tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post3652737776453887868..comments2024-01-28T03:56:39.351-08:00Comments on TOM CLARK: Doris Lessing on Lawrence's The FoxUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-81738244769064296582012-06-20T04:50:40.416-07:002012-06-20T04:50:40.416-07:00Susan,
Lovely to hear you thinking. What any wri...Susan,<br /><br />Lovely to hear you thinking. What any writer would hope for from any reader. <br /><br />The life of Lawrence, its places and its meanings, are the subject of this great 1985 documentary presented by the novelist Anthony Burgess. Highly recommended.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDmfCxDJiLc" rel="nofollow">Anthony Burgess: The Rage of D. H. Lawrence (1/4)</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YrBRD1iIqc" rel="nofollow">Anthony Burgess: The Rage of D. H. Lawrence (2/4)</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXHUV0ARals" rel="nofollow">Anthony Burgess: The Rage of D. H. Lawrence (3/4)</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PO4Untu-4e8" rel="nofollow">Anthony Burgess: The Rage of D. H. Lawrence (4/4)</a>TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-12890597393041638782012-06-20T00:32:13.647-07:002012-06-20T00:32:13.647-07:00Lawrence is fearless. He goes beyond and is not af...Lawrence is fearless. He goes beyond and is not afraid to say it, let us see it, let us have more than we thought we wanted. I see that the fox is a beggar, homeless, and a thief. The fox knows what to do but must keep moving. Highly instructive about the fox, the spell of the fox, what the fox sings, and these people? and story that discards the obvious (fox) to go where others would not dare but also becomes mundane? again.Susan Kay Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16277139119869470939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-67529089446609647562012-06-19T23:24:36.387-07:002012-06-19T23:24:36.387-07:00There's so much sympathetic magic -- and reade...There's so much sympathetic magic -- and reader involvement -- here.<br /><br />Poor Banford. Her last wish had simply been to feed those four hungry ducks.<br /><br />She had no food to give them, still they must have sensed it in her, as others did -- soft touch.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-9376908105693972612012-06-19T23:10:06.496-07:002012-06-19T23:10:06.496-07:00Susan,
That one snuck up on me, sly as a fox.
An...Susan,<br /><br />That one snuck up on me, sly as a fox.<br /><br />And Banford...<br /><br />dumb<br />like a sacrifice<br />her hair<br />wild like<br />tree<br />branches <br /><br />Yes, I felt that -- her one really wild moment. While at the same time wanting to cry out a warning. But as Lawrence is always showing, Nature and its workings are always just out of reach of our cries.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-84479230595155721382012-06-19T22:54:03.868-07:002012-06-19T22:54:03.868-07:00Affinity felt all round then, with this earth-wise...Affinity felt all round then, with this earth-wise creature.<br /><br />Beautiful story, Vassilis. <br /><br />Let that fox cub or at least its memory remain safe forever inside this small pleasant fox preserve. With neither a hound nor a gun in sight.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-17129317029291529402012-06-19T22:53:35.178-07:002012-06-19T22:53:35.178-07:00Banford is kind of dumb
like a sacrifice
her hair
...Banford is kind of dumb<br />like a sacrifice<br />her hair<br />wild like<br />tree<br />branches and her love<br />of nature<br />just too much<br />standing there<br />not afraid of the tree <br />or else placing herself<br />there in its path.Susan Kay Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16277139119869470939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-85426682347236341652012-06-19T22:08:34.494-07:002012-06-19T22:08:34.494-07:00Great post, Tom—reminded me of the time my wife an...Great post, Tom—reminded me of the time my wife and I came upon a fox cub that was no bigger than a cat as we were driving on a country road at night; the little critter had stopped right in the middle of the road and was waiting for our car to approach. We got out for a closer look and it started to rub up against our legs just like a cat and wouldn’t go away until we did. There was something about that encounter that still makes me feel wonderful every time I look back on it.vazambam (Vassilis Zambaras)https://www.blogger.com/profile/14515165428574974933noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-10641979783578923782012-06-19T18:35:29.651-07:002012-06-19T18:35:29.651-07:00Fox cat owl all get jumbled together somehow i...Fox cat owl all get jumbled together somehow in my imagination<br /><br />Nothing dog-like about the fox and yes a huge affinity for this creatureAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-60380514634278458672012-06-19T14:12:46.174-07:002012-06-19T14:12:46.174-07:00love the eyes of the fox...!!love the eyes of the fox...!!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-11159616977860766192012-06-19T12:18:32.273-07:002012-06-19T12:18:32.273-07:00Hazen, sorry about that, your comment was being di...Hazen, sorry about that, your comment was being disinfected in the zyklon B blogger holding tank, even as I babbled on here.<br /><br />I think you're spot on in seeing a survival of a bit of the neanderthal in Lawrence -- perhaps a somewhat confused bit, but still palpable. <br /><br />Lessing's suggestion that the t.b was related to the sexual obsession is interesting. Something like that happens too in the sad later days of Keats.