Counter-Currents
  • Private Events
  • T&C
  • Contact
  • Webzine
  • About
  • Books
  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • Donate
  • Paywall
  • Crypto
  • RSS
    • Main feed
    • Podcast feed
    • Videos feed
    • Comments feed
  • Advertise

LEVEL2

Donate Now Mailing list
  • Webzine
  • About
  • Books
  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • Donate
  • Paywall
  • Crypto
  • RSS
    • Main feed
    • Podcast feed
    • Videos feed
    • Comments feed
  • Advertise
  • Recent posts

    • Biden and Bibi

      James J. O'Meara

    • Forward with a Vengeance

      Tom Zaja

    • The Worst Week Yet: May 21-27, 2023

      Jim Goad

      15

    • The Honorable Cause: A Review

      Spencer J. Quinn

      8

    • George Friedman’s The Next 100 Years

      Thomas Steuben

      4

    • Remembering Oswald Spengler (May 29, 1880-May 8, 1936)

      Greg Johnson

      2

    • Euthanizing the Homeless? It’s a Start

      Jim Goad

      7

    • Remembering Louis-Ferdinand Céline (May 27, 1894–July 1, 1961)

      Greg Johnson

      11

    • Blood, Soil, Paint

      Greg Johnson

      1

    • Céline’s Guerre

      Margot Metroland

      7

    • The Trial of Socrates

      Greg Johnson

    • Fields of Asphodel

      Tito Perdue

    • George Floyd and the “Color” of Revolution

      Stephen Paul Foster

      11

    • The Dakota Territory’s Indian Wars During the Civil War, Part 2

      Morris van de Camp

      1

    • No, Really, Everything’s Fine!

      Gunnar Alfredsson

      18

    • Euthanizing the Homeless? It’s a Start

      Jim Goad

      23

    • The Dakota Territory’s Indian Wars During the Civil War, Part 1

      Morris van de Camp

      1

    • How Much Would Slavery Reparations Actually Cost?

      Beau Albrecht

      35

    • No Brexit This Way

      Mark Gullick

      8

    • Martinez Contra Fascism

      Thomas Steuben

      18

    • Úryvky z Finis Germania Rolfa Petera Sieferleho, část 2: „Věčný nacista“

      Rolf Peter Sieferle

    • A 5D Plan in 3D: Hitchcock’s Dial M For Murder

      James J. O'Meara

      16

    • After Waco

      Morris van de Camp

      18

    • Munchhausen: The Third Reich’s Wizard of Oz

      Steven Clark

      13

    • Nueva Derecha vs. Vieja Derecha Capítulo 1: Política y Metapolítica

      Greg Johnson

    • The Worst Week Yet: May 14-20, 2023

      Jim Goad

      14

    • The (So-Called) New York “Thought Criminals” & the “Intellectual Dark Web”

      Alex Graham

      9

    • Documenting the Decline

      Spencer J. Quinn

      7

    • Remembering Richard Wagner (May 22, 1813-February 13, 1883)

      Greg Johnson

      3

    • Remembering Dominique Venner (April 16, 1935–May 21, 2013)

      Greg Johnson

      3

    • Clash of the Billionaire Comic-Book Supervillains

      Jim Goad

      2

    • The Psychology of the Politically Correct

      Richard Knight

      65

    • Springtime in Tallinn

      Veiko Hessler

      13

    • Liberal Anti-Democracy, Chapter 6, Part 2: Conclusion

      Kenneth Vinther

      11

    • Remembering Julius Evola (May 19, 1898–June 11, 1974)

      Greg Johnson

      5

    • Clash of the Billionaire Comic-Book Supervillains

      Jim Goad

      22

    • On White Normie “Brainwashing”: A Reply to Kevin MacDonald, Paul Craig Roberts, & Other Dissidents, Part 2

      D. H. Corax

      11

    • Liberal Anti-Democracy, Chapter 6, Part 1: Conclusion

      Kenneth Vinther

      1

    • Úryvky z Finis Germania Rolfa Petera Sieferleho, část 1

      Rolf Peter Sieferle

    • On White Normie “Brainwashing”: A Reply to Kevin MacDonald, Paul Craig Roberts, & Other Dissidents, Part 1

      D. H. Corax

      48

    • Liberal Anti-Democracy, Chapter 5, Part 2: Democracy Against the People

      Kenneth Vinther

      2

    • Be On the Lookout

      Gunnar Alfredsson

      4

    • Not Pretending to Be Anything: Charles Bukowski

      Mark Gullick

      8

    • Librarians are Bad for Children

      Stephen Paul Foster

      24

    • Lord of the Fries

      Tomasovich the Tankie

      14

    • The War Against White Children: Audio Version

      Richard Houck

      2

    • Liberal Anti-Democracy, Chapter 5, Part 1: Democracy Against the People

      Kenneth Vinther

    • The Worst Week Yet: May 7-13, 2023

      Jim Goad

      21

    • The Turning Point in Ukraine?

      Morris van de Camp

      11

    • Liberal Anti-Democracy, Chapter 4, Part 2: The Post-War Consensus

      Kenneth Vinther

      3

  • Classics Corner

    • Cù Chulainn in the GPO:
      The Mythic Imagination of Patrick Pearse

      Michael O'Meara

      5

    • Remembering Dominique Venner
      (April 16, 1935 – May 21, 2013)

      Greg Johnson

      11

    • A Robertson Roundup: 
      Remembering Wilmot Robertson
      (April 16, 1915 – July 8, 2005)

      Margot Metroland

      13

    • Metapolitics and Occult Warfare

      Greg Johnson

      2

    • Remembering Maurice Bardèche:
      October 1, 1907–July 30, 1998

      Greg Johnson

      2

    • The Power of Myth:
      Remembering Joseph Campbell
      (March 26, 1904–October 30, 1987)

      John Morgan

      11

    • The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

      Trevor Lynch

      24

    • The Searchers

      Trevor Lynch

      29

    • Gabriele D’Annunzio

      Jonathan Bowden

      2

    • Remembering A. R. D. “Rex” Fairburn (February 2, 1904–March 25, 1957)

      Greg Johnson

      1

    • Denis Kearney & the Struggle for a White America

      Theodore J. O'Keefe

      1

    • Posthuman Prospects:
      Artificial Intelligence, Fifth Generation Warfare, & Archeofuturism

      Christopher Pankhurst

      5

    • Earnest Sevier Cox:
      Advocate for the White Ethnostate

      Morris van de Camp

      15

    • Remembering Jack London
      (January 12, 1876–November 22, 1916)

      Greg Johnson

      2

    • Remembering Robinson Jeffers:
      January 10, 1887–January 20, 1962

      John Morgan

      3

    • Remembering Pierre Drieu La Rochelle:
      January 3, 1893–March 15, 1945

      Greg Johnson

    • Remembering Rudyard Kipling (December 30, 1865-January 18, 1936)

      Greg Johnson

      10

    • Restoring White Homelands

      Greg Johnson

      34

    • Remembering Hinton Rowan Helper

      Spencer J. Quinn

      11

    • What’s Wrong with Diversity?

