The Red Pants Dance

I'm not sure exactly what I expected from a book that couldn't be published in the UK for almost 30 years after it was written. A book that has been banned, placed on trial, and frowned upon for it's mismatched lovers (she's a lady, he's the lowly game keeper), adultery, explicit sex scenes, and use of the words f&*$ and c$%#. I won't even use those words on my blog!

The story I got, well, that left a little to be desired. I would say at least half the time when you try to write a treatise on your life view and then disguise it as actual characters acting out a thinly strung together plot, that just doesn't work out. Take The Jungle - Sad Sack Jurgis has a heck of a time, loses his dad, his wife, his kid, his job, his home, his self respect, and then when he converts to socialism, magically it's all okay. All better again! Well, good ol' game-keeper Mellors has a similar ideological crazytrain going on.

See, that nasty first World War left a lot of people understandably shaken up, questioning themselves, God, society, etc. Add the recent rapid industrialization of society into the mix, and you've got a recipe for all kinds of confusion, introspection, and alcohol infused stories by Ernest Hemingway. In Lady Chatterley's Lover, we see some folks, like Lord Chatterley and his cronies, turning to pure intellectualism and a "life of the mind." Then we have Mellors, Game Keeper and Lover, who espouses the D.H. Lawrence Take on Life - that is that we must appreciate our sensual selves in order to be fully realized human beings. Now...when I say it, it doesn't seem so wacky. But when Mellors tells Lady Chatterley that he would solve society's woes by handing out red pants to every man so they could all feel super studly and attract the personal attention of the ladies, you're left wondering what is so rockin' about Mellors manly bits that she actually wants to listen to this drivel. And really, for a novel with such a raunchy rep...you never get to know! Mellors often busts into unintelligible English dialect to boot, so it goes something like: Na I'd gi' e'ery ma a peer o' red drawers an' then they'd be after the arse.


No. (photo via hometowninvasion)

So, as novels go...I'd have to stay Lady Chatterley didn't quite cut it on the personal best list. Sure, it had all the naughty language I was expecting, but the story lost it's oomph amidst all the philosophical diatribes by the menfolk. I can only presume that since Lady Chatts chose Mellors, she must have agreed with his "Red Pants Will Save Mankind" scheme, but alas, he just didn't do it for me.

What about you? Have red pants changed your life?

Overall Verdict: Naughty, but meh.