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Uplifting Thoughts for the Isolated and Depressed in Times of Plague

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I was reminded today of something I find very uplifting, Thornton Wilder's "Our Town." Very Americana, yet also universal. Even after eight decades, people keep coming back to the fictional New Hampshire town of Grover’s Corners. I understand that it’s been produced more than any other play in history.
“Our Town” prompts us to slow down and treasure the little things, reminding us there can be beauty and joy in the most seemingly mundane parts of our day. The ordinary often contains the profound.
Find a version online, I like the 2003 TV version starring Paul Newman as the Stage Manager, however, that might be hard to find. Almost any production you find will be excellent. I don't recommend the 1940 film since it makes changes I don't like, but it's not bad.

The final scene is known as "Emily's Goodbye" contains a summation of the whole purpose of the play - that we should appreciate the small joys of life.

Emily: It goes so fast, we don’t have time to look at one another. … All that was going on, and we never noticed.”
Emily to Stage Manager: Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it? Every, every minute?
Stage Manager: No. … The saints and poets, maybe — they do some.
 
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Praefectus Praetorio said:
I was reminded today of something I find very uplifting, Thornton Wilder's "Our Town." Very Americana, yet also universal. Even after eight decades, people keep coming back to the fictional New Hampshire town of Grover’s Corners. I understand that it’s been produced more than any other play in history.
“Our Town” prompts us to slow down and treasure the little things, reminding us there can be beauty and joy in the most seemingly mundane parts of our day. The ordinary often contains the profound.
Find a version online, I like the 2003 TV version starring Paul Newman as the Stage Manager, however, that might be hard to find. Almost any production you find will be excellent. I don't recommend the 1940 film since it makes changes I don't like, but it's not bad.

The final scene is known as "Emily's Goodbye" contains a summation of the whole purpose of the play - that we should appreciate the small joys of life.

Emily: It goes so fast, we don’t have time to look at one another. … All that was going on, and we never noticed.”
Emily to Stage Manager: Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it? Every, every minute?
Stage Manager: No. … The saints and poets, maybe — they do some.
Click to expand...
I think the music is from Lord of the Rings, when Gandalf falls down a big hole :p
 
Praefectus Praetorio said:
I was reminded today of something I find very uplifting, Thornton Wilder's "Our Town." Very Americana, yet also universal. Even after eight decades, people keep coming back to the fictional New Hampshire town of Grover’s Corners. I understand that it’s been produced more than any other play in history.
“Our Town” prompts us to slow down and treasure the little things, reminding us there can be beauty and joy in the most seemingly mundane parts of our day. The ordinary often contains the profound.
Find a version online, I like the 2003 TV version starring Paul Newman as the Stage Manager, however, that might be hard to find. Almost any production you find will be excellent. I don't recommend the 1940 film since it makes changes I don't like, but it's not bad.

The final scene is known as "Emily's Goodbye" contains a summation of the whole purpose of the play - that we should appreciate the small joys of life.

Emily: It goes so fast, we don’t have time to look at one another. … All that was going on, and we never noticed.”
Emily to Stage Manager: Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it? Every, every minute?
Stage Manager: No. … The saints and poets, maybe — they do some.
Click to expand...
I agree, PP. Very uplifting!

I taught that play for many, many years. (BTW, it is the most produced play in the American theater. Don't know about history. . . . MANY high school drama groups produce it. It's main characters are teens, and it takes next to nothing to produce, having minimalist sets. Ideal.)

An interesting point: Thornton Wilder (the playwright) altered the 1940 film version (starring William Holden and Martha Scott) because he felt that, with so much suffering going on in the world due to the war, he could not subject a wide audience to more tragedy. I agree that it's a "Wizard of Oz" sappy ending, with Emily waking up from her anesthesia and declaring the last half of the play to be a dream. Ugh. I would not show that film to my students, but I would tell them about it, and some actually went to Blockbuster and rented it. Nobody ever said it was better than the original.

I rank it, among Wilder's plays (all of which I am a fan), one of the best. I think The Skin of Our Teeth is #1; it's more Wilder let loose. I have a penchant for Pullman Car Hiawatha, a short one-act that doesn't get produced much, but is brilliant.

I used to show students the 1977 made-for-TV version of Our Town starring Hal Holbrook (as the Stage Manager). I feel it's the version Wilder would have liked the most (unfortunately he died two years earlier): very spar sets, great mimed action (which follows the original stage directions), and even an opening that demonstrates the breaking of the fourth wall (integral to much of Wilder's oeuvre).

Here it is:
 
poem21045 said:
I agree, PP. Very uplifting!

I taught that play for many, many years. (BTW, it is the most produced play in the American theater. Don't know about history. . . . MANY high school drama groups produce it. It's main characters are teens, and it takes next to nothing to produce, having minimalist sets. Ideal.)

An interesting point: Thornton Wilder (the playwright) altered the 1940 film version (starring William Holden and Martha Scott) because he felt that, with so much suffering going on in the world due to the war, he could not subject a wide audience to more tragedy. I agree that it's a "Wizard of Oz" sappy ending, with Emily waking up from her anesthesia and declaring the last half of the play to be a dream. Ugh. I would not show that film to my students, but I would tell them about it, and some actually went to Blockbuster and rented it. Nobody ever said it was better than the original.

I rank it, among Wilder's plays (all of which I am a fan), one of the best. I think The Skin of Our Teeth is #1; it's more Wilder let loose. I have a penchant for Pullman Car Hiawatha, a short one-act that doesn't get produced much, but is brilliant.

I used to show students the 1977 made-for-TV version of Our Town starring Hal Holbrook (as the Stage Manager). I feel it's the version Wilder would have liked the most (unfortunately he died two years earlier): very spar sets, great mimed action (which follows the original stage directions), and even an opening that demonstrates the breaking of the fourth wall (integral to much of Wilder's oeuvre).

Here it is:
Click to expand...
Thank you for all that! I'm a Civil War buff and teach classes at the eldercollege about the War. I always quote the lines from Act Three that say so much about those young men back then.

The Stage Manager is in the town cemetery, pointing out the graves:
Over there are some Civil War veterans. Iron flags on their graves . . . New Hampshire boys
. . . had a notion that the Union ought to be kept together, though they'd never seen more than
fifty miles of it themselves. All they knew was the name, friends, the United States of America.
The United States of America. And they went and died about it.
 
Praefectus Praetorio said:
Thank you for all that! I'm a Civil War buff and teach classes at the eldercollege about the War. I always quote the lines from Act Three that say so much about those young men back then.

The Stage Manager is in the town cemetery, pointing out the graves:
Over there are some Civil War veterans. Iron flags on their graves . . . New Hampshire boys
. . . had a notion that the Union ought to be kept together, though they'd never seen more than
fifty miles of it themselves. All they knew was the name, friends, the United States of America.
The United States of America. And they went and died about it.
Click to expand...

You're right again, PP. So many great lines! Wilder is renowned for his succinct aphorisms and his characters' almost poetic lines. Two from that play that I remember best:

Yes, now you know. Now you know! That's what it was to be alive. To move about in a cloud of ignorance; to go up and down trampling on the feelings of those...of those about you. To spend and waste time as though you had a million years. To be always at the mercy of one self-centered passion, or another. Now you know — that's the happy existence you wanted to go back to. Ignorance and blindness.
--from the alcoholic choir master Simon, from his graveyard plot
I love this little speech because it serves as such a contrast to the sometimes (but rare in this play) sweetly effusive lines of other characters, and it brings the audience back to earth a little. Another character chides him for it, but it does ground the action.

They'll have a lot of troubles, I suppose, but that's none of our business. Everybody has a right to their own troubles.
--from Doc Gibbs, about his son & Emily's upcoming marriage
This is a little bit of poetry from Wilder. I particularly like his use of "right." While other parents may worry about their kids going off into the world, he deems it a responsibility --a privilege, even-- of adulthood. I had students who would memorize this to tell their parents so they'd leave them alone about things!

Wow. You got me started, PP. I better get back to crucifying women. :lily:
 
poem21045 said:
I agree, PP. Very uplifting!

I taught that play for many, many years. (BTW, it is the most produced play in the American theater. Don't know about history. . . . MANY high school drama groups produce it. It's main characters are teens, and it takes next to nothing to produce, having minimalist sets. Ideal.)

An interesting point: Thornton Wilder (the playwright) altered the 1940 film version (starring William Holden and Martha Scott) because he felt that, with so much suffering going on in the world due to the war, he could not subject a wide audience to more tragedy. I agree that it's a "Wizard of Oz" sappy ending, with Emily waking up from her anesthesia and declaring the last half of the play to be a dream. Ugh. I would not show that film to my students, but I would tell them about it, and some actually went to Blockbuster and rented it. Nobody ever said it was better than the original.

I rank it, among Wilder's plays (all of which I am a fan), one of the best. I think The Skin of Our Teeth is #1; it's more Wilder let loose. I have a penchant for Pullman Car Hiawatha, a short one-act that doesn't get produced much, but is brilliant.

I used to show students the 1977 made-for-TV version of Our Town starring Hal Holbrook (as the Stage Manager). I feel it's the version Wilder would have liked the most (unfortunately he died two years earlier): very spar sets, great mimed action (which follows the original stage directions), and even an opening that demonstrates the breaking of the fourth wall (integral to much of Wilder's oeuvre).

Here it is:
Click to expand...
Where would you put The Bridge of San Luis Rey, in Wilder's corpus? I like it but feel it is currently overrated.
 
Praefectus Praetorio said:
Where would you put The Bridge of San Luis Rey, in Wilder's corpus? I like it but feel it is currently overrated.
Click to expand...
Great question. I have ambivalent feelings about that book. Never taught it, but I enjoyed reading it from a style perspective. It is carefully and brilliantly crafted, like most of Wilder. And it's way ahead of its time in structure, breaking ground for all the disaster-genre novels that followed. But the themes can be puzzling; perhaps old Thornton meant them to be! When I first read it, as a loyal and practicing Catholic, I admired the "faith journey" aspect. Later, when I became (as I am now) a recovering Catholic and agnostic, I seemed to remember the novel thematically questioning the mythos of Christianity. I think the latter impression may be the more accurate since there are hints of agnosticism throughout Wilder, despite his characters often expressing a strong faith.

