Compare how the poet contrasts the ontological status of his objectively experienced universe with the subjective personal attitudes of the adherents of particular religious, sociological or political convictions

/ October 14, 2019

I kind of feel like I have just been set an exam, and I haven’t got a clue what to write.

Maybe it’s early on-set dementia – that dreaded birthday is creeping up on me – and I am beginning to stick too closely to the texts.

I wish I knew what goes on in Richard’s head. Or that there was a handy handbook, a kind of “Cliffs Notes”… Maybe I need to liberate myself from the Germanic discipline and order in my brain. Just because ‘hot summer’ and a January to May run of a play for me don’t work together. What are winter trees?

I think I think too literally for this.

 

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121 thoughts on “Compare how the poet contrasts the ontological status of his objectively experienced universe with the subjective personal attitudes of the adherents of particular religious, sociological or political convictions”

  2. I saw that and said to myself – wtf Richard?

    So I slept on it.

    And now I’m thinking – wtf Richard? Are my beliefs vs your reality a contest of sorts? Or is it a game where only you know the rules?

    I’m weird. I prefer plain, straight up, straight talk. To the point.

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  3. As much as I remember, the action of Uncle Vanya takes place in the hot summer. Probably he was referring to it.
    My connoisseur friends say there are winter trees that are planted in autumn (don’t know the details) but probably he meant it allegorically too.
    That poem reminds me of Chinese or Japanese poetry but it could be a quote from McPherson’s adaptation 😊 (and I like it btw).
    (The title of your post is killing my brain 🤯😂)

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    • I tried to find out when UV is set but didn’t find out, so ok, then the hot summer reference makes sense.
      Winter trees – well, assuming that the climate in Britain is the same as in Ireland (based on the fact that both countries together are “the British Isles”), I can say that trees are usually planted here in the winter. Sounds strange for anyone who is from continental Europe – where the winters are so cold that the ground freezes and you simply cannot plant any plant. However, over here in Ireland, thanks to the Gulf stream, the winters are mild and the ground doesn’t freeze. And the best time of year for planting trees is this season because in winter the trees are in some sort of hibernation mode and therefore less sensitive to replanting… But whoa – what a massive explanation for a short, throw-away remark 😉
      Sorry about the title – I made it deliberately difficult (and bad style!) to match a tweet that I can’t understand.

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      • It is set in summer.

        Quote from my translation: No sooner did you arrive here with your husband than every one whom you found busy and actively creating something was forced to drop his work and give himself up for the whole summer to your husband’s gout and yourself. You and he have infected us with your idleness.

        And Astrov does plant trees, so those I kind of get.

        The believe/reality thing? Super cryptic.

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    • 🙂 Right I agree! You could read the quote I have Ieft down the comments….
      Chacun de son côté trouvera une explication ou bien passera outre

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  4. sorry, my violin is in the shop today. I think if he worded it My beliefs vs Your reality, I’d be much more open to what he’s trying to say. I think. I’ll need a copy of that Cliff’s Notes to be sure 😛

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  6. What is he like? I’m ploughing my way through the Marcus Aurelius audiobook at the moment and I can’t shake of the impression that it is the words of stoical, disciplined, noble Armitage chiding his baser, weak-willed fandom. My ears have had enough of the preaching, so I’m in no mood for this tweet. Hurrumph!

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    • Straight words, dreamer, and well spoken. Yes, I am also in the middle of Marcus Aurelius at the moment – and have to admit I find it tough-going. I’m not really that keen on being preached to… but in this case I didn’t even cop on what he is alluding to.

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      • Yes, I am not particularly enjoying Marcus Armitage, I mean Aurelius, although it is contemplative. It is probably better to hear in short pithy chunks rather than my long stretches on the way to work. Although, the my most profound realisation is that I adore the way RA says ‘hole’ and ‘whole’. And I love your Armitage tweet Cliff notes! I’ve just noticed them, having though it was an advert when I saw it on my phone.

