The Book Club: King Lear by Shakespeare with Douglas Murray | The Book Club
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- Опубликовано: 22 мар 2021
- Broken families are detrimental to society- it’s been proven throughout history. Douglas Murray and Michael Knowles summarize William Shakespeare’s tragedy, King Lear, and its themes of power, justice, blindness, and chaos played out through the severed relationship between a father and his children.
In our fast-paced world, it’s tough to make reading a priority. At least it used to be. At Thinkr.org, they summarize the key ideas from new and noteworthy nonfiction, giving you access to an entire library of great books in bite-size form. Read or listen to hundreds of titles in a matter of minutes: start your free trial today at thinkr.org/.
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I never knew how much I needed to hear Douglas Murray talk about Shakespeare. Now I want more.
I'm re-reading my college Shakespeare texts.
He should definitely talk more about the beauties of literature
🌷THIS...my life before husband and kids🌷
He's brilliant. I'd recommend Harold Bloom on RUclips.
@@jennk6313 I adore Harold Bloom. I have a couple of his books as well. He’s one of the last great minds of literature.
It’s refreshing to listen to Douglas Murray talking about something other than contemporary politics (although I love that too). This could easily have been two hours.
28:56
Me: That’s all?!😭😭😭
I gave up on Murray! The last two interviews I saw with him discussing the US election, he rambled on and on for so long, it took him five minutes to answer one question and he never made any sense. And then he stated that the United States election wasn’t rigged? He lost me then! Hopefully he does better on an assessment of King Lear.
"We don't know if we're in a comedy or tragedy or both" - wow, I feel that way today.
a Whitehall farce springs to mind.
Lear: Callst thou me Fool?
Fool: All thy other titles thou hast given away. That one thou wast born with.
Boris: I say, that's jolly unfair, what?
Thank you, Prager University, Dennis Prager and Douglas Murray!
What about Michael Knowles?
@@CKyIe Yeah, he is a good man. Thank you, Michael Knowles!
I regret that I have but one like to give this discussion.
Murray's observation about the nameless one, not knowing how many lines we'll have, not knowing whether we are in the first or the last act, having the opportunity, though obscure by comparison to all the supposedly major characters all around to be the one to make the best moves. Well done.
It was actually more C.S. Lewis's observation in his essay "The worlds last night" as Murray references. Here's the essay with the timestamp where it's talked about if you're curious. ruclips.net/video/b0LfCtPE8Z4/видео.html
I adore Mr. Murray.
He's great.
Go. Read his book
Madness of crowds
This play is among the very greatest of Shakespeare’s great works. Please note “Ran” (1985), a “samuraization” of “King Lear”, the great Japanese director Akira Kurosawa’s masterwork, in which three sons substitute for the three daughters and each faction is represented by a primary color. The soundtrack was composed by Toru Takemitsu, whose Mahler-inspired dirge is heard over the climactic battle scene rather than the sounds of the battle itself, a scene which influenced the Normandy landing scene that begins Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan”.
I could listen to Douglas Murray read a laundry list ...
For hours
I bet you could hear Hitler all day too
LOL 😂
Happy to see these two together. The world needs more
"Speak the lines we have well." Brilliant!
Shakespeare, Douglas Murray, and Michael Knowles-my favorite trio! I Love this book club series. Thank you.
As ever, Douglas Murray's eloquence shines through. Truly a unique voice.
I wish there were a way for viewers to participate. The opportunity to discuss Lear is so rare. I've thought about this work a lot and read it several times. But I've always thought it is so hard to share the insights from this work in our modern world. Even if I did write an essay, who would publish it? Shakespearean "criticism" has devolved into a series of woke bromides and slogans these days.
I first studied this under a professor/scholar at college: Arthur Henry King. He may have been the most-cited scholar on this work. I got to know him a bit and he was a delightful person. We ended up acting this out for a class film version and I played Kent. My favorite line from the play is Cordelia's description of her sister's choreographed genuflection and calculated, cheap flattery as "glib and oily art." Though to be fair, it probably applied as much to Lear's blindness in enjoying the counterfeit ceremony as it did to her sisters.
