Writers and Sex

Some authors, like John Steinbeck, have found that while a work is in progress, it is useful not only to journalize its development, but also it is advantageous to discuss the piece as it takes life. Such was the case when Steinbeck wrote East of Eden and the later published, Journal of a Novel: the East of Eden Letters. However, a common belief among some of Steinbeck's contemporaries is that this is something that you do not do. For example, this was the ideology of two men who also found great success in the written word: Ernest Hemingway and D.H. Lawrence. Mr. Hemingway reveals his abhorrence in an uncharacteristic interview he gave George Plimpton in the 1958 Spring issue of The Paris Review:

In company with people of your own trade you ordinarily speak of other writers' books. The better the writers the less they will speak about what they have written themselves. Joyce was a very great writer and he would only explain what he was doing to jerks. Other writers that he respected were supposed to be able to know what he was doing by reading it(72).

His last line is crucial. Although it can probably be extended to include, as J.D. Salinger puts it: "If there is an amateur reader still left in the world - or anybody who just reads and runs�"(dedication). The point here is to suppress some of what has been written and said about Hemingway and Lawrence, particularly what scholars believe to be the truth of their plot evolutions, symbolism, the flatness and roundn

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purpose of taking such a slant is to counterpoint an argument. The idea is balance of character which, ultimately, aids plot. Mr. Lawrence succeeds in this effort when Lady Chatterley's husband, Sir Clifford expresses to his wife his belief in the marriage system: Little by little, living together, two people fall into a sort of unison, they vibrate so intricately on one another. That's the real secret of marriage, not sex: at least, not the simple function of sex. You and I are interwoven in a marriage(44). Citing evidence that this marriage caves at book's end, dissenters might argue against the idea of gender equality throughout the novel itself. What is important and cannot be forgotten are the general representations of man and woman. Lady Chatterley does not desorb men from her life. Only then would there be proof of gendered subordination. Instead, she finds a better man who she is drawn to out of love. Citing a now outdated ideology but one that is prevalent in both novels, the foremost reason to have sex with someone is because of a shared love between those involved. Michael Squires, in his book entitled, The Creation of "Lady Chatterley's Lover" provides evidence to this fact. "Lady Chatterley expires

Category: Literature - W