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-15608436902022072872012-06-19T12:10:22.130-07:002012-06-19T12:10:22.130-07:00Nin, in the course of looking at about two thousan...Nin, in the course of looking at about two thousand foxes, I learned that there are entire packs affected by rabies and other diseases (including a large group that inhabited an Alaskan shipwreck site). Also that they are shy and have learned from experience to make themselves scarce when men come round with hounds and/or popguns. Like the raccoon and the badger and at the extreme of this category the honey badger, however, they are fierce survivalists. Long may they prosper, in a good way. A fox way.<br /><br />Susan, I was going to put up a clip from the film but the only things out there are the "hot girls kissing" scene (available of course in many versions with more vid hits per clip than the Greeks owe drachmas)... and yes, the tree scene. Since that's the one you remember, please consider <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe14Hf3lmq0%22" rel="nofollow">this clip from The Fox (1967)</a> a mnemonic event. Anything to add variety if not spice to life. Banford is the delicate bespectacled younger woman, played in the film by Sandy Dennis. It's her money underwrites the venture, and her upon who the tree falls, once our Keir (Dullea) manages to whack it down. In the novella as in the film the male intruder effectively kills Banford and then actually does run off with March.<br /><br />Really the Lawrence tale is worth a read, or a re-read, at any rate I found it so. Intense and instinctive and half bonkers as per the usual, but then that's Lawrence, a real writer, probably they're all nuts. Or else simply crazy like foxes.<br /><br />And I also think Doris Lessing really understands him, and is quite smart and fair on the subject.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-76273719778888696932012-06-19T11:52:03.430-07:002012-06-19T11:52:03.430-07:00Many, many thanks Tom for this fine essay on Lawre...Many, many thanks Tom for this fine essay on Lawrence. This isn’t one to skim or scan quickly, but to ponder. No great artist can ever be summed up, but Lessing comes as close as anyone could. Your post relates to recent new discoveries of cave paintings at various points around the globe, some of them dating back forty thousand years and perhaps more, though the animals most often depicted seem to be horses and bison; the images were ‘interactive’ in way we moderns cannot approach. New studies show that these could have been painted by Homo sapiens neanderthalensis. Neanderthal man has received a bad rap, it seems. They are not a stupid and brutish race, but sensitive people attuned to their surroundings. I say ‘are’ because other studies show that they’re still with us, in our DNA. Who knows, maybe that consciousness touched Lawrence himself.Hazenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13417573435195561519noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-85747240670985601452012-06-19T11:15:36.199-07:002012-06-19T11:15:36.199-07:00Interesting. I have seen so many foxes in my life....Interesting. I have seen so many foxes in my life. They are shy. When I was a girl, one had rabies and there was a lot of excitement -- we had to shoot it. But usually it's the coons and the skunks that get rabies. I've been chased by raccoons with rabies--they scare me. <br /><br />Not that that is what this post is about. But it's interesting. As to cruelty and animals, I think we used to train animals with cruel techniques. Parenting and animal training techniques seem to soften over time. Don't know if that's an explanation or excuse, but it crossed my mind . . . <br /><br />I love this post.Nin Andrewshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12643167108589844026noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-62112477592677778392012-06-19T08:13:52.906-07:002012-06-19T08:13:52.906-07:00Lesing's write-up is very full. I remember see...Lesing's write-up is very full. I remember seeing this movie when I was little. The tree was very disturbing and nightmarish for years to come. I remember how the man was the intruder, although the fox was not an intruder of the same quality. The man was so bulky. I like thinking of Lawrence as shaman. I like thinking of any kind of shaman or animal or animal shaman. I wonder if Banford was the fox in the story.Susan Kay Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16277139119869470939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-47684150751911631532012-06-19T07:23:57.164-07:002012-06-19T07:23:57.164-07:00To be fair, it ought to be said that after looking...To be fair, it ought to be said that after looking at that Surrey fox several times a night over a period of some three to four weeks, I have yet to feel stared at in a mean or resentful way by it.<br /><br />No, never quite that.<br /><br />In a fox way, though, yes.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-74267383852844007772012-06-19T05:32:43.939-07:002012-06-19T05:32:43.939-07:00Or possibly your largeness (through his eyes mainl...Or possibly your largeness (through his eyes mainly)?TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-20690822576902584822012-06-19T04:54:30.651-07:002012-06-19T04:54:30.651-07:00Saw a fox once just like this one on my morning ru...Saw a fox once just like this one on my morning run, looking mean & resentful<br /><br />or maybe he'd just reflected my own smallness (through the eyes mainly)Conrad DiDiodatohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18312831623791642286noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-64591087418090615412012-06-19T04:42:04.941-07:002012-06-19T04:42:04.941-07:00Lawrence's 1923 novella may be read in its ent...Lawrence's 1923 novella may be read in its entirety here:<br /><br /><a href="http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/l/lawrence/dh/l41f/" rel="nofollow">D. H. Lawrence: The Fox</a>TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.com