T.E. Lawrence

All things Ned

[nedgofastvroom]

Happy Birthday Ned

[abhorrent-elms]

Being visible is the worst! Having a physical form is abominable! Public spaces are a nightmare! If you see me outside no you don’t!

[iwilltrytobereasonable]

- T E probably

[dying-suffering-french-stalkers]

what if T.E. Lawrence made a book on desert Guerilla warfare and called it " Ned's Declassified desert survival guide"

You.  I like you.

[dearmrlawrence]

Teenager Ned holding his baby brother Arnold

[nedgofastvroom]

I’m living for these outfits

[nedgofastvroom]

Sometimes for no reason at all I’ll remember that some fool cast Robert Pattinson as Ned in that god awful Gertrude Bell movie starring Nicole Kidman, and am prompted to reflect once more on the absolute absurdity of existence.

[gutteringgold]

“I asked if [Auda] had found life good enough to thank his haphazard parents for bringing him into it? or selfishly to confer the doubtful gift upon an unborn spirit?”

— Seven Pillars of Wisdom

[nerdypipsqueak]

I now own a slightly battered copy of T. E. Lawrence by his friends. My nerdy little heart is thrilled.

[nerdypipsqueak]

Spoiler alert: Ross by T. Rattigan (TW: Rape)

A few of my thoughts after reading Ross by Terence Rattigan:

1. I believe it was @nedgofastvroom who said the the Turkish Captain is a projection of Lawrence and I can’t agree enough. He stands out physically, the Turkish General mentions being convinced that the Captain is Circassian, which the Captain quickly denies. He is also quite outspoken and voices thoughts that Lawrence himself would struggle with (”he’d like to but won’t admit he’d like to so he doesn’t”), also he hates Lawrence (or the Emir Dynamite persona) vehemently and wishes him dead.

2. Despite hating Lawrence the Turkish Captain calls the General out on his cruelty and attempts to stop the soldiers from continuing the torture and rape. I think that to a degree the Captain embodies the pain and shame Lawrence must have felt after his ordeal, the part of him that keeps asking “could I have saved myself, could I have done something to stop this from happening?”

3. The relationship between the Captain and the General is very strange. Most of the time they talk like equals, not like superior and subordinate, the Captain seems very much at ease in the General’s office. Also, the General is quite gentle with the Captain, talking to him softly and patiently, touching him, ruffling his hair. I don’t want to say that there are romantic feelings between the two because that doesn’t add up with the “Turkish Captain as projection of Lawrence” theory but it is really strange and actually makes me feel uncomfortable.

4. The General decides to break Lawrence by attacking his bodily integrity, as he puts it: confronting him with the “facts of life”. His plan is to confront the intellectual with his own physicality, with the fact that he isn’t just a mind but a body as well, that he was carnal desires and that certain bodily reactions are beyond his mind’s control. This is extremely disturbing.

5. The airmen. Oh my God, the airmen. They’re amusing but they’re also bullies. It amazes me that although they constantly make fun of Ross, when they find out he’s getting discharged from the RAF they decide to get together and try to help him by writing a petition to their superiors. I love how they basically tell Ross “we think you are being treated unfairly and we want to write a letter to our bosses to tell them that but we don’t know how to do it so we need you to write the letter for us, we need you to help us help you.”

6. Beware, this play switches very quickly between hilarious and heartbreaking. But it’s absolutely worth reading.

[nedgofastvroom]

This play makes me feel so many things, I’m always glad when other people appreciate/read into it as much as I do!!! @nerdypipsqueak

[sayitwithsarcophilus]

Character Development!

The Mint, Part One Chapter One: Somebody get this poor guy some soup and a Valium!

The Mint, Part Two Chapter One: “Is this situation fucked up, or am I just triggered? …  No, this situation is fucked up.”

The Mint, Part Three Chapter One: #relatable kvetching about the annoyances of taking mass transit when you’re a small person carrying ¾ of your own body weight in luggage

[nedgofastvroom]

ou phrontis, a playlist by satanicmonsterdonut on Spotify

The complete collection of Clouds Hill recordings in one playlist.

Just a reminder that the Clouds hill recordings are on Spotify, for those interested.

[nedgofastvroom]

Kudos to Terence Rattigan for not sugarcoating what happened to Lawrence but, bloody hell, the screaming on the recording is absolutely horrific and gut-wrenching! I'm still shaking!

Yeah it’s pretty brutal, huh. Quite a good recording though.

[nedgofastvroom]

When your signature not only includes all of your aliases in a compact but quirky/tongue in cheek design, but also manages to be cute af

[nerdypipsqueak]

Holy sh*t! What is EC?! 

[nedgofastvroom]

“I do nothing — and they talk. I do something — and they talk. Now I am trying to accustom myself to the truth that probably I’ll be talked over for the rest of my life: and after my life, too. There will be a volume of ‘letters’ after I die & probably some witty fellow will write another life of me.”

Excerpt From

The Letters Of T E Lawrence

David Garnett

[dearmrlawrence]

Some interesting trivia about TE from The Last Days of T.E. Lawrence: A Leaf in the Wind by Paul Marriott and Yvonne Argent

[dying-suffering-french-stalkers]

Lawrence: Sometimes I let matches burn down to my fingertips just to feel something, anything.

[dying-suffering-french-stalkers]

Lawrence of Arabia screenplay (PDF) — Robert Bolt, 1962

[dying-suffering-french-stalkers]

Reminder that this work of art is available to cry over free of charge!

[dying-suffering-french-stalkers]

T.E. Lawrence, explaining why he carved οὐ φροντὶς (“no care”) on his lintel: “Nothing in Clouds Hill is to be a care upon the world. While I have it there shall be nothing exquisite or unique in it. Nothing to anchor me.” (Also it’s from a story in Herodotus that amused him and he was a giant nerd.)

Me, an intellectual: wow I can’t believe Ned permanently wrote “hakuna matata” on his own house