Alice has selected the 1964 musical My Fair Lady.
Description:
My Fair Lady won 8 Academy Awards! It follows the transformation of lower class Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle into a sophisticated upper class lady with the tutelage of a linguistics professor Henry Higgins. As Eliza learns to speak and act like a proper Edwardian English Lady, she begins to question her identity and assert her independence in the process.
"My Fair Lady" is considered progressive due to its exploration of themes related to class, gender, and societal expectations. The film challenges traditional notions of class distinctions and depicts the transformation of Eliza Doolittle from a lower-class flower girl into a polished lady through education and coaching. This progressive portrayal of social mobility and personal growth resonates with modern audiences.
The film has often been analyzed from a feminist perspective, highlighting the character of Eliza Doolittle as she asserts her independence, challenges gender stereotypes, and demands respect and recognition for her abilities beyond her appearance or social status. Eliza's journey in the film can be seen as a feminist narrative, paving the way for discussions on women's empowerment and agency.
At its core, "My Fair Lady" is a story of transformation, both physically and emotionally. The character of Eliza undergoes a significant transformation in terms of her speech, manners, and confidence throughout the film, ultimately emerging as a more self-assured and empowered individual. This theme of transformation is central to the film's narrative and resonates with audiences seeking personal growth and change.
"My Fair Lady" is known for its richly evocative depiction of Edwardian England, capturing the elegance and grandeur of the period through elaborate costumes, sets, and musical numbers. The film's visuals, music, and storytelling come together to create a nostalgic and captivating atmosphere that immerses viewers in the world of upper-class London society. The evocative nature of the film enhances its impact and enduring appeal.
Where to watch:
It's currently included with a Paramount+ subscription.
It also can be rented at all of these places:
https://www.amazon.com/My-Fair-Lady-Audrey-Hepburn/dp/B08NDZ65XH/ ($3.99)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnOOPMlErKQ ($3.20)
https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/my-fair-lady/umc.cmc.5vpmujupbwlivwp00bb7xtb6j
https://www.vudu.com/content/browse/details/My-Fair-Lady/1539167 ($3.99)
Where to chat:
Discussion 7:45pm on April 15 (2024) at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2272006912 Meeting ID: 227 200 6912
Analysis:
The musical is highly acclaimed, for example this review:
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-my-fair-lady-1964
As Ebert noted, the musical was highly inspired by George Bernard Shaw's 1913 play Pygmalion. In fact, much of the dialogue in My Fair Lady is taken directly from Shaw's play. Thus, we are really analyzing Shaw's 1913 play Pygmalion, and not My Fair Lady which mostly adds musical numbers and a film format.
Ancient author Ovid (43BCE-18CE) created a massive work titled Metamorphoses whose overall theme was stories of change and transformation. Among its stories was the namesake of Shaw's play, the Pygmalion myth.
Ovid's myth, about a sculptor falling in love with a sculpture he made, has been the source of dozens if not hundreds of works over the centuries, including in modern times Pinocchio, Lars and the Real Girl, and many modern films and sci-fi series plots depicting people falling in love with robots or AI Programs they or others have made. In fact, the very first AI-ish chatbot in history — Eliza (1964-7) — was named after Eliza Doolittle after its creator noticed that people began to feel affection for the simple chatbot after interacting with it.
Perhaps these themes also relate to the Midrashic story of Abraham, that man often fashions wooden idols with their own hands and then loves, or even worships, the idols, and how absurd this is.
Ovid's myth thematically more closely resembles Pinocchio's than the Midrashic tale: the gods favor the carver's dilemma and grant a miracle whereby the artist's sculpture metamorphosizes into a real living person, but one who has troublesome free will and autonomy. Isn't this the whole problem Hashem faced after mixing together physical clay and intangible spirit, creating what some angels considered a monstrosity?
Which meaning did Shaw have in mind with Pygmalion? Was he suggesting Eliza was not really a human being until educated, perhaps echoing many people's ideas about the under-class? Or was he highlighting the folly, perhaps idolatrous nature of even attempting such a task?
