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Review commentary by Jeremy Wilson on Lawrence,
the Uncrowned King of Arabia by Michael Asher
(London, Viking, 1998)
previous page | Page
9 | Chapter 2
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Chapter 1: Apparent Queen Unveiled Her Peerless Light
Early Childhood 1888-96 (13 pages, pp 7-20)
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twelve lines from bottom. |
By
this time Asher expects readers to be completely convinced by his
masochism theory. This permits him to assert that the "exaggerated
form of attention-seeking" (mainly reported by contemporaries after
Lawrence's death) "was the shadow side of Lawrence's aloofness, and
the social aspect of his masochism." Once again, Asher is using the
"three-times" technique, the quiet advance from
"possibly" via "probably" to "certainly" -
without ever producing a shred of evidence. From here on, readers also
have to put up with his clumsily expressed concept of "reverse
exhibitionism".
At this point it is
worth noting that Asher took a degree in English, not in history or
psychology, at a period when many English faculties were plunging
recklessly into Freudian psychology in order to enrich literary
criticism. In principle, that procedure appears to be valid and
interesting; but it was often carried out in such an amateurish manner
that it brought literary criticism into disrepute. Anyone who imagines
that it leads to a single unambiguous conclusion should read The
Pooh Perplex.
My own conclusion is
that Asher is a very amateur psychologist who is easily tempted
by theories which, being based on highly selected evidence, do not stand
up to serious examination. At best, his theorising and interpretation
might provide material for discussion. Only too often, it is plain
nonsense. |
| 20/1 |
More
of the same. Asher is now leading the reader into a theory that Lawrence
was a habitual fantasist - a conclusion that is simply not borne out by
Lawrence's thousands of letters and wartime reports. Yes, like most if
not all people, Lawrence occasionally concealed the truth or told
trivial lies. In such cases one can usually see a specific motive for
doing so.
Beyond that, there is no evidence for the theory that Asher asks us to swallow here. A
central problem of the book - which I will reach in due course - is
Asher's inability to substantiate this theory. |
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A
concluding comment on this chapter:
It is of course true
that there is not very much reliable first-hand evidence on which to
base a chapter about Lawrence's first eight years. Asher's solution is
to spend little of the chapter talking about that period. Instead, he
has used these pages to develop massive theories about the roots of
Lawrence's adult personality. In the process, he selectively invokes
evidence from much later periods as well as testimony whose worth, for
one reason or another, is doubtful. Overall, far, far too much rests on
entirely unsupported speculation, generally put forward as though it
were established fact.
An uncritical reader
with no extensive knowledge of Lawrence's biography or of Asher's
sources would almost certainly emerge from the chapter with absurd ideas about Lawrence's personality.
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