Lady Chatterley's Lover (D.H. Lawrence)

You know, I am usually one that objects to the four letter word that starts with a C that describes female genitalia. Hell, I'll say it--Cunt. Yes, cunt is not my favorite word by far, mostly because of the bitchy, rather dirty connotation it has taken on. A cunt is not a thing you make love to--it is for pure fucking, one night stands, and for women that wouldn't let you get even close to theirs. Yet, Lady Chatterley's Lover has recast the word in my eyes. "Tha'art good cunt, though, aren't ter? Best bit o' cunt left on earth... Fuck is only what you do. Animals fuck. But cunt's a lot more than that. It's thee, dost see: an' tha'rt a lot besides an animal, aren't ter? even ter fuck! Cunt! Eh, that's the beauty o' thee, lass." Ah, the subtleties of language one learns in literature. (Have you ever heard the penis called a 'cod?')

This novel is, yes, very sexually charged. It was banned for any sort of pubication in the United States, even by mail from Europe (the postmaster got involved to halt it). But it's literary merit brought it through to the public and brought the pubic delights of Lady Chatterley into daylight. If you are looking for a purely erotic novel, look elsewhere--something about pirates with Fabio on the cover will usually do, in my opinion. This story is mainly a tale of how industrialization, especially in England where the story is set, changes the nature of man. Sex is a huge part of this because, as men and women become mechanized, how do they define themselves as men and women? D.H. Lawrence believes that the self-worth that people had in the pre-industrial age is lost as they become cogs in an assembly line. In order to by happy and express themselves, then, they buy things. Money, money, money. So a bunch of sexless beings roam the planet, unable to truly love without shame.

I'm sure we can all agree when we look upon the general populace or the dating scene we see a lot of people that don't really qualify as "men." Modernized, shameful, gonadless men. So too with some women, who use sex to gain what they want and often don't crave it themselves, misleading their men and then shaming them for their own desires. Even after the sexual revoltion, do you think we have human sexuality quite right yet, quite wholly natural? Therefore when a man and a woman are able to truly love one another, in every way, it is truly a magical and rare thing.

I really enjoyed the ideas that Lawrence, shall we say, arouses in the novel. Ideas that I believe are still very apt for these times, when we often discuss the isolating effects of technology and the inhumanizing aspects of airbrushed models in magazines and television. Where, then, is the Mellors to awaken every lost, searching (but for what?) Lady Chatterley? Or, as these characters name their, hmmm, nether regions in the book: John Thomas and Lady Jane. Lady Jane? That's going to be my new analogy for the vagina. I think I still prefer that to the word cunt.