The Romantics - BBC documentary - Nature (2005)

[vertizontaal]

13:10 places like that must be rare in " Albion " now ? All moved to China. 13:21 who cares about Visions of the Daughters of China and all the other places in Asia where our stuff is made ? What can we do what power do we have ? Maybe a little bit as consumers.

[snowglobe87]

At the end when the presenter posited that each owes a debt to the Romantics when they appreciate the wonders of the natural world I kind of churned inside. That's quite unbelievable because to me that appreciation is a human universal, and I was inclined to that feeling long before I could even read. The romantics expressed it in a sublime manner, but they didn't invent it. That being said, Romantic literature is a gift.

[07androctonus]

@snowglobe87 So Romantics did have an effect in people's concept of nature, after so many centuries, or decades of seeing nature as something to fear or take control over. Nowadays, of course, we can appreciate nature without having read anything written by Romantics, but that's because the change was already there before we were born, in contemporary culture, in the society around us, in our parents' and grandparents' beliefs, which, somehow, were influenced by these xix century nature lovers.

[raymondchandler73]

I must go back and read anything by William Blake that I can get my hands on!

Was there ever a BBC documentary like this about the Romanticist painters? Preferably without Simon Schama?

[shinobirastafari]

@raymondchandler73 Check out the old 1969 Civilisation series, although Clark has as many detractors as Schama. Despite their quirky affects, we should probably be thankful they championed discussion of these subjects. Try the query "Civilisation Worship Nature Entire Show Clark BBC 1969"

[raymondchandler73]

@shinobirastafari Thanks. And thanks for posting this gem with Mr. Ackroyd. I especially enjoyed the modernist styled reanactments (I'm not sure what the industry term is).

[raymondchandler73]

@shinobirastafari Thank you for the lead. Kenneth Clark makes an incredible documentary. Hardly old, dated. I'd just say a little older.

I will say that Clark and Ackroyd championed their discussions infinitely better than Schama's histrionics.

[ididete]

@raymondchandler73 My recommendation: read Marriage of Heaven and Hell. It is magnificent! It may be a bit dense in parts but there are other parts -- like Proverbs of Hell, that are the tersest and most meaningful sayings you will ever encounter.

[evan1919]

DAVID TENNent!!! i saw him!!!

[jaynemarie81]

I agree that the Romantics did not invent the awe of nature! It is a human response to the Creation of our Divine Creator...it is a way that He uses to draw our hearts and causes us to seek Him, because in Nature we see His Divine, Perfect and Majestic attributes...

[macclassic44]

The idea that the Romantics invented a love of nature is preposterous. Awe in nature is built in. Study tribal society, they have no consciousness of nature as we do, but the rituals that they lived their lives by from time immemorial means they spontaneously imbued the powerful forces around them with the sense of awe. The same awe we feel looking at the stars links us back to our primal roots and to them. What the romantics embody is the development of a new consciousness of Nature.

[skopski1991]

where can i find rewies on this series

[nriab23]

Romanticism is at it's core irrational : /

[francesco15793]

someone know how i can have the english text or i can traslate the video in italian (or i have subtitles )thanks

[prophetspider1]

The man reading for Byron has a spectacular voice.

[astrophonix]

I have a degree in English literature, which focused mainly on studying these romantics, and Akroyd has it all perfectly encapsulated. I can never hear people singing Jerusalem without wincing with the realisation that Blake would have been disgusted by how it has been subverted into a meek bland hymn when it is really a fierce and sarcastic rant against the inhuman machine-like culture we now all live in.

[macclassic44]

@astrophonix - but from the ashes rises the phoenix and with it will rise Blake's fearful tyger to wreak a revenge upon those who would subvert innocence. Nature itself is becoming conscious and in doing so a new creation will ensue. What you are seeing now in world affairs is a prelude to the overthrow of the old order. It is not a financial crisis we are experiencing, it is a SPIRITUAL crisis. Blake foresaw the fault lines in the old deity like no other and looked forward to the unified god.

[7deimos]

to say these writers, great as they are without a shred of doubt, are the pioneers of romanticism is purely and utterly false. would've expected a bit more from bbc. otherwise great doc

[PlasmoX]

is that david tennant at 00:12?

[shinobirastafari]

@PlasmoX Yep!

[ChorltonBrook]

I know a little of how John Clare felt about the enclosures, I feel bad enough that all the back alleys have been gated where I live. Nothing like as bad of course but I used to like walking down them, private, quiet and free with the cats and birds. Away from the traffic and heads.

[pezguy500]

I love BBC documentaries!

[inferno0020]

@pezguy500

Me too. It opened my eyes.

[veralimaceccon]

thank you very very much: this is brilliant!