sons and lovers
after seeing a beautiful mind and vaguely hearing about dh lawrence from russell crowe’s imaginary friend paul bettany… i was compelled to try to read some of lawrence. funny how i still link the author with the movie though they have nothing in common.
a quote in To the Lighthouse struck me as a good summary of that book: “a family of unrelated passions”
if that is a capsule description of TTL, then “family of connected and intertwined passions” could describe sons and lovers. people seemed to have felt more, to reacted with more force, breathed with more intensity 100 years ago than they do today. there are only several main characters: Mrs. Morel, Paul, Clara and Miriam. There is really only one plot: Paul’s struggle to realize his role as a son and as a lover (hence the title).
the best parts of the book are when lawrence turns each character inside out and dissects, traces and maps their passions. i wish i had another word for passion– a mixture of desire, force, intention and want– a craving. people in this book are human and flesh. but they seem maybe more human than we are– their every days are filled wiht color and movement, not an aritficial heightening of emotion, but a very real possession with the everyday. Its a celebration of the primitive emotions and tasks of life. but very very beautiful.
This entry was posted on Thursday, January 6th, 2005 at 2:59 pm and is tagged with primitive emotions, capsule description, sons and lovers, dh lawrence, paul bettany, friend paul, imaginary friend, beautiful mind, passions, russell crowe, morel, miriam, 100 years, lighthouse, intensity, maps, flesh, emotion, mixture, intention. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback.