INSOUCIANCE

D.H. LAWRENCE
D.H. Lawrence, in full David Herbert Lawrence,
(born September 11, 1885, Eastwood,
Nottinghamshire, England—died March 2, 1930,
Vence, France), was an English author of novels,
short stories, poems, plays, essays, travel books,
and letters. His novels Sons and Lovers (1913),
The Rainbow (1915), and Women in Love (1920)
made him one of the most influential English
writers of the 20th century. Lawrence himself
considered his writings an attempt to challenge
and expose what he saw as the constrictive and
oppressive cultural norms of modern Western
culture. He once said, "If there weren't so many
lies in the world . . . I wouldn't write at all."
D.H. Lawrence was first recognized as a working-class novelist showing the reality of
English provincial family life and—in the first days of psychoanalysis—as the author-
subject of a classic case history of the Oedipus complex. In subsequent works,
Lawrence’s frank handling of sexuality cast him as a pioneer of a “liberation” he
would not himself have approved. From the beginning readers have been won over
by the poetic vividness of his writing and his efforts to describe subjective states of
emotion, sensation, and intuition. This spontaneity and immediacy of feeling
coexists with a continual, slightly modified repetition of themes, characters, and
symbols that express Lawrence’s own evolving artistic vision and thought. His great
novels remain difficult because their realism is underlain by obsessive personal
metaphors, by elements of mythology, and above all by his attempt to express in
words what is normally wordless because it exists below consciousness. Lawrence
tried to go beyond the “old, stable ego” of the characters familiar to readers of more
conventional fiction. His characters are continually experiencing transformations
driven by unconscious processes rather than by conscious intent, thought, or ideas.
Since the 1960s, Lawrence’s critical reputation has declined, largely as a
result of feminist criticism of his representations of women. Although it
lacks the inventiveness of his more radical Modernist contemporaries, his
work—with its depictions of the preoccupations that led a generation of
writers and readers to break away from Victorian social, sexual, and cultural
norms—provides crucial insight into the social and cultural history of Anglo-
American Modernism. Lawrence was ultimately a religious writer who did
not so much reject Christianity as try to create a new religious and moral
basis for modern life by continual resurrections and transformations of the
self. These changes are never limited to the social self, nor are they ever
fully under the eye of consciousness. Lawrence called for a new openness to
what he called the “dark gods” of nature, feeling, instinct, and sexuality; a
renewed contact with these forces was, for him, the beginning of wisdom.
Lawrence’s works, in general, represent an extended reflection upon the
dehumanizing effects of modernity and industrialization. The subject and style of
Lawrence’s works, of whatever kind, are so distinct and consistent that his name has
given birth to an adjective, “Lawrentian,” to describe a way of looking at the world
and a method for presenting it. In them, Lawrence confronts issues relating to
emotional health and vitality, spontaneity, human sexuality and instinct.
Lawrence's opinions earned him many enemies and he endured official persecution,
censorship, and misrepresentation of his creative work throughout the second half of
his life, much of which he spent in a voluntary exile he called his “savage pilgrimage.”
At the time of his death, his public reputation was that of a pornographer who had
wasted his considerable talents. E.M. Forster, in an obituary notice, challenged this
widely held view, describing him as, “The greatest imaginative novelist of our
generation.” Later, the influential Cambridge critic F.R. Leavis championed both his
artistic integrity and his moral seriousness, placing much of Lawrence's fiction within
the canonical “great tradition” of the English novel.
 Fascism
Fascism refers to a political ideology and mass movement that dominated
many parts of central, southern, and eastern Europe between 1919 and 1945
and that also had adherents in western Europe, the United States, South
Africa, Japan, Latin America, and the Middle East. Europe’s first fascist leader,
Benito Mussolini, took the name of his party from the Latin word fasces,
which referred to a bundle of elm or birch rods (usually containing an ax) used
as a symbol of penal authority in ancient Rome. Although fascist parties and
movements differed significantly from one another, they had many
characteristics in common, including extreme militaristic nationalism,
contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief
in natural social hierarchy and the rule of elites, and the desire to create a
Volksgemeinschaft (German: “people’s community”), in which individual
interests would be subordinated to the good of the nation.
At the end of World War II, the major European fascist parties were broken up,
and in some countries (such as Italy and West Germany) they were officially
banned. Beginning in the late 1940s, however, many fascist-oriented parties and
movements were founded in Europe as well as in Latin America and South Africa.