So, I don't know where to rate it. As a ground-breaking work, it is amazing. As a work that puts forth a clear view and theme, it could be said to be a failure. Or a brilliant success (if you like ambivalence)! I know teachers who wouldn't touch it; I know teachers who require it. I know one thing more: Thornton Wilder loved to write works that made his readers/audience think and debate his works. Remember, this is the playwright who walked out of a popular Broadway play in the 20's because the director, in an attempt at stage realism, had fans blowing the smell of food into the audience (the scene was a restaurant). Wilder wanted his audience to focus on the ideas in the play, not the trappings. He wanted us to think.
 
Praefectus Praetorio said:
But we'd better drop the English Lit lecture and get back to Uplifting.
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I’m a newcomer here but I like that aspect of this community - When we do business, we talk about tits and pussies. But when we relax in one of those off topic threads, we talk about the mathematics or English literature. :)
 
fallenmystic said:
When we do business, we talk about tits and pussies. But when we relax in one of those off topic threads, we talk about the mathematics or English literature
Click to expand...
You must remember this
A cunt is just a cunt
A tit is just a tit
The fundamental things are it
As time goes by
And when two lovers woo
They still say "I’ll spank you"
On that you can rely
No matter what the future brings
As time goes by

Moonlight and whippings
Never out of date
Hearts full of passion
Torturing and hate
Woman bends to man, and man must fuck his mate
That no one can deny
It's still the same old story
A fight for crux and gory
A case of screw and die
The world will always welcome cruxers
As time goes by
 
Praefectus Praetorio said:
You must remember this
A cunt is just a cunt
A tit is just a tit
The fundamental things are it
As time goes by
And when two lovers woo
They still say "I’ll spank you"
On that you can rely
No matter what the future brings
As time goes by

Moonlight and whippings
Never out of date
Hearts full of passion
Torturing and hate
Woman bends to man, and man must fuck his mate
That no one can deny
It's still the same old story
A fight for crux and gory
A case of screw and die
The world will always welcome cruxers
As time goes by
Click to expand...
There should be a CF anthology of musical parodies :p
 
willowfall said:
I like the idea of the thread. I am neither isolated nor depressed (so I guess I am one of the lucky ones).

One of the things I do to keep a perspective on things is to look back at history for examples of disasters and their long term affects.

So let me share from my grandfather's lifetime.

In just 31 years (1914-1945) the world experienced WWI (16 million dead), The Spanish Flu (around 50 million dead), the Great Depression and WWII (around another 50 million dead and most of the industrial world wrecked) on a much smaller population base.

The survivors and their children built the world we live in today. One of incredible possibilities for anyone who cares to seize them.

The best medicine is laughter and all we can truly control is our actions.

So keep to your routines as much as possible because they form the basis of your sanity. Take the time to do the little things you can do to make just one other persons life better. We are the ones who drive humanity forward, not governments.

And for god's sake stop watching social media and the news all the time. Open a window and listen to the birds and remember thru it all they have been around 100s of MILLIONS of years. We will get thru this.

Smell some roses because there will always be flowers.

kisses

willowfall
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True, but there are some flowers (some quite large) that trap and eat insects like flies and smell like, well, rotting meat. The fruit of the females of the ancient ginkgo tree smells something like vomit--which I assume is attractive to whatever spreads the seeds. And there was a "terror bird" (now extinct) in South America with a huge spur (like a rooster's) that no one would want to be around. This is just more proof that the world has its own agenda and doesn't cater to humans. But with these big brains it's always interesting to figure out what the agenda is (instead of spending all your time on social media).
 
Frank Petrexa said:
True, but there are some flowers (some quite large) that trap and eat insects like flies and smell like, well, rotting meat. The fruit of the females of the ancient ginkgo tree smells something like vomit--which I assume is attractive to whatever spreads the seeds. And there was a "terror bird" (now extinct) in South America with a huge spur (like a rooster's) that no one would want to be around. This is just more proof that the world has its own agenda and doesn't cater to humans. But with these big brains it's always interesting to figure out what the agenda is (instead of spending all your time on social media).
Click to expand...

All quite true.

But if there was no bad, dangerous or ugly to compare it to how would we know what was good, safe and beautiful?

And just to help keep things in perspective for those who insist on driving themselves crazy thru social media or the news.

In the US the virus has (as of Thursday night):

* killed approximately 1 in every 10 million (assuming a 2020 census of around 330 million) people living in the country.
* sicken approximately 1 in every 600,000 people living in the country.

So your odds of not getting it are very good regardless of what the media, "experts" and certainly your local politicians say.

And you can't get from smelling the roses.

kisses

willowfall
 
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