Travesties

• Travesties - Tom Stoppard

I finished reading this a few days ago, but have been too busy to post anything. Anyway, after reading Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead I thought it would be good to read more of Tom Stoppard's plays. The play takes place in 1917 Zurich and is based on the coincidence that James Joyce, Tistan Tzara (the founder of Dadaism) and Lenin were all in the city at the same time. Travesties is written in a form similar to R & G, so expect it to be a bit absurd at times and be ready to say "WHAT THE....!" occasionally. Most of it makes sense, but one or two things just make you shake your head wondering what the guy had to be on to come up with something so random.

"...crucible of anti-art, cradle of Dada!!! Who? What? Whatsisay Dada?? You remember Dada! - historical halfway house between Futurism and Surrealism, twixt Marinetti and Andre Breton, 'tween the before-the-war-to-end-all-wars years and the between-the-wars years - Dada! - down with reason logic, causality, coherence, tradition, proportion, send and consequence, my art belongs to Dada 'cos Dada 'e treats me so..." - 8

"The nerve of it. Wars are fought to make the world safe for artists. Is is never quite put in those terms but it is a useful way of grasping what civilized ideals are all about. The easiest way of knowing whether good has triumphed over evil is to examine the freedom of the artist. The ingratitude of artists, indeed their hostility, not to mention the loss of nerve and failure of talent which accounts for 'modern art', merely demonstrate the freedom of the artist to be ungrateful, hostile, self-centered and talentless, for which freedom I went to war." - 22

"Intellectual curiosity is not so common that one can afford to discourage it." -47