But if you have ever experienced a truly devastating, shocking loss in your life, whether it has to do with your own blindness or not, nothing helps you as much as going along with Lear (and Gloucester too) and hearing the expressions of rage, pain, resignation, and then meaning. Maybe the most thoughtful expressions of such in our language.
You can enjoy Lear more as you get to know it better. You will become intrigued by the story because, like all good art, it tells you a story compelling enough to suspend your worries of daily life, or even distract you from the terror of inevitable death. But like all great art, it also prepares you for dealing with death in the same step.
You should watch Ran (1985) Japanese film based on King Lear
@@josephsawczyn1145 brilliant film.....so seldom seen these days.
Really well put. Your third paragraph swelled up inside me.
@John Wight. Totally off topic, but hey, you’re the first person I’ve ever encountered in 51 years (outside my family, of course) with the same surname as me. Sorry, your name just jumped out at me. (I’ll go read your comment now....)
@John Wight. ......Read it. Very much agree!
I would listen and be absolutely confident in anything Douglas Murray has to say.
Douglas Murray somehow makes talking sound like music or poetry 💕
Those eyes, that mouth.....that voice.💕
Yes...how is that🌼
He’s a beautiful man truly. I mean that sincerely
Just watched Ran (1985) again this week, so this discussion was very timely.
Cordelia's fault is idealism. Love is not nor ought to be unconditional, especially while enabling family to perpetuate a kingdom of lies. Her unwillingness to see her father as the vain fool he was, sets in motion the tragedy of the play. In idealistically refraining from tarnishing her love for her father with words, she forgoes the last chance to bring her father to his senses while he can still save the kingdom that she, of the three, most deserved.
That truth can speak for itself, and justice always finds its way; that blood is thicker than reason; that all ideals are worth risking everything for -- these are Cordelia's faults. The fool isn't the fool because he's about to walk off a cliff but because there was clearly a better way.
Most accurate and succinct analysis of Cordelia. I lived her fault out through my own familial relationships, until forced to see the truth. The damage this does to human beings is incalculable.
I knew about King Lear because of Akira Kurosawa's Ran, his last epic movie.
Brilliant film
Likewise! I read Lear soon after watching the movie. It was a game-changer for me.
And Andrew improved on the original story!
I read Leer in HS, and didn’t like it much. The characters didn’t seem terribly plausible.
Kurosawa added Lady Kaede to the cast and it all fell into place.
Is there anything Douglas Murray doesn't make more enjoyable? Great series, love The Book Club!
This was the first Shakespeare Play I ever saw. I was 13 years old.. when Lear puts his eyes out I just about jumped out of my chair.
Don't they study Romeo and Juliet in school any more?
It was Gloucester who was blinded.
@@Tolstoy111 I was going to say...and he didn't "put his eyes out." That was Oedipus.
In the theme of "some ideas are so big, they can only be handled in children's literature.", The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. I have appreciated it so much more as an adult than I did as a 5th grader.
Doug Murray's retelling of the story was subtly brilliant! New respect for Mr. Murray and thanks to Mr.
Knowles for this series: A Balm in Giliad!
The Stella Adler quote about needing one’s imagination to play Hamlet was likely originally a jab at Lee Strasberg.
The two disagreed on Stanislavski’s sense memory exercise. Lee Strasberg emphasized that emotion must come from personal experience, whereas Stella Adler emphasized that sense memory be rooted in the story of the script.
So the quote about Hamlet is a message to actors: don’t torture your own life, you’ll never have enough pain to understand Hamlet’s circumstance, so use your imagination.
This disagreement became the basis of the great rivalry in American acting. Those subscribed to Strasberg’s perspective are who we often identify as “Method Actors.”
Larry Moss has a chapter on these two great figure’s of American Theatre in his book “The Intent to Live”
Hey RUclips: THIS is the sort of video I would like in my recommendations. Thank you.
Thanks Douglas and Michael!
king lear was my favorite in high school!
Is Douglas back in the states wrapping up his research for, The Strange Death of America?
I’d say we’re writing that book ourselves aren’t we?
@@Steve83B Sadly yes. But Douglas will turn our catastrophe with a bit more eloquence than we could....
@@denali9643 especially if he makes an audio book.
I think this was recorded the same time as the interview with DP c. Oct/Nov 2020.....Douglas has got a bit leaner since then.
