Surprised.By.Oxford.2023.WEBRip Subtitles

00:01:20,558 --> 00:01:21,Full disclosure,

00:01:22,734 --> 00:01:24,when I charted
the course of my life

00:01:24,736 --> 00:01:26,and set off
for the distant horizon,

00:01:27,696 --> 00:01:30,this isn't exactly
what I had in mind.

00:01:31,917 --> 00:01:35,Aristotle had this idea,
that man is teleological.

00:01:36,792 --> 00:01:40,We're driven by a goal, a telos.

00:01:41,884 --> 00:01:43,For as long as I could remember,

00:01:44,016 --> 00:01:46,my destination
was never in question.

00:01:46,758 --> 00:01:48,I knew exactly
where I was going.

00:01:50,284 --> 00:01:51,Or so I thought.

00:01:52,329 --> 00:01:54,But that was before Oxford.

00:01:55,376 --> 00:01:57,That was before
everything changed.

00:02:00,816 --> 00:02:03,You understand this is a
highly coveted program, Carolyn.

00:02:04,472 --> 00:02:07,One of the defining
characteristics of our students

00:02:07,431 --> 00:02:10,is ambition,
a sense of a higher calling.

00:02:10,434 --> 00:02:13,Tell us, Carolyn, what
do you want most in life?

00:02:15,439 --> 00:02:17,My teacher says the problem is unsolvable.

00:02:19,269 --> 00:02:21,Well, clearly she doesn't
know who she's dealing with.

00:02:22,446 --> 00:02:23,But what if I can't do it?

00:02:24,970 --> 00:02:27,I don't know any other kid
that read the Iliad at seven.

00:02:27,669 --> 00:02:29,Six. The Odyssey at seven.

00:02:31,890 --> 00:02:33,You've been given a gift, kiddo.

00:02:38,332 --> 00:02:39,Knowledge is power.

00:02:45,817 --> 00:02:46,Mark it out.

00:02:59,222 --> 00:03:00,Okay.

00:03:00,702 --> 00:03:01,Okay, ready.

00:03:19,721 --> 00:03:24,No...

00:03:24,465 --> 00:03:25,No. No!

00:03:35,389 --> 00:03:38,In one moment, my entire world imploded.

00:03:40,002 --> 00:03:42,The father I knew,

00:03:42,439 --> 00:03:44,the man I trusted with my life...

00:03:44,746 --> 00:03:46,Was an elaborate
work of fiction.

00:03:46,965 --> 00:03:49,Local businessman
Charles Drake was arraigned today

00:03:49,054 --> 00:03:50,on multiple felony charges.

00:03:50,795 --> 00:03:52,While Mom prayed the rosary,

00:03:52,188 --> 00:03:53,I moved on from childish things.

00:03:54,538 --> 00:03:57,There was no
mystical intervention. Only knowledge.

00:03:58,150 --> 00:04:01,Can you think of a time when you wanted
to click your ruby slippers and go home?

00:04:02,546 --> 00:04:04,The slippers are silver,
not ruby.

00:04:04,983 --> 00:04:07,They're silver in the book,
ruby in the movie.

00:04:07,595 --> 00:04:08,Doesn't matter
what color they are.

00:04:09,161 --> 00:04:11,Unless, like the movie,
you want to ignore

00:04:12,034 --> 00:04:14,the obvious political allegory
at the heart of the novel.

00:04:14,645 --> 00:04:17,It's clearly a debate with the gold
standard, hence the silver slippers.

00:04:18,040 --> 00:04:20,It's a fable. Okay?

00:04:20,608 --> 00:04:23,- Fantasy.
- About politics in the early 20th century.

00:04:23,698 --> 00:04:27,- That's enough. Thank you.
- But we're talking about the book.

00:04:28,050 --> 00:04:30,So if you asked me about my higher calling,

00:04:30,618 --> 00:04:32,what I wanted most in life,

00:04:32,402 --> 00:04:34,I could say
with full confidence...

00:04:34,230 --> 00:04:35,A doctorate.

00:04:43,413 --> 00:04:44,I doubled down.

00:04:45,241 --> 00:04:47,I was the consummate
overachiever.

00:04:48,200 --> 00:04:50,I breezed through high school
without breaking a sweat.

00:04:50,768 --> 00:04:54,As Swinburne said, "Glory to man in the
highest for man is master of things."

00:04:54,381 --> 00:04:56,That was not a part
of the assigned reading list.

00:04:57,601 --> 00:04:58,What do you want me to say?

00:04:59,864 --> 00:05:02,With Dad out of the picture
and Mom back to work full-time,

00:05:02,563 --> 00:05:04,we were barely scraping by.

00:05:04,521 --> 00:05:05,So I picked up the slack.

00:05:05,870 --> 00:05:07,And, and a Dr Pepper's.

00:05:07,307 --> 00:05:08,The parmesan thing is ours.

00:05:08,786 --> 00:05:10,- Yeah...
- Okay. Uh, anything else, guys?

00:05:11,441 --> 00:05:14,Couple of things come to mind.

00:05:18,622 --> 00:05:19,Assholes.

