Funk

 This is something I wrote years ago. I’m not sure why I didn’t post it then. Maybe the world was not ready.

The following are all taken from an essay from 1929 by D H Lawrence, titled The State of Funk. Maybe he meant something wholly different from its modern usage but we’ll ignore that. He writes "What is the matter with the English? They are in a state of blue funk, and they behave like a lot of mice when someone stamps on the floor." This suggests the driving rhythm of funk as we know it surely, but presumably a bluesier, heavier and less uplifting form than regular funk. He goes on to say: "When a people falls into a state of funk, then God help it. Because mass funk leads to mass panic." The curious later line: "If we fall into a state of funk, the best thing is to have no children." Also "Patience, alertness, intelligence, and a human goodwill and fearlessness, that is what you want in a time of change. Not funk." 

Lets face it; he really didn't like funk music, even though it didn’t yet exist. Which given his celebration of the body and sexuality is interesting. Perhaps he did protest too much. Another example of his paranoia: "Funk spells sheer disaster." Is he maybe going too far? Did he fear it would stray too far from pure rock n roll?

 On a slightly more serious though related note, below from Lawrence's close friend, Aldous Huxley in his book Devils of Loudun: “No man, however highly civilized can listen very long to African drumming, or Indian chanting, or Welsh hymn-singing & retain intact his critical & self-conscious personality. It would be interesting to take a group of the most eminent philosophers from the best universities, shut them up in a hot room with Moroccan dervishes or Haitian voodooists, & measure, with a stop watch, the strength of their psychological resistance to the effects of rhythmic sound. Would the Logical Postivists be able to hold out longer than the Subjective Idealists? Would the Marxists prove tougher than the Thomists or Vedantists? All we can safely predict is that, if exposed long enough to the tom-toms & the singing, every one of our philosophers would end by capering & howling with the savages."

Finally just to show that above really is from a D.H. Lawrence essay and not simply a product of my subversive and feverish imagination, here’s a photo to prove the point. Otherwise, you never know, I might get accused of fabrication, hate speech and the like. “You have proven yourself an enemy of the integrity of Western culture. You are now banned from Twitter and Facebook.”