Only a few comments for this lovely reading of Keats by a beloved thespian? Strange. Stephen Fry reads with great insight and love of the words and their profound meaning. Thou wast not born for death dear pundit! Sing forth thy colourful anthem of kindly wit midst the alien corn of foul mouthed celebriry and send forth thy ecstatic song of truth far and wide over the barking hounds of bigotry and war. Put more simply: now more than ever need we Stephen Fry to speak his calm, witty compassionate truth as we once again find the country flirting with intolerance and xenophobia.
I adore Melvyn Bragg. The South Bank Show and In Our Time are fantastic! The Arts are so important especially for your mental health. I love reading.🥀🥀
Eavesdropping on a conversation about a conversational poem, meta in the best of ways. It started running as the soundtrack for cleaning up my kitchen, inevitably the kitchen remains squalid as the background to a task broke ranks and became a most compelling guest.
What a beautiful conversation. McKellen is such a great soul and I was moved to tears more than once. I never saw Lear as a redemptive play before this. On the theology of Lear to which Sir Ian makes reference from time to time I would argue that it is a necessary spiritual task to reject idols. Lear's loss of faith in the gods that have been the undergirding of his life until now is absolutely essential to the discovery of his humanity. Sir Ian speaks of everything being OK in the end. There is meaning within the tragic events. There is love.
A very good interview: Two books I started, BUT put aside after some thirty pages each, were "A burnt out case" [Graham Greene] and "Nausea" [Sartre]. I saw a bit too much in them of my own personality I was uncomfortable with. Perhaps I'll return to them. Take care of yourself Melvyn.
I am always a little surprised when lovers of imaginative literature do not reference Colin Falck’s Myth, Truth and Literature, which philosophically supports language’s effort to “reach beyond” normally used concepts, which language embodies: the transcendent/revelatory uses of language.
King Lear, a "Play about Retirement," just one of many brilliant insights from Sir Ian McKellen. Thank you for this gem of an interview. Truly fascinating!
Mr Fry, thank you for having the courage to frankly express your issues with bipolar disorder & also drug & alcohol issues & a means of your own to deal with such things
Wow. Thank You for this and bless you, Stephen - you are a beautiful man who’s wit and expression of language covers a very wide spectrum of the human experience. Your honesty is deeply inspiring.
A desperate request to Stephen Fry. It may sound like teaching your grandma how to suck eggs because he is a masterly actor, voice-over, and a factotum who can act and enact the most challenging roles. Please don't allow your voice and tone to dial down either in the middle or end of a sentence. Your listeners miss the words. It may be a mannerism or a vocal tic or a consequence of a momentary immersion in deep cogitation, it creates a gap in attentive listening. Since you command an amazing and engaging range of voice and words, it detracts from your impact on the viewers. Record such dips in amplitude and tone, and find out why the words trail off into inaudibility. You are a paragon a multitude of your fans would love to emulate.
Going into the mechanics of poetry, I, e, iambic pentameters et al, kill poetry stone dead for new people coming into it. Poetry doesn't do discussion, it just does poetry. For example, one doesn't dissect Rimbaud or Rilke, one lives them, one's consciousness is transformed by such sublime, ethereal verse. "I wish to be alone or be with those that know things others don't know". Rilke
ART Art is a dart that you aim at someone’s heart and if you reach it vibes will start: joy, sorrow or, maybe just a fart. Then you will feel a little bit smart and think: well, this is art!
Just seeing it pop up on RU-vid instantly lifted my depression before I have even viewed it Stephen is such a chap one of the true bastions of our great country. Now I'm off to phone spike 😉