      Greg Johnson

      10

    • Redefining the Mainstream

      Greg Johnson

      3

    • Edward Alsworth Ross:
      American Metapolitical Hero

      Morris van de Camp

      8

    • The Talented Mr. Ripley & Purple Noon

      Trevor Lynch

      19

    • Christmas & the Yuletide:
      Light in the Darkness

      William de Vere

      3

    • Thanksgiving Special 
      White Men Meet Indians:
      Jamestown & the Clash of Civilizations

      Thomas Jackson

    • Colin Wilson’s The Outsider

      Sir Oswald Mosley

      4

    • Dostoyevsky on the Jews

      William Pierce

      4

    • Jefferson &/or Mussolini, Part 1

      Ezra Pound

      5

    • I Listened to Chapo Trap House So You Don’t Have To

      Doug Huntington

      98

    • The Homeric Gods

      Mark Dyal

      13

  • Paroled from the Paywall

    • Breaking Beat: Reflections on The Rebel Set, a Masterpiece That Never Was

      James J. O'Meara

      1

    • If Hillary Had Won

      Stephen Paul Foster

      1

    • Nice Racism, Part 3

      Beau Albrecht

      1

    • Nice Racism, Part 2

      Beau Albrecht

      7

    • Nice Racism, Part 1

      Beau Albrecht

      5

    • Aristophanes’ Clouds, Part II

      Greg Johnson

      1

    • Aristophanes’ Clouds, Part I

      Greg Johnson

      1

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 530 The Genealogy of Wokeism

      Counter-Currents Radio

      5

    • Patrick Bateman: “Literally Me” or a Warning?

      Anthony Bavaria

      9

    • British Sculpture, Part II

      Jonathan Bowden

      1

    • British Sculpture, Part I

      Jonathan Bowden

      2

    • The New Story

      Jocelynn Cordes

      21

    • Why Does Cthulhu Always Swim Left? Part 2

      Beau Albrecht

      1

    • Why Does Cthulhu Always Swim Left? Part 1

      Beau Albrecht

      11

    • Robert Rutherford McCormick, Midwestern Man of the Right: Part 2

      Morris van de Camp

      1

    • Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: Prophet of Eugenics and Race-Realism

      Margot Metroland

      11

    • In Defense of the White Union

      Asier Abadroa

    • Everything Everywhere All at Once: The Oscar Winner the System Loves

      Steven Clark

      32

    • Incels on Wheels: Jim Goad’s Trucker Fags in Denial

      Beau Albrecht

      17

    • The White Pill

      Margot Metroland

      10

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 528 Karl Thorburn on the Bank Crashes

      Counter-Currents Radio

    • Women Philosophers

      Richard Knight

      23

    • Stranger Things and Surviving in the Modern World

      Howe Abbott-Hiss

      2

    • The Fabulous Pleven Boys

      P. J. Collins

      2

    • Nuclear Families: Threads

      Mark Gullick

      4

    • Reviewing the Unreviewable

      Margot Metroland

      3

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 527 Machiavellianism & More

      Counter-Currents Radio

      2

    • The Machiavellian Method

      Greg Johnson

      11

    • My Breakout from the Modern World: The Hungarian Day of Honour Tour 2023, Part 2

      Tizenegy

      4

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 526 Cyan Quinn Reports from CPAC & More

      Counter-Currents Radio

      3

  • Recent comments

    • Gallus

      George Friedman’s The Next 100 Years

      Thank you for the summary. Never heard of this book. Interesting reading.

    • Gallus

      Euthanizing the Homeless? It’s a Start

      Not at all. Look forward to the next instalment.

    • Jim Goad

      Euthanizing the Homeless? It’s a Start

      Thank you, sir. And to clarify, I wasn't chiding you for possibly being unaware of who's saying it;...

    • Gallus

      Euthanizing the Homeless? It’s a Start

      Yes, I know it's Jared Taylor, his voice is so distinctive. I'm enjoying the videos Jim. Nice work,...

    • Jim Goad

      Euthanizing the Homeless? It’s a Start

      What was the ‘white panther’ reference at the end, what that the people who produced the video? I...

    • Kök Böri

      Remembering Oswald Spengler (May 29, 1880-May 8, 1936)

      Thanks for this Robert Steuckers, “Atlantis, Kush, and Turan: Prehistoric Matrices of Ancient...

    • Gallus

      Euthanizing the Homeless? It’s a Start

      What was the 'white panther' reference at the end, what that the people who produced the video?...

    • Kamil

      Remembering Dominique Venner (April 16, 1935–May 21, 2013)

      We have already too many pen-warriors/keyboard warriors, too few men of action.

    • Kamil

      Remembering Oswald Spengler (May 29, 1880-May 8, 1936)

      Nietzsche <3. A must-read for me!

    • Andrew Christopher

      The Worst Week Yet: May 21-27, 2023

      The problem with raving Democrats is their screwiness. They might blunder and accidently speak a...

    • K. Bendix

      The Worst Week Yet: May 21-27, 2023

      She doesn't look Jewish at all.

    • Davidcito

      The Worst Week Yet: May 21-27, 2023

      If theres one thing white liberals hate more than anything else, its poor white people.  White...

    • Emmett White

      The Worst Week Yet: May 21-27, 2023

      In my Massachusetts hometown I heard an upsetting story recently. A 16 year old bi-racial girl...

    • Kamil

      The Worst Week Yet: May 21-27, 2023

      In normal country he would be euthanized long ago.