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        • Oooh, there’s a word that I have noticed, too. So much so that I actually wondered whether he was putting on an Irish accent…
          Yeah, the meditations are tough-going for me. Tbh, I can hardly remember anything that I have heard so far. It’s just another type of material that is not 100% up my street.

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  7. I don’t know what he means, but the question is breathtakingly impenetrable to a poor dull fan like me. I can understand his Audible tweets much better. “Look what I just did. You might like to buy it”. I appreciate clarity. This tweet makes me almost not like him. Maybe it’s my mood, I broke my hand yesterday, but he sounds like a pretentious twit to my unsophisticated self IMHumbleO.

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  8. Bei Gotts Test hatten wir noch festgestellt, dass ein denkender Mann sexy ist. Das haben wir nun davon 😉.
    Der Titel deines Blogpost als Antwort auf seinen Tweet bei Twitter – das fänd ich cool 😂.

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  9. i was very tired when he tweeted that (still am tbh) and it’s frustrating and annoys me. I don’t like when people say stuff knowing they’re being cryptic, like you’re only good if you understand their meaning. Maybe that’s a reflection on me though tbf

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    • Frustrating – yes. I don’t know why, but it irks me when I can’t understand something. Or when it is unclear to me, why something was said/tweeted. I don’t think that is a bad reflection on you. A tweet is a message, an attempt at communicating. But if it is cryptic and can’t be clearly decoded, then it is ineffective. And that leads to frustration. It would be nice if he actually cleared up why and what he tweeted.

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  10. I think he used an Uncle Vanya reference—“plant trees”—combined with the not oblique at all “see you next year” to announce that he’s going off social media until January to prepare for the Astrov part. We bitch and bitch that we want to know more about his “process,” and he just handed it to us: It takes 3 months to prepare for a role, and he writes thoughtful, introspective (weird) poetry while he does it. Plain as day!

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  12. Having heard the message of Greta Thunberg and Astrov, having lived through the heat of the summer of 2019, he left to plant trees. Thus, it will offset the carbon impact generated by the play in London (cleared forests: Tchekov books, advertising posters and tickets…) and his own air travels (transatlantic and transpacific) and those of the fans.Following the well-known adage, quote: “to St. Catherine all tree takes root”
    https://jardinage.lemonde.fr/article-56-sainte-catherine-bois-racine.html

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  13. I like Besotted’s explanation! As for “beliefs vs reality”, I don’t get it, and I don’t bother trying to, my poor brain doesn’t cope well with either the cryptic or the high brow, although I’m always open to the interpretations of others.
    As for trees, given our hot summers, and that our ground doesn’t freeze over, winter is a good time to plant natives and bare rooted deciduous alike. Gives them a chance to settle before they hopefully take off with the warmer weather in spring.

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    • Agree, it is probably best to simply ignore and move on since it is unlikely that he will give us an explanation.
      It’s a nice thought to plant some trees. Might also be part of his preparation – getting into Astrov’s mindset by planting trees. As always, he is meticulously preparing.

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  14. Many months between now and theatre date opening. How long do rehearsals last? Maybe being cryptic about something in-between? What happened to The Seville Communion?

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    • Maybe it was a quote from a forth-coming audio book??? Although – I googled the quote, and there were no results. Whatever he was alluding to, it went right over my head.
      The priest film seems to have vanished, too…

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  15. I’m finding the different interpretations of this tweet interesting, and am comforted by the comments that say they aren’t intellectual enough to understand him 😛 the way I read it is that he’s saying he’s a person too, just like the rest of us, that he bleeds and he breathes, etc. especially since he ended with the ‘namaste’ emoji. the first sentence was in quotation marks, so I assumed it was from something he’s reading. it felt like a victim tweet to me, which is why I said my violin was in the shop. if you’re going to throw something like that out there, it needs to have some context, or else it’s going to be misinterpreted. I know I myself used to tweet stuff like that and then others swore it was about them or things going on in the fandom when it was really just about my mother 😉

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    • It did have that ‘woe is me’ vibe. 🎻 😉

      About the interpretation, that’s a difficult topic. Context (in the case of his tweet) would be enormously helpful. I admit I hold him to a slightly different standard here, as his account is kind of a publicity tool and is meant to be communication with fans an industry contacts (at least so it seems).

