Aaron's Rod
Hi Roni,
I put this together for you because of your many contributions to this forum over the months.
I'd like to put in a good word for Lawrence. I've not read a lot of him, but I have read
Lady Chatterley's Lover, Women in Love, Aaron's Rod, various poems, and his
Selected Letters. He can cut right to the bone the same as Bukowski: "Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves you, say what you've got to say, and say it hot."
He had a mystical reverence for natural sexual expression and love: "If I take my whole, passionate, spiritual and physical love to the woman who in return loves me, that is how I serve God. And my hymn and my game of joy is my work." At his best Lawrence's works represent a return to the theme of liberating the "natural man" - the natural instincts within everyone; what is healthy, holy and alive.
He liberated the English language from its Victorian prudery - long overdue - and was censored for his liberal use of f**k and c**t in
Lady Chatterley's Lover.
He's the only writer and artist that I know of who was ever banned for not only his books but his paintings. That's how much of a threat he was to the conventions of the time, and he was considered more a pornographer than a literary figure for most of his career. His reputation as a great writer was largely enhanced because of his impact on other writers who understood and defended him. His writings had tremendous impact on Anais Nin and Henry Miller. Both wrote books on him:
D.H. Lawrence: An Unprofessional Study, by Nin;
The World of Lawrence: A Passionate Appreciation, by Miller.
It was Nin who was a true Lawrence pioneer and she was the one who opened Miller's eyes to Lawrence's greatness. The film
Henry and June - about the love affair between the two writers - has their interest in Lawrence as a background theme, and this is one of my favorite movies of all time for capturing the literary adventurism of the early 30's and what it was like for Miller to be an American expatriate living in France, where he finally discovered his own voice as a writer in
Tropic of Cancer. At first, Miller disliked Lawrence and considered his attitude toward sex as that of a child. He soon came to change his mind.
I strongly suggest that anyone who wants to understand Lawrence as a man should start immediately with his
Selected Letters. He can lay the words down on the page as hard as anyone - no superficial fluff! - and the reader can see him directly rather than trying to discern the man through his novels, short stories or poems - sometimes hard to penetrate because of their dense prose. He is what I call a "wisdom writer," and his letters are full of deep insights into the human condition, especially that of male/female relations and sexuality as a mode of profound self-transformation - almost like it was a religion.
I would bet my bottom dollar that the work Bukowski is referring to with the piano reference is from
Aaron's Rod and not from any poem. It's my favorite work of his because there's a rich psychological undertone between the main characters - Lawrence at his mature best. There are
numerous "piano" references:
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=4520
Much of the story takes place in a densely rich
musical setting. But beware - there's a seductive, hypnotic pull to the book.
Good luck and I hope you find the reference you're looking for. I think Bukowski's comments may not be an exact quote from
Aaron's Rod; Bukowski was merely putting it in his own way and he's referring to the overall mood of the story. To me, it fits perfectly. All of Lawrence's writings are available free on-line.