    • The Antichomsky

      George Friedman’s The Next 100 Years

      Good article.  I try to avoid books on geopolitics written by dudes named Friedman.

    • jank

      The Worst Week Yet: May 21-27, 2023

      "Joe Biden is not Jewish, but c’mon, man — he might as well be." Look at this pix of Joe's mum,...

    • Allen Wesley

      The Honorable Cause: A Review

      African chattel slavery is what drove the big wedge between Anglo-Brythonic Americans in the North...

    • Lord Snooty

      The Worst Week Yet: May 21-27, 2023

      "I was amazed that my friend said the word ‘Jews’ "  On that word . . . Before the 2016...

    • Alexandra O.

      Euthanizing the Homeless? It’s a Start

      I wonder if anyone in Canada keeps statistics on the race of the people being 'euthanized'? I'll bet...

    • Richard Chance

      The Honorable Cause: A Review

      Exactly.  When the enemy comes, they aren't going to be asking which whites come from below the...

  • Book Authors

    • Beau Albrecht
    • Alain de Benoist
    • Kerry Bolton
    • Jonathan Bowden
    • Collin Cleary
    • Jef Costello
    • Savitri Devi
    • F. Roger Devlin
    • Buttercup Dew
    • Julius Evola
    • Jim Goad
    • Gregory Hood
    • Juleigh Howard-Hobson
    • Greg Johnson
    • Charles Krafft
    • Anthony M. Ludovici
    • Trevor Lynch
    • H. L. Mencken
    • J. A. Nicholl
    • James J. O’Meara
    • Christopher Pankhurst
    • Tito Perdue
    • Michael Polignano
    • Spencer J. Quinn
    • Fenek Solère
    • Irmin Vinson
    • Leo Yankevich
    • Francis Parker Yockey
    • Multiple authors
  • Webzine Authors

    Editor-in-Chief

    • Greg Johnson, Ph.D.

    Featured Writers

    • Beau Albrecht
    • Morris V. de Camp
    • Stephen Paul Foster, Ph.D.
    • Jim Goad
    • Alex Graham
    • Mark Gullick, Ph.D.
    • Greg Johnson, Ph.D.
    • Spencer J. Quinn

    Frequent Writers

    • Aquilonius
    • Anthony Bavaria
    • Alain de Benoist
    • Kerry Bolton, Ph.D.
    • Collin Cleary, Ph.D.
    • Jef Costello
    • F. Roger Devlin, Ph.D.
    • Richard Houck
    • Ondrej Mann
    • Margot Metroland
    • John Morgan
    • Trevor Lynch
    • James J. O’Meara
    • Kathryn S.
    • Thomas Steuben
    • Michael Walker

    Classic Authors

    • Maurice Bardèche
    • Jonathan Bowden
    • Julius Evola
    • Guillaume Faye
    • Ernst Jünger
    • Kevin MacDonald, Ph.D.
    • D. H. Lawrence
    • Charles Lindbergh
    • Jack London
    • H. P. Lovecraft
    • Anthony M. Ludovici
    • Sir Oswald Mosley
    • National Vanguard
    • Friedrich Nietzsche
    • Revilo Oliver
    • William Pierce
    • Ezra Pound
    • Saint-Loup
    • Savitri Devi
    • Carl Schmitt
    • Miguel Serrano
    • Oswald Spengler
    • P. R. Stephensen
    • Jean Thiriart
    • John Tyndall
    • Dominique Venner
    • Leo Yankevich
    • Francis Parker Yockey

    Other Authors

    • Howe Abbott-Hiss
    • Michael Bell
    • Buttercup Dew
    • Giles Corey
    • Bain Dewitt
    • Jack Donovan
    • Richardo Duchesne, Ph.D.
    • Emile Durand
    • Guillaume Durocher
    • Mark Dyal
    • Fullmoon Ancestry
    • Tom Goodroch
    • Andrew Hamilton
    • Robert Hampton
    • Huntley Haverstock
    • Derek Hawthorne
    • Gregory Hood
    • Juleigh Howard-Hobson
    • Alexander Jacob
    • Nicholas Jeelvy
    • Ruuben Kaalep
    • Tobias Langdon
    • Julian Langness
    • Travis LeBlanc
    • Patrick Le Brun
    • G A Malvicini
    • John Michael McCloughlin
    • Millennial Woes
    • Michael O’Meara
    • Christopher Pankhurst
    • Michael Polignano
    • J. J. Przybylski
    • Quintilian
    • Edouard Rix
    • C. B. Robertson
    • C. F. Robinson
    • Herve Ryssen
    • Alan Smithee
    • Fenek Solere
    • Ann Sterzinger
    • Robert Steuckers
    • Tomislav Sunic
    • Donald Thoresen
    • Marian Van Court
    • Irmin Vinson
    • Aylmer Wedgwood
    • Scott Weisswald
  • Departments

    • Book Reviews
    • Movie Reviews
    • TV Reviews
    • Music Reviews
    • Art Criticism
    • Graphic Novels & Comics
    • Video Game Reviews
    • Fiction
    • Poems
    • Interviews
    • Videos
    • English Translations
    • Other Languages
      • Arabic
      • Bulgarian
      • Croatian
      • Czech
      • Danish
      • Dutch
      • Estonian
      • Finnish
      • French
      • German
      • Greek
      • Hungarian
      • Italian
      • Lithuanian
      • Norwegian
      • Polish
      • Portuguese
      • Romanian
      • Russian
      • Slovak
      • Spanish
      • Swedish
      • Ukrainian
    • Commemorations
    • Why We Write
  • Archives
  • Top 100 Commenters
  • Private Events
  • T&C
  • Contact
Sponsored Links
Above Time Coffee Antelope Hill Publishing Paul Waggener IHR-Store Asatru Folk Assembly No College Club Imperium Press American Renaissance The Patrick Ryan Show Jim Goad The Occidental Observer
Print November 30, 2010 1 comment

D. H. Lawrence on Men & Women, Part 1

Derek Hawthorne

Venus and Mars by Sidney Harold Meteyard

2,077 words

Part 1 of 6. For the whole series, click here.

