Aubade Philip Larkin

[devolve42]

I can't conceive of a poorer reading of Aubade than this.

[NZARH]

I've got copies of Philip reading this - honestly Bonneville is better :-)

[Eddie123xyz]

I am startled sometimes when I remind myself that everyone we know, young or old, will die.

Something we know from an early age of course.

[dawbz62]

how can I get a copy of 'Love Again'. Great film; great poet.

[ginganz13]

There was no commercial DVD released, I recorded it from SKY's Rialto Channel.

I've given people copies before at cost but never been paid so it's cash up front from now on.....8 quid - NZ$20

Cheers

[desfren]

and the Nietzche reference. nothing could be more inappropriate than 'learn to love your fate'. Larkin's incapable of that. he squirms and squirms and is helplessly bitter, and fancies that he's uttering the tough, final truth in Aubade. that does not mean i'm saying that after we die we go up and play among the clouds and meet famous dead people. there are simply much more spiritual possibilities, here on earth. but im running against a boundary here that no amount of posts will likely change.

[ginganz13]

There are all manner of approaches to facing the inevitable- this does not change the outcome or the natural reaction which can only ever be surpressed.

- describing the squirming, what better antidote to fear than to be totally familiar with it. I find it darkly hilarious. How could he possibly write so eloquently about the misery of our fate if he indeed did not love it?

Misery is very important - it defines happiness, neither should be avoided.

[desfren]

no doubt Larkin is one of those discontented, wretched ghosts dh lawrence described. Aubade is the dullest kind of death poem, it is total Larkin, in all his dull misery.

[ginganz13]

Misery is just as important & normal as happiness. Without it happiness could not exist - that is the nature of paradox. If you cannot appreciate its beauty that is your loss. Those who cannot typically adopt a stance of considering it 'negative', sorrow can be sublime, those who cannot understand this simple concept usually join the clap-happy religious imbeciles pretending they are immortal rather than 'amor fati' as Nietsczhe advised.

[desfren]

my complaint is hardly one against the importance of misery, or the respect we owe it. A good deal of the greatest literature has something of the miserable in it. if you think 'Aubade' is sublime, than that is YOUR loss. Any poet who sums up religion as an institution created to 'pretend we never die', although many might use it as that, probably shouldn't write poetry at all. It's Larkin's own lack of spirit that ruins his poetic voice. the Nietsczhe reference doesn't help you at all.

[ginganz13]

"if you think 'Aubade' is sublime, than that is YOUR loss".- Mate, this is an Oxymoron.

There isn't a more accurate way to sum up religion in one line or even 2.

Your reasoning about who should or should not write poetry owes more to the kind of dogma one would expect from the religious rather than reasoning.

The Nietsczhe reference does help. 'Learn to love your fate'- freedom from the life degrading, soul crushing death cult that is religion.

[desfren]

not an oxymoron. obviously someone who spends his time admiring lines like "this is a special way of being afraid no trick dispels etc" isn't going to have a very good time with a good deal of major poetry. Larkin hardly gets past clever little descriptions in Aubade, except perhaps the last line, which is almost visionary, but then not really. you want a good poem on death? read dh lawrence. this isn't just a flaunting of vanity on my part, but an earnest reccomendation.

[ginganz13]

Calling a discovery that is openly stated as having positive value for whatever reason a 'loss' is self contradictory. By definition oxymoron.

Larkin was quite circumspect about his work and the 'misery' he dwelled on. I think you are being a bit too prescriptive about personal taste and experience.

You probably won't like Radiohead either, but lots of people do - for all sorts of reasons.

[argieav]

Thanks for offer of a dvd, but I have managed to get a copy of the film. Reading the comments I agree with you that Bonneville does get something , quite a lot even, of Larkins 'vocal manner.' Brilliant performance.

[argieav]

'Love Again' is one of the best films the bbc have made in recent years.I really wish theyd release a dvd of it...how close Hugh Bonneville gets to the real Larkin, I dont know of course, but I really like his way of reading these great poems and at the films end I felt I'd got to learn something about Larkins work and life . The soundtrack throughout is brilliant but in the credits at the end I wish they'd told us what the music was.

