier’s son.The concepts of “eugenics” in a broad sense (so, no mixing of blood/ races), new order that uses old religions to break down the power of the Europeans and their corrupt ways - culture, ideas and religion – and thus anti-colonialism, and feminism, are all played out here. The serious problem is Lawrence doesn’t deal well with any of these: he waivers from point of view within the characters and not between the characters. And even her, he is heavy handed. Kate, the European women getting bound up in the all the fervour and excitement is a good case in point. I have no problems with Kate vacillating between getting away from the Mexican madness and joining the cult, but for a satisfactory outcome for the reader, she needed to make a decision on that final page! And then there is the feminist aspect – he produces a free-thinking, independent woman, who then considers being a second fiddle to the men. Really, Mr Lawrence!!!!Finally, there is the sensuality & sexuality in the book. The men spend most of their bare from the waist up (all very titillating for the early 1920s), the word sperm is used to describe the colour of the water at least 4 times, and we have esoteric metaphysical descriptions of the blood rush when one is sexuality roused, for both men and women. Everywhere the feeling of sensuality abounds – in the raw descriptions of the plants and flowers, the animals, particularly the stallion and oxen scenes. It has that exotic, steamy tropical sensual excitement about it.My other problem with this novel is the writing style. Lawrence is stodgy. I always forget how stodgy he can be – think swimming through molasses or porridge. For this reason, he can slow down action and description to a boring mess of sentences. However, on the other hand, there are moments of poetic brilliance and beauty. Some of the sentences, aiming to be poetic, instead do feel contrived.Will I recommend this others?? No. However, if you want to read a book about fascist ideas from an English intellectual, or you want to read all of Lawrence’s novels, then go for it.
DH Lawrence takes a trip to Mishima Country! This was so crazy I just had to love it.It's about Kate, Irish widow, who is in Mexico and pretty much hating it and everyone in it. We open at a bullfight (Mishima loved a good matador!) where everything's a bit sad and unEuropean. Kate goes on to say lots of racist things about Mexicans. Which is a downer. But then she meets a local warlord, and then his warlord boyfriend (Mishima loved a man in uniform!), moves to a lakeside villa, and starts falling in love with them and their unique brand of pagan fascism (Mishima loved fascism!). So crazy. The words "erect", "manhood" or "sperm" are on almost every page. No prizes for guessing what the plumed serpent represents.But Mexico seems really beautiful. And I'd love to know if Mishima read it.Mishima bits:"Cipriano was watching Ramon with black, guarded eyes, in which was an element of love, and of fear, and of trust, but also incomprehension, and the suspicion that goes with incomprehension."and"With Cipriano he was most sure. Cipriano and he, even when they embraced each other with passion, when they met after an absence, embraced in the recognition of each other's eternal and abiding loneliness; like the Morning Star.But women would not have this. They wanted intimacy - and intimacy means disgust. Carlota wanted to be eternally and closely identified with Ramon, consequently she hated him and hated everything which she thought drew him away from this eternal close identification with herself. It was just a horror and he knew it."and"'When he comes, all you who strive shall find the second strength. And when you have it, where will you feel it? Not here!' - and he struck his forehead. 'Not where the cunning gringos have it, in the head, and in their books. Not we. We are men, we are not spiders. We shall have it here!' - he struck his breast - 'and here!' - he struck his belly - 'and here!' - he struck his loins."and"Ramon knelt and pressed his arms close round Cipriano's waist, pressing his black head against his side. And Cipriano began to feel as if his mind, his head were melting away in the darkness; like a pearl in black wine, the other circle of sleep began to swing, vast. And he was a man without a head, moving like a dark wind over the face of the dark waters."and"She walked across the beach to the jetty, feeling the life surging vivid and resistant within her. 'It is sex,' she said to herself. 'How wonderful sex can be, when men keep it powerful and sacred, and it fills the world! Like sunshine through and through one!'"
Do You like book The Plumed Serpent (1992)?
Tone and themes remind me of JG Ballard. Even the naming of the chapters are similar. I guess DH Lawrence must have been a great influence on him. What's basically a weird s/m love story between the narrator and Mexico, quickly evolves into a complex multi-layered male/female new world/old world dialectic. You have to be on your toes all the time because very strange and not entirely pleasant ideas are put forward by the author in a quite convincing (and poetic) way.Being a real Aztec nerd, the overall concept of emerging neo-aztecs was thrilling. It's also set in an interesting time in Mexican history. But apart from that and some high energy action scenes it was actually pretty boring. Beautiful and weird but boring.
—Elias Westerberg
'The Plumed Serpent' is the strangest D.H. Lawrence novel I've read, and I did nearly give it up altogether a couple of times. Once I allowed myself to skim or skip the lengthy, nonsensical Quetzalcoatl 'sermons' I was able to enjoy much of the book. Lush descriptions of the lake, based upon Lake Chapala in Jalisco and Michoacán, expanded the middle of the book and provided a backdrop to the main protagonist's existential quest; a bit reminiscent of Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness'. Lawrence tends to hammer one over the head sometimes with his heavy repetition of imagery and symbolism, and in this novel it is the constant reference to images of darkness: the darkness of the night, or the dark people and their inscrutable motivations. However much Lawrence might have disparaged the English class system in his other novels, 'The Plumed Serpent' betrays this system at work in the author. The central Mexican characters in the novel speak Castilian and have European heritage, the Indians are peons and/or bandits--and are the darkest metaphorically. Modern readers, particularly, in reacting to this book have charged Lawrence with racism, and in fact the novel makes some pretty distasteful, disparaging remarks about the Indians. I've tried to balance the argument about the era that the writer lived in against the way that people and history have come to be perceived now, with mixed results; I did, however continue to read and find value in the novel.
—Brian
I expected this book to be really difficult. It was in some ways. I loved it at first. I love the complicated, conflicted, complex and compelling woman main character Kate. I love how he captures the dread of the mexican spirit. The feeling of negative death swamping over everything that even I see in Mexico. The aztec culture mixed with catholocism, two idealogies obsessed with death, with epic suffering leading to gods without pleasure. Pure seriousness. But it is too much, overall. Lawrence repeats himself over and over, the same ideas, the same scenes even. Maybe I’m too dense to get it, but I’d really have like to have about 150 less pages. Two Passages I Like:"Politics must go their own way, and society must do as it will…Politics and all this social religion…is like washing the outside of the egg, to make it look clean. But I, myself, want to get to the inside of the egg, right to the middle, to start growing it into a new bird." "Men and women should know that they cannot, absolutely, meet on earth. In the closest kiss, the dearest touch, there is the small gulf which is none the less complete because it is so narrow, so nearly non-existant. They must bow and submit in reverence, to the gulf. Even though I eat the body and drink the blood of Christ, Christ is Christ and I am I, and the gulf is impassable…That which we get from the beyond we get alone."
—Lucia
