The Rananim Society
A DH Lawrence e-mail discussion group
Acknowledgement: I would like to thank my friend R.H. Albright for the endless help and encouragement he gives to both me and The Rananim Society. Thank you, Randall.
This page is the homepage of The Rananim Society - a DH Lawrence e-mail discussion group.
Why a Rananim Society web site?
My hopes are that we can develop a corner of the Internet dedicated to this great man who gave us horizons as wide as those that he could see from his ranch. The Internet is truly international and it's fitting that we should be a diverse group - from the exalted scholars down to.... well,me! But it is also important to me that Rananim has its roots in England- the country of Lawrence's (and my) birth abused and hounded Lawrence until the very air choked him - I hope Rananim can be a breath of the fresh air of reparation.
To subscribe to the list please go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rananim
or send blank e-mail to: rananim-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
There is another list which may be of interest.
The DH Lawrence
announce list (blank e-mail to: dhlawrence-announce-subscribe@yahoogroups.com)
is for announcements only (no discussion). It is a low-traffic
list where people may post details of conferences, newly published books, newspaper
articles etc.
Please note, that unless you first subscribe to the list you will not be able to post messages to us.
All sorts of people make up The Rananim Society.
We range from the scholarly MA's to the enthusiast without any formal qualifications.
We like to think that Lawrence would have approved of our eclectic group and
we welcome ALL. Some of us have submitted mini biographies, detailing our particular
interests:
I graduated in 1995 with MA degree in English
and thesis entitled:
"Cosmos Is a Vast Living Body of Which We Are Still Parts": A Discussion of God And Universe in the Poetry of D.H.Lawrence.
Why Lawrence? When I was on my third year (and in Poland you study 5 years and
get your MA - there's no such a thing as BA there) I had an incredible professor
Dr G.M.Hyde from the University of East Anglia, Norwich (by the way, I'd appreciate
any help from anyone who knows where I can reach him now and how!) who was (and
I'm sure still is!) an expert on DHL. His lectures on English Modernism were
a revelation to me.
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I have no higher education at all. I left school age 16 and didn't
discover Lawrence until I was in my thirties. I did much reading of both his
work, his life and others' criticism of him and discovered a passion for words
in general - but mostly those put together by Lawrence. It feels strange, sometimes,
to put forward an idea knowing it will be read by people with far more knowledge
than I - but in this way I will learn, I hope and, if not, I enjoy reading others'
views.
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My interest stems from having completed a major
thesis several years ago (which I am now refining to publish) on DHL :
Influence and Outcome: How Nietzsche and Freud pervade Lawrence's Post-War Philosophy.
I focused on his relationships with the women in his life, his
view of men & machines, femininism, the War, mining, Taos etc. -- everything
I truly admire about him & find it very unfortunate that Woolf and Joyce
hold a higher place of honour in the literary canon than DHL.
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I have a thoroughly amateur interest in Lawrence.
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I don't skulk around like Walt Whitman, waiting
for the ten minutes when I can express my indiscriminate love of everything.
People like that always have a tinge of the pathetic in their voices. No. It
was Lawrence who taught me about Liberalism, Materialism, God, the redemptive
power of the sexual sense proper, the way that modernity instills a kind of
sex in the head or vanity which is synonymous with death and the organic wholeness
which is necessary for life.
I look at the other eighteen year olds around me, and I see the way they struggle
through life fleeting around from failure to depression. And the way they almost
fidget from the sheer terror they have in their souls due to lack of contact
and unholyness. I believe very strongly that I owe my happiness to Lawrence.
And I wonder if those goombahs knew how much happier and sound-er I am than
they, if they'd ever dare give me a knowing look again.
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I'm a woman from Ontario Canada and a constant reader. I especially enjoy D.H. Lawrence because his works seem to come from a very deep, personal level. They also move forward through their characters, rather than by plot devices. I like Dostoyevsky, Austin, Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, and modern day science fiction writers such as Asimov as well.
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I never thought I would like Lawrence. Sampled little bits of his novels and found them floridly dreary. Then I saw Georgia O'Keeffe's painting "The Lawrence Tree" and felt a spark of mystique.
I got curious when reading a biography of Mabel Dodge Luhan. Rich American salonist is obsessed with getting this English genius to visit her! And then she love-hated him, gave him property, cattily grinned at his wife. [And there he is, in a photo, wearing a laurel wreath!]
On a visit to Taos, I saw some windows he had painted in Mabel's bathroom. Terrible painting! Horrible colors! But reverently kept up by the house's current owners. "Oh all right!" I thought, "I'll try reading this guy." I bought a Penguin WIL and it was all over for me.
Could you write for The Rananim Society page? I would like to place some reviews, criticisms and articles on the page - I'd be very grateful to anyone able to donate a piece of work to the page. I stress the word donate :-) as Rananim is funded exclusively by me - this is not an academic or commercial site - payment is not an option, I'm afraid.....
I am often asked, "Why Rananim? What does it mean?" It was the name Lawrence used whenever he spoke of the Utopian society he hoped to create. The word comes from a Hebrew song which he heard sung by his Jewish friend, Samuel Koteliansky.