@Denali 96: That's actually a brilliant idea 👍
For those interested, it would be worth checking out the version of “Lear“ from a decade or so ago, or maybe less, starring Anthony Hopkins in the title role and Emma Thompson as Goneril after she had played Cordelia when she was younger on the stage. It was available here on RUclips but not sure if it is now but worth finding out.
I'm hoping for works of Dostoevsky or Solzhenitsyn to be featured here at some point.
Careful what you wish for (?) Dostoevsky requires a different level of discourse . . .
@@QED_ I think Dr. Peterson could do it effectively. At least as far as 30 minutes would allow.
@@princemyshkin9221 I take the attitude, paraphrasing Roger Ebert, that “It's not what a novel is about, it's how it's about it.” Dostoevsky's ability to create independent characters (independent of him as the author . . .) is remarkable. And it's a tricky thing to discuss . . .
@@QED_ I agree. I suppose it would be best for them to select one of his earlier works with a limited cast of characters. They could do 30 minutes alone on the murder scene and Raskolnikov’s guilt, although I believe that a discussion on Notes and the Underground Man would be interesting to hear, in part due to its criticisms of faux Utopianism which we find so prevalent today.
@@princemyshkin9221 "The Possessed" would be the most politically relevant to today. In contrast, I wouldn't have any confidence at all that they could discuss "The Idiot" usefully. What would there be for them to discuss (?)
MK "it's a bad idea to name two sons _Ed"_
George Foreman disagrees … violently
Ha
This makes me want to watch Kurosawa’s ‘Ran’ again.
Added 4/1: OK, this is a little weird. Amazon Prime Video just recommended ‘Ran’ to me. 🤔
Hmmmm
I'm still partial to the ITV version with Laurence Olivier and John Hurt -- marvelous! Leo McKern as Gloucester:
He that will think to live till he be old,
Give me some help! O cruel! O you gods!
Fun fact: The theatrical dialogue in the background at the end of the Beatles “I am the Walrus” (oh untimely death! Serviceable villain. Is he dead? Sit you down father, rest you!) was a BBC radio performance of King Lear John Lennon decided to put throw in.
Thanks - I didn’t know that. I used to own that album on “wax”.
What's the difference between people and bullets?
People miss John Lennon
Didn't see that one coming?
Neither did John Lennon
Loved this!! Really enjoyed it. Top quality!
Studied Lear in school (with a fantastic teacher) loved it, but haven’t given it much thought in the many years since, except to watch Kurosawa’s excellent samurai adaptation of it, Ran. But listening to these 2, I feel inspired to get me a copy and properly devote some time to it. Their insights will undoubtedly enrich the experience. Thanks!
I first discovered Shakespeare when I watched the Franco Zeffirelli movie production of Romeo and Juliet, starring young Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey. I think I was only 13 and yet it was so understandable and believable. I then watched Kenneth Branagh burn his way through many of Shakespeare’s plays and absolutely fell in love with Othello! Funny that he did NOT produce King Lear, because when Shakespeare is acted well you lose the whole ‘poetry’ vibe that high school teachers stress and understand the story, people and emotions. I don’t always understand that when reading it.
Olivia Hussey is the perfect Juliet for me, and Branagh's version of Henry V a fantastic movie.
Kenneth Branagh directed Paul Scofield in an excellent radio production of King Lear in 2002. Peter Brook's 1962 RSC production of Lear with Scofield in the title role is generally regarded as the greatest Lear of modern times. Unfortunately, Branagh's recent production with himself in the title role was criticised for its excessive speed and uneven production. He chose to direct the production himself, as well as play the King, which maybe didn't help. (Orson Welles directed and acted Othello, but Branagh ain't Orson!)
so good....like a Hillsdale course....thank you for edifying and educating us...
This is some of the greatest entertainment out there, please give us more. There really is nothing out there like this, all other "book clubs" I've seen have been way too superficial and uninteresting. And Knowles is a great host!
I’m so happy I found this! One of my favourite contemporary thinkers thinking about one of my favourite historical thinkers.
I love this! Thank you Douglas and Michael!
