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"Lawrence wasn't a film. It was an experience." -Peter O'Toole

Wasn't it for us all?

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"Lean felt there was something missing in the sequence when Lawrence first tries on his white robes and kaffiyeh, so he asked O'Toole what he thought a man might do if he had just been handed these items. While O'Toole thought it over, Lean found a flat area of sand next to a dune and said: There's your theater. Do what you like.

The one idea I had, O'Toole later recalled, was that anyone in this position would want to look at themselves. There's no water or mirrors in the desert, so I had the idea of pulling out my knife and looking at the blade. I can still hear David from behind the camera saying, 'Clever boy!'"

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Film frame from Lawrence of Arabia with Auda in the tent

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Lawrence of Arabia 50th Anniversary Collector’s Edition

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Lawrence of Arrakis

It’s possible that Frank Herbert was inspired by David Lean's movie "Lawrence of Arabia" (rather than the actual history) while writing his famous book "Dune". Mainly when creating the character of Paul Atreides, because, as we can see, he has many similarities with Lawrence. However, both figures also have few differences. Here is a comparison of their characteristics: (WARNING: spoilers from "Dune" first book and two first movies)

What do they have in common: -A foreigner move into desert lands where he finds indigenous people who are ready for rebellion against exploitative rulers -White savior trope- Middle Eastern/Fremen People need Western leadership to be successful in battle -"Noble savage" trope, the Indigenous People have no real political consciousness -Both Paul and Lawrence had to blend in with a foreign culture (and be able to survive in the desert), but they didn't change their identity entirely -They demonstrated self-control during trial by pain (the match scene for Lawrence and the box of pain for Paul) -Both were a link between Indigenous and Imperial World -They knew how to use the "desert power" and lead guerilla warfare -Both use indigenous animals- camels/sandworms- for transportation and military purpose (giant sandworms also resemble the trains coursing through the Arabian desert) -They control everything and cannot fail. They become some sort of "superior beings", filled with hubris (Lawrence from the movie, rather than historical one) -Paul was the author of "Pillars of the Universe" and Lawrence wrote a book titled "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" -Both had unmarried parents and choose their own name (but were known by many) -Also both had VERY blue eyes

What are their differences: -Lawrence needed to be accepted by the Beduins whereas Paul was protected by Bene Gesserit -Lawrence didn’t want unnecessary violence and Paul believed that violence and killing is just a way to achieve his goal Lawrence wanted indepence for Arabs and was ashamed of how they were treated after the war by the Western Powers. Paul, to the contrary, intentionally used the Fremen and their military potential to achieve his own goals and lead them into an intergalactic jihad -Paul became a religious leader, while Lawrence had not

There are also a lot of Arabic and Muslim references in Herbert's books but that's maybe for another post.

For further reading I highly recommend these articles, on wchich this post is based on: The Orientalist Semiotics of Dune Lawrence of Arabia, Paul Atreides, and the Roots of Frank Herbert’s Dune Lawrence of Arrakis

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Those who dream by day...

Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night. In their gray visions they obtain glimpses of eternity, and thrill, in awakening, to find that they have been upon the verge of the great secret. In snatches, they learn something of the wisdom which is of good, and more of the mere knowledge which is of evil. -Edgar Allan Poe, "Eleonora" 1841

All men dream; but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds Awake to find that it was vanity; But the dreamers of day are dangerous men. That they may act their dreams with open eyes to make it possible. -Thomas Edward Lawrence, "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" 1935

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Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence!

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Happy Birthday T.E. Lawrence!

Ways of celebratig T.E.'s birtday:

-Read something by or about T.E. -Watch sth about T.E. (e.g. Lawrence of Arabia/ Dangerous man/ some documentary) -Listen to Clouds Hill records or playlist/songs that remind you of him -Create (write fanfiction/ a poem or draw some fanart etc) -Visit some place related to him -Go on a motorbike or motorboat ride -Stare at some T.E.'s photos -Drink lemonade -Cherish sth that you named after T.E. (assuming you have sth like that) If it's a pet, toy or a plant, you can hug it! (or not, 'cause T.E. didn't like it) Or if you don't have anything like that you can name sth in honor of him -But the ultimate best way is to just remember him and how remarkable human being he was

What are your ideas?

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Today is St. Lawrence's day

"He had pity and mounted me behind him on his bony animal, to which I clung the rest of the way, learning the feelings of my adopted name-saint on his gridiron." from T.E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom

Saint Lawrence was one of the seven deacons of the city of Rome under Pope Sixtus II who were martyred in the persecution of the Christians that the Roman Emperor Valerian ordered in 258. As a form of torture Lawrence was placed on a great gridion, with hot coals beneath it. After the martyr had suffered pain for a long time, the legend concludes, he cheerfully declared: "I'm well done on this side. Turn me over!" From this, St. Lawrence derives his patronage of cooks, chefs, and comedians. He died at 10th August, he was 32 years old.

