Book Notes: "Lady Chatterley's Lover" by D.H. Lawrence

Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I am pleased to have read The First Lady Chatterley before reading this third draft of the same novel. The first draft, despite a similar plot, had a completely different feel to it. The emergence of socialism has little importance in Lady Chatterley's Lover, almost as if Lawrence tried to wrench away from political commentary and social change so he could nestle the third draft safely back into its own class. Despite the obviously more vulgar language used in this draft, and the notorious details that led to it being banned for decades, I think this more famous draft suffers if it is not read in the context of the first. Rather than predict the rise of nationalisation and social democracy in Britain, Lawrence's character Mellor (formerly Parkin), instead appears to presage the Great Depression. I can only guess as to the differences in the second draft, but I am curious enough to track it down and find out. As for this novel's notoriety, readers today will be well desensitised to the parts that caused a scandal in the past. I can only imagine Lawrence's shock if he were to experience what is now so passé in our own time. With three D.H. Lawrence novels now under my belt, I will venture to read the rest.



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Video: The Week in Politics with Michelle Grattan

Michelle Grattan on campaign stumbles

Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra and Michael de Percy, University of Canberra




As the opinion polls remained tight between the two major parties, there were costly gaffes this week from both sides. University of Canberra senior lecturer in political science Michael de Percy and Michelle Grattan discuss the “flash of the old Barnaby”, Labor frontbencher David Feeney’s troubles on Sky, and the campaigning skills of Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten.



Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra and Michael de Percy, Senior Lecturer in Political Science, University of Canberra

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Book Notes: "The First Lady Chatterley" by D.H. Lawrence

The First Lady Chatterley by D.H. Lawrence

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I have been reading a good deal of non-fiction and this was the novel I needed. This is only the second of D.H. Lawrence's works I have read and the first of his novels. This first version of the book that made an appearance in Mad Men, Lady Chatterley's Lover, appears not to be as famous as the latter third edition. This first edition is unusual in that it is not organised into parts or chapters and I found myself unable to put it down because it was good but also because there are no natural places to stop reading! Like most stories of passion, post-modern materialism has killed off any of the once 'shocking' parts of the story. Yet as Downton Abbey reveals the end of the servant-era and the lords and my-ladys in big houses, Lawrence here weaves a love story and a class commentary of rising socialism amid the collieries of the Midlands. It would seem that the references to great philosophers (including once to Hegel) are buried beneath the notoriety of this particular story. I found it hard to put this book down and now I must read the more famous version to fill in the many pages that were skipped in this first draft. It is certainly not difficult to see why Lawrence is held in such regard.



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Book Notes: "The City of Tomorrow and Its Planning" by Le Corbusier

The City of Tomorrow and Its Planning by Le Corbusier

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Le Corbusier presents what he calls a technical solution to existing problems. In the 1920s, these problems were predominantly related to the advent of the motor car, and the need to replace what he calls the "pack-donkey's way" with straighter, faster motorways. We see the same problem today with a rail network designed for the limitations of steam trains which now hinder the use of very long, modern freight trains. In many ways, Le Corbusier provides an historical institutionalist account of the problems of town planning. He admits that the great cities of the world are so located because this is where they should be. Rather than proposing new cities be built elsewhere, he suggests that the centre of the great city needs to be pulled down and rebuilt. History will be preserved in large gardens, like a peaceful cemetery or an art gallery, but otherwise, the value of such history is over-stated when one considers the appalling conditions, the tuberculosis, and so on, that inhabit the relics of the past. Critics of Le Corbusier point to the relative failures of his building projects, and typically his criticisms of disorderly cities such as New York did not win him any friends. Yet, if taken in an appropriate context, The City of Tomorrow and Its Planning reads like Machiavelli's The Art of War, where the diagrams of troop displacements are replaced by conceptual plans for future great cities. In The Art of War, the diagrams are regarded as historical relics that do not take away from the serious ideas that Machiavelli presents on modern warfare. Similarly, if one can look beyond Le Corbusier's diagrams of grand schemes, there is a kernel of truth that continues to haunt us to this day: Can our great cities be sustained? When taken in this context, Le Corbusier's work is brilliant. Indeed, there are so many contemporary solutions to congestion and living conditions focused on "working cities" and "sleeping cities" that simply echo what Le Corbusier was claiming almost 100 years ago. One cannot deny that history has "forgotten" many of the solutions Le Corbusier once raised to the extent that technical solutions to our town planning problems today seem somehow new - even innovative. Clearly, these are not new, only forgotten.



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