The Aesthetic Philosophy of D.H. Lawrence: "The Shimmer, Not the Shape of Things"

In D.H. Lawrence''s ''Women in Love'' Rupert Birkin
tells Ursula Brangwen that the children drawing
pictures of catkins need to use their crayons to fill
in the colors of the flowers, instead of penciling
their hard shapes and outlines. I d chalk them in
plain, chalk in nothing else, merely the red and the
yellow," he declares. This book examines Lawrence''s
complex philosophy of art and life, revealing his
steady commitment to the experience of the beautiful
as a foundation of morality. The core idea is that
aesthetic morality is not abstract but immediate,
even visceral, and potential in all of us. It follows
this fundamental insight through his many forms of
writing - letters, novels, and essays - to provide a
new intellectual biography of Lawrence, reminding the
reader of the ways in which particular events of his
life influenced his thinking and writing. By inviting
attention to the enduring importance of aesthetic
experience in Lawrence''s work, this book enriches
Lawrence studies and contributes to the ongoing
revival of interest in aesthetics among contemporary
literary critics and theorists like Elaine Scarry and
Richard Rorty.