Tom Stoppard’s 1993 masterpiece “Arcadia” reminds us that the important discoveries and great achievements of human history are not uniquely occurring circumstances. If lost, they are never misplaced for long:
THOMASINA: [T]he enemy … burned the great library of Alexandria without so much as a fine for all that is overdue. Oh, Septimus! — can you bear it? All the lost plays of the Athenians! Two hundred at least by Aeschlylus, Sophocles, Euripides — thousands of poems — Aristotle’s own library brought to Egypt by the noodle’s [Cleopatra’s] ancestors! How can we sleep for grief? SEPTIMUS: By counting our stock. Seven plays from Aeschylus, seven from Sophocles, nineteen from Euripides, my lady! You should no more grieve for the rest than for a buckle lost from your first shoe, or for your lesson book which will be lost when you are old. We shed as we pick up, like travellers who must carry everything in their arms, and what we let fall will be picked up by those behind. The procession is very long and life is very short. We die on the march. But there is nothing outside the march so nothing can be lost to it. The missing plays of Sophocles will turn up piece by piece, or be written again in another language. Ancient cures for diseases will reveal themselves once more. Mathematical discoveries glimpsed and lost to view will have their time again. You do not suppose, my lady, that if all of Archimedes had been hiding in the great library of Alexandria, we would be at a loss for a corkscrew?
In the meantime, we have ample evidence that mere cliché will be repeated often and unembarrassedly as long as it remains useful. Illustrations below the fold:
The New Republic, Oct 18:
Los Angeles Times, Sept. 6:
New York Times [$], Aug. 20:
Rolling Stone, Aug. 16:
Blog P.I., August 8:
Connecticut Local Politics, July 24:
Sure, it’s no Archimedes’ screw, but it has life in it yet.
P.S. I can’t say I completely agree with Roy Edroso’s recent first take on the play, but his post is nevertheless absolutely recommended.
That’s an interesting piece of Arcadia you focused on — I forgot about it when I wrote about the play. But like a lot of Stoppard, there’s so much in it that one is bound to miss a theme or two.
I am glad to make the acquaintance of your very interesting blog.