George Bernard PShaw

What’s your opinion of George Bernard Shaw? My opinion just plummeted in half an hour last night.

Here's what happened. I thought of that line, “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.”

I reminded myself that George Bernard Shaw said that. Then I figuratively patted myself on the head for knowing that. Then I wondered, “What play is that from? Major Barbara? I bet it is. I’ll look that up.” 

Nope. It isn’t. I don’t know why I thought GBS said that: the Internet said definitively it was said first by Irina Dunn,  then made popular by Gloria Steinem. 

Annoyed, I wondered, “Why did I think that was Shaw? I suppose because he has strong female characters. You know, like how he was interested in phonetics, so he’s the guy who proposed you could use G-H-O-T-I to spell ‘fish’.”

Looked that up. Again, not George Bernard Shaw, but at least it’s often credited to him instead of its originator, Charles Ollier.

So, I had started the night thinking I knew five things about GBS: 1. Paired fish and bicycles (wrong), 2. Invented creative spelling of fish (wrong), 3. Wrote Pygmalion (confident about this one), 4. Wrote Major Barbara (checked and verified), 5. Wrote Passion, Poison and Petrifaction (hard to believe)

Back in my Senior year of high school, I told Mom I was going to be in a production of Passion, Poison and Petrifaction, a one-act play by George Bernard Shaw. It was a small role, the Landlady, but it was all written out phonetically so the cockney accent was easy. Here I am in costume in a typically awkward pose (I'm facing forward):

My prom date Virgil played Adolphus.

Mom cornered me after she saw our performance. “I thought you said George Bernard Shaw wrote that!”

“He did!”

“What, did he write it in junior high school? That play was awful.”

You can go here and judge for yourself.

Last night, because I was already questioning everything I thought I knew about GBS, I double-checked and he did indeed write it, as an adult, the same year he wrote Major Barbara. He wrote it to raise funds for charity, though, and dashed it off in a few weeks.

So, that is why my option of him took a nose-dive in one night. He isn’t responsible for two clever quotes I’d attributed to him, and I re-read the horrible P,P,&P play. Not the man I (erroneously) gave him credit for.

Comments

[KC]

That is... really something. (and *how* does one execute those stage directions???!)

I was not terrifically impressed with GBS, however, before this (being conflicted re: Pygmalion), so it does not drastically lower him in my esteem. (however, had I ascribed "ghoti" or "fish without a bicycle" to him, that *would* have had an effect)

Ah, how the mighty absurdist farce has fallen...

[TheQueen]

KC- oh, I admire him for pitching a fit when anyone tried to change the end of Pygmalion. Eliza should marry Freddy and run a flower shop.

[KC]

I did not know that!!! He just went up several units in my estimation (after I read the wikipedia bit on the ending), because the whole "and then they end up together after all that abuse and dehumanization and devaluing without any actual reform process happening! Isn't it so romantic and beautiful and happy and isn't she so lucky?" thing is probably what most drives me nuts about the versions I've seen. The rest can be interpreted as just an accurate demonstration of humans being (kind of lousy) humans, but the narrative approval of a hideously dysfunctional pile of junk was... not to my liking.

[TheQueen]

KC - I only knew about his feelings because of a TV Guide article when My Fair Lady made its network debut. I absolutely hate the ending to My Fair Lady.