Indeed, he was! I read his autobiography The Seven Pillars of Wisdom as research for this book. He is a very eccentric admixture of Edwardian aloofness, classist pretentions and genuine humanity, brilliance and conflicted vulnerability. He was perhaps one of the few people of his era who understood that military superiority doesn't automatically equate to cultural superiority. He loathed the English, but never doubted for a minute that he was one of them. What I came to understand in reading his words is that what he was more than anything was an ascetic, who fetishized physical suffering and was obsessed with death. Freud would have had a field day with him, had he ever had the chance to get his hands on him as a patient.
I like your nuanced portrait...it gets at the complexity of the man. I suspect he also suffered from living in the grey zones of the rigid British class system where he knew all the trappings but never quite belonged anywhere and moved through life sort of like an actor taking on various roles.
"He did not break his salute during his entire fall." I can see this.
My mental picture of WWI British soldiering comes from some combination of John Cleese and Rowan Atkinson. "Carry on!"
With a touch of “Oh, hello.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmF4IP1h3W4
T.E. Lawrence was such a strange fellow...I can see how he might have said this.
Indeed, he was! I read his autobiography The Seven Pillars of Wisdom as research for this book. He is a very eccentric admixture of Edwardian aloofness, classist pretentions and genuine humanity, brilliance and conflicted vulnerability. He was perhaps one of the few people of his era who understood that military superiority doesn't automatically equate to cultural superiority. He loathed the English, but never doubted for a minute that he was one of them. What I came to understand in reading his words is that what he was more than anything was an ascetic, who fetishized physical suffering and was obsessed with death. Freud would have had a field day with him, had he ever had the chance to get his hands on him as a patient.
I like your nuanced portrait...it gets at the complexity of the man. I suspect he also suffered from living in the grey zones of the rigid British class system where he knew all the trappings but never quite belonged anywhere and moved through life sort of like an actor taking on various roles.