Although some European “neofascist” groups attracted large followings,
especially in Italy and France, none were as influential as the major fascist parties
of the interwar period.
[Again: Fascism is generally defined as a political movement that embraces far-
right nationalism and the forceful suppression of any opposition, all overseen by
an authoritarian government. Fascists strongly oppose Marxism, liberalism and
democracy, and believe the state takes precedence over individual interests. They
favor centralized rule, often a single party or leader, and embrace the idea of a
national rebirth, a new greatness for their country. Economic self-sufficiency is
prized, often through state-controlled companies. Youth, masculinity and strength
are highly fetishized (made the objects of fantasy or desire). ]
Benito Mussolini
(1883-1945)
Italian Fascist
Dictator and Adolf
Hitler (1889-
1945) German
Fascist Dictator

Francisco
Franco (1892-
1975) Spanish
Fascist Dictator
 Insouciance
Insouciance refers to casual lack of concern or indifference. Some of its synonyms are
nonchalance, unconcern, lack of concern, indifference or heedlessness.
In this essay, D. H. Lawrence wishes for people to stop worrying over foreign matters
that do not concern them or that they don’t or can’t control, and to instead focus on
the here and now, and live in spontaneity. He urges us to show indifference towards
matters that are just too vague or grand or alien and to be concerned with what’s
around us.
Lawrence begins the essay by stating that the balcony of his room of the hotel he is
staying is on the east side. An old French couple are his neighbors on the right and
two old English ladies are his neighbors on the left. And almost joking he mentions
that both he and his neighbors are extremely shy of one another. Then, to show how
shy (bashful) they are of each other, he goes on recount their routine in a light
hearted manner. Every morning when he looks out of his room, he sees the old French
lady looking from the balcony “standing like the captain on the bridge surveying the
morning.”
When he sees her so, he immediately gets in before she can see him. And
whenever he comes out of his room during daytime, the two old English ladies
pop in their room “like white rabbits” as soon as they see him . (There is the use
of simile in both.)
Then Lawrence narrates the events of “this afternoon” (i.e. the afternoon of the
same day he wrote this essay) which was quite hot. After waking up abruptly
from his sleep and going to the balcony, he just sits there calmly observing and
thinking about the world around him. He ignores the two pairs of feet of the
elderly English ladies which are just sticking out of their doorways as they were
lounging on their chaises lounges (long sofas in the shape of a chair that allow
the sitter to sleep or rest with their legs on them.) The afternoon is hot and still,
the lake shines below like a glass, the mountains seem sulky (silent and upset),
and from below the hill, quite near the “slush, slush” sound of the scythe-strokes
can be heard. (scythe: a tool used for cutting crops such as grass or corn, with a
long curved blade at the end of a long pole attached to a handle; a sickle (हँसिया)
A Chaise longue
As soon as the two women know that he is there, they show a kind of agitation
(hesitation) and at once the two pair of feet disappear and there is a silence. But
to the sheer amazement of the speaker, one of the old women unexpectedly
come out, looks straight at him and says that the weather is charming. With a
false amiability (false friendliness), he too remarks that it’s a little cooler. The
lady too agrees with him and they both talk about the men mowing (cutting) the
grass with their scythes. Now “tête-à-tête” (face to face and having private
conversation), they discuss about the cherries, strawberries and the grapes. The
discussion of grapes leads to the talk about Italy and the then Fascist Dictator
Italy Signor Benito Mussolini. (Signor: Italian for Mr.) And before he can gather
his wits about him, the lady leads him away from his present environment (the
hotel balcony, the lake, the mowers and the sound of the scythes, the
mountains, the cherry trees) to the ether (atmosphere) of international politics.
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 1883 – 28
April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who
founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was
Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in
1922 until his deposition in 1943, and "Duce" (the
leader) of Italian Fascism from the establishment of
the Italian Fasces of Combat (the fascist party of Italy)
in 1919 until his execution in 1945 by Italian partisans.
As dictator of Italy and principal founder of fascism,
Mussolini inspired and supported the international
spread of fascist movements during the inter-war
period. (When Lawrence was writing this essay in 1928
AD, Mussolini was already at the height of his powers.
There is no mention of Adolf Hitler in this essay
because Hitler & his NAZI Party only came to absolute
power in Germany in 1933.)