1. Love and Strife

In a 1913 letter D. H. Lawrence writes that “it is the problem of to-day, the establishment of a new relation, or the readjustment of the old one, between men and women.” Lawrence’s views about relations between the sexes, and about sex differences are perhaps his most controversial – and they have frequently been misrepresented. But before we delve into those views, let us ask why it should be the case that establishing a new relation between men and women is “the problem of to-day.” The reason is fairly obvious. The species divides itself into male and female, reproduces itself thereby, and the overwhelming majority of human beings seek their fulfillment in a relationship to the opposite sex. If relations between the sexes have somehow been crippled—as Lawrence believes they have been—then this is a catastrophe. It is hard to imagine a greater, more pressing problem.

Lawrence came to relations with women bearing serious doubts about his own manhood, and with the conviction that his nature was fundamentally androgynous. Throughout his life, but especially as a boy, it was easier for him to relate to women and to form close bonds with them. Thus, when Lawrence discusses the nature of woman he draws not only upon his experiences with women, but also upon his understanding of his own nature. One of the questions we must examine is whether, in doing so, Lawrence was led astray. After all, Lawrence eventually came to repudiate the idea of any sort of fundamental androgyny and to claim that men and women are radically different. In Fantasia of the Unconscious he writes, “We are all wrong when we say there is no vital difference between the sexes.” Lawrence wrote this in 1921 intending it to be provocative, but it is surely much more controversial in today’s world, where it has become a dogma in some circles to insist that sex differences (now called “gender differences”) are “socially constructed.” Lawrence continues: “There is every difference. Every bit, every cell in a boy is male, every cell is female in a woman, and must remain so. Women can never feel or know as men do. And in the reverse, men can never feel and know, dynamically, as women do.”

Lawrence saw relations between the sexes as essentially a war. He tells us in his essay “Love” that all love between men and women is “dual, a love which is the motion of melting, fusing together into oneness, and a love which is the intense, frictional, and sensual gratification of being burnt down, burnt into separate clarity of being, unthinkable otherness and separateness.” The love between men and women is a fusing—or a will to fusing—but one that never fully takes place because the relation is also fundamentally frictional. Again and again Lawrence emphasizes the idea that men and women are metaphysically different. In other words, they have different, and even opposed ways of being in the world. They are not just anatomically different; they have different ways of thinking and feeling, and achieve satisfaction and fulfillment in life through different means.

Lawrence’s view of the difference between the sexes can be fruitfully compared to the Chinese theory of yin and yang.  These concepts are of great antiquity, but the way in which they are generally understood today is the product of an ambitious intellectual synthesis that took place under the early Han dynasty (207 B.C.–9 A.D.). According to this philosophy, the universe is shot through with an ultimate principle or power known as the Tao. However, the Tao divides itself into two opposing principles, yin and yang. These oppose yet complement each other. Yang manifests itself in maleness, hardness, harshness, dominance, heat, light, and the sun, amongst other things. Yin manifests itself in femaleness, softness, gentleness, yielding, cold, darkness, the moon, etc.

Contrary to the impression these lists might give, however, yang is not regarded as “superior” to yin; hardness is not superior to softness, nor is dominance superior to yielding. Each requires the other and cannot exist without the other. In certain situations a yang approach or condition is to be preferred, in others a yin approach. On occasion, yang may predominate to the point where it becomes harmful, and it must be counterbalanced by yin, or vice versa. (These principles are of central importance, for example, in traditional Chinese medicine.) The Tao Te Ching, a work written by a man chiefly for men extols the virtues of yin, and continually advises one to choose yin ways over yang. Lao-Tzu tells us over and over that it is “best to be like water,” that “those who control, fail. Those who grasp, lose,” and that “soft and weak overcome stiff and strong.”

Like the Taoists, Lawrence regards maleness and femaleness as opposed, yet complementary. It is not the case that the male, or the male way of being, is superior to the female, or vice versa. In a sense the sexes are equal, yet equality does not mean sameness. The error of male chauvinism is in thinking that one way, the male way, is superior; that dominance and hardness are just “obviously” superior to their opposites.

Yet the same error is committed by some who call themselves feminists. Tacitly, they assume that the male or yang characteristics are superior, and enjoin women to seek fulfillment in life through cultivating those traits in themselves. To those who might wonder whether such a program is possible, to say nothing of desirable, the theory of the “social construction of gender” is today being offered as support. According to this view, the only inherent differences between men and women are anatomical, and all of the intellectual, emotional, and behavioral characteristics attributed to the sexes throughout history have actually been the product of culture and environment. (And so “yin and yang,” according to this view, is really a rather naïve philosophy which confuses nurture with nature.) Clearly, Lawrence would reject this theory. In doing so, he is on very solid ground.

It would, of course, be foolish not to recognize that some “masculine” and “feminine” traits are culturally conditioned. An obvious example would be the prevailing view in American culture that a truly “masculine” man is unable, without the help of women or gay men, to color-coordinate his wardrobe. However, when one sees certain traits in men and women displaying themselves consistently in all cultures and throughout all of human history it makes sense to speak of masculine and feminine natures. It is plausible to argue that a trait is culturally conditioned only if it shows up in some cultures but not in others. Unfortunately, the “social construction of gender” thesis has achieved the status of a dogma in academic circles. And, in truth, ultimately it has to be asserted as dogma since believing in it requires that we ignore the evidence of human history, profound philosophies such as Taoism, and most of the scientific research into sex differences that has taken place over the last one hundred years.

I said earlier that Lawrence believes men and women to be “metaphysically different,” and in his essay “A Study of Thomas Hardy” he does indeed write as if he believes they actually see the world with a different metaphysics in mind:

It were a male conception to see God with a manifold Being, even though He be One God. For man is ever keenly aware of the multiplicity of things, and their diversity. But woman, issuing from the other end of infinity, coming forth as the flesh, manifest in sensation, is obsessed by the oneness of things, the One Being, undifferentiated. Man, on the other hand, coming forth as the desire to single out one thing from another, to reduce each thing to its intrinsic self by process of elimination, cannot but be possessed by the infinite diversity and contrariety in life, by a passionate sense of isolation, and a poignant yearning to be at one.

