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On being an outsider

By Old Grumpy Guy on February 15, 2009 at 2:30 PM in Current Affairs

In my latest video on great writers I discuss D.H. Lawrence, with whom I identified as a cultural nomad and a general outsider from the mainstream.

I have pointed out in a number of videos and writings on my Youtube channel and here on NQ that I have no affiliation with any particular political party, being socially liberal, culturally conservative (desiring to maintain the best aspects of art, literature and western culture in general) and fiscally mixed, favoring some government intervention where necessary but kept to a minimum.

This hasn’t stopped some narrow people from calling me partisan in my attitudes. But as I explain in this video, I have always had problems with “group think”, finding it impossible to subscribe to the beliefs, attitudes and behavior of any particular group or ideology.

That makes it very difficult to be partisan, at least as far as politics are concerned. Of course I have my views on what is wrong and what is right in society today, as well as my views on what constitutes the best of western culture, but none of these views conform to any ruling academic or political consensus or any particular ideology

I am guided mainly by intuition and my own perceptions, just as most of my favorite artists, composers and writers do and did.

Julie

A lot of group think going on on this website. Also, every single story and almost every single comment on this site is negative.

Must be a very depressed bunch.
oowawa

Hmmmm . . . Not one mention of Sylvia Kristel as Lady Chatterley? Just because she was a soft-porn princess, her talents have been dismissed. I’ll bet D. H. would have liked her. A lot. But I liked Helen Mirren too–especially in The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, which I’ll bet Lawrence also would have loved. He was indeed an outsider, someone who dared to think outside of the conventional. I really admire his short stories. Good job, OGG!
Old Grumpy Guy

An even greater amount of group think going on among the Obots.
oowawa

almost every single comment on this site is negative.

Well, this looks to me like a negative comment, Julie, and not only negative, but off-topic as well. What about D. H. Lawrence?
Old Grumpy Guy

I was counting on you oowawa to cover the lower end of the Lawrence market, hence no mention of Sylvia Kristel.
Old Grumpy Guy

good point
trixta

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover

Ugh, I could never stomach that S&M movie,oowawa, but I agree on the matter of Kristel.

BTW, Grumpy, your point of view and contributions are much appreciated here! We may not always agree on the issues, but I respect your positions and the witty and thoughtful way you present them. Unfortunately, my posts were relegated all last week to NQ’s SPAM and Moderation files, so I was unable to come to your defense when you were attacked gratuitously by a poster. I thought you handled him/her beautifully though. I, and many others here, look forward to all of your contributions.
trixta

I think it’s call Othink.
http://sonicninjakitty.wordpress.com Sonic Ninja Kitty

It was ages ago that I read Sons and Lovers, and probably much of it went over my head then, too, so I am totally gobsmacked at this overview of Lawrence. Wowza!! I mean, just Wowza!! Good God, I am running straight away to the library!
Old Grumpy Guy

Thanks trixta. And I agree with you about “The Cook etc”. I thought it was totally pretentious and it had that dreadfully monotonous music by Michael Nyland, (But don’t tell oowawa, who is sensitive about such things)
oowawa

Hi trixta. I too was uncomfortable with some parts of The Cook, but eventually found it to be brilliant. I greatly admire Mirren’s courage in taking on roles like this–one of the world’s great actresses, and not afraid to do (and show) whatever the role demands. Greenaway makes movies like Lawrence wrote novels: with an eye to shaking up the status quo. This all makes me want to dig out some Lawrence and read-reread!
Ferd Berfle

Well, sorry you feel that way. I’m sure there are other, less depressing websites devoted to making YOU feel special. Try one–please.
Old Grumpy Guy

Well, I couldn’t have hoped for a better reaction than that
Old Grumpy Guy

Helen Mirren is indeed one of the greatest actresses
TeakwoodKite

I am guided mainly by intuition and my own perceptions

It is the intuition part that is of great interest to me. Where the subjective and the objective worlds mingle, sometimes collide.
oowawa

Beat up on Peter Greenaway and Frank Zappa all you want. I can take it.
Ferd Berfle

Personally, I love Zappa. But then I’m not mainstream by any means.
Old Grumpy Guy

I’ll bet you don’t like Michael Nyland. Nobody likes Michael Nyland, but some people pretend they do.
PainkillerJayne

All that hope and change kind of gets you choked up, doesn’t it?
PainkillerJayne

Ferd the Obotapalooza tour schedule is coming out soon
oowawa

Did I say “Frank Zappa?” I meant to say “Michael Nyland.” Funny how Zappa’s ghost seems to be haunting Old Grumpy Guy’s posts.
bert

Excellent post, as always OGG.

I have not read much D. H. Lawrence. Some short stories or novella’s in college. I don’t remember much about them. Like a previous poster, I will have to go to the library and get one of his novels, most likely Sons and Lovers, but maybe Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
rw

“Othink” aka mob mentality.
Linda Anselmi

Great post – OGG.

