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The Algorithmic Genius of Tom Stoppard’s “Arcadia”

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Re: The Algorithmic Genius of Tom Stoppard’s “Arcadia”

#11

Post by escape_goat »

ameliaquining wrote: post #9
tarboreus wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really don't think it's empty, though if you think it's actually going to teach you an algorithm, then yes, it's empty in that sense.

I think there's a reasonable case to be made that the understanding it imparts to the audience is entirely illusory. See, e.g., https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/408971325 I mean, I enjoyed it as a young student too! But we should be honest with ourselves about the truth value of the history-of-science stuff in there.

> It feels as though Stoppard read James Gleick's Chaos (or a similar popular text), misunderstood it, forgot half of it, and then wrote the play on this basis of what remained.

I feel seen.

Re: The Algorithmic Genius of Tom Stoppard’s “Arcadia”

#12

Post by imrehg »

eszed wrote: post #8

I had the immense privilege, for a few years, of teaching this play to classes of university students. (I'm still somewhat proud of the lecture I devised, with maths and pictures, illustrating iteration -- and of the gasps it invariably got when the graphs got colored in, and the Mandelbrot Set leapt off the screen in all its infinite colourful delight.) Reading and understanding the play then spring-boarded the indi…

If there was an online course/lecture version of this, I'd totally sign up/watch it. It's a great play (generally Adore what Stoppard wrote, in all their variety), and I'm sure most of it went whoosh over my head. The projects sound very interesting too, miss a bit the uni environment when people are forced to think more creatively - learning on my own it's a lot harder to kick that into gear. :)

Re: The Algorithmic Genius of Tom Stoppard’s “Arcadia”

#13

Post by dotsam »

kkylin wrote: post #3

I just got my copy off the shelf & will have to re-read it. Is there a production available online that someone would recommend?

There is an audio recording by L.A. Theatre Works that you can listen to here https://beta.prx.org/stories/43614 and https://beta.prx.org/stories/43844

Re: The Algorithmic Genius of Tom Stoppard’s “Arcadia”

#14

Post by eszed »

imrehg wrote: post #12
eszed wrote: post #8

I had the immense privilege, for a few years, of teaching this play to classes of university students. (I'm still somewhat proud of the lecture I devised, with maths and pictures, illustrating iteration -- and of the gasps it invariably got when the graphs got colored in, and the Mandelbrot Set leapt off the screen in all its infinite colourful delight.) Reading and understanding the play then spring-boarded the indi…

If there was an online course/lecture version of this, I'd totally sign up/watch it. It's a great play (generally Adore what Stoppard wrote, in all their variety), and I'm sure most of it went whoosh over my head. The projects sound very interesting too, miss a bit the uni environment when people are forced to think more creatively - learning on my own it's a lot harder to kick that into gear. :)

The bit that usually went "whoosh" over my students' heads was what happened to the Regency characters following the end of the play. You kind of have to put it together from clues dropped throughout:

- On the evening of her sixteenth birthday Septimus and Thomasina dance

- They kiss

- She invites him to her room, to de-flower (ugh, awful word) her

(This is where the play ends)

- Thomasina leaves a candle burning, waiting for him to go to her

- He doesn't

- The candle catches the house on fire

- She burns to death

So, poor Septimus is left in an awful mental / moral position, where by doing the "right" thing, and not taking (awful word again) his pupil's virginity, he's accidentally caused her death. He goes (possibly) mad, and spends _the rest of his life_ living in the fake hermitage, running the iterations of Thomasina's algorithm by hand.

It's so beautifully tragic, and Stoppard leaves it there as a trail of breadcrumbs for his readers / audience to suss out on their own. I love it.

When I got out of the education game the Online Everything push was just beginning. I'm kind of glad I missed it, to be frank. As techy as I am, as a teacher I really grooved on the immediate, in-person nature of a classroom environment. I never put any of my classes online, and (though not taking anything away from those who have found success doing it) have no desire to teach like that.

Re: The Algorithmic Genius of Tom Stoppard’s “Arcadia”

#15

Post by eszed »

dotsam wrote: post #13
kkylin wrote: post #3

I just got my copy off the shelf & will have to re-read it. Is there a production available online that someone would recommend?

There is an audio recording by L.A. Theatre Works that you can listen to here https://beta.prx.org/stories/43614 and https://beta.prx.org/stories/43844

There's a brilliant theatrical moment that neither reading nor listening to this play can ever quite re-create. In the final act, while characters from both time-periods are sharing the stage, Augustus/Gus (the younger brother in both time-periods, played by the same actor) comes in the door, and for a moment you don't know which century he's in.

This play is one of my go-tos for an example of what theatre can do that film and television cannot. Because theatre depends on the audience's imagination to create its reality (more so, or at least differently, than film), more than one reality can be simultaneously present, and time and space and distance can be collapsed.

Re: The Algorithmic Genius of Tom Stoppard’s “Arcadia”

#16

Post by crescit_eundo »

eszed wrote: post #8

I had the immense privilege, for a few years, of teaching this play to classes of university students. (I'm still somewhat proud of the lecture I devised, with maths and pictures, illustrating iteration -- and of the gasps it invariably got when the graphs got colored in, and the Mandelbrot Set leapt off the screen in all its infinite colourful delight.) Reading and understanding the play then spring-boarded the indi…

Neat!

My introduction to Tom Stoppard was stumbling upon a performance of Arcadia one evening years ago. I left the theatre completely enthralled.

Re: The Algorithmic Genius of Tom Stoppard’s “Arcadia”

#17

Post by kkylin »

dotsam wrote: post #13
kkylin wrote: post #3

I just got my copy off the shelf & will have to re-read it. Is there a production available online that someone would recommend?

There is an audio recording by L.A. Theatre Works that you can listen to here https://beta.prx.org/stories/43614 and https://beta.prx.org/stories/43844

Cool, thanks!

Re: The Algorithmic Genius of Tom Stoppard’s “Arcadia”

#18

Post by kkylin »

eszed wrote: post #15
dotsam wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is an audio recording by L.A. Theatre Works that you can listen to here https://beta.prx.org/stories/43614 and https://beta.prx.org/stories/43844

There's a brilliant theatrical moment that neither reading nor listening to this play can ever quite re-create. In the final act, while characters from both time-periods are sharing the stage, Augustus/Gus (the younger brother in both time-periods, played by the same actor) comes in the door, and for a moment you don't know which century he's in . This play is one of my go-tos for an example of what theatre can do th…

I've never had the chance to see it, and I really would like to. I suppose when things return to "normal"...

Re: The Algorithmic Genius of Tom Stoppard’s “Arcadia”

#20

Post by gleick »

escape_goat wrote: post #11
ameliaquining wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there's a reasonable case to be made that the understanding it imparts to the audience is entirely illusory. See, e.g., https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/408971325 I mean, I enjoyed it as a young student too! But we should be honest with ourselves about the truth value of the history-of-science stuff in there.

> It feels as though Stoppard read James Gleick's Chaos (or a similar popular text), misunderstood it, forgot half of it, and then wrote the play on this basis of what remained. I feel seen.

If I might offer a different view, he did read Chaos, understood it well, and wrote a masterpiece that connects different strands of science to each other and to broader themes of culture and history. There’s no accounting for taste, and if you don’t like the play, no one can make you, but on the science he is always correct. If you’re interested in knowing more, I recommend Hermione Lee’s deep take on Arcadia in her new biography, Tom Stoppard: A Life.
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