And then a bank of cloud comes over the region of Aquila

[sovay]

I have the best brother ever.

Ever since Hugh Whitemore's Breaking the Code became one of the first plays I bought for myself in high school, I have been looking fruitlessly through used book stores for the biography Whitemore used as his primary source, Alan Turing: The Enigma (1983) by Andrew Hodges.

Tonight, for my birthday, my brother handed me a copy. He ordered it somewhere off the internet; it's a solid, jacketless hardcover, slightly foxed around the edges, and it appears to have had something spilled on its endnotes. (I find this appropriate.) I read about a quarter of it when I wasn't rehearsing for Sunday's concert tonight. It's wonderful.

Possibly I will even get my non-stupid Turing poem written one of these days. But mostly I will like this book.

Comments

[kenjari.livejournal.com]

Have you seen the film version of Breaking the Code, with Derek Jacobi as Turing? I, unfortunately, have not, but it has been on my to-view list for quite a while.

[sovay]

Have you seen the film version of Breaking the Code, with Derek Jacobi as Turing?

No, although I have always wanted to; he originated the role onstage. I could never find it in libraries or video stores. I wonder if it's on Netflix.

I do, however, plan to see the Underground Railway Theater's production in the spring.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

I wonder if it's on Netflix.

I don't see it there. Damn.

Your brother is a mensch.

Nine

[desperance.livejournal.com]

It still shows up occasionally on BBC digital channels. If I see it come again, I could record it onto DVD and send...

[sovay]

It still shows up occasionally on BBC digital channels. If I see it come again, I could record it onto DVD and send.../i>

That would be amazing of you. Just for offering, thank you!

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Well, it's not hard - and it's a fabulous performance. (Obligatory disclaimer: I once sat next to Jacobi in a studio theatre. I have had words of him. He is a star in my firmament, and I am not critical of my stars. But I still think this is a must-see.)

[sovay]

(Sorry about the HTML fail in the previous comment. Yikes.)

(Obligatory disclaimer: I once sat next to Jacobi in a studio theatre. I have had words of him. He is a star in my firmament, and I am not critical of my stars. But I still think this is a must-see.)

I imprinted on Derek Jacobi in high school; I think he was the first living actor I paid attention to. (You can probably tell from my icon how I discovered him.) He is in fact directly responsible for my awareness of Alan Turing; I pulled this play called Breaking the Code off the shelf in the drama section of the Book Rack because I saw that Jacobi had been involved and it's all history from there.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Heh. I think I was out of high school, but only just (which is how I got to see Clavdivs: no TV access at boarding school). And yes, he has sat in my mind and heart ever since. I've seen him live half a dozen times, and talked to him the once (the RSC used to bring their entire Stratford season up to Newcastle for a sort of festival, and you often found yourself in the little studio theatre sitting among the cast of one show as they caught up with another production they hadn't managed to see yet).

I did know about Turing from other sources, but then I happened upon Breaking the Code one afternoon (I think it may even have been made as a TV-for-schools production, or some such), and it just seemed so obvious, such ideal casting. (I met his partner-for-life as well, so I already had him settled in my head as part of my gay pantheon; I'm not sure when he came out publicly.)

Um, we should perhaps continue magnificently to ignore the fact that he is a devout Oxfordian...? (I'm from Oxford myself, but the notion that de Vere wrote Shakespeare is just ... perverse.)

[sovay]

I've seen him live half a dozen times, and talked to him the once (the RSC used to bring their entire Stratford season up to Newcastle for a sort of festival, and you often found yourself in the little studio theatre sitting among the cast of one show as they caught up with another production they hadn't managed to see yet).

Lucky!

I have never been in the right country to see him live, but the Coolidge Corner is telecasting the National Theatre's King Lear in February: I'll definitely be buying tickets for that.

I did know about Turing from other sources

I knew about the Turing test and computable numbers; I had somehow missed everything else.

(For example, I have just learned from Andrew Hodges that Turing and Wittgenstein knew each other. I can't believe Derek Jarman didn't do a short film about that.)

(I met his partner-for-life as well, so I already had him settled in my head as part of my gay pantheon; I'm not sure when he came out publicly.)

No idea. I do remember when I found out that Ian McKellan had a crush on him at Cambridge, which I think is wonderful.

Um, we should perhaps continue magnificently to ignore the fact that he is a devout Oxfordian...?

Yeah. Him and Mark Rylance! I got nothing.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I met Mark Rylance the same way, when he was a young hopeful (come to think, it may even have been the same season - was he Ferdinand to Jacobi's Prospero? Maybe they were plotting together even then...)

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

Good on your brother! I'm glad the book is no disappointment to you.

[sovay]

I'm glad the book is no disappointment to you.

I am very fond of my brother.

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

I am very fond of my brother.

And well you should be. (Admittedly, I find the idea of siblings rather more... struggling for a word here... neat, perhaps?... than, I think, do some portion of the folk who possess them in the present tense, so it always makes me happy when someone is fond of their own.)