A little from Stoppard

I first came across Tom Stoppard through On the Razzle, this play I had to study for an entry level module to English Literature. My lecturer was a odd guy though, and especially eccentric when it comes to comedy. So he starts by saying comedy is a tough thing to teach(this I quite agree), and then he goes on to highlight the different devices employed in comedies, i.e malapropism. Then perhaps being in awe of the ample instances of comedic devices, he starts describing the play as "stuffed", and that is the keyword for the rest of the lecture. I do remember him re-enacting some of the scenes in the play, but apart from that, nothing much remains (except the "stuffed" of course).

After that module, I did manage to read Invention of Love by Stoppard, which is quite different from the pure comedy in On the Razzle. It's quite a inter-textual play that ask quite a few interesting questions. Recently I manage to pick up a book on Tom Stoppard, and came across this section extracted from Coast of Utopia, one of his more serious plays:

His life was what it was. Because children grow up, we think a child's purpose is to grow up. But a child's purpose is to be a child. Nature doesn't disdain what only leaves for a day. It pours the whole of itself into each moment. We don't value the lily less for not being made of flint and not built to last....It's only we humans who want to own the future too.....Was the child happy while he lived? That is a proper question, the only question. If we can't arrange our own happiness, it's a conceit beyond vulgarity to arrange the happiness of those that come after us.