Reading 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' at 17 in Summer 21 - Book and Film Globe
Bored one afternoon, I grabbed the first book I saw in my dad's office. It happened to be Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence, the controversial early 20th century novel famous for its crude language and frequent references to sex. I chose the book because I liked the cover, an abstractly painted naked woman, who seemed to be flowing through the wilderness. The book centers around Constance Chatterley (Connie), an aristocratic woman trapped in a passionless marriage to her handicapped husband, Sir Clifford Chatterley. She grows increasingly lonely on her large estate, Wragby, and sparks a scandalous affair with another isolated character, their gamekeeper, Oliver Mellors.
The book took me over a month to finish, and I frequently had to consult Sparknotes to comprehend what I was reading. But a recent high school graduate reading anything longer than Instagram captions is unusual these days. A recent high school graduate reading a complicated text written a century ago while on summer vacation is even more unusual.
Even though I hadn't selected the novel with any conscious intent, I was surprised by how strongly I identified with its protagonist. What did Connie have in common with a suburban Gen-Z teenage girl? A deep frustration with men, a love for wandering aimlessly through the woods (a hobby I picked up during lockdown), and most of all, consuming loneliness.
After a four-year hiatus, I got back into reading for pleasure during lockdown due to my curtailed education, the overwhelming amount of screen time I was forced to endure, and yes, of course, the loneliness. I read seven books on my own from March 2020 to June 2021 in addition to readings I had for online school, which I found much less engaging without in-person lessons. What began as a supplement to my mediocre education became a crutch for my mental health. While I was locked in my house and cut off from the outside world, I began to use books to escape. Books let me take a break from technology, which I had grown sick of after four-plus hours of Zoom per day. Books let me travel to different countries and time periods while I was confined by the walls of my bedroom. Books provided a world full of outside characters and events which I could interact with in a way I couldn't do in reality, but was still my own.
When quarantine mandates were lifted, I could physically escape my bedroom and finally socialize again like a normal 17-year-old. But the reading didn't stop. Neither did the long walks, or other hobbies I developed in lockdown.
During the worst of quarantine, I would barely get out of bed or even attempt to be productive, as plenty of others struggled to do. Many fared much worse than myself by losing their jobs, falling ill, or losing loved ones. Comparatively, my boredom was a blessing, but I'm sure many others learned that downtime is what one makes of it. Like many other students, in my high school and across America, I resented the virtual, dull school days. But the additional free time and excruciating boredom forced me to look inward and find ways to pass the time other than staring at my phone. If any of you find yourselves with extra downtime, I recommend traveling to early twentieth century England.
Reading 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' at 17 in Summer 21 - Book and Film Globe
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