Stoppard In Under 200 Words

I got ready to read Tom Stoppard's Arcadia thinking it was going to be a slog, but it was actually pretty entertaining. It's funny, for one — the opening scene between the tutor and the young woman sets the tone and pulls you in. It's also kind of poignant, what with the young woman set ablaze at the end. Even though it dives deep into random intellectual shit that so much Stoppard material tends to do, Arcadia feels like it has heart.

At some point you start to wonder who the audience is for Stoppard's work — who is this consumer who lives life in such proximity to the author's mental space? I want to meet this person, because as textured and multi-facted and intelligent as the milieus Stoppard creates may be, I only pick up on a fraction of whatever it's supposed to be about. At one point I may not have admitted as much, but life is too short to feign like you truly got the full meaning of The Coast of Utopia. All of which may explain Shakespeare In Love — maybe it's his diffusion brand or like Philippe Starck's Target line or something.