#witty wednesday

[otc-dramaturgy]

When Eliza emancipates herself – when Galatea comes to life – she must not relapse. She must retain her pride and triumph to the end. When Higgins takes your arm on ‘consort battleship’ you must instantly throw him off with implacable pride; and this is the note until the final ‘Buy them yourself.’ He will go out on the balcony to watch your departure; come back triumphantly into the room; exclaim ‘Galatea!’ (meaning that the statue has come to life at last); and – curtain. Thus he gets the last word; and you get it too.

George Bernard Shaw, an undated note to Mrs. Patrick Campbell, the original Eliza in Pygmalion

[otc-dramaturgy]

Now, the history of Eliza Doolittle, though called a romance because of the transfiguration it records seems exceedingly improbable, is common enough. ... Nevertheless, people in all directions have assumed, for no other reason than that she became the heroine of a romance, that she must have married the hero of it. This is unbearable, not only because her little drama, if acted on such a thoughtless assumption, must be spoiled, but because the true sequel is patent to anyone with a sense of human nature in general, and of feminine instinct in particular. ... She is immensely interested in him. She has even secret mischievous moments in which she wishes she could get him alone, on a desert island, away from all ties and with nobody else in the world to consider, and just drag him off his pedestal and see him making love like any common man. We all have private imaginations of that sort. But when it comes to business, to the life that she really leads as distinguished from the life of dreams and fancies, she likes Freddy and she likes the Colonel; and she does not like Higgins and Mr. Doolittle. Galatea never does quite like Pygmalion: his relation to her is too godlike to be altogether agreeable.

George Bernard Shaw, “What Happens Afterwards”

[otc-dramaturgy]

Despite all the rag-tag and bobtail of a joyous musical show, Mr. Hart and his associates have never lost their respect for a penetrating comedy situation. Some things of human significance are at stake in 'My Fair Lady,' and some human values are involved. ... It's a wonderful show. To Shaw's agile intelligence it adds the warmth, loveliness and excitement of a memorable theatre frolic.

Brooks Atkinson, The New York Times, 1956 review of the original Broadway production of My Fair Lady

[otc-dramaturgy]

Every good mathematician is at least half a philosopher, and every good philosopher is at least half a mathematician.

Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege (1848 – 1925, German mathematician, logician and philosopher)

[otc-dramaturgy]

[In a good proof] there is a very high degree of unexpectedness, combined with inevitability and economy. The arguments take so odd and surprising a form; the weapons used seem so childishly simple when compared with the far-reaching results; but there is no escape from the conclusions. There are no complications of detail—one line of attack is enough in each case; and this is true too of the proofs of many much more difficult theorems, the full appreciation of which demands quite a high degree of technical proficiency. We do not want many ‘variations’ in the proof of a mathematical theorem: ‘enumeration of cases’, indeed, is one of the duller forms of mathematical argument. A mathematical proof should resemble a simple and clear-cut constellation, not a scattered cluster in the Milky Way.

G. H. Hardy, A Mathematician’s Apology

[otc-dramaturgy]

Mathematics is the most beautiful and most powerful creation of the human spirit.

Stefan Banach, 20th century Polish mathematician

[otc-dramaturgy]

Beauty is the first test: There is no permanent place in the world for ugly mathematics.

G.H. Hardy, "A Mathematician's Apology"

[otc-dramaturgy]

The Magician and the Politician have much in common: they both have to draw our attention away from what they are really doing.

Ben Okri