According to Shaw's own Preface, the play actually is intended to be a didactic, ie educational, promotion of Shaw's ideas that a major cause of the contemporary downfall of English culture and society was due to widespread illiteracy, ignorance, and incoherent dialects, all which could be solidly blamed on the inconsistencies of English language spelling, which was in drastic need of extreme reform. This was a common concern at least since the 18th Century when luminaries, radicals, and maniacs such as Benjamin Franklin attempted to promote English spelling reform. In Shaw's lifetime a top mind was Alexander J. Ellis. Ellis was the 1885 translator of Helmholtz's renowned On the Sensations of Tone, the inventor of the cents unit (a logarithmic measure of the frequency ratios used in music and language analysis), founding father of the field of ethnomusicology, and an advocate of English spelling reform who created two different new alphabet systems for English based on phonetics: the English Phonotypic alphabet and the Palaeotype alphabet which introduced characters like our useful old friends æ, ɔ, and ŋ, all which together eventually metamorphosized into the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet). His contributions were so notable that in 1864 he was inducted into the Royal Society: a group which included Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin, Charles Babbage, Michael Faraday, Charles Darwin, Ernest Rutherford, Srinivasa Ramanujan, Albert Einstein, Paul Dirac, Alan Turing, and Francis Crick.
In writings calling for phonetic alphabet reform such as his 1848 polemic "A Plea for Phonetic Spelling: or, The Necessity of Orthographic Reform", Ellis noted that the word schiesourrrhce was a reasonable spelling under the English system for "scissors", by combining parts of schism, sieve, as, honour, myrrh and sacrifice. Others noted that ghoti reasonably spells "fish" by using pronunciations from enough, women, and nation; and ghoughphtheightteeau combining hiccogh, dough, phthisis, neighbor, gazette and plateau to very reasonably and sensibly spell the sound "potato" using accepted conventions of English. Can you figure out how to pronounce "ceougholo" using the sounds of ocean, bough and colonel? In 1922 Gerard Nolst Trenité wrote the masterpiece poem The Chaos, which to this day is studied by frustrated, struggling, confounded, and — often eventually — infuriated ESL students.
Why are we talking so much here about this guy Alexander J. Ellis? The reason is that Shaw has stated that the character Professor Henry Higgins was almost entirely based on Alexander J. Ellis. He notes also that the postcards show in the play with phonics based "Current Shorthand" writing were based on postcards he himself had received from phoneticist Henry Sweet, the inventor of that system. But Sweet was far too arrogant and toxic to base Professor Higgins on, whereas Alexander Ellis was more of a gentleman and kind person. Sweet's personality problems prevented his phonetic shorthand from catching on much. Pitman shorthand from 1837 continued to be far more popular, and was mastered by tens of thousands of people in order to do things like take notes as reporters or in courtrooms. Phonetics were big back then and on many people's mind! The first correspondence courses offered in history were to instruct reporters and secretaries in Pitman shorthand.
Shaw's deep concern with the collapse, decay and degradation of society, civilization and decency that was brought on by English's lack of coherent spelling or an appropriate phonetically informed alphabet led to him establishing a posthumous foundation to solve all these problems once and for all. This resulted in the design and advocacy of the Shavian alphabet. Shavian is an interesting and surprisingly useful adjective which means pertaining to George Bernard Shaw. A few books have been published using the Shavian alphabet, but it has had more success among readers of Esperanto.
Here is an example of a short text using the Shavian alphabet and here is a site dedicated to its promotion.
