Reflections on the Death of a Porcupine and Other Essays

D.H. Lawrence called these essays "philosophicalish," which is precisely the kind of honest disclaimer that makes him worth reading. Written between 1915 and 1925, this collection ranges from politics to the movement of birds, from the death of a porcupine to the nature of God, toggling between mordant wit and spiritual meditation. What unifies them is Lawrence's obsessive insistence: Be thyself. Not as a slogan, but as a fierce, often uncomfortable demand to strip away the ego's prisons and encounter existence directly. The title essay meditates on a porcupine's death with the gravity of a philosopher and the sensitivity of a poet, using one small creature's end to examine what it means to be alive. Lawrence pits lion against unicorn fighting for a crown, arguing that light and darkness, life and death are not opposites but necessary partners in the making of meaning. These are essays for readers who don't mind being unsettled.