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Limitations
That meme about things I've done and you haven't. I'm tempted to try it but it makes my head hurt to remember all that stuff.
Every one of those things I've done and you haven't is just another brick in the wall.
Personality is a prison as much as its a romper-room. The more colourful I am, the more I'm stuck with myself.
I'm Quentin Crisp. No-one is ever going to ask me to haul a sleigh to the South Pole.
As a writer I keep coming up against my limitations. I bang against them like a vacuum cleaner butting against the skirting board.
The least limited writer ever was Shakespeare. He creates an illusion of knowing everything. We haven't a clue what he was like in himself.
One of my favourite scenes from the movies is Rita Haworth and Edward Everett Sloane in Lady From Shanghai. They're in the mirror maze, surrounded by multiple images of themselves. He says something like "I'm awfully tired of us, lover." Then they start shooting.
Glass everywhere.
Every one of those things I've done and you haven't is just another brick in the wall.
Personality is a prison as much as its a romper-room. The more colourful I am, the more I'm stuck with myself.
I'm Quentin Crisp. No-one is ever going to ask me to haul a sleigh to the South Pole.
As a writer I keep coming up against my limitations. I bang against them like a vacuum cleaner butting against the skirting board.
The least limited writer ever was Shakespeare. He creates an illusion of knowing everything. We haven't a clue what he was like in himself.
One of my favourite scenes from the movies is Rita Haworth and Edward Everett Sloane in Lady From Shanghai. They're in the mirror maze, surrounded by multiple images of themselves. He says something like "I'm awfully tired of us, lover." Then they start shooting.
Glass everywhere.
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FWIW, I felt that way at first. But then it was hard to stop!
Personality is a prison as much as its a romper-room. The more colourful I am, the more I'm stuck with myself.
The first sentence is definitely true, but as for the second... I don't think there's a correlation between colorfulosity and how much you are stuck with yourself. I think we are all stuck with ourselves, even if we're boring. How much better to be stuck with someone interesting!
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I don't think he is less (or more) tragic than someone who lives a boring life and dies peacefully in their sleep. It's the fact that we are stuck with ourselves that I find tragic.
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Ah, the human predicament!
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I love Peter Sellers and have so liked him to be happy.
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I think it's clear that he *LIKED* playing other people--maybe preferred it--but I don't think you can assume that he didn't know who he was. But I suppose he felt less stuck with himself than some of us.
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I haven't read the Biography, but I've seen the film that was based on it- with wonderful Geoffrey Rush.
It's like there was a Faustian pact.
Because his screen characters are so vivid- so supernaturally vivid.
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Oh, as they say: Do give it a go!
It's more fun if you leave out the big stuff and find interesting minutiae--for example, I can set my hand, palm down, on a flat surface, turn it over at the wrist until it is palm up, then turn it over again.
Ta-DA! Who else can do that, I ask you?
When I brag about it--and I offer to demonstrate at parties--my family reminds me I have already by given the "Questionable Achievement Award."
I tell them they are jealous.
As for your writing, I admire it immensely, and your wittiness is exquisite and polished.
In my humble and respectful opinion.
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To be praised by you- the wittiest lj-er of us all- means so much.
I'll think about the meme, but I'm making no promises.
Oh, OK....
1. I have exchanged letters with Sir Alec Guinness.
2. I have been banned from speaking in an English cathedral.
3. I have been arrested by the Swiss police.
4. I have conducted an open air pagan wedding.
5. I have written and performed in a passion play.
6 I have conducted the funeral of a man who was stabbed to death by his own son.
7. I have been grounded by a sandstorm at Luxor airport.
8. I have spent the night in the ruined tower on Glastonbury Tor.
9. I have shaken hands with Sir Jack Hobbs (famous English cricketer)
10. I been baby sat by Thomas Hardy's sister-in-law.
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I'm sure you have done lots of things that other people haven't. I liked the sandstorm at Luxor Airport.
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...but actually I'm a very quiet and domestic sort of chap.
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You even left out that you are one of the few who have an autographed Kipling.
This is a fine list.
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I love what you say about personality being as much a prison as it is a romper-room. So true. Anyone who doesn't think so should try to make a change in their behavior. "What's wrong? You've never done (it) that way before!"
Actually, I like your whole message. It sort of reflects the way I feel today...rather trapped within myself.
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There is a radio station here that runs old radio shows. Orson Welles makes many appearances, in stuff he wrote as well as the Shadow (he was the ORIGINAL Shadow) and a few other plays. The voice was very hard to ignore.
There's another example of what you were talking about. He wasn't allowed to be anything but brilliant. He wasn't so brilliant in his personal relationships - Rita Hayworth said, after they divorced that "he wanted Gilda, but he got Rita Hayworth."
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And all done on a shoe-string with a handful of extras.
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