Regards, Ivan
Posted on 07/05/2005 10:29:37 PM PDT by MadIvan
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
---T E Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom---
Number One: Never let a Turk get behind you.
What was the cause of his insanity, Syphillis?
Hanging out in the desert too long, more likely.
Regards, Ivan
Hanging out getting beaten with a cane by his Batman for sexual gratification or being parted from his beloved Brough Superior might also be possible reasons.
"---T E Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom---
Number One: Never let a Turk get behind you."
In other words he was a top.
Eccentric maybe, but insane? He seems to be the only Westerner ever to get a fair shake from the nosepickers of the house of Saud.
He seemed to know what he was talking about. He was able to convince a large group of Bedouin to fight the Turks instead of fighting against each other.
Knowing when he was and when he wasn't is the trick.
Lawrence regarded them as noble savages. alas; he was only half right..
Never read Lawrence's stuff, what was his seven pillars of wisdom? Anybody know?
One of the great un-read books of the 20th century. It was the basis for Lawrence of Arabia. It was also self-published.
Better to start off with The Mint, which is not only substantially shorter, but far more entertaining.
One of the great un-read books of the 20th century. It was the basis for Lawrence of Arabia. It was also self-published.
Undoubtedly you are right, I, for one, haven't read it. But what were his seven pillars of wisdom?
bible quote from proverbs...
Insane or not, he did quite an analysis of the essentials of successful guerrilla warfare.
Army magazine (AUSA) this month has a nice article discussing this and modern extrapolations from his seminal works.
I believe the Seven Pillars of Wisdom refers to the laws of Islam for believers, not the essentials of successful guerrilla warfare that he later distilled in writings and letters from this autobiographic book that he titled that which is about his military work in the Middle East during WWI.
If you ever do read Seven Pillar of Wisdom, be sure to have an unabridged dictionary on hand.
My father gave me his hardback copy to read when I was a teenager, and I needed a dictionary to get passed the first page.
Dad told me that Lawrence wrote the book twice. The original manuscript was accidentally left in a Paris train station, and he had to rewrite the whole thing over.
The first publication was private, and Lawrence gave copies only to his friends.
Liddell Hart's book Strategy used a lot of insight that Lawrence conveyed to him in private correspondence.
A Prince of Our Disorder had some Seven Pillars content.
[Snip]
When this Pulitzer Prize-winning biography first appeared in 1976, it rescued T. E. Lawrence from the mythologizing that had seemed to be his fate. In it, Harvard professor of psychiatry Dr. John Mack humanely and objectively explores the relationship between Lawrence's inner life and his historically significant actions. Extensive interviews, far-flung correspondence, access to War Office dispatches and unpublished letters provide the basis for Mack's sensitive investigation of the psychiatric dimensions of Lawrence's personality. In addition, Mack examines the pertinent history, politics, and sociology of the time in order to weigh the real forces with which Lawrence contended and which impinged upon him.
In the end he was killed by a motorcycle crash. Are you certain about the insanity. Any support for the syphillis idea?
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