Monday 6 April 2009

1203 The Trial of Lady Chatterly and past times

Yesterday was a day of two distinct parts. In the evening my intention was to continue working on 101 but then I decided the project should be renamed 100.75 to mark the life of my mother but I can not remember the sequence of thoughts and feeling which led me to this conclusion, except that I liked the concept and will stick with it.

It is interesting that twenty four hours ago I suggested that the film Sirens had been influenced by the writing of D H Lawrence view and in the evening BBC 4 presented what I believe is the first showing of a play about the Trial of Lady Chatterley's Lover, in which the excepts from the trial script are authentic but the composition of the jury, and their interaction with each other are fictitious, especially the passionate extramarital affair of two, who enact the sexual content of the book. The play concluded a BBC orgy of sexual liberalism with the concluding episode of Fanny Hill, I missed the first, and a history of the 18trh century Libertine in which it was suggested that the general licentiousness in literature and the media of the day was followed with the puritanical approach of the Victorians, in public that is, much as the swinging sixties has led to a reaction in the last part of the twentieth century..
I thought the play to be very good bringing out that in !960 the Trial was regarded a test of the new order against the old Establishment. In some respects the inquest into the death of Princess Diana, and her lover, is now a test between the present day Establishment of traditional England and the new Europeans.

In 1960 the Establishment was personified by the chief prosecuting barrister asking the jury if this was a book which they would want their wives or servants to read, and the judge appeared to have attempted to persuade the jury that they should disregard the evidence of 35 eminent writers, critics, academics and clergy of the day, many whose reputations have become enhanced, and ignore the fact, that the prosecution could not produce one witness in court to argue that the book was obscene within the meaning of the recent legislation, and therefore be banned. Several million copies of the paper back edition of the book were immediately sold, bought by an older generation who welcomed and supported the freeing of the next generation. I suspect there were thousands of middle class individuals within existing marriages who yearned for a different experience of adult relationship as a consequence of reading this book.

Having said this, the argument of Griffith Jones that approval of the book would open the floodgates and that little or no good would come of it, has been proven prophetically true although this is an opinion where the 'evidence' is debatable.

The trial and the publication occurred shortly after my release from prison when I retreated into myself affected by the contrast between life inside where I consider that I had adjusted surprising well and what seemed to me the superficiality of everyday life in London. I then wrote a play where the writing was considered to be of interest, and applied for the position of paid organiser of the London Region CND after resigning from the temporary post with the Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War and then changed direction going to Ruskin College and into Child Care. I had been horrified by the switch from applying the principles of Ghandian non violence to an attempted secretive mass disobedience movement where any means became justified to achieve the end, and my the admission of the Moscow supporting Communists who declared support for the CND and Direct Action movement but had no intention of working for the abolition of the worker's bomb, as I heard one Gerry Healey say this denouncing Pat Arrowsmith after she had spoken at their annual conference and went on to preach the doctrine of enterism with the main target the machine tool industry. The Cuban Missile crisis underlined for me the short term effectiveness of facing might with might, and the longer term problem of how do you deal with a belligerent state if you are in charge of a potential victim state and have the mans of defence. The motivation and principles behind action may be good and honourable but one cannot ignore consequences however unintended.

The main part of yesterday involved the arrival of the new gas cooker. It took some time to fit because of the previous location of the gas pipe connection and electrical link, but afterwards I quickly realised that I could transform the use of the kitchen and day room with a few changes. This is because of the decision to discontinue the electric oven and grill because the new cooker has a convenient sized grill oven as well as the main oven where because of an eye level grill which did not work, the old cooker only had a large single oven with a utensil compartment below. The electric oven together with the spare microwave previous kept beneath the day room table was consigned to the large under stairs cupboard.

The freed unit top space above the washing machine can now be used for the kettle, the steamer, the toaster and the electric grill. This in turn has cleared the unit top space next to the cooker for spare pans, and for emptying the contents of the pans to plates or serving dishes. The kitchen store door has been used to hang up the large frying pan used for omelettes and the stir fry pan, now that I have a stir fry, and one, or two, omelettes a week. I have not tended to buy whole chickens recently as I went off having a stew for the second and third days in succession. I will reconsider this if I can find something which appeals more with the chicken left overs from the fortnightly Sunday Roast. While there is little difference between the chunk of oven ready chicken breast and a whole chicken in terms of price, I prefer the picking of chicken bones as long as I do not dwell on the pullet chicks which my mother used to buy and rear in my post war childhood.

Because the cooker was not scheduled for delivery until after midday I was able to go out first thing for the DVD, and free newspaper and treated myself to toast and coffee at a different venue from previous. For an extra five pence, the two pieces of toast are larger in area and thicker and the coffee although costing more was better tasting. The reason for the change was the lack of available tables at the shop/coffee shop a few yards away which I had used the last week. However this will not become a daily indulgence. I went to the bank for the third time in a week to pay in the balance in relation to the occupational pension of my mother.
After the sort out which also frees the day room table for better use I had two salad rolls for lunch, having taken to ones which have cheese baked into the top. They are inexpensive at 12 for a £1, and two make a filling midday meal and which as today cut out the need for a tea time snack, especially as it was not eaten until about 2.30. I then went out to B and Q for the pan hooks to fit to the kitchen store door. The opportunity was taken to look at the bulbs and a replacement light fitting for the day room. After sorting this out I and doing some 100.75 project work I was ready to use the cooker for the evening meal, only to remember that I needed to use the rest of chicken breast from yesterday with some gravy and individual packets of frozen vegetables.

The rest of the week has been worked out. Tomorrow although it already that day, I will got the midday showing of the Lost Legion which stars Colin Firth, (when did you last see your father) and Ben Kingsley. On Wednesday I will work on the day room light fitting and go to a performance of Pig Tales at the Playhouse in the evening about a girl brought up as a boy in a catholic household. I and not realised what this play was about until receiving the fortnightly e mail newsletter. I will go without expectations but hope there will be strong echoes about my being brought up essentially as a girl in a catholic household. Thursday I will arrange the annual check of the Gas central heating system and one gas fire, saving over £100 a year, and ion Friday evening there is the celebration of the opening of the Tube programme 25 years ago.

I rarely remember the content of dreams, just its feeling but that on waking for the third time has lingered and I found myself with a vivid image as I began to feel sleepy for the first time this day. To bed, to bed with a hey nonnee ney.

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