987 and 191X




"...I came to realize that a woman like me can only love a man who is fighting to change the world, to make it freer, more alive. Men like my first husband, who are good and trustworthy and who work to keep the world going on well in the same state they found it in, they let you down horribly, somewhere. You feel so terribly sold. Everything is just a sell: it becomes so small.... [He fought] for something he never quite realized. He ruined his health." (77)

"Her own final conclusion about men was that they were the vanity of vanities, nothing but vanity. They must be flattered and made to feel great: Nothing else." (176)

"'Was he free and happy?'

'He was really. But that's where the monkeyishness comes in. He wouldn't let himself be content. He insisted on having people and a cause, just to torture himself with.'

'Then why don't you live in your cottage quite alone, and without him?' he said. 'Why do you travel and see people?'

She was silent, very angry. She knew she could not live quite alone. The vacuity crushed her. She needed a man there, to stop the gap, to keep her balanced. But even when she had him, in her heart of hearts she despised him, as she despised the dog and cat. Between herself and humanity there was the bond of subtle, helpless antagonism.

She was naturally quite free-handed and she left people their liberty. Servants would get attached to her, and casual people all liked and admired her. She had a strong life-flow of her own, and a certain assertive joie de vivre.

But underneath it all was the unconquerable dislike, almost disgust of people. More than hate, it was disgust." (264)

-- D.H. Lawrence, The Plumed Serpent.



"I will never understand men. Their emotions are just really strange, and I just can't work out why they behave the way they do." [here]

Sei Shonagon's Pillow Book -- as a blog . Via S/FJ .

posted. Thu - July 15, 2004 @ 10:17 PM           |

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