85. LAWRENCE OF ARABIA: All men dream
Thomas Edward Lawrence (1888-1935) was a legendary British army officer famous for his role in the Arab Revolt in World War I. During the war, the British Empire helped and encouraged an Arab uprising against the Ottoman Empire, who had ruled the area now known as the Middle-East for over 400 years. An Arab revolt would force the Central Powers to fight on another front, greatly thinning out their forces and giving the Allies a greater chance of overall victory. Having extensive knowledge with Arab culture after working as an archaeologist in the region, Lawrence was stationed in Egypt and was asked to liaise with the Arab leaders. Lawrence’s knowledge of Arab geography and his brilliant tactical mind was so impressive that he gained the trust of the Arab leader Prince Faisal. Lawrence became part of Faisal’s inner-circle and helped marshal the separate Arab tribes into a unified guerrilla army who would eventually go on to victory.
Lawrence was an all-around badass. Despite being only 5’5″ tall, he commanded the respect of the Arab and British soldiers and was so feared by the Turkish that they put a bounty on his head. He had a brilliant military mind and devised highly effective desert warfare tactics that were so successful they’ve been adopted by the Taliban today. How’s this for a cool quote that Lawrence wrote about his tactics:
“Suppose we were (as we might be) an influence, an idea, a thing intangible, invulnerable, without front or back, drifting about like a gas? Armies were like plants, immobile, firm-rooted, nourished through long stems to the head. We might be a vapour, blowing where we listed… Ours should be a war of detachment. We were to contain the enemy by the silent threat of a vast, unknown desert …”
After the war, Lawrence and his war exploits were featured in a popular photo film that made him a celebrity. His own account of his wartime feats was documented in the book The Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Sadly, his life was cut short when he was in a fatal motorcycle accident in 1935.
- I haven’t actually seen the 1962 film classic Lawrence of Arabia. Um … I guess I should since it’s supposed to be one of the greatest movies ever.
- Thanks to everyone who submitted this quote and suggest I look into Lawrence. I had obviously heard the name before but I didn’t really know anything about him.
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I really love the work that you do, and the quotes that you choose to represent, but I think that the real strength of zenpencils has been how a long quote is broken down over a number of panels. The witty one-liners are a different matter, but being forced to read it more slowly and let it sink in makes a big difference.
I’m not saying I don’t like this work; it just doesn’t move me with as much strength as previous ones have.
It’s not that I don’t love your work; I do. Your comics make each and every quote much more powerful than the text. Thank you for that.
The movie is amazing, though LONG. Much longer than most movies made today. Its pretty painfully obvious some of it was done on a sound stage too (and I’m talking about some of the desert scenes here). However, the movie as a whole is worth watching, and the location bits are breathtaking.
love this, gav! this spurs me to make the movie my weekend watch!
It’s also noteworthy that T.E. Lawrence rejected becoming a Knight of the British Empire after its refusal (the BE) of giving the Arab Nation freedom for its help during WWI
I really love this! Thank you so much Gav!
yes, the movie was awesome and yes longggggg. lol. Mum was all over it for years. hehehe. go watch it- its one of those Epic films.
I will add my voice to the others:
You need to watch this movie, it is great.
Few movies about people do justice to them, Lawrence of Arabia does. And yes I would call it Epically long. Because it is long, 3.5 hours long. But it is an epic story and you will not get bored for long with it.
Peter O’Toole and Alec Guinness give strong commanding performances as Lawrence and Prince Feisal. Everyone else in the film does a good job as well. So while yes the sound stage parts are a bit obvious by today’s standards I’d say it holds up well from an acting/story telling stand point.
Gav you have to watch the movie! It is one of the must watch movies! I do agree with the others that it is rad long but it holds your attention and you don’t notice that. Well probably ur backside does but still worth it!
First of all thank you Gav for this awesome piece of poetry and art. This is the most amazing coincidence but I don’t know why I was checking all your cartoons the other night and thought of this quote and said to myself how fantastic it will be to you adapt the “all dream but not equally” quote from E.L. to a comic. Congrats again Gav you motivate and inspire me with your art every week. Keep the good work.
I have liked all your work until now. But I don’t think this is the best you could have done. Don’t get me wrong, I think your work is great and I couldn’t have done anything like this, but for such a powerful quote I think something like a story line like you usually do would have been better in my opinion.
Anyway, I love your work, and it’s great that you had the conviction to quit your job and do what you love.
Keep going, cheers!
I love your single panel pieces, they’re the kind of pieces I’d hang on my walls, whereas the multi panel ones are great reads online but I wouldn’t buy the prints.