So, men seek or are preoccupied with multiplicity, and women with unity. What are we to make of such a bizarre claim? First of all, it seems to run counter to the Greek tradition, especially that of the Pythagoreans, which tended to identify the One with the masculine, and the Many with the feminine. However, if one looks to Empedocles, a pre-Socratic philosopher Lawrence was particularly keen on, one finds a different story. Empedocles posits two fundamental forces which are responsible for all change in the universe: Love and Strife. Love, at the purely physical level, is a force of attraction. It draws things together, and without the intervention of Strife it would result in a monistic universe in which only one being existed. Strife breaks up and divides. It is a force of repulsion and separation. Now, Empedocles seems to identify Love with Aphrodite, and we may infer, though he does not say so, that Strife is Ares. In other words, he identifies his two forces with the archetypal female and male. This can offer us a clue as to what Lawrence is up to.

In Lawrence’s view, it is the female who wants to draw things, especially people, together. It is the female who yearns to heal divisions, to break down barriers. “Coming forth as the flesh, manifest in sensation” she seeks to overcome separateness through feeling, primarily through love. In the family situation, it is the female who tries to unite and overcome discord through love, whereas it is the male, typically, who frustrates this through the insistence on rules and distinctions. The ideal of universal love and an end to strife and division is fundamentally feminine—one which men, throughout history, have continually frustrated. It is characteristic of men to make war, and characteristic of women, no matter what cause or principle is involved, to object and to call for peace and unity.

Now the male, as Lawrence puts it, suffers from a sense of isolation, and a “yearning to be one.” He yearns for oneness, in fact, as the male yearns for the female. Yet his entire being disposes him to see the world in terms of its distinctness, and, indeed, to make a world rife with distinctions. Lawrence implies that polytheism is a “male” religion, and monotheism a “female” one. It is easy to see the logic involved in this. Polytheism sees the divine being that permeates the world as many because the world is itself many. Further, societies with polytheistic religions have always been keenly aware of ethnic and social differences, differences within the society (as in the Indian caste system), and between societies. Monotheism, on the other hand, tends toward universalism. Christianity especially, however it has actually been practiced, declares all men equal in the sight of God and calls for peace and unity in the world. (Lawrence, as we shall see later on, does indeed regard Christianity as a “feminine” religion, and blames it, in part, for feminizing Western men.)

This fundamental, metaphysical difference has the consequence that men and women do, in a real sense, live in different worlds. But perhaps such a formulation reflects a male bias towards differentiation. It is equally correct to say, in a more “feminine” formulation, that it is the same world seen in two, complementary ways. Indeed, it may be the case that it is difficult to see, from a male perspective, how the two sexes and their different ways of thinking and perceiving can achieve a rapprochement. Lawrence believes, of course, that they can live together, and that their opposite tendencies can be harmonized. In this way he is like Heraclitus, Lawrence’s favorite pre-Socratic, when he says “what is opposed brings together; the finest harmony is composed of things at variance, and everything comes to be in accordance with strife.” Heraclitus also tells us that “They do not understand how, though at variance with itself, it [the Logos] agrees with itself. It is a backwards-turning attunement like that of the bow and lyre.” In order to make a lyre or a bow, the two opposite ends of a piece of wood must be bent towards each other, never meeting, but held in tension. Their tension and opposition makes possible beautiful music, in the case of the lyre, and the propulsion of an arrow, in the case of the bow. Both involve a harmony through opposition.

Related

  • Nice Racism, Part 3

  • Nice Racism, Part 2

  • Nice Racism, Part 1

  • The Worst Week Yet: April 2-8, 2023

  • Why Does Cthulhu Always Swim Left? Part 1

  • Sex, Privacy, and Data Protection

  • Guillaume Faye: Od soumraku k úsvitu

  • Women Philosophers

Tags

D. H. LawrenceDerek HawthorneemasculationfemininityfeminismHawthorne-Lawrencemanlinesssex differencessexualityTaoism

Previous

« Columbus Day Special
Life Styles: Native & Imposed

Next

» D. H. Lawrence on Men & Women, Part 3

If you have Paywall access,
simply login first to see your comment auto-approved.

Note on comments privacy & moderation

Your email is never published nor shared.

Comments are moderated. If you don't see your comment, please be patient. If approved, it will appear here soon. Do not post your comment a second time.

  • Recent posts

    • Biden and Bibi

      James J. O'Meara

    • Forward with a Vengeance

      Tom Zaja

    • The Worst Week Yet: May 21-27, 2023

      Jim Goad

      15

    • The Honorable Cause: A Review

      Spencer J. Quinn

      8

    • George Friedman’s The Next 100 Years

      Thomas Steuben

      4

    • Remembering Oswald Spengler (May 29, 1880-May 8, 1936)

      Greg Johnson

      2

    • Euthanizing the Homeless? It’s a Start

      Jim Goad

      7

    • Remembering Louis-Ferdinand Céline (May 27, 1894–July 1, 1961)

      Greg Johnson

      11

    • Blood, Soil, Paint

      Greg Johnson

      1

    • Céline’s Guerre

      Margot Metroland

      7

    • The Trial of Socrates

      Greg Johnson

    • Fields of Asphodel

      Tito Perdue

    • George Floyd and the “Color” of Revolution

      Stephen Paul Foster

      11

    • The Dakota Territory’s Indian Wars During the Civil War, Part 2

      Morris van de Camp

      1

    • No, Really, Everything’s Fine!

      Gunnar Alfredsson

      18

    • Euthanizing the Homeless? It’s a Start

      Jim Goad

      23

    • The Dakota Territory’s Indian Wars During the Civil War, Part 1

      Morris van de Camp

      1

    • How Much Would Slavery Reparations Actually Cost?