And here is our description of the musical using Shaw's alphabet:
𐑥𐑲 𐑓𐑱𐑮 ·𐑤𐑱𐑛𐑰 𐑢𐑭𐑯 8 𐑩𐑒𐑨𐑛𐑩𐑥𐑰 𐑩𐑢𐑹𐑛𐑟! 𐑦𐑑 𐑓𐑭𐑤𐑴𐑟 𐑞 𐑑𐑮𐑨𐑯𐑕𐑓𐑼𐑥𐑱𐑖𐑩𐑯 𐑝 𐑤𐑬𐑼 𐑒𐑤𐑨𐑕 𐑒𐑭𐑒𐑯𐑰 𐑓𐑤𐑬𐑼 𐑜𐑼𐑮𐑤 ·𐑦𐑤𐑲𐑟𐑩 ·𐑛𐑵𐑤𐑦𐑑𐑩𐑤 𐑦𐑯𐑑𐑩 𐑱 𐑕𐑩𐑓𐑦𐑕𐑑𐑩𐑒𐑱𐑑𐑦𐑛 𐑳𐑐𐑼 𐑒𐑤𐑨𐑕 𐑤𐑱𐑛𐑰 𐑢𐑦𐑞 𐑞 𐑑𐑿𐑑𐑦𐑤𐑦𐑡 𐑝 𐑱 𐑤𐑦𐑙𐑜𐑢𐑦𐑕𐑑𐑦𐑒𐑕 𐑐𐑮𐑩𐑓𐑧𐑕𐑼 ·𐑣𐑧𐑯𐑮𐑰 ·𐑣𐑦𐑜𐑦𐑯𐑟. 𐑨𐑟 ·𐑦𐑤𐑲𐑟𐑩 𐑤𐑻𐑯𐑟 𐑑 𐑕𐑐𐑰𐑒 𐑯 𐑨𐑒𐑑 𐑤𐑲𐑒 𐑱 𐑐𐑮𐑭𐑐𐑼 𐑧𐑛𐑢𐑸𐑛𐑰𐑩𐑯 𐑦𐑙𐑜𐑤𐑦𐑖 ·𐑤𐑱𐑛𐑰, 𐑖𐑰 𐑚𐑦𐑜𐑦𐑯𐑟 𐑑 𐑒𐑢𐑧𐑖𐑩𐑯 𐑣𐑼𐑮 𐑲𐑛𐑧𐑯𐑩𐑑𐑰 𐑯 𐑩𐑕𐑻𐑮𐑑 𐑣𐑼𐑮 𐑦𐑯𐑛𐑦𐑐𐑧𐑯𐑛𐑩𐑯𐑕 𐑦𐑯 𐑞 𐑐𐑮𐑭𐑕𐑧𐑕.
𐑥𐑲 𐑓𐑱𐑮 ·𐑤𐑱𐑛𐑰 𐑦𐑟 𐑒𐑩𐑯𐑕𐑦𐑛𐑼𐑛 𐑐𐑮𐑩𐑜𐑮𐑧𐑕𐑦𐑝 𐑛𐑿 𐑑 𐑦𐑑𐑕 𐑧𐑒𐑕𐑐𐑤𐑷𐑮𐑱𐑖𐑩𐑯 𐑝 𐑔𐑰𐑥𐑟 𐑮𐑰𐑤𐑱𐑑𐑦𐑛 𐑑 𐑒𐑤𐑨𐑕, 𐑡𐑧𐑯𐑛𐑼, 𐑯 𐑕𐑩𐑕𐑲𐑦𐑑𐑩𐑤 𐑧𐑒𐑕𐑐𐑧𐑒𐑑𐑱𐑖𐑩𐑯𐑟. 𐑞 𐑓𐑦𐑤𐑥 𐑗𐑨𐑤𐑩𐑯𐑡𐑦𐑟 𐑑𐑮𐑩𐑛𐑦𐑖𐑩𐑯𐑩𐑤 𐑯𐑴𐑖𐑩𐑯𐑟 𐑝 𐑒𐑤𐑨𐑕 𐑛𐑦𐑕𐑑𐑦𐑙𐑒𐑖𐑩𐑯𐑟 𐑯 𐑛𐑦𐑐𐑦𐑒𐑕 𐑞 𐑑𐑮𐑨𐑯𐑕𐑓𐑼𐑥𐑱𐑖𐑩𐑯 𐑝 ·𐑦𐑤𐑲𐑟𐑩 ·𐑛𐑵𐑤𐑦𐑑𐑩𐑤 𐑓𐑼𐑥 𐑱 𐑤𐑬𐑼 - 𐑒𐑤𐑨𐑕 𐑓𐑤𐑬𐑼 𐑜𐑼𐑮𐑤 𐑦𐑯𐑑𐑩 𐑱 𐑐𐑭𐑤𐑦𐑖𐑑 𐑤𐑱𐑛𐑰 𐑔𐑮𐑵 𐑧𐑡𐑩𐑒𐑱𐑖𐑩𐑯 𐑯 𐑒𐑴𐑗𐑦𐑙. 𐑞𐑦𐑕 𐑐𐑮𐑩𐑜𐑮𐑧𐑕𐑦𐑝 𐑐𐑹𐑑𐑮𐑱𐑩𐑤 𐑝 𐑕𐑴𐑖𐑩𐑤 𐑥𐑴𐑚𐑦𐑤𐑦𐑑𐑰 𐑯 𐑐𐑻𐑕𐑦𐑯𐑦𐑤 𐑜𐑮𐑴𐑔 𐑮𐑧𐑟𐑩𐑯𐑱𐑑𐑕 𐑢𐑦𐑞 𐑥𐑭𐑛𐑼𐑯 𐑭𐑛𐑰𐑩𐑯𐑕𐑩𐑟.
