A Propos T.E. Lawrence
Aug. 16th, 2024 09:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphilo The movie, Lawrence of Arabia is a pack of lies, but then the book on which it is based, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, is a pack of lies too- so why not?
I had always thought that John Buchan's Greenmantle- the story of a young Englishman posing as a Arab prophet and leading a revolt agaisnt the Ottoman Empire was a response to the Lawrence mythos, but I find that Greenmantle (published in 1916) actually comes first. Buchan designed the robes into which Lawrence obliging stepped.
What did his friends call him? It seems they may have simply called him "T.E." His given names were Thomas Edward, but I can find no record of anyone ever calling him Tom, though it seems his brothers may have called him Ned.
Bernard Shaw, who was a friend, said of him that he wasn't a liar but an actor. Someone else said he had the gift of "backing into the limelight".
David Fromkin in an incisive article for The New Criterion compares him to James Dean- an actual actor- and like Lawrence a masochist; both of them loved speed- and it killed them. He is the quintessential 20th century icon, says Fromkin- rootless, forever young, a creation of his own genius for publicity- supplemented and egged on by the hero-worship of others- which he alterately welcomed and repulsed. By a wonderful irony his guerrilla exploits and philosophy- developed in the service of Empire- became a study text for the anti-Imperialist heroes of a later generation- Che Guevara, Mao-Tse-Tung....
One quality he certainly possessed was charisma. He razzle-dazzled most of those who came within his orbit, though a society hostess (as recorded by Henry Williamson) found him boorish and a bore.
Lawrence was an assumed name, inherited from his parents who lived out of wedlock. He later tried out other ones, first Ross and then Shaw. Neither stuck. Henry Williamson called him Everest....
He didn't look much like Peter O'Toole. He had a big head and was only five foot four. If they were looking for a lookalike to play him in the movies they could have done worse than hire Stan Laurel.
Seven Pillars of Wisdom is a tremendous book, but its central figure never comes into focus. Is it history? Not really. Is it a novel? Not quite. What's it about? That's never entirely clear, but the descriptions of people and places are magnificent. I decided at early stage to stop trying to understand what was going on and simply enjoy the ride.....
I had always thought that John Buchan's Greenmantle- the story of a young Englishman posing as a Arab prophet and leading a revolt agaisnt the Ottoman Empire was a response to the Lawrence mythos, but I find that Greenmantle (published in 1916) actually comes first. Buchan designed the robes into which Lawrence obliging stepped.
What did his friends call him? It seems they may have simply called him "T.E." His given names were Thomas Edward, but I can find no record of anyone ever calling him Tom, though it seems his brothers may have called him Ned.
Bernard Shaw, who was a friend, said of him that he wasn't a liar but an actor. Someone else said he had the gift of "backing into the limelight".
David Fromkin in an incisive article for The New Criterion compares him to James Dean- an actual actor- and like Lawrence a masochist; both of them loved speed- and it killed them. He is the quintessential 20th century icon, says Fromkin- rootless, forever young, a creation of his own genius for publicity- supplemented and egged on by the hero-worship of others- which he alterately welcomed and repulsed. By a wonderful irony his guerrilla exploits and philosophy- developed in the service of Empire- became a study text for the anti-Imperialist heroes of a later generation- Che Guevara, Mao-Tse-Tung....
One quality he certainly possessed was charisma. He razzle-dazzled most of those who came within his orbit, though a society hostess (as recorded by Henry Williamson) found him boorish and a bore.
Lawrence was an assumed name, inherited from his parents who lived out of wedlock. He later tried out other ones, first Ross and then Shaw. Neither stuck. Henry Williamson called him Everest....
He didn't look much like Peter O'Toole. He had a big head and was only five foot four. If they were looking for a lookalike to play him in the movies they could have done worse than hire Stan Laurel.
Seven Pillars of Wisdom is a tremendous book, but its central figure never comes into focus. Is it history? Not really. Is it a novel? Not quite. What's it about? That's never entirely clear, but the descriptions of people and places are magnificent. I decided at early stage to stop trying to understand what was going on and simply enjoy the ride.....