      Beau Albrecht

      35

    • No Brexit This Way

      Mark Gullick

      8

    • Martinez Contra Fascism

      Thomas Steuben

      18

    • Úryvky z Finis Germania Rolfa Petera Sieferleho, část 2: „Věčný nacista“

      Rolf Peter Sieferle

    • A 5D Plan in 3D: Hitchcock’s Dial M For Murder

      James J. O'Meara

      16

    • After Waco

      Morris van de Camp

      18

    • Munchhausen: The Third Reich’s Wizard of Oz

      Steven Clark

      13

    • Nueva Derecha vs. Vieja Derecha Capítulo 1: Política y Metapolítica

      Greg Johnson

    • The Worst Week Yet: May 14-20, 2023

      Jim Goad

      14

    • The (So-Called) New York “Thought Criminals” & the “Intellectual Dark Web”

      Alex Graham

      9

    • Documenting the Decline

      Spencer J. Quinn

      7

    • Remembering Richard Wagner (May 22, 1813-February 13, 1883)

      Greg Johnson

      3

    • Remembering Dominique Venner (April 16, 1935–May 21, 2013)

      Greg Johnson

      3

    • Clash of the Billionaire Comic-Book Supervillains

      Jim Goad

      2

    • The Psychology of the Politically Correct

      Richard Knight

      65

    • Springtime in Tallinn

      Veiko Hessler

      13

    • Liberal Anti-Democracy, Chapter 6, Part 2: Conclusion

      Kenneth Vinther

      11

    • Remembering Julius Evola (May 19, 1898–June 11, 1974)

      Greg Johnson

      5

    • Clash of the Billionaire Comic-Book Supervillains

      Jim Goad

      22

    • On White Normie “Brainwashing”: A Reply to Kevin MacDonald, Paul Craig Roberts, & Other Dissidents, Part 2

      D. H. Corax

      11

    • Liberal Anti-Democracy, Chapter 6, Part 1: Conclusion

      Kenneth Vinther

      1

    • Úryvky z Finis Germania Rolfa Petera Sieferleho, část 1

      Rolf Peter Sieferle

    • On White Normie “Brainwashing”: A Reply to Kevin MacDonald, Paul Craig Roberts, & Other Dissidents, Part 1

      D. H. Corax

      48

    • Liberal Anti-Democracy, Chapter 5, Part 2: Democracy Against the People

      Kenneth Vinther

      2

    • Be On the Lookout

      Gunnar Alfredsson

      4

    • Not Pretending to Be Anything: Charles Bukowski

      Mark Gullick

      8

    • Librarians are Bad for Children

      Stephen Paul Foster

      24

    • Lord of the Fries

      Tomasovich the Tankie

      14

    • The War Against White Children: Audio Version

      Richard Houck

      2

    • Liberal Anti-Democracy, Chapter 5, Part 1: Democracy Against the People

      Kenneth Vinther

    • The Worst Week Yet: May 7-13, 2023

      Jim Goad

      21

    • The Turning Point in Ukraine?

      Morris van de Camp

      11

    • Liberal Anti-Democracy, Chapter 4, Part 2: The Post-War Consensus

      Kenneth Vinther

      3

  • Classics Corner

    • Cù Chulainn in the GPO:
      The Mythic Imagination of Patrick Pearse

      Michael O'Meara

      5

    • Remembering Dominique Venner
      (April 16, 1935 – May 21, 2013)

      Greg Johnson

      11

    • A Robertson Roundup: 
      Remembering Wilmot Robertson
      (April 16, 1915 – July 8, 2005)

      Margot Metroland

      13

    • Metapolitics and Occult Warfare

      Greg Johnson

      2

    • Remembering Maurice Bardèche:
      October 1, 1907–July 30, 1998

      Greg Johnson

      2

    • The Power of Myth:
      Remembering Joseph Campbell
      (March 26, 1904–October 30, 1987)

      John Morgan

      11

    • The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

      Trevor Lynch

      24

    • The Searchers

      Trevor Lynch

      29

    • Gabriele D’Annunzio

      Jonathan Bowden

      2

    • Remembering A. R. D. “Rex” Fairburn (February 2, 1904–March 25, 1957)

      Greg Johnson

      1

    • Denis Kearney & the Struggle for a White America

      Theodore J. O'Keefe

      1

    • Posthuman Prospects:
      Artificial Intelligence, Fifth Generation Warfare, & Archeofuturism

      Christopher Pankhurst

      5

    • Earnest Sevier Cox:
      Advocate for the White Ethnostate

      Morris van de Camp

      15

    • Remembering Jack London
      (January 12, 1876–November 22, 1916)

      Greg Johnson

      2

    • Remembering Robinson Jeffers:
      January 10, 1887–January 20, 1962

      John Morgan

      3

    • Remembering Pierre Drieu La Rochelle:
      January 3, 1893–March 15, 1945

      Greg Johnson

    • Remembering Rudyard Kipling (December 30, 1865-January 18, 1936)

      Greg Johnson

      10

    • Restoring White Homelands

      Greg Johnson

      34

    • Remembering Hinton Rowan Helper

      Spencer J. Quinn

      11

    • What’s Wrong with Diversity?

      Greg Johnson

      10

    • Redefining the Mainstream

      Greg Johnson

      3

    • Edward Alsworth Ross:
      American Metapolitical Hero

      Morris van de Camp

      8

    • The Talented Mr. Ripley & Purple Noon

      Trevor Lynch

      19

    • Christmas & the Yuletide:
      Light in the Darkness

      William de Vere

      3

    • Thanksgiving Special 
      White Men Meet Indians:
      Jamestown & the Clash of Civilizations

      Thomas Jackson

    • Colin Wilson’s The Outsider

      Sir Oswald Mosley

      4

    • Dostoyevsky on the Jews

      William Pierce

      4

    • Jefferson &/or Mussolini, Part 1

      Ezra Pound

      5

    • I Listened to Chapo Trap House So You Don’t Have To

      Doug Huntington

      98

    • The Homeric Gods

      Mark Dyal

      13

  • Paroled from the Paywall

    • Breaking Beat: Reflections on The Rebel Set, a Masterpiece That Never Was

      James J. O'Meara

      1

    • If Hillary Had Won

      Stephen Paul Foster

      1

    • Nice Racism, Part 3

      Beau Albrecht

      1

    • Nice Racism, Part 2

      Beau Albrecht

      7

    • Nice Racism, Part 1

      Beau Albrecht

      5

    • Aristophanes’ Clouds, Part II

      Greg Johnson

      1

    • Aristophanes’ Clouds, Part I

      Greg Johnson

      1

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 530 The Genealogy of Wokeism

      Counter-Currents Radio

      5

    • Patrick Bateman: “Literally Me” or a Warning?

