Discovering Lawrence and Faulkner in Highfield, Harare
I was exposed to D.H. Lawrence in Highfield, Harare, as my first setbook for A-Level. My US-educated teacher described Lawrence as "a bore", preferred William Faulkner instead, and later, after re-reading The Sound and Fury and discovering more of Quentin Compson in Absalom, Absalom, I would discover why. My teacher's attitude made me curious about Lawrence, so I went on to enjoy the "boring" [The] Lost Girl, temporarily despised The Sound and the Fury, which took me longer to master because, first the flavour of American English was new to me. I was trying still struggling with accepting "color" as a correct spelling of 'colour', and the Southern verisimilitude Faulkner presented in his characters' dialogue did not help matters either.
I fell in love with the works of Lawrence, made this known to my teacher, read more of his works, including his moral and love philosophy, anything I could find at the British Council Library on those Saturdays my family wondered where I was. But all the Lawrence I read then, in retrospect, was just a scratching on the surface, but I definitely like the fact that I enjoyed the works when my highly educated teacher found them boring.
Later, I forgot all about Lawrence, fell in love with Faulkner, dug deeper even, discovered Melville, Hawthorne, Poe. On rereading The Sound and the Fury, I realized that my teacher had been right, The Lost Girl was boring, but Lawrence secretly remained a favourite, especially after I discovered, a few years ago, that he was a poet, and that half of his poetry in the collection I own were written in the United States, where he had been instrumental in helping Europe recognize that America had its own Classical Literature.
Now re-reading Lawrence, I am going to the very beginning. I am seeking his short fiction to trace his works from a writer's point of view, to read him, as Francine Prose would say, as a writer, and discover his creative journey. I am already quite comfortable with Faulkner's process, now it's time to discover where the author of Lady Chatterly's Lover originated, to be able to say again that "Lawrence is not boring."
I aways say most of the authors I call my favorites were teacher-recommended. Those passing comments teachers make on books can easily have an influence on their students, if not now, then maybe twenty years later. Therefore, in my own teaching, I always share the titles I am reading, both the interesting and the boring, always aware that my ratings are subjective and are likely to change, that what I pass as boring may be received as interesting, and what I praise may be despised. The important thing is, as the praising and disparaging happens, some reading is happening, whether it's pre- or post-reading, or the process itself.
I fell in love with the works of Lawrence, made this known to my teacher, read more of his works, including his moral and love philosophy, anything I could find at the British Council Library on those Saturdays my family wondered where I was. But all the Lawrence I read then, in retrospect, was just a scratching on the surface, but I definitely like the fact that I enjoyed the works when my highly educated teacher found them boring.
Later, I forgot all about Lawrence, fell in love with Faulkner, dug deeper even, discovered Melville, Hawthorne, Poe. On rereading The Sound and the Fury, I realized that my teacher had been right, The Lost Girl was boring, but Lawrence secretly remained a favourite, especially after I discovered, a few years ago, that he was a poet, and that half of his poetry in the collection I own were written in the United States, where he had been instrumental in helping Europe recognize that America had its own Classical Literature.
Now re-reading Lawrence, I am going to the very beginning. I am seeking his short fiction to trace his works from a writer's point of view, to read him, as Francine Prose would say, as a writer, and discover his creative journey. I am already quite comfortable with Faulkner's process, now it's time to discover where the author of Lady Chatterly's Lover originated, to be able to say again that "Lawrence is not boring."
I aways say most of the authors I call my favorites were teacher-recommended. Those passing comments teachers make on books can easily have an influence on their students, if not now, then maybe twenty years later. Therefore, in my own teaching, I always share the titles I am reading, both the interesting and the boring, always aware that my ratings are subjective and are likely to change, that what I pass as boring may be received as interesting, and what I praise may be despised. The important thing is, as the praising and disparaging happens, some reading is happening, whether it's pre- or post-reading, or the process itself.
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