Swooning over Mellors...

Excuse me while I turn up my fan a few notches. I just finished reading "Lady Chatterley's Lover" by D.H. Lawrence. And the masses thought "Madame Bovary" was scandalous? Oh my, I truly haven't read anything these tantalizingly naughty and beautifully sensual, well, ever. Besides the in depth descriptions of the Lady's orgasms in the groundskeeper's cottage, the book has a very strong theme of the ruination of society due to industrialization. As England was at the forefront of the industrial revolution, the two characters share more than their sexual appetites and lust for each other, they share a world view. The view being that the burgeoning industrialization has led English society to a love of money above all else; no longer satisfied by the small things, the English youth have become a sorry lot and the view from Wragby is grim. I have been saying for a while now that this is the exact point when life changed. When material items began being produced en masse, forcing the masses into excessive consumerism, blind ambition for material goods and a dissatisfaction in the simplicity of life's little wonders. This has led to globalization, which in theory and in all of my political science courses, has been touted as the greatest progress since the steam engine. Well I think the steam engine, globalization and even the printing press served as catalysts on the slippery slope we now find ourselves tumbling down. When in another country, one can find all the creature comforts: H & M, Starbucks, McDonalds, and what a TRAGEDY this is! When Mellors and Connie wanted to escape somewhere to avoid the bureaucratic insanity of an early 20th century English divorce from their prior spouses and go live in a hut in India or some other colonial fantasy, the Lady realized a sad fact: the ends of the earth are no longer foreign. This was pre WWI. Now, it is only more so. Lawrence's prophetic views of the ills of industrialization and homogenization of society have only propelled forward in my lifetime. Is anywhere safe from capitalist greed? At least one can hope to find a lover to sit with in front of the fire, a simple lad and lass in a cabin, with good treats to eat and a warm bed, it's good enough for Lady Chatterley and sounds wonderful to me.