      Anthony Bavaria

      9

    • British Sculpture, Part II

      Jonathan Bowden

      1

    • British Sculpture, Part I

      Jonathan Bowden

      2

    • The New Story

      Jocelynn Cordes

      21

    • Why Does Cthulhu Always Swim Left? Part 2

      Beau Albrecht

      1

    • Why Does Cthulhu Always Swim Left? Part 1

      Beau Albrecht

      11

    • Robert Rutherford McCormick, Midwestern Man of the Right: Part 2

      Morris van de Camp

      1

    • Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: Prophet of Eugenics and Race-Realism

      Margot Metroland

      11

    • In Defense of the White Union

      Asier Abadroa

    • Everything Everywhere All at Once: The Oscar Winner the System Loves

      Steven Clark

      32

    • Incels on Wheels: Jim Goad’s Trucker Fags in Denial

      Beau Albrecht

      17

    • The White Pill

      Margot Metroland

      10

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 528 Karl Thorburn on the Bank Crashes

      Counter-Currents Radio

    • Women Philosophers

      Richard Knight

      23

    • Stranger Things and Surviving in the Modern World

      Howe Abbott-Hiss

      2

    • The Fabulous Pleven Boys

      P. J. Collins

      2

    • Nuclear Families: Threads

      Mark Gullick

      4

    • Reviewing the Unreviewable

      Margot Metroland

      3

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 527 Machiavellianism & More

      Counter-Currents Radio

      2

    • The Machiavellian Method

      Greg Johnson

      11

    • My Breakout from the Modern World: The Hungarian Day of Honour Tour 2023, Part 2

      Tizenegy

      4

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 526 Cyan Quinn Reports from CPAC & More

      Counter-Currents Radio

      3

  • Recent comments

    • Gallus

      George Friedman’s The Next 100 Years

      Thank you for the summary. Never heard of this book. Interesting reading.

    • Gallus

      Euthanizing the Homeless? It’s a Start

      Not at all. Look forward to the next instalment.

    • Jim Goad

      Euthanizing the Homeless? It’s a Start

      Thank you, sir. And to clarify, I wasn't chiding you for possibly being unaware of who's saying it;...

    • Gallus

      Euthanizing the Homeless? It’s a Start

      Yes, I know it's Jared Taylor, his voice is so distinctive. I'm enjoying the videos Jim. Nice work,...

    • Jim Goad

      Euthanizing the Homeless? It’s a Start

      What was the ‘white panther’ reference at the end, what that the people who produced the video? I...

    • Kök Böri

      Remembering Oswald Spengler (May 29, 1880-May 8, 1936)

      Thanks for this Robert Steuckers, “Atlantis, Kush, and Turan: Prehistoric Matrices of Ancient...

    • Gallus

      Euthanizing the Homeless? It’s a Start

      What was the 'white panther' reference at the end, what that the people who produced the video?...

    • Kamil

      Remembering Dominique Venner (April 16, 1935–May 21, 2013)

      We have already too many pen-warriors/keyboard warriors, too few men of action.

    • Kamil

      Remembering Oswald Spengler (May 29, 1880-May 8, 1936)

      Nietzsche <3. A must-read for me!

    • Andrew Christopher

      The Worst Week Yet: May 21-27, 2023

      The problem with raving Democrats is their screwiness. They might blunder and accidently speak a...

    • K. Bendix

      The Worst Week Yet: May 21-27, 2023

      She doesn't look Jewish at all.

    • Davidcito

      The Worst Week Yet: May 21-27, 2023

      If theres one thing white liberals hate more than anything else, its poor white people.  White...

    • Emmett White

      The Worst Week Yet: May 21-27, 2023

      In my Massachusetts hometown I heard an upsetting story recently. A 16 year old bi-racial girl...

    • Kamil

      The Worst Week Yet: May 21-27, 2023

      In normal country he would be euthanized long ago.

    • The Antichomsky

      George Friedman’s The Next 100 Years

      Good article.  I try to avoid books on geopolitics written by dudes named Friedman.

    • jank

      The Worst Week Yet: May 21-27, 2023

      "Joe Biden is not Jewish, but c’mon, man — he might as well be." Look at this pix of Joe's mum,...

    • Allen Wesley

      The Honorable Cause: A Review

      African chattel slavery is what drove the big wedge between Anglo-Brythonic Americans in the North...

    • Lord Snooty

      The Worst Week Yet: May 21-27, 2023

      "I was amazed that my friend said the word ‘Jews’ "  On that word . . . Before the 2016...

    • Alexandra O.

      Euthanizing the Homeless? It’s a Start

      I wonder if anyone in Canada keeps statistics on the race of the people being 'euthanized'? I'll bet...

    • Richard Chance

      The Honorable Cause: A Review

      Exactly.  When the enemy comes, they aren't going to be asking which whites come from below the...

  • Book Authors

    • Beau Albrecht
    • Alain de Benoist
    • Kerry Bolton
    • Jonathan Bowden
    • Collin Cleary
    • Jef Costello
    • Savitri Devi
    • F. Roger Devlin
    • Buttercup Dew
    • Julius Evola
    • Jim Goad
    • Gregory Hood
    • Juleigh Howard-Hobson
    • Greg Johnson
    • Charles Krafft
    • Anthony M. Ludovici
    • Trevor Lynch
    • H. L. Mencken
    • J. A. Nicholl
    • James J. O’Meara
    • Christopher Pankhurst
    • Tito Perdue
    • Michael Polignano
    • Spencer J. Quinn
    • Fenek Solère
    • Irmin Vinson
    • Leo Yankevich
    • Francis Parker Yockey
    • Multiple authors
  • Webzine Authors

    Editor-in-Chief

    • Greg Johnson, Ph.D.

    Featured Writers

    • Beau Albrecht
    • Morris V. de Camp
    • Stephen Paul Foster, Ph.D.
    • Jim Goad
    • Alex Graham
    • Mark Gullick, Ph.D.
    • Greg Johnson, Ph.D.
    • Spencer J. Quinn

    Frequent Writers

    • Aquilonius
    • Anthony Bavaria
    • Alain de Benoist
    • Kerry Bolton, Ph.D.
    • Collin Cleary, Ph.D.
    • Jef Costello
    • F. Roger Devlin, Ph.D.
    • Richard Houck
    • Ondrej Mann
    • Margot Metroland
    • John Morgan
    • Trevor Lynch
    • James J. O’Meara
    • Kathryn S.
    • Thomas Steuben
    • Michael Walker

