The Plumed Serpent in Reading 1001

Feb 26, 2017 Pip rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books-challenge

Initially I was disappointed with The Plumed Serpent. I had adored D.H.Lawrence when I was young, but that was half a century ago. I assumed that this had been an early novel, but I was wrong. It was written well after my favourite, The Rainbow. Although the descriptions were vintage Lawrence (one would undoubtedly empathise with Kate's disgust at the bullfight because it was depicted so vividly) it quickly got bogged down in description and verse about a revival of Aztec beliefs which is being Initially I was disappointed with The Plumed Serpent. I had adored D.H.Lawrence when I was young, but that was half a century ago. I assumed that this had been an early novel, but I was wrong. It was written well after my favourite, The Rainbow. Although the descriptions were vintage Lawrence (one would undoubtedly empathise with Kate's disgust at the bullfight because it was depicted so vividly) it quickly got bogged down in description and verse about a revival of Aztec beliefs which is being orchestrated by a charismatic fellow she meets, one Don Ramon. There are lengthy descriptions of the cult of Quetzalcoatl before Don Ramon's motives are revealed and the book begins to make some sense. "Quetzal is the name of a bird that lives high up in the tropical mountains, and has very beautiful tail-feathers, precious to the Aztecs. Coatl is a serpent. Quetzalcoatl is the Plumed Serpent, so hideous in the fanged, feathered, writhing stone of the National Museum". At this point I would have heartily agreed with a later description from the aforementioned Kate that it was all "high-flown bunk". My curiosity about where Lawrence was going with this (and my 1001 points) helped me to persist and I am so pleased I did. Don Ramon believed (as did Lawrence) that every society needs its own gods. He wanted Mexicans to unite in an emotional, religious fervour to restor their pride. Lawrence was critical of Western hegemony. "In attempting to convert the dark man to the white man's way of life, the white man has fallen helplessly down the hole he wanted to fill up. Seeking to save another man's soul, the white man lost his own, and collapsed upon himself". Don Ramon wrote poetic tracts to be read or sung to the peons, who were unlikely to be able to read them for themselves. He, in a particularly vivid section, ceremoniously removed the images of the crucified Christ and the Virgin Mary from the local church and replaced them with ancient Aztec symbols. Nevertheless a lot of Christian imagery was employed in the process. Quite a number of stones were rolled away from tombs, for example. The cross was replaced as a symbol by the Eye of the Other One. There was much talk of the Morning Star of the male and the Evening Star of the female. Which brings me to the other theme, that of gender politics. Lawrence had wrestled with the role of the modern woman in other books. His protagonist here is an Irish divorcee and widow, who is trying to forget that her second husband sacrificed himself for Irish Independence, which is presumably why she is drawn to Don Ramon! Kate sees herself as independent, not subservient to any man, and, indeed, not in need of one. She spends a great deal of time, however, thinking about Don Ramon's contention that male or female assume the role of the ravished, or of the ravisher. For reasons that are not made clear she ends up with a ceremonial role in the revived cult and an actual marriage to Don Ramon's sidekick, the little, but powerful and competent General Cipriano . While all this is going on, and there is a violent home invasion thrown in, Lawrence writes with lyrical ease of the lakeside town where the action takes place. It is so beautifully written that the reader feels that they have been there, at that time. Whereas, actually, he was writing from Taos, New Mexico. Lawrence is actually examining his own ideas about colonialism "For the white man, let him bluster as he may, is hollow with misgivings about his own superiority". Remember that this book was published in 1926, well before such ideas became mainstream. He has Kate conclude that "The blood is one blood. It was a strange, overbearing insistence, a claim of blood-unison". So the conclusion is, despite "Western women keeping their souls for themselves, in a sort of purse, as is were""only the man of a great star, a great divinity, can bring the opposites together in a new unison". ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Feb 25, 2017 Beverly rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2017, 1001-bymrbyd, feb-book-count

Although I thought this was beautifully written with such extraordinary descriptions of the people, their attire and their surroundings, this was just not my cup of tea. The beginning of the story, which takes place during the Mexican Revolution, is a trip to the bullfights reminding me of the scenes in The Sun Also Rises which I did not care for at all. Kate Leslie, one of the tourists watching the bullfight, leaves after deciding that she doesn't appreciate this type of "entertainment". She th ...more

Like · see review

Jan 19, 2025 Tiffany rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, 2025-reading-list, 1001-books

What hot mess was this? Even if you can get past the racism, you have to content with the way "serape" is used nearly as often as "the," and phrases like "phallic wind." Wait, what? That's just self parody. Stella Gibbons, as it turns out, what too gentle. ...more

Like · see review