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Anyone wondering why this is here should read or go see a performance of Arcadia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcadia_(play)
Tom Stoppard is the greatest living American playwright. Some of his earlier stuff can be a tad impenetrable, but Arcadia is why this story is here on Hacker News. It's about a girl in the 1800's who discovers the fractal equation for trees, and in theory, reality itself.
It's marvelous.
Stoppard is definitely excellent, but at the risk of being pedantic, I feel the need to correct the fact that the man is quite English!
Well if we're being pedantic, definitely not English - there is no such "nationality". Czech-British? Maybe just "British" being the term used for citizens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Norther Island?
Oh, come on. No one considers Seamus Heaney a “British poet,” even though he was born in Northern Ireland. He’s Irish. I don’t think the Welsh or the Scots place much emphasis on being “British,” either. It’s a perfectly sensible designation to call Stoppard an English playwright.
It may be sensible in a given context on which I express no view but it is not pedantically correct. The context here is an expression of nationality while claiming pedantry. If one were to refer to Seamsus Heaney's nationality at birth, it sounds as though "Irish" would be wrong. Whatever one thinks about what should have been in that part of the world, or should be today or does not. In a different context he may be culturally more Irish than Irish for all I know as I'm not familiar with him or his work.
But that’s not how we designate authors in the field. When you’re discussing the various literatures in English, nationality in the political sense is effectively meaningless. Robert Burns was born in Scotland after the Act of Union of 1707, but no one refers to him as a “British poet.” He’s Scottish. Likewise, Heaney is an Irish poet, David Jones is a Welsh poet, and so forth. Those distinctions matter within the field of literary study, so it’s not really even a matter of being “pedantically” correct. It’s simply not how we classify authors within the various literatures that generally fall under the umbrella of “English literature.” To call Stoppard an English playwright (rather than a Scottish or Welsh or American playwright) has a significance in identifying the particular tradition within which he works.
Moreover, England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland are recognized as constituent countries of the United Kingdom. (And is should be noted that “Great Britain” only encompasses England, Scotland, and Wales—not N. Ireland. So it’s definitely incorrect to refer to a N. Irelander as “British.”) They aren’t simply states in the way Texas or Tennessee are. They are countries with devolved governments, and are recognized as such by the UK government. As such, it seems entirely fitting, even from a political and pedantic standpoint, to refer to someone as belonging to the particular country from which he hails.
E: Probably also worth noting, since we’re being pedantic, that OC’s comment that “the man is quite English” need not refer to his nationality per se. It could just as easily mean that Stoppard is culturally “quite English” rather than indicating which national gov’t issues his passport.
> So it’s definitely incorrect to refer to a N. Irelander as “British.”
That's a complex issue. Many Northern Irish people do consider themselves to be British and others consider themselves to be Irish. As you might expect, their preferred identity is often related to whether they are members of the Protestant/Unionist or Catholic/Nationalist communities (this is a significant oversimplification).
Northen Ireland is still part of Britain, if not Great Britain.
England is not a nation state, but it is a nation. English is a nationality, as is Welsh and Scottish.
It's shockingly bigoted behaviour to come on the Internet and tell the English people they don't even exist.
The GP didn't even mention nationality... I'm from England, I'm English and also my nationality is British, have a lovely day!
Wow, that sounds fantastic. I only know of his mainstream play R&G are dead but it looks like I've got something really exciting to read.
> Thomasina starts asking why jam mixed in rice pudding can never be unstirred, which leads her to the topic of determinism and to a beginning theory about chaotic shapes in nature.
Well, I am looking forward to this!
And, I have to admit, I do enjoy igniting a little pedant-snipe here so "English playwright" I'm afraid. Hopefully, everyone decides to have a silly nationality war in my replies too!
Arcadia really is extraordinary. My favorite modern play and one of my favorite pieces of writing of any kind. +1 to the recommendation above.
Indeed. My favorite theatre memory is getting to play Septimus, and having an audience member tell me the lynchpin of my interpretation was something they had never realized before. The tiny, infinite reward of having a role in a masterpiece. :-)
Funny: I thought it was the most boring work I've encountered, after "A Different Kind of Science" by some guy who claims to have invented fractals...
When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a fractal, I mean a nail.
I hate these pseudo-scientific "everything is quantum" or "everything is fractal" 'creative' works by people who just don't understand...
Can second this, I'm not usually into plays but Arcadia is brilliant.
I also found Shakespeare in Love to be one of the wittiest comedy movies of all time.
> louche glamour
One of those words I really want to use some time ("louche", not "glamour").
> he still writes with a Caran d’Ache fountain pen with a six-sided barrel
because of course he does.
While “Arcadia” is likely of greatest interest to HN readers of all of Tom Stoppard’s plays, I also highly recommend “Jumpers” and “The Hard Problem.”
Also worth noting the many excellent films he wrote, like “Brazil” and “Empire of the Sun.”
Not to mention Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, which I guess is both play and film.
Happy to be corrected, but screenwriter for EotS, surely, as JG Ballard wrote the book?