It's interesting that T.E.'s birthday are 5 days after the anniversary of St. Lawrence's death. Also the sense of humor and neglection of pain are things that they had in common.

painting by El Greco c. 1580

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Also this guy's outfit looks quite similar to the Prince Ali's:

A nod to "the match cut" from Lawrence of Arabia movie (sometimes regarded as one of the greatest cuts of all time) in John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023).

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A nod to "the match cut" from Lawrence of Arabia movie (sometimes regarded as one of the greatest cuts of all time) in John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023).

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19th May 1935 T.E. Lawrence passed away from this world. During his funeral the hymn "Jesu, Lover Of My Soul" was sung. This is my favourite version of it, it's beautiful and evokes deep emotions. Rest easy in sleep eternal, T.E. <3

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T.E. Lawrence and his fondness for pranks and practical jokes

Many people who knew Lawrence, noticed his unique sense of humor and fondness of jokes and the subtle, spontaneous and individual nature of his pranks.

While at Carchemish he decorated Hogarth’s normally simple mud-walled room with pink satin curtains trimmed with lace and adorned with big pink bows. A pink cushion, hairpins, cheap scents and other reminders of domestic life were distributed about the room to make Hogarth feel “at home.” Hogarth not unexpectedly flew into something of a rage when he discovered the joke, but Lawrence, according to Woolley, grinned over the jest for days. Yet (also according to Woolley) Lawrence was himself unusually sensitive to ridicule and could not tolerate jokes made at his own expense.

T.E. also decorated the lintel of the main doorway into the house at Carchemish (it was a sun disk, with crescent moon, and wings carved with a screw-driver and a knife) to imitate Hittite design. His delight with this joke would be renewed each time a visitor to the excavations paused to admire the forged Hittite relic.

In Seven Pillars of Wisdom T.E. described how he parodied the style of Auda's storytelling to the amusement of everyone present, including Auda himself: "Everyone had heard that sunrise twenty times, in its immense bathos; an agony piled up of linked phrases, repeated and repeated with breathless excitement by Auda to carry over for hours the thrill of a raiding story in which nothing happened; and the trivial rest of it was exaggerated the degree which made it like one of Auda's tales; and yet, also, the history of the walk to market at Wejh which many of us had taken. The tribe was in waves of laughter on the ground. Auda laughed the loudest and longest, for he loved a jest upon himself; and the fatuousness of my epic had shown him his own sure mastery of descriptive action."

Meinertzhagen claimed that during the time of Paris Peace Conference he and Lawrence hid themselves at the top of the stairs of the Astoria Hotel, unfurled rolls of toilet paper, and dropped them down in long strips on the heads of Lloyd George, Balfour, and Lord Hardinge, who were standing in the lobby, prompting Hardinge to remark: “There is nothing funny about toilet paper.”

According to Graves, Lawrence once climbed a tower at All Souls to hang the Hejaz flag from its peak, kidnapped a deer from the Magdalen College deer park, and rang the station bell he had captured from Tell Shahm from his window at night. He was at the time a thirty-one-year-old retired officer.

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T.E. Lawrence's golden hair

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Interesting podcast with Anthony Sattin about T.E. Lawrence

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Clouds Hill moodboard-thing

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T.E. Lawrence once owned a bronze replica of Hypnos, the god of sleep.

In 1909, when he was on his way back from a tour of Syria, T. E. Lawrence passed through Naples and wrote a friend: "The bronzes in the Naples museum are beyond words". He paid a Neapolitan bronze foundry eight francs for a flawed freehand copy of the Hypnos head now in the British Museum (itself a Roman copy of a Greek work dating from the fourth century BC).

He wrote to his brother Will that it was "very good work, but a bad cast, modem naturally. I asked the price and tumbled down with it to eight francs, little more than the value of the metal. You will admire it immensely; and I'll give you five minutes to find out the fault in the casting".

After returning to Oxford he placed it on a seat in the bay window of his study in the garden bungalow, where it became his most cherished ornament. According to Vyvyan Richards, Lawrence would lie on the floor and contemplate it. He wrote that "nothing, not even the dawn–can disturb me in my curtains: only the slow crumblings of the coals in the fire: they get so red & throw such splendid glimmerings on the Hypnos & the brass-work". He also wrote to his brother Arnold: "I would rather possess a fine piece of sculpture than anything in the world".

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