The play is relevant today particularly because there is no end to people, companies and institutions "playing the game" to their advantage while those who refuse to give lip service to our current mobilized agenda are routinely cast out or, in modern terminology, cancelled.
I love what you said about how each individual person influences everything and everyone! I study the word of God so when I hear you talk about Life coming into his daughter again or so he wants to see... I think of Jesus being the word of God made flesh, conquering death by perfect love and when you said it was too late well I think no as long as you are breathing on this Earth it is not too late to ask God's help and then it is just another day and Eternity! Even for people who do not repent of their sins and turn to God what I have learned this last five years I have been seeking his face and daily is that he is perfect judgment and perfectly fair and perfectly loving... what happens to those people? God's word says they go to hell because they decided they would rather go there then ask for God's forgiveness and help but that he wishes none would perish! Man can't you see the parallels in so much literature? I am over 50 years old oh, did not go to college and am fascinated by everything I am learning! I'm going to do some research to find out if Shakespeare and others were Believers in Yahweh.
I watched a king Lear movie on Amazon Prime. It stared Anthony Hopkins and I really enjoyed it.
He was good in Othello too.
Christopher Plummer was a fantastic King Lear at Stratford, Canada 2003.
I saw Richard Briers at Lear and Emma Thompson as the Fool when Kenneth Branagh's Renaissance Theatre Company came to town...it was fab!
This was just great. It helped me think in new ways.
29 min well spent. Thank you both.
Great Idea! Thank you for all your important work.
Fantastic conversation about the book- thanks guys 🙏
Please do "Crime and punishment" next.
Douglas Murray wrote a very persuasive article about 'Crime and Punishment' for 'Unherd' a while back. Made me read it!
The Tytler Cycle of Nations comes to mind, and the US shows the cycle must once again, like it has throughout history, be concluded before sanity can be restored.
Faith->Courage->Liberty->Abundance->Selfishness->Complacency->Apathy->Dependence->Bondage->Faith
We are currently transitioning from apathy to dependence. Given our refusal to return to faith, bondage will follow. No telling how long we will be in any of the coming stages.
My favorite shakespeare play!!
More Douglas Murray with the classics please, pretty please
Unfortunately, people don’t read books like that anymore. Like, they don’t read books or watch movies with an open mind to the possibilities & parallels to their own realities, then question whether or not they can affect the outcomes. It’s all “fiction”. I’ve always read/watched with discernment of fiction, but evaluation in reality. How could these stories “fit” now? That’s why books like 1984 and movies like idiocracy have always been so entertaining to me. Stories like these always stay with me long after the final scene or the last page. We’ve become a “here and now” society, completely lacking the ability to analyze the road in which we are headed, should we continue as a species. There are some improvements to be made in how we treat the planet, to be sure. However, how we treat EACH OTHER in the process is of far more importance.
Of all Shakespeare's plays, none reflect life in the 21st century as accurately as Lear 😢 Douglas, you give me hope, you magnificent man! 👏🏽 ❤
♥️💛🧡 Thank you for keeping the discussion going 💙💜💚
Thanks for the making this video!
Thank you for this. What a great idea to discuss classical books. Love it ))
This was a great video! Fantastic content
Love these book reviews. Would love it if you covered Orthodoxy by GK Chesterton. Keep up this good work.
Good choice. But then that goes for anything by Chesterton!
Excellent discussion!
I know this comment is misplaced because it refers to an earlier video but I can't get over it. I've listened to and read Douglas Murray and always celebrated his excellent work. I also know that intelligent people with integrity can and do often disagree in the most blatant fashion. But I still can't get my head around the idea that he can't see the global elite coup that has taken place. I know we all have our blind spots and legitimate but radically different perspectives and yet....... All those things he discusses have reached their logical conclusion and he thinks it's what just a coincidence??
I guess my question to him might be this:"Yes there is this madness unfolding out of various dynamics; but would not any would be adversary or tyrant use that madness as the opportunity for psychological warfare and haven't we seen exactly that?
I read this once...but I definitely could use a brushing up lol. Reading is very pleasant
Too short! I could listen to Douglas discuss Shakespeare for hours.
thank you for much . this was enjoyable and informative to watch
Great conversation. Always like hearing Douglas. I'm wondering when Book Club will get to that great summation of America today and profoundly important philosophical tome, A Confederacy Of Dunces.