The speaker then complains that because of the talks of the lady, he is not
permitted to “sit like a dandelion (a flower) on my own stem” (another use of
simile). It means that he just wants to enjoy his surroundings but just as the
dandelion flower and its seeds are easily swept away by the wind of other
external forces, he too is tried to be swept away by the talks of the woman. But
as she is talking about those international political matters, he remains
indifferent to them and was ‘musing over’ (thinking about) the two men cutting
the grass. He intently and attentively watches each and every motion of the
mowers, noticing each of their apparel (clothing). He attempts to attract the
lady’s interest on that matter but she doesn’t want anything to do with such a
subject. She doesn’t care about the things that were “actually there”. She was
almost scared off the balcony but she held on two her kind of talks and kept on
babbling about right and wrong, politics, Fascism, etc. While she is forcefully
imposing all these ‘foreign’ matters, he feels that she was just a villainous ogress
(giantess).
But, the speaker has no place and time in his mind for such vague and abstract
topics. He just wants to live in the moment, to observe every detail of his
surrounding, to look at the mowers and their dress and their movements.
Then he asks the following penetrating questions: “Why do modern people
almost invariably ignore the things that are actually present to them? Why,
having come out from England to find mountains, lakes, scythe-mowers and
cherry trees, does the little blue-eyed lady resolutely close her blue eyes to
them all, now she’s got them, and gaze away to Signor Mussolini, whom she
hasn’t got, and to Fascism, which is invisible anyhow? Why isn’t she content to
be where she is? Why can’t she be happy with what she’s got? Why must she
care?”
Then he says that he now knows why her blue eyes are so noticeably round. It’s
because she is haunted or affected this mysterious desire of “caring”. She ‘cares’
about things that are so distant, things that do not concern her, things that are
so invisible, so hypothetical. The old woman doesn’t want to go to the mower
and have a conversation with him. If she could actually do that, Lawrence would
call her “an on-the-spot little lady” but since she can’t or doesn’t do so, he call
her “a tiresome off-the-spot old woman”.
(It is a kind of vague kind of sickness in the modern people that they need to
know and they need to ‘care’ about the ‘important’ events happening around
the world. But in doing so, they actually forget about the actual here and now,
the minor events that occur close to us in which they can actually take part and
may be even make a difference. Instead of thinking about and interacting with
the people with them, they think about the so called important people who are
so far away, people who don’t even know that we exist. One factor influencing
this is the advancement of modern means of communication and mass media
which has made us so close with people and events a thousand miles away but
so distant from the people who are just an inch away. Lawrence tries to
persuade us to live actually and have sensuous contact with the things that are
around us. He tells us that just like him, we should be indifferent.)
Lawrence then adds that people like the old lady are totally full of caring. Their
only task is caring about Fascism, the League of the Nations, or any other so
called national and international issue. (The League of Nations was the
predecessor to the United Nations. The League was founded in 1920, after
World War I, but failed to maintain peace and prevent World War II. The
League had a Council of the great powers and an Assembly of all of its
member countries.) For Lawrence, such people live in an abstract or vague
world, the live in the void or vacuum (empty space) of politics, principles, right,
wrong and so on. Interacting with them is like having a relationship with an
algebraic symbol like X. Lawrence writes that there a great deadly gap between
real living (living in the here and now) and this kind of abstract living. Next he
describes what actual living is: it is having direct, sensuous, concrete and
tangible contact with the world. It is seeing, touching, smelling, tasting, hearing
and feeling the things that are around us.
Lawrence wanted to live the real life of the here and now but just as Atropos
(one of three the Greek goddesses of fate: the cutter of the thread of life) cuts
life away from human, the old lady too wanted to shear him off (cut him off)
from the real world and throw him into her own abstract world of international
politics and this and that. Here Lawrence even lightly and jokingly mock the
Biblical line “love thy neighbor” and writes “Then we are supposed to love our
neighbors!” (How can he love such a neighbor like the old lady?)
In conclusion, Lawrence mentions since people live through their instincts (the
inherent tendency, inclination or trait of sb) and their intuition (the quality of
knowing sth without thinking about it), his instinct tells him to run away from
this boring discussion of the over-eager lady and go and smell the lime flowers
and touch the cherry fruit. On the other hand, his intuition leads him to feel the
strange glassiness of the lake, the silent and withdrawn nature of the mountains,
the colorfulness of the greenery and the toil (hard work) and sweat of the two
mowers.