The Bruce and I
Jun. 28th, 2019 06:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
smokingbootLong ago in a lifetime far away, I studied in Edinburgh, where a man and I had a never-quite-fling. He was a strangely obsessive guy, terribly into acting, and everyone thought he was the business at it. We demi-fancied each other, though never enough to do anything about it. At the time, I was a lunatic wildchild, and while there was something...definitely something...we were either not physically attracted to each other or we were and had no idea what to do about it. At the party he was the guy I wouldn't cop off with, while always knowing exactly where he was in the room. After a lot of mutual observation, he suggested we should get together. 'If you come with me,' he said, 'We could go far.' He paused. 'I'm going to be famous,' he said. 'Stick with me and you will be too.'
I declined because, because... what? There was no erotic kick around us at all. Maybe we didn't know if we were really into each other, or just thought we should be, because we were pretty-ish. And that was that.
His name was Angus MacFadyen, and years later I saw him playing Robert the Bruce in Braveheart. Hats off to him he did what he said he would do. Now he is playing Robert the Bruce again: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_the_Bruce_(film)
His twitter feed is an extraordinary thing. 'Readiness is everything,' he writes, declaring his location as 'Scotland, soon to be free.' His pinned tweet is certainly colourful:
"Nicola Sturgeon has spun her web. Its a strong web. Its sticky. This spider is hungry but patient. She knows that time is on her side. She has a belly full of independent babies to feed. She lets her prey come to her. Blind and stupid they come. Soon we will be born free and wild."
His other tweets are no less dramatic: "raised agnostic, leaning buddhist, I believe in satan as a force uniting lost souls in hell on earth through suffering and humiliation. I see no humor in it and wish those who are enslaved a release from their overlord. Join the dream. Freedom awaits you brothers and sisters."
Or even: "aye what a sad lot these cackling unionist trolls are, they seem to find joy only in torment, like lost souls in hell, their only desire is that others' dreams be crushed too, misery loves company; reminds me a little of Blake's poems. I do wish them release from their torment."
I gazed at all this, somewhat surprised. Cineworld refuses to show the film, and I wondered if this intensity was born of frustration...So I looked at his earlier words. "On the eve of Bannockburn, Robert the Bruce returns from the underworld and sings to raise up our spirits in one wave of defiance, to vote ourselves free of our shackles. Hear the song."
"behind the bumbling teddy bear facade fake bonhomie and look of perpetual bemusement lies a cruel leader without principle who will stop at nothing in his pursuit of amassing power. We are entering the darkest hours now, integrity crucified like so many slaves on the road to Rome"
"I cast my net far and wide, spider like and I wait for dinner to come to me. He taught me that, the spider, in the cave. I listened. Destiny obeys no law of man. We listen to her call and rise to meet our mistress, our land, our declaration that she is free like fish in the sea"
He is either channelling the Bruce, or the most buried-in-character method actor ever, or simply out of his mind. Never in all my life could I match this lurid intensity, could I? He thought so. I must have been elemental madness, the sheet lightning of crazy. Thank god we never had sex.
I declined because, because... what? There was no erotic kick around us at all. Maybe we didn't know if we were really into each other, or just thought we should be, because we were pretty-ish. And that was that.
His name was Angus MacFadyen, and years later I saw him playing Robert the Bruce in Braveheart. Hats off to him he did what he said he would do. Now he is playing Robert the Bruce again: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_the_Bruce_(film)
His twitter feed is an extraordinary thing. 'Readiness is everything,' he writes, declaring his location as 'Scotland, soon to be free.' His pinned tweet is certainly colourful:
"Nicola Sturgeon has spun her web. Its a strong web. Its sticky. This spider is hungry but patient. She knows that time is on her side. She has a belly full of independent babies to feed. She lets her prey come to her. Blind and stupid they come. Soon we will be born free and wild."
His other tweets are no less dramatic: "raised agnostic, leaning buddhist, I believe in satan as a force uniting lost souls in hell on earth through suffering and humiliation. I see no humor in it and wish those who are enslaved a release from their overlord. Join the dream. Freedom awaits you brothers and sisters."
Or even: "aye what a sad lot these cackling unionist trolls are, they seem to find joy only in torment, like lost souls in hell, their only desire is that others' dreams be crushed too, misery loves company; reminds me a little of Blake's poems. I do wish them release from their torment."
I gazed at all this, somewhat surprised. Cineworld refuses to show the film, and I wondered if this intensity was born of frustration...So I looked at his earlier words. "On the eve of Bannockburn, Robert the Bruce returns from the underworld and sings to raise up our spirits in one wave of defiance, to vote ourselves free of our shackles. Hear the song."
"behind the bumbling teddy bear facade fake bonhomie and look of perpetual bemusement lies a cruel leader without principle who will stop at nothing in his pursuit of amassing power. We are entering the darkest hours now, integrity crucified like so many slaves on the road to Rome"
"I cast my net far and wide, spider like and I wait for dinner to come to me. He taught me that, the spider, in the cave. I listened. Destiny obeys no law of man. We listen to her call and rise to meet our mistress, our land, our declaration that she is free like fish in the sea"
He is either channelling the Bruce, or the most buried-in-character method actor ever, or simply out of his mind. Never in all my life could I match this lurid intensity, could I? He thought so. I must have been elemental madness, the sheet lightning of crazy. Thank god we never had sex.
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no subject
Date: 2019-06-29 09:52 pm (UTC)Maybe he's mad for a reason
Date: 2019-06-30 08:29 pm (UTC)I never noticed his box-of-frogness way back then. I was either remarkably obtuse or just as bad.
Re: Maybe he's mad for a reason
Date: 2019-07-01 08:31 am (UTC)Definitely frogs. All the frogs. And yet I still feel he may be really compelling to have a conversation with, if you left your sanity at the door.
Re: Maybe he's mad for a reason
Date: 2019-07-01 04:15 pm (UTC)