𐑞 𐑓𐑦𐑤𐑥 𐑣𐑨𐑟 𐑭𐑓𐑩𐑯 𐑚𐑦𐑯 𐑨𐑯𐑩𐑤𐑲𐑟𐑛 𐑓𐑼𐑥 𐑱 𐑓𐑧𐑥𐑩𐑯𐑩𐑕𐑑 𐑐𐑼𐑕𐑐𐑧𐑒𐑑𐑦𐑝, 𐑣𐑲𐑤𐑲𐑑𐑦𐑙 𐑞 𐑒𐑨𐑮𐑦𐑒𐑑𐑼 𐑝 ·𐑦𐑤𐑲𐑟𐑩 ·𐑛𐑵𐑤𐑦𐑑𐑩𐑤 𐑨𐑟 𐑖𐑰 𐑩𐑕𐑻𐑑𐑕 𐑣𐑼𐑮 𐑦𐑯𐑛𐑦𐑐𐑧𐑯𐑛𐑩𐑯𐑕, 𐑗𐑨𐑤𐑩𐑯𐑡𐑦𐑟 𐑡𐑧𐑯𐑛𐑼 𐑕𐑑𐑧𐑮𐑰𐑩𐑑𐑲𐑐𐑕, 𐑯 𐑛𐑦𐑥𐑨𐑯𐑛𐑟 𐑮𐑰𐑕𐑐𐑧𐑒𐑑 𐑯 𐑮𐑧𐑒𐑩𐑜𐑯𐑦𐑖𐑩𐑯 𐑓𐑸 𐑣𐑼𐑮 𐑩𐑚𐑦𐑤𐑩𐑑𐑰𐑟 𐑚𐑰𐑭𐑯𐑛 𐑣𐑼𐑮 𐑩𐑐𐑰𐑮𐑩𐑯𐑕 𐑹 𐑕𐑴𐑖𐑩𐑤 𐑕𐑑𐑨𐑑𐑩𐑕. ·𐑦𐑤𐑲𐑟𐑩’𐑟 𐑡𐑻𐑯𐑰 𐑦𐑯 𐑞 𐑓𐑦𐑤𐑥 𐑒𐑨𐑯 𐑚𐑰 𐑕𐑧𐑧𐑯 𐑨𐑟 𐑱 𐑓𐑧𐑥𐑩𐑯𐑩𐑕𐑑 𐑯𐑨𐑮𐑩𐑑𐑦𐑝, 𐑐𐑱𐑝𐑦𐑙 𐑞 𐑢𐑱 𐑓𐑸 𐑛𐑦𐑕𐑒𐑳𐑖𐑩𐑯𐑟 𐑭𐑯 ·𐑢𐑦𐑥𐑦𐑯’𐑟 𐑦𐑥𐑐𐑬𐑼𐑥𐑩𐑯𐑑 𐑯 𐑱𐑡𐑩𐑯𐑕𐑰.