[ginganz13]

Have a DVD if you are interested....I agree...one of my all time favourite films...perhaps more important than "The Wall". Only Radiohead have come close to capturing misery like Larkin in pop culture.

[smoopeer]

Hi...would be interested in a DVD...have been trying to get hold of this for ages...please contact me!

[chimothy]

I love this poem. There's another interpretation of it on youtube that you should definitely check out, just search aubade larkin and its the one that starts off with the black screen.

[ginganz13]

This video clip doesn't completely gel because it is a sequence taken from a film about his life.

The video you mention uses a soundtrack from The Matrix 'Clubbed To Death' (Kurayamino Mix) - Rob D with what sounds like Larkin reciting his own work. Not sure it works with his intelectual and sometimes quite cerebral persona - a bit too earthy.

[whadaphoc]

Live your "Days of LIFE" as if it is your LAST...

Memorable and Amazingly Fulfilling.

- PEACE

[northcount]

Could anyone tell me who the music in this trailer is by? I absolutely love it and it seems to work really well with the poem.

[uclrichard]

a good reading - but as thehomme says: incomplete.

larkin's whole life was haunted and plagued by 'incompleteness'

ah well, duckies.

(if only stephen crane was given this kind of treatment. one of my favourite american authors...)

[thehomme]

for those that don't know it's not the whole poem read out here

[alien8ted]

My favourite poem! Best bit goes: 'This is what we fear, no sight, no sound, no touch or taste or smell, nothing to think with, nothing to love or link with, the anaesthetic from which none come round.' Brilliant and gutsy words.

[ginganz13]

My Favourite is "This is a special way of being afraid no trick dispells, religion used to try, that vast moth eaten musical brocade, created to pretend we never die".

[timco2007]

He doesn't look or sound much like Larkin, especially towards the end when Larkin by his own admission looked like a "pregnant salmon". I think Alan Bennett should write the screenplay for a Larkin film before he too goes into the inevitable.

[ginganz13]

IMHO I think he looks and sounds more like Larkin than Larkin did, if you know what I mean. Can't imagine Larkin with a Yorkshire accent.

[timco2007]

"I think he looks and sounds more like Larkin than Larkin did, if you know what I mean?" No. Precisely how is this possible? I said Bennett should write the screenplay, not play the park of Larkin.

[ginganz13]

I'ts not that hard. The same way people prefer Val Kilmer to Jim Morrison. I thought Bonneville did a brilliant job of a tall, dark, garrulous, eccentric accademic. Aubade was written 10 years before he died - self appraisal is seldom very accurate. Got me on Bennett, shouldn't reply to comments first thing in the morning.

[Ariasne]

This makes sense actually. Certainly I've found that after hearing Bonneville's readings of the poems listening to clips of Larkin himself, the voice doesn't quite mesh with the words...

[timco2007]

In which case he sounds more as you imagined Larkin would sound. But that he sounds more like Larkin than Larkin himself sounded would be false even if one were to ignore the fact that he sounds NOTHING AT ALL LIKE PHILIP LARKIN. By succeeding in reading the poem dramatically and without hesitations, Bonneville presents an inaccurate portrayal of Larkin, who couldn't himself do that.

[Ariasne]

Ach, I suppose that's true. Certainly I was understanding the statement to mean the imagined voice the poetry conjures, rather than the actual one. I suppose if I'd heard recordings of Larkin first my perception would be completely different.

[ginganz13]

Long winded way of saying Bonneville sounds like Larkin wanted to. I have 2 hours of Larkin courtesy of Dave Quantick - Don't agree that he sounds nothing at all like him. He has a deeper voice but does amazing things with some of Larkins inflections.

I would agree that Pam Ayres sounds nothing link him...

[defactouk]

God I love this man.

[DavidQuantick]

Neat. I must put up the Tom Courtenay version.