      OTOH if someone is determined to read your every tweet (and by that I mean normal peoples’ like you and me) and take offense to it, there’s nothing you can do save canceling your SM altogether. Sometimes you just want to scream into the void about your spouse/boss/siblings without going into specifics (for obvious reasons) and I don’t feel we owe people an explanation all the time. If they want to think it’s about them or the fandom, then what are you gonna do? Shut up? I hate that sort of self-censorship.

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      • I agree that a celebrity with thousands of fan follows should have a different approach than the average Twitter user. that issue is like beating a dead horse for me b/c it’s bothered me ever since he started tweeting and nothing has really changed. as for us ‘simple’ folk, I admit that I let others censor me. I hardly ever tweet anymore, just retweet, and even that makes me pause. some days I get so disgusted that I feel that way, so I just go on a mad retweeting spree, retweeting everything that I’ve favorited in the past week, judgments be damned! I haven’t done that in awhile though, maybe it’s time for another bout; it can be quite freeing 😀

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        • Yeah, re Armitage Twitter—enough said.

          I’m not free of the self-censorship. It’s an ongoing battle. It pisses me off when I let it happen. The most annoying thing is the narcissism of the ‘interpreters’ that take offense. Like honestly, you tweet “this person with blue shoes is stupid” and the reaction is “how very dare she” as if there aren’t millions of people with blue shoes. Why on earth would you think you’re important enough to be that person? Better yet when it’s “my shoes aren’t blue, they’re turquoise!” Well then, dearie, maybe this wasn’t about you at all? Isn’t the internet fun? 🙄

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      • That’s exactly the trouble with subtweeting or vagueness – you always run the risk of offending people who are actually not the addressees of such tweets. You are right – no justification, no explanation needed, but in the interest of functioning communication it does help…

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    • I was wondering that was what you meant with the violin quip 😂. I’m not really that fond of victim tweets. There is always something awkward about that – and especially when the context is as unclear as in this case. For someone who always claims he doesn’t want the attention, such a tweet looks quite attention grabbing to me. It really would’ve helped if he had been a bit clearer.
      Otherwise – if he was trying to say that he is like us, well, I have no objection to that.

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  16. Some of his tweets just go over my head and I feel like he’s challenging people to try to figure out what he’s referencing. If he wants to inspire or enlighten his fans that’s fine but why does it have to be with so much ambiguity? Maybe it’s just me and I’m just not as bright as I would like to think. (which is not the way I want my crush to make me feel) Some of his comments do inspire me to want to learn more about certain subjects though tbf.

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    • I really don’t think that any of us are “too dim” to understand RA. But my reaction is similar to yours – and you put it perfectly, Donna. While I enjoy seeing my favourite actor put on a bit of intellectualism, I resent him when he makes me feel left out from his communications. I would feel resentful of *anyone* who did that. Somehow I would have thought that was not his intention…

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  17. Pingback: Just for Fun | Guylty Pleasure

  18. Finally……I’ve to admit: I do very much like this tweet. Really. It does sound and feel like a poem to me. (Nice rhythm! 😉 ) Kinda exhilerating! Strange, huh?? It conveys some fundamental topics (and a bit of drama) of being a fan and OTOH being the subject of adoration in it. Maybe it is because I’m a bit used to this kind of wording. I’m working at a place (theatre) where one of our mottos for over 30 years has been: Fragen statt Antworten. (Questions instead of answers) …….Maybe???

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    • Could be poetry. But unfortunately reminds me of the times in school when teachers would present us with obscure poems and then said “what does the poet want to convey”. If it isn’t immediately clear, I always find that poetry misses the point.

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