    Classic Authors

    • Maurice Bardèche
    • Jonathan Bowden
    • Julius Evola
    • Guillaume Faye
    • Ernst Jünger
    • Kevin MacDonald, Ph.D.
    • D. H. Lawrence
    • Charles Lindbergh
    • Jack London
    • H. P. Lovecraft
    • Anthony M. Ludovici
    • Sir Oswald Mosley
    • National Vanguard
    • Friedrich Nietzsche
    • Revilo Oliver
    • William Pierce
    • Ezra Pound
    • Saint-Loup
    • Savitri Devi
    • Carl Schmitt
    • Miguel Serrano
    • Oswald Spengler
    • P. R. Stephensen
    • Jean Thiriart
    • John Tyndall
    • Dominique Venner
    • Leo Yankevich
    • Francis Parker Yockey

    Other Authors

    • Howe Abbott-Hiss
    • Michael Bell
    • Buttercup Dew
    • Giles Corey
    • Bain Dewitt
    • Jack Donovan
    • Richardo Duchesne, Ph.D.
    • Emile Durand
    • Guillaume Durocher
    • Mark Dyal
    • Fullmoon Ancestry
    • Tom Goodroch
    • Andrew Hamilton
    • Robert Hampton
    • Huntley Haverstock
    • Derek Hawthorne
    • Gregory Hood
    • Juleigh Howard-Hobson
    • Alexander Jacob
    • Nicholas Jeelvy
    • Ruuben Kaalep
    • Tobias Langdon
    • Julian Langness
    • Travis LeBlanc
    • Patrick Le Brun
    • G A Malvicini
    • John Michael McCloughlin
    • Millennial Woes
    • Michael O’Meara
    • Christopher Pankhurst
    • Michael Polignano
    • J. J. Przybylski
    • Quintilian
    • Edouard Rix
    • C. B. Robertson
    • C. F. Robinson
    • Herve Ryssen
    • Alan Smithee
    • Fenek Solere
    • Ann Sterzinger
    • Robert Steuckers
    • Tomislav Sunic
    • Donald Thoresen
    • Marian Van Court
    • Irmin Vinson
    • Aylmer Wedgwood
    • Scott Weisswald
  • Departments

    • Book Reviews
    • Movie Reviews
    • TV Reviews
    • Music Reviews
    • Art Criticism
    • Graphic Novels & Comics
    • Video Game Reviews
    • Fiction
    • Poems
    • Interviews
    • Videos
    • English Translations
    • Other Languages
      • Arabic
      • Bulgarian
      • Croatian
      • Czech
      • Danish
      • Dutch
      • Estonian
      • Finnish
      • French
      • German
      • Greek
      • Hungarian
      • Italian
      • Lithuanian
      • Norwegian
      • Polish
      • Portuguese
      • Romanian
      • Russian
      • Slovak
      • Spanish
      • Swedish
      • Ukrainian
    • Commemorations
    • Why We Write
  • Archives
  • Top 100 Commenters
Sponsored Links
Above Time Coffee Antelope Hill Publishing Paul Waggener IHR-Store Asatru Folk Assembly No College Club Imperium Press American Renaissance The Patrick Ryan Show Jim Goad The Occidental Observer
Donate Now Mailing list
Books for sale
  • The Trial of Socrates
  • Fields of Asphodel
  • El Manifiesto Nacionalista Blanco
  • An Artist of the Right
  • Ernst Jünger
  • Reuben
  • The Partisan
  • Trevor Lynch’s Classics of Right-Wing Cinema
  • The Enemy of Europe
  • Imperium
  • Reactionary Modernism
  • Manifesto del Nazionalismo Bianco
  • O Manifesto Nacionalista Branco
  • Vade Mecum
  • Whiteness: The Original Sin
  • Space Vixen Trek Episode 17: Tomorrow the Stars
  • The Year America Died
  • Passing the Buck
  • Mysticism After Modernism
  • Gold in the Furnace
  • Defiance
  • Forever & Ever
  • Wagner’s Ring & the Germanic Tradition
  • Resistance
  • Materials for All Future Historians
  • Love Song of the Australopiths
  • White Identity Politics
  • Here’s the Thing
  • Trevor Lynch: Part Four of the Trilogy
  • Graduate School with Heidegger
  • It’s Okay to Be White
  • The World in Flames
  • The White Nationalist Manifesto
  • From Plato to Postmodernism
  • The Gizmo
  • Return of the Son of Trevor Lynch’s CENSORED Guide to the Movies
  • Toward a New Nationalism
  • The Smut Book
  • The Alternative Right
  • My Nationalist Pony
  • Dark Right: Batman Viewed From the Right
  • The Philatelist
  • Confessions of an Anti-Feminist
  • East and West
  • Though We Be Dead, Yet Our Day Will Come
  • White Like You
  • Numinous Machines
  • Venus and Her Thugs
  • Cynosura
  • North American New Right, vol. 2
  • You Asked For It
  • More Artists of the Right
  • Extremists: Studies in Metapolitics
  • The Homo & the Negro
  • Rising
  • The Importance of James Bond
  • In Defense of Prejudice
  • Confessions of a Reluctant Hater (2nd ed.)
  • The Hypocrisies of Heaven
  • Waking Up from the American Dream
  • Green Nazis in Space!
  • Truth, Justice, and a Nice White Country
  • Heidegger in Chicago
  • End of an Era: Mad Men & the Ordeal of Civility
  • Sexual Utopia in Power
  • What is a Rune? & Other Essays
  • Son of Trevor Lynch’s White Nationalist Guide to the Movies
  • The Lightning & the Sun
  • The Eldritch Evola
  • Western Civilization Bites Back
  • New Right vs. Old Right
  • Journey Late at Night: Poems and Translations
  • The Non-Hindu Indians & Indian Unity
  • I do not belong to the Baader-Meinhof Group
  • Pulp Fascism
  • The Lost Philosopher
  • Trevor Lynch’s A White Nationalist Guide to the Movies
  • And Time Rolls On
  • Artists of the Right: Resisting Decadence
  • North American New Right, Vol. 1
  • Some Thoughts on Hitler
  • Tikkun Olam and Other Poems
  • Summoning the Gods
  • Taking Our Own Side
  • Reuben
  • The Node
  • The New Austerities
  • Morning Crafts
  • The Passing of a Profit & Other Forgotten Stories
Copyright © 2023 Counter-Currents Publishing, Ltd.

Paywall Access





Please enter your email address. You will receive mail with link to set new password.

Edit your comment