This world could use a a lot less group think and a lot more non conformity. But that requires thinking and we’ve gotten pretty lazy about that. Thanks for nudging us along.
Old Grumpy Guy

Thanks Linda
trixta

The first time I attempted to see The Cook, etc., I just couldn’t get passed that awful opening scene (let alone remember the musical score!). I know that film was highly praised by some critics and viewers, and such praise may be warranted, although I will never really know since I can’t even sit through it. (I tried a second time, and got as far as inside the restaurant and some of the kitchen scenes.) But I, too, think Mirren is brilliant. I loved her in Excaliber, a film I highly recommend for it’s aesthetically realistic depiction of the King Author legend.

About Lawrence’s work, it’s been so long since I’ve read his books that I don’t really have anything intelligent to to add to the conversation, but I will say that I liked Lady Chatterley’s Lover and that I appreciate Lawrence’s independent streak and artistic vision, which so rattled the conventional moorings of his times. His thematic on human sexuality was certainly bold (as the video clip shows), but didn’t his work, if I’m not mistaken, also critique capitalism and modern life in general for boxing in the individual (or something to that effect)?

In any case, I wonder what he’d have to say about our modern world today? Do you think, Grumpy, that he would have liked the sixties and the sexual revolution? What would he have to say about rap videos and their sexual content? About our economic meltdown?
trixta

[I meant King Arthur.]
trixta

i.e. Omob mentality.
trixta

Okay, now you all have me curious about Michael Nyland. Must look him up….
TexasMirth

OGG, this was a wonderful post! Lawrence’s “The Rocking Horse Winner” haunted me for the longest time. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie clips you included. Often when watching the crowds woo and swoon over Obama, I, too, feel like an outsider. Their group-think baffles me.
OldGrumpyGuy

I think he would have enjoyed the Sixties before it became druggy and cliquey. I don’t think he would be too happy with the way things are now, with the decline of western culture
elise

I read Lady Chatterley’s Lover because it was banned, but thought it was a beautiful novel. You didn’t mention The Plumed Serpent, OGG. I believe he wrote it while living in Mexico (San Miguel de Allende?). I love it, but rarely hear anyone mention it when speaking of his writings. Have you read it and what do you think?
JulieD

Another one out of the park OGG! Thanks for bringing some beauty into my life tonight.

I’m sorry that you had to move so often as a child. That had to be difficult. You may have been poor, but you have good taste.

Happy Presidents’ Day!
chezmadame

I was scoffed at by my professors when I wanted to do my thesis on D.H. Lawrence. He was dismissed for his repetetive style. I think the truth was that some buttoned-down academics were scared by his themes.

I wrote it anyway: Dialect and Dialectics in Lady Chatterley’s Lover.

Thirty years later, I’m still proud of that piece of writing.

Great analysis Professor Grumpy.
OldGrumpyGuy

Repetitive style? I never noticed. Today anything repetitive would be called minimalist and be lauded by the academics
chezmadame

I’ve always found Lawrence’s style hypnotic, the way it swirls back upon itself with subtle variation of seminal words and phrases.

I guess my profs thought that too many emotions were “inchoate”, too many images “fecund”.It’s funny how I can pull those wods out of my memory 30 years later.

I was in constant defensive mode in graduate school because of my admiration for DHL. It was not so much that he was considered a second rate writer, as much as he was considered a second class writer. Not on the same level as Joyce or Woolf or Conrad.

“We fucked a flame into being…” Oh, but the man understood primal truth.
OldGrumpyGuy

Conrad I think has been overrated. His most well known work “Heart of Darkness” provides interesting metaphors (and Coppola did a good job of milking it in “Apacolypse Now”) but I would never describe it as a great work. I have never been able to get into Virginia Woolf, and my feeling (from an attempt at reading To The Lighthouse) is that Virginia Woolf herself was never really able to get into Virginia Woolf. I enjoyed reading her biography however, and those of the other Bloomsburyites. I tried reading Joyce’s Ulysses but got bored.
OldGrumpyGuy

oh, but the man understood primal truth.

How many people these days understand primal truth?
chezmadame

Well at least apparently some people have an interest and an inkling.

“Even the sun and the moon are fucked into being, but it takes patience and the long pause.”

Thank you for culling beautiful memories this morning.
OldGrumpyGuy

Ah, the long pause indeed…before the second wave
kat in your hat

Oh, thank you so much for doing a “Great Writers” countdown!! I love watching these!
kat in your hat

Oh, well, it’s not so much a countdown as it is a great list. I see I missed F. Scott Fitzgerald…will go to youtube now.
kat in your hat

F. Scott Fitzgerald and D.H. Lawrence both died at 44 years old. geesh.