Excellent!!! That was surprisingly enjoyable.
King Lear is an old man, wanting reassurance from those he loves most, those who mean the most to him, at the end of his life. Two of his closest relationships humor him insincerely; the other does not recognize the need of the father who favored her and loved her most. I think that was the thing that pushed him over the edge into madness. He was close to the edge anyway-an edge that Gloucester avoided because of the authentic love of his child.
Oh my gosh, I want more like this!
Thoroughly enjoyable discussion.
well King Lear is written for all times.It suit these time we are living too.
Make Shakespeare Required Again
This was great, thanks.
Lear is my favourite of all Shakespeare. I came to it first after seeing Ran, by Akira Kirusawa.
who else is waiting for _"The Madness of Crowds; The Musical?"_
I plan to watch it back to back with _Springtime for Hitler._
@@seraeggobutterworth5247 which version is your favorite, the musical or the movie based on the musical or the play based on the movie of the musical?
@@jaewok5G Must we choose??
If I must, favorite to least favorite...
1) live on Broadway w/ the original cast
2) 1967 movie
3) 2005 movie
@@seraeggobutterworth5247 reasonable choices
Douglas is an absolute brilliant mind.
It sounds like one remarkably honest story. I should read it sometime.
O how sharper than a serpent's tooth an ungrateful child.
Breath of fresh air.
Is there somewhere where can see what the next book is so we can read it if we choose before the next book club? I've been binge watching this series and so nice to listen and revisit these books with a more conservative mind set.
I went to a community theater production of Lear, I fell asleep after the first couple scenes. Actors today literally have no idea what its about; thus no idea how to play it, they just mouth some words with great sincerity.
Shakespeare knew it all. Pity very few listen. In Hamlet (4.4) he explains, quite clearly, why men fight wars. To my knowledge, no one has been able to internalize this apparently non-important fact.
This great format should be mass-produced as a lifeline for all the young peopke out there, who are being misled by activist ignoramuses, posing as teachers of Faculty, into believing that Western civilization has nothing to offer and is the sum of all evils.
Watching the book club is my one bit of culture, it means I dint have to read the books 😂😂🍾🍸... good to see douglas on here 🇬🇧
You really should read them...a while new appreciation emerges😉
@@iaintwonderwoman5720 😂😂...your probably right lol
*more Douglas Murray content is uploaded
Me: *consumes it immediately
Also me: "When more content!?"
When they discuss plays, it would be interesting to hear their opinion on different productions and adaptations.
...they didn't "cancel" Shakespeare yet?
Love to see PragerU have Titania McGrath on.
I agree
great video, do this with other great works, personal request, The Divine Comedy
Brilliant. Thank.
Excellent overview of King Lear! Okay, now please review the Satyricon by Petronius Arbiter. PLEASE! - Would you please?
Bravo! Bravo!! BRAVO!!!
Lovely. Tell Douglas to read it to us 😂
Reminds me of the japanese movie Ran. Seems like it was used for inspiration
I love King Lear
I wonder if the crucible will be featured on this channel eventually. I'd like to see them discuss it since it's very relevant to today's current events such as social media being used as a base for witch hunts and mass hysteria over certain people and subjects.
I never thought michael Knowles was capable of reading shakespeare ... he looks like he’s about as smart as my Golden retriever
He was an Italian major. He actually did some important translations.
Not a fan of either of these guys’ politics, but they can damn well discuss a book and its deeper themes
I'm not sure if you take suggestions, but on the off chance you do, could you do "That hideous strength" by C.S. Lewis
This was nice
Interesting; King Lear is a tragedy in which madness (and perhaps dotage) is used with a grotesque distortional force causing a maelstrom of what is familiar to all of us - namely, being human; Mr Murray speaks well - to be judgmental - and appears to have an interest in mental illness; as with Henry 6th of England psychosis, Lear's insanity has an overwhelming influence on society and the way it is ordered; the individual in King Lear is paramount - the play possesses no sense of redemption - it is perhaps Shakespeare's most age-bound individual searching look into madness - it is as if King Lear looks into a mirror - finally - and also looks into the abyss - and finds the abyss looks back into him.