𐑨𐑑 𐑦𐑑𐑕 𐑒𐑹, 𐑥𐑲 𐑓𐑱𐑮 ·𐑤𐑱𐑛𐑰 𐑦𐑟 𐑱 𐑕𐑑𐑷𐑮𐑰 𐑝 𐑑𐑮𐑨𐑯𐑕𐑓𐑼𐑥𐑱𐑖𐑩𐑯, 𐑚𐑴𐑔 𐑓𐑦𐑟𐑦𐑒𐑩𐑤𐑰 𐑯 𐑦𐑥𐑴𐑖𐑩𐑯𐑩𐑤𐑤𐑰. 𐑞 𐑒𐑨𐑮𐑦𐑒𐑑𐑼 𐑝 ·𐑦𐑤𐑲𐑟𐑩 𐑳𐑯𐑛𐑼𐑜𐑴𐑟 𐑱 𐑕𐑦𐑜𐑯𐑦𐑓𐑩𐑒𐑩𐑯𐑑 𐑑𐑮𐑨𐑯𐑕𐑓𐑼𐑥𐑱𐑖𐑩𐑯 𐑦𐑯 𐑑𐑻𐑥𐑟 𐑝 𐑣𐑼𐑮 𐑕𐑐𐑰𐑗, ·𐑥𐑨𐑯𐑼𐑟, 𐑯 𐑒𐑭𐑯𐑓𐑩𐑛𐑩𐑯𐑕 𐑔𐑮𐑵𐑬𐑑 𐑞 𐑓𐑦𐑤𐑥, 𐑳𐑤𐑑𐑩𐑥𐑩𐑑𐑤𐑰 𐑰𐑥𐑼𐑡𐑦𐑙 𐑨𐑟 𐑱 𐑥𐑹 𐑕𐑧𐑤𐑓 - 𐑩𐑖𐑫𐑮𐑛 𐑯 𐑦𐑥𐑐𐑬𐑼𐑛 𐑦𐑯𐑛𐑩𐑝𐑦𐑡𐑩𐑢𐑩𐑤. 𐑞𐑦𐑕 𐑔𐑰𐑥 𐑝 𐑑𐑮𐑨𐑯𐑕𐑓𐑼𐑥𐑱𐑖𐑩𐑯 𐑦𐑟 𐑕𐑧𐑯𐑑𐑮𐑭𐑤 𐑑 𐑞 𐑓𐑦𐑤𐑥’𐑟 𐑯𐑨𐑮𐑩𐑑𐑦𐑝 𐑯 𐑮𐑧𐑟𐑩𐑯𐑱𐑑𐑕 𐑢𐑦𐑞 𐑭𐑛𐑰𐑩𐑯𐑕𐑩𐑟 𐑕𐑰𐑒𐑦𐑙 𐑐𐑻𐑕𐑦𐑯𐑦𐑤 𐑜𐑮𐑴𐑔 𐑯 𐑗𐑱𐑯𐑡.
