tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post2555761622927937243..comments2024-01-28T03:56:39.351-08:00Comments on TOM CLARK: D. H. Lawrence: Rabbit in the HouseUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-73828667254286998472017-02-16T06:54:59.114-08:002017-02-16T06:54:59.114-08:00Why was their meeting with their father was not al...Why was their meeting with their father was not always happy?buansing79https://www.blogger.com/profile/09581598049898565626noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-49294589279584967982013-05-06T04:55:51.938-07:002013-05-06T04:55:51.938-07:00What a brilliant tale this is. Sensitivity, sympat...What a brilliant tale this is. Sensitivity, sympathy... and above all, recollection (Steve) of observation -- the acute edge of a writer's gift.<br /><br />WB's spot-on, Dürer's and Lawrence's rabbits -- so real... And Samuel Palmer seems to have understood the wildness of the coppice.<br /><br />(Perhaps not so much the Brangwens as the Morels, in this reconstructed family picture?)<br /><br />"a tiny obscure cloud" -- oh yes!<br /><br />And here I think Marie comes to the gist:<br /><br />"...where the child says Useless to love it, to yearn over it. Love and affection were a trespass upon it. Or was that the mum, rather? She knew how it would end. Maybe it is 'useless' to grow love and affection for something we know will not be here forever?"<br /><br />These relationships with wild or stray animals that begin in curiosity and pity and grow through affection into attachment can become so complicated, for humans are prone to sorts of attachment that wild creatures are not. And it is not love that sequesters and confines.<br /><br />Over the years we've known a few people who adopted rabbits as more-or-less pets... usually "less", in the end, for a rabbit is a lot to handle.<br /><br />A half century ago in Bolinas, when that tiny village was still a curious haven of wild and half-wild creatures, we had friends who dwelt in an old falling-down house across from the rickety downtown market, and they kept a rabbit in the house. The wildness of the rabbit certainly contributed the most vivid wildness in a household of semi-clothed small children who ran about happily as naked savages and adults who wore more clothing but were scarcely less orderly. It all seemed to wok itself out somehow, and the rabbit set the tone.<br /><br />Around the turn of this latest century we had friends here who were Brazilian postdoc scientists. The particularly congenial fellow who had first befriended us lived in rental digs, and with the rental house he had inherited a family of rabbits. They had a sort of hutch, contained within a small fenced garden. They spent much of their time in the hutch, but were allowed their freedom of the garden, so the arrangement was probably as close to ideal as a rabbit-human space-sharing arrangement can be. Wonderful creatures these were, to observe as a guest. Caring for them however -- another matter altogether.<br /><br />Angelica, who is a great reader of Lawrence, was particularly drawn to this tale for a personal reason. We currently have a cat friend, a large very intelligent and barely manageable male Siamese, whose loveably untoward conduct is such that some of Lawrence's sentences might as well apply to him as to Adolf.<br /><br />In particular, sentences like:<br /><br />"He sat bright-eyed and askance, twitching his nose and looking at me while not looking at me...<br /><br />"...and suddenly set off in a wild flight to the parlour.<br /><br />"...he would go off like an alarum clock. With a sudden bumping scuffle he would whirl out of the room, going through the doorway with his little ears flying. Then we would hear his thunder-bolt hurtling in the parlour, but before we could follow, the wild streak of Adolf would flash past us, on an electric wind that swept him round the scullery and carried him back, a little mad thing, flying possessed like a ball round the parlour..."TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-23237098919782736372013-05-05T18:51:15.854-07:002013-05-05T18:51:15.854-07:00Such a sweet post for Angelica, yes. I really like...Such a sweet post for Angelica, yes. I really like the lines where the child says Useless to love it, to yearn over it. Love and affection were a trespass upon it. Or was that the mum, rather? She knew how it would end. Maybe it is 'useless' to grow love and affection for something we know will not be here forever?Marie Whttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07787850063283960703noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-25505435720968510702013-05-05T12:28:38.620-07:002013-05-05T12:28:38.620-07:00"It was like a tiny obscure cloud.""It was like a tiny obscure cloud."vazambam (Vassilis Zambaras)https://www.blogger.com/profile/14515165428574974933noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-11202656222066622942013-05-05T11:16:05.334-07:002013-05-05T11:16:05.334-07:00Adolph is drawn very delicately (as with the Durer...Adolph is drawn very delicately (as with the Durer). He does a pretty good job with the other species in their familial setting too. There may be an echo of the Brangwens here. <br /><br />This post's a lovely gift for A.Mose23https://www.blogger.com/profile/01100756913131511440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-2455272890160902682013-05-05T07:50:08.213-07:002013-05-05T07:50:08.213-07:00Tom,
Real things recollected, framed by Durer and...Tom,<br /><br />Real things recollected, framed by Durer and Samuel Palmer -- "We heard it and believed. But many, many were the heart searchings..." <br /><br />5.5<br /><br />cloud moving to the left above shadowed<br />ridge, song sparrow calling from branch<br />in foreground, wave sounding in channel<br /><br /> perhaps that there were now<br /> some who, to position <br /> <br /> sight, which needs distance,<br /> pictures by hand made<br /><br />silver of sunlight reflected in channel,<br />whiteness of moon in cloudless blue sky<br />STEPHEN RATCLIFFEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12339481653546188412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-45877377285467470602013-05-05T06:19:23.877-07:002013-05-05T06:19:23.877-07:00This animal story based on Lawrence's childhoo...This animal story based on Lawrence's childhood memories was composed in 1919, in response to a request from his friend John Middleton Murry, editor of the Atheneum, for "uncontroversial" articles. The story was rejected by Murry, but then, with the help of another literary friend, Richard Aldington, in 1920 it was published in the Dial; it was, however, left out Lawrence's short story collections during his lifetime.<br /><br />Regrettably so, because, like all Lawrence's writings about animals, "Adolf" is remarkably closely observed from nature.<br /><br />Another good example of the presence of this gift of inter-species in-feeling:<br /><br /><a href="http://tomclarkblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/dh-lawrence-baby-tortoise.html" rel="nofollow">D. H. Lawrence: Baby Tortoise</a>TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.com