00:05:20,972 --> 00:05:23,College came in the form
of a full undergraduate scholarship

00:05:24,062 --> 00:05:27,so long as I maintained straight As in
all courses every year for four years.

00:05:35,204 --> 00:05:36,Cool.

00:05:36,988 --> 00:05:39,In short, Donne's Holy Sonnet
00:05:39,643 --> 00:05:42,is a classic subversion
by the dominant patriarchy,

00:05:42,864 --> 00:05:46,whether it be the church
or the male construction of God,

00:05:46,694 --> 00:05:51,of the threat posed
by maternal power or the feminine spiritus.

00:05:52,264 --> 00:05:53,Thank you.

00:05:54,702 --> 00:05:57,Impressive as usual.
You presented

00:05:57,661 --> 00:06:01,a thoughtful analysis
of the poem.

00:06:01,491 --> 00:06:03,But if I may be so bold,

00:06:03,537 --> 00:06:05,it, it struck me
as a grand adventure,

00:06:06,148 --> 00:06:08,and you're missing the point.

00:06:11,675 --> 00:06:13,Oh, sorry, I'm confused.

00:06:13,851 --> 00:06:17,Donne is saying that anything
without eternal significance...

00:06:18,943 --> 00:06:22,uh, is ultimately
doomed to futility.

00:06:24,079 --> 00:06:27,The truth I...
Is in the paradox. Hmm?

00:06:28,300 --> 00:06:30,Everything else is bullshit.

00:06:32,653 --> 00:06:37,- Right.
- Carol, what I'm saying to you is your purpose in life...

00:06:38,702 --> 00:06:40,is to discern the, the real...

00:06:42,663 --> 00:06:43,from the bullshit.

00:06:46,014 --> 00:06:48,Fortis est veritas.

00:06:50,497 --> 00:06:51,The truth is strong.

00:06:52,368 --> 00:06:54,Of course, you know your Latin.
You know many things.

00:06:54,892 --> 00:07:00,"But he that increaseth
knowledge increaseth sorrow."

00:07:01,333 --> 00:07:02,** I right?

00:07:09,951 --> 00:07:11,The truth, indeed...

00:07:12,301 --> 00:07:13,is strong, Carol.

00:07:15,783 --> 00:07:18,And you will know when you are
properly ravished by it.

00:07:21,397 --> 00:07:23,As our friend, Mr. Donne,
so eloquently put it.

00:07:54,125 --> 00:07:56,This is a letter
from the University of Oxford.

00:07:56,954 --> 00:07:58,What does it say?

00:07:59,522 --> 00:08:00,It says I won a scholarship.

00:08:02,133 --> 00:08:03,When did you apply
for a scholarship?

00:08:04,092 --> 00:08:05,It was Dr. Deveaux's idea.

00:08:05,485 --> 00:08:06,But I thought
it was a long shot.

00:08:06,964 --> 00:08:08,"Meritorious scholarship
awarded on the basis

00:08:08,705 --> 00:08:10,of outstanding academic merit."

00:08:10,707 --> 00:08:13,- I need to think.
- "A full ride to Oxford."

00:08:13,231 --> 00:08:14,- I...
- What is there to think about?

00:08:15,059 --> 00:08:16,I'm just in shock.

00:08:16,757 --> 00:08:19,You have every right
to be in shock. This is big.

00:08:19,455 --> 00:08:20,I'm so proud of you.

00:08:20,674 --> 00:08:21,It took me about

00:08:21,675 --> 00:08:23,five seconds to decide.

00:08:23,415 --> 00:08:25,I was going to Oxford, England,

00:08:25,417 --> 00:08:27,- for my postgraduate studies.
- Okay, well, let's start

00:08:27,158 --> 00:08:28,with these papers here.

00:08:28,464 --> 00:08:30,"Society
and mingling allowance."

00:08:31,032 --> 00:08:33,- What does mingling entail?
- I was on track

00:08:33,077 --> 00:08:35,to get my master's degree
in English literature.

00:08:35,558 --> 00:08:38,But it was up to me
to decide what period I wanted to focus on.

00:08:39,475 --> 00:08:41,I landed
on the Romantic writers,

00:08:41,608 --> 00:08:44,known for their poetic feeling
and longing for the infinite.

00:08:46,874 --> 00:08:49,The University of Oxford
is not one college.

00:08:49,311 --> 00:08:53,It's made up of 38 self-governing
colleges and six private halls.

00:08:53,881 --> 00:08:55,I was assigned
to Tirian College,

00:08:56,318 --> 00:08:58,which is roughly 400 years
older than America.

00:08:59,495 --> 00:09:01,The school year is divided
into three terms.

00:09:01,236 --> 00:09:03,Michaelmas, Hilary, and Trinity.

00:09:25,521 --> 00:09:27,So I set off
into the great unknown...

00:09:29,351 --> 00:09:31,sane and unhaunted...

00:09:33,660 --> 00:09:35,and driven by a singular desire.

00:10:04,516 --> 00:10:05,Last stop, Oxford.

00:10:09,652 --> 00:10:10,Last stop, Oxford.

00:10:12,307 --> 00:10:13,Oh, sorry....