We ransomed our dignity to the clouds

[asakiyume]

Having finished our two-person reading of Hamlet, the healing angel and I decided to read Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. We're in the middle of Act II right now, and it's as good as the only other Tom Stoppard play I know, which is In Arcadia.** I really loved that. I love this too.

Here are some lines that stuck out for me in our today's reading:

GUIL: We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to show our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke and a presumption that once our eyes watered.

...

PLAYER: You don't understand the humiliation of it--to be tricked out of a single assumption, which makes our existence viable--that somebody is watching.

...

PLAYER: We ransomed our dignity to the clouds, and the uncomprehending birds listened.

...

GUIL: We only know what we're told, and that's little enough. And for all we know it isn't even true.

PLAYER: For all anyone knows, nothing is. Everything has to be taken on trust; truth is only that which is taken to be true. It's the currency of living. There may be nothing behind it, but it doesn't make any difference so long as it is honoured. One acts on assumptions. What do you assume?

**ETA Somehow I got into my head that the first and only other Stoppard play I've encountered was called IN Arcadia, but it's just Arcadia--as everyone else has tacitly been pointing out. I have no idea where that misidentification came from...

Comments

[rachelmanija]

Oh, yes! It's wonderful. When you're done, watch the movie, which is excellent and very faithful.

There's also a small but terrific amount of fan art and fic!

[asakiyume]

I saw that there's a movie! The healing angel and I agreed that when we're finished reading, we want to watch it.

[sovay]

It's the currency of living. There may be nothing behind it, but it doesn't make any difference so long as it is honoured.

That is very good.

(I saw a local production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in 2014, after which I read the play for the first time since high school; I remember enjoying both very much. Edward Petherbridge played Guildenstern in the original 1967 London production and it's one of the things I want a time machine for.)

[asakiyume]

It's one of the many classics I never read in high school! I'm enjoying it very much now.

And that last exchange, on truth, was what made me want to gather all these together. I'm sure there'll be more in the remainder of the play.

[minoanmiss]

Oh man, now I remember reading R&G right after Hamlet, in college.

[asakiyume]

An experience I didn't have--though I did read Hamlet for the first time in college.

[amaebi]

R&G was the first Stoppard I read, and I still think it's brilliant.

I eventually stopped reading Stoppard because I found other works excessively misogynistic. That doesn't mar R&G, though.

[asakiyume]

And I didn't think In Arcadia was misogynistic--that's the only other one I know.

[amaebi]

You would know.

I think I read In Arcadia, but if so I don't remember boo about it.

ETA: And no, I haven't read or seen In Arcadia, which came out after I'd stopped reading Stoppard. It sounds fascinating!

[asakiyume]

And it turns out I'm wrong about the title! It's called just Arcadia! Foolish memory, letting me down.

It is a lovely play, really moving and thoughtful and funny.

[skygiants]

R&G was my first Stoppard Experience and is absolutely one of the things that has shaped my attitude towards theater and background characters and transformative works; everything else since has fallen a little short. (With the possible exception of Arcadia, which I also do truly love.)

[asakiyume]

It took you referring to it as Arcadia--after everyone else had--for me to realize that yes, that's it's name, not In Arcadia, as I had somehow decided it was. BRAIN! WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO ME??

(going to correct the entry now...)

[birke]

Wikipedia says that Stoppard wanted the full title to be "Et in Arcadia ego," but truncated it because "Arcadia" was more marketable. So maybe you were merely in tune with the playwright.

[asakiyume]

This interpretation works for me!