Lawrence

[poliphilo]

 I watched Lawrence of Arabia. This took up much of the middle of the day. The evening before I'd started reading The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Lawrence's "self-regardant" account of the desert revolt he got caught up in. "Self-regardant" is his own word so let's not accuse him of naïveté. I've always found him interesting, but why I should want to deepen that interest at this particular moment in time is beyond me. I had a favourite Balzac lined up but, having just finished La Chartreuse de Parme, I felt I'd spent long enough in the atmosphere of early 19th century France and it would be nice to go some place else....

Comments

[cmcmck]

Lawrence was killed in a motorcycle accident when he swerved to avoid children on the road which was a pretty selfless thing to have done.

[mallorys_camera]

I read The Seven Pillars of Wisdom when I was 12 and fell utterly in love with him in that "parfit gentil knyght" way.

And, of course, Lawrence of Arabia is a brilliant film. Though its depiction of Lawrence is fairly external. Lawrence was much more than a narcissist.

My favorite biography of Lawrence is the one written by the poet Robert Graves. Graves was having financial difficulties at the time he wrote it, and Lawrence—who hated publicity of any kind—only agreed to having the bio written if Graves wrote it. But Lawrence further stipulated that his endorsement of Graves be kept a secret because he didn't want to embarrass his old friend. Lawrence had a very Arthurian code of conduct! 😀