I would have the single panels hung all over my house if I could afford the prints on my low wage! One day, one day..
This one is on my must-eventually-buy list
I would advise caution when watching the movie. Taken as ‘just a movie’ it is won of the all time greats. Taken as a historic biography….well…it’s Hollywood in the 60s. Like most movies of the time, and many now, it was more interested in romanticizing the story, rather than getting many important facts correct.; so put many grains of salt on your popcorn.
Ok, I’ve got to get a hold of the movie! I wonder if it’s on Blu-Ray yet. Don’t worry, I won’t take it as historically accurate – Alec Guinness is playing an Arab Prince for crying out loud!
Also, I would agree that these single panel posters aren’t as powerful as the longer comics. They’re also not as creatively satisfying to do – I’ve been doing them to keep up with the twice-a-week schedule. I’m probably going to change the schedule to one update a week so I can focus on doing longer pieces and possibly throw in an extra single panel poster once in awhile as time permits.
What do you think?
Yes, I don’t think you need to keep up with a deadline of any sort that makes you uncomfortable and compromises your creative process.
Once-a-week, twice-a-week, every fortnight, whatever works best for you.
I do agree. You don’t have to comply with twice-a-week updates. We would always be happy to see such wonderful cartoons.
Hey bro,
Yeah the comic strips definitely have more impact! But once a week is still great man because at this stage you have so much material to keep us occupied and when you can throw in an extra one even better!
Keep up the inspiring work bro and incredible job on almost 15,000 facebook likes! Not even the west Australian or X Press Magazine has anywhere near that and they’ve both been around for over 25 years!!!!
*gives a thumbs up*
both short and long comics are good if they are good, both formats are ok
Ottomans didn’t rule “the middle east”, they ruled Arab nations of the middle east.
I’m not seeing the difference.
Arabic parts of the middle east = Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Arabia, Gulf States
Rest= Turkey, Iran
I’ll give you Iran, but they ruled Turkey too, not to mention that that was self-rule.
Still, at the time, almost the entire middle east.
Actually, turkey isn’t the middle east, it’s the near east.
Gav,
I don’t know where you live but check your local theaters. There is a 50th anniversery showing of Lawrence of Arabia on Thursday October 4. I’m going. This is my favorite movie of all time.
Lawrence was beyond awesome. Love your work, just saying.
Here’s my favorite quote from Seven Pillars of Wisdom:
MIDNIGHT SERMON 3.xi.17, pg412
MIDNIGHT SERMON 3.xi.17, pg412
“There could be no honour in a sure success, but much might be wrested from a sure defeat. Omnipotence and the Infinite were our two worthiest foemen, indeed the only ones for a full man to meet, they being monsters of his own spirit’s making; and the stoutest enemies were always of the household. In fighting Omnipotence, honour was proudly to throw away the poor resources that we had, and dare Him empty-handed; to be beaten, not merely by more mind, but by its advantage of better tools. To the clearsighted, failure was the only goal. We must believe, through and through, that there was no victory, except to go down into death fighting and crying for failure itself, calling in excess of despair to Omnipotence to strike harder, that by His very striking He might temper our tortured selves into the weapon of His own ruin.”
Or one could simply be day dreaming. Which is just as fun as night dreaming. And in this plane, there are no boundaries.
Great movie and one of my favorite books. I even use a picture of TEL as my profile picture on the twitters.
Will buy this print, for sure.
And my copy of the print arrived today. Can’t decide to bring it home and hang it there or keep it in work! Excellent!
Did you do the lettering custom?
That motorbike accident was a couple of miles away from where I grew up, from where I am right now. A tragedy.
My mom loves the movie and as a kid I’ve seen it many times. We’d watch it every time it was on! I’d still watch it happily today, although I’d probably be more critical of it now.
BTW as befits a truly grand epic, the movie has some gorgeous music, composed by Maurice Jarre, father of famous synthesizer wizard Jean-Michel Jarre.
I tried reading the book but it didn’t draw me in the way I had thought it would.
“The only way to make your dream come true is to wake up!”
true
Watched this legendary movie just a week back. Though very long, one never gets tired of watching the movie with stellar performances by Peter O’Toole and Omar Sharif. Plus the locations, the sets and the whole horse and camel riding armies make it a spectacle.
I didn’t know about T.E Lawrence prior to watching the movie of course. But one hell of a maverick he was. It’s unfortunate that we lost him early on. Else we would have seen more of his exploits later on too.
May the man live long in our memories.
This is my all time favorite quote. I’ve only recently discovered this site, and I have to say, I absolutely love this.
Thank you, sir. Keep being awesome.