h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This autumn, BBC 2 had a new drama, in two parts, about Lord Byron.

There was also - in between - at BBC-2 a documentary about his poetry.

As we can expect from The BBC, it all was done with great skill,creativity and sensitivity; the acting, costumes, documentary, etc. etc.

It was a great pleasure for me to watch it all and become part of his life and the culture at the end of the 18th century England/Europe.

I had never heard of the poet Byron, so it was all new for me.

In the first part of the drama I got the idea that Byron was all show and no that much go.
Oké, he had liberal sexual manners, he was clever, charming, unconventional. Had had guts, etc.
But after his third comment about himself to another groupie; "I am half angle, half demon" (every time with different words) the content slipped away and seemed to be a smart manner of charming is enviroment for instant pleasure.

But there was not that much psychology in this acting. Maybe because of lack of self reflection by Byron? He seemed to be a pre-Mick Jagger.


In the second part, I got a more colourful picture of his inner life.

The star-cult melted and he decides, that marrying with a puritan christian woman might bring a kind of balance in his life.Maybe a way to survive himself?
He declares he doesn't love her, but still wants to make it succesful.
"I will love you só much, as I had never married you".

And she?
In the beginning she appears to enjoy - unexpectedly - his sexual behaviour in their merriage, but later on she discovers that no only she enjoys it, but also his half-sister and many, many other women around her.
She devorces and he has to flee to Europe with their child,to keep him out of trial for sodomy, etc.

So now I see a Byron, listening to the advice of his best friend to marry that christian lady.
I see Byron, analysing and feeling "the unbearable lightnes of -his- being" (my words).
I see Byron, convinced for ever about his liberal moral attitude in sexual matters.
I see Byron, searching for answers, why his love and relationships do not have the meaning, power, fruits, consistancy, he sometimes hoped for.
I see Byron, loosing hope and daring to realize it, while we all know that hope is the last thing in our lives that dies..

Thén he becomes interesting for and to me ,and thén I can be longing to read his latter works.
I see Byron, trying to create meaning in his life by joining the Greec army against the Turkish occupation. But he dies by illness at the age of 37.
And friends destroy his writings..


I see in Byron a kind of "borderline" psyche.
And his cultural/social attitude almost fits in post-modern Europe, at the end of the 20th century, despite his everlasting butler, etc. etc.


He seems to be a very happy ,aswell extremely lonely man, at the same time.
He keeps challenging life, while it absorbs him, as its answer.


I cannot really express here what I think about him and his works.
It is my lack of skill to think and write in English.
Because in these matters there is so much "chemistry".
It is almost more for the senses to analyse, than the mind.

He wás his own poem and it seems to me that writing poetry was just a shadow of what he already experienced more intensely.

He seems to me a more fascinating figure then inspiring.
Don't know why, exactly.
And I realize I have not read óne poem of him.

But for me, the artist as a person is always just as interesting as his/her works.

I don't care about "artists".
I care about exístence.
And thát's what he tried to do, to BE, that Byron.

He hád to do it, as it seems to me.