𐑥𐑲 𐑓𐑱𐑮 ·𐑤𐑱𐑛𐑰 𐑦𐑟 𐑯𐑴𐑯 𐑓𐑸 𐑦𐑑𐑕 𐑮𐑰𐑗𐑤𐑰 𐑦𐑝𐑭𐑒𐑩𐑑𐑦𐑝 𐑛𐑦𐑐𐑦𐑒𐑖𐑩𐑯 𐑝 𐑧𐑛𐑢𐑸𐑛𐑰𐑩𐑯 ·𐑦𐑙𐑜𐑤𐑩𐑯𐑛, 𐑒𐑨𐑐𐑗𐑼𐑦𐑙 𐑞 𐑧𐑤𐑩𐑜𐑩𐑯𐑕 𐑯 𐑜𐑮𐑨𐑯𐑛𐑵𐑮 𐑝 𐑞 𐑐𐑰𐑮𐑰𐑩𐑛 𐑔𐑮𐑵 𐑦𐑤𐑨𐑚𐑩𐑮𐑱𐑑𐑝 𐑒𐑭𐑕𐑑𐑵𐑥𐑟, 𐑕𐑧𐑑𐑕, 𐑯 𐑥𐑿𐑟𐑦𐑒𐑩𐑤 ·𐑯𐑳𐑥𐑚𐑼𐑟. 𐑞 𐑓𐑦𐑤𐑥’𐑟 𐑝𐑦𐑠𐑢𐑩𐑤𐑟, 𐑥𐑿𐑟𐑦𐑒, 𐑯 ·𐑕𐑑𐑷𐑮𐑰𐑑𐑧𐑤𐑦𐑙 𐑒𐑩𐑥 𐑑𐑩𐑜𐑧𐑞𐑼 𐑑 𐑒𐑮𐑰𐑱𐑑 𐑱 𐑯𐑷𐑕𐑑𐑨𐑤𐑡𐑦𐑒 𐑯 𐑒𐑨𐑐𐑑𐑦𐑝𐑱𐑑𐑦𐑙 𐑨𐑑𐑥𐑩𐑕𐑓𐑰𐑮 𐑞𐑨𐑑 𐑧𐑯𐑝𐑩𐑤𐑴𐑐𐑕 𐑝𐑿𐑼𐑟 𐑦𐑯 𐑞 𐑢𐑼𐑮𐑤𐑛 𐑝 𐑳𐑐𐑼 - 𐑒𐑤𐑨𐑕 ·𐑤𐑳𐑯𐑛𐑩𐑯 𐑕𐑩𐑕𐑲𐑩𐑑𐑰. 𐑞 𐑦𐑝𐑭𐑒𐑩𐑑𐑦𐑝 𐑯𐑱𐑗𐑼 𐑝 𐑞 𐑓𐑦𐑤𐑥 𐑧𐑯𐑣𐑨𐑯𐑕𐑦𐑟 𐑦𐑑𐑕 𐑦𐑥𐑐𐑨𐑒𐑑 𐑯 𐑧𐑯𐑛𐑫𐑮𐑦𐑙 𐑩𐑐𐑰𐑤.
In summary, Shaw's Pygmalion and our My Fair Lady are not about the metamorphic advantages or sinful disadvantages of idolatry. They are, in point of fact, a case study in how illiteracy, crime, poverty, irrational thinking, poor values, wasted potential, and general problems of the lower class, are not due to poor upbringing, a propensity towards criminality, genetics, or low IQ, but are a direct and predictable consequence of the highly irrational and unreasonable English spelling system which causes stunted intellect and incoherent dialects. Shaw demonstrates, through the case study of Eliza Doolittle, how the Science of Phonetics and intensive phonetic rehabilitation under the tutelage of a gifted phonetician can repair this damage and result in an awakening and actualization of human potential within even the worst cases of folks for whom society has completely given up on and has no positive expectations towards.
Phonetics and Alphabet Reform were Shaw's keys to heralding in a new Enlightened Utopian Era of Mankind, a task which Shaw dedicated his life and finances to. If Shaw were here today he would no doubt be disappointed that we failed to follow his prophetic vision by adopting the Shavian alphabet and its single implied proper english dialect. That we have not done so yet undoubtedly must be a major contributing factor to societal problems that continue to plague us.
"If the play makes the public aware that there are such people as phoneticians, and that they are among the most important people in England at present, it will serve its turn." — George Bernard Shaw
Postscript
So... whatever happened to those plans to standardize english pronunciation and elevate all to the ideal accent of the Queen's English, known as RP (Received Pronunciation?) Well, RP did increase in usage, but as it did the young of the upper classes changed their pronunciation each generation to "Advanced RP", which became more and more affected and silly. Eventually there was a backlash during the 1960s Cultural Revolution during which people lost confidence in their government and started to look down not up at the upper class. Working class accents spoken by people like members of the Beatles came to represent authenticity and honesty.
Geoff Lindsey on the 1962 "death" of RP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIAEqsSOtwM
Simon Roper on RP from 1673-2023: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYaqdJ35fPg
Both of the above phoneticians delightfully conversing in a garden: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OULnCCvdk8