Sarah Carey over at Gubu (wish I knew how to add HTML in blogger comment) drew my attention to the recently discovered new Beckett play as noted by theonion.com (again apologies for lack of link).
I saw that too on The Onion, very funny. Well done Paige, I think yours is equally as good an effort!
(Right I'm probably going to get lynched here but is it only me who doesn't like Beckett? I just......can't! I don't get his plays, I know that makes me sound like an ignoramus, but they bore me to tears. I don't see what's so special about him, give me Sean O'Casey any day!)
Thank God Kaz - I can't bloody stand Beckett. I just don't get him either, and in the last month the guilt and feelings of literal inadequacy have been overwhelming.
I need to remind myself of Beckett before I pass judgement, but I'm more than a little inclined to agree with you both. As I understand it, Beckett probably took abstract and reductionism so far that it became totally absurd. And then a shower of intellectuals over-analysed the poor man and condemned him to a life of high brow, low intellect critical acclaim.
If you are up for it, I'm going to start BARBI, "Bloggers Against Rank Beckettian Intellectualism". (I always wanted to be a Barbie Doll!)
But we'll have to work hard at this as the tide is running with Beckett supporters at present. We might be able to rope in a few of the Blogosphere Intellectorati (Carey, Gleeson, ThatGirl et al) to help our cause.
Paige
(P.S. lovely to have Fiona back if even only in comment form. Blogosphere is a much duller place without you.)
If you wanna add html in comments just use the tags; D'oninion. Course it doesn't accept them all, but it does accept the usual; linking, bold, italics etc.
I was going to ask if this was a minimalist post, but then you have your explanation in the comments, you shoulda stumped us for a while :) Or maybe you did, and I'm just late?
Thanks for tips, Fence. I figured out italics and Bold tags but I couldn't trust myself with hyperlink. I must be more brave.
Re: Post, it wasn't a minimalist post. It was in fact a violent articulation of the constant struggle between the craving for blog meaningness and the profound loneliness of having framed a comprehensive analysis of the geo-political landscape of modern Dublin. The absence of words reflects the futility of our everyday language yet the inclusion of a single punctuation mark (I agonised for hours over the Full Stop and the more evocative ampersand) demonstrates the pressure to conform to which even the most innovative blogger is resigned.
As I said to Sexy Beauty recently, I've tried Waiting for Godot three times now, and I still don't get it. Are they in Purgatory? Are they soldiers? What is the story with Lucky? Eventually I gave up. Beckett be dmaned, give me O'Casey any day.
Phew I'm delighted I'm not the only one who doesn't get Beckett! Makes me feel less like an idiot, especially with all the hoopla going on about him these days.
I'm without you on the Beckett stuff. It's very bitty and nonsensical. I had to review Ghosts in the Project recently and felt that I missing something for most of the way through. There's a real snobbery about Beckett - people feel they're supposed to like it when they just don't.
I like Waiting for Godot and Krapp's Last Tape but after that, it all gets a bit dull and frustrating really...
This woman isn't simply Lucky... she the full stop.
You are too too bloody smart for me. I clicked on thinking there were 14 comments about JP L and the mafia, thinking Paige had changed the format of her blog and admiring the idea of putting the number of comments on top instead of the conventional bottom.
And...
Wow again.
I don't know Sam well enough to not like him. I love the idea of Beckett, the idea of nothing, and even better the idea of nothing twice. Reminds me of what they did to my old mate Richard Wagner after WW2: they stripped away all the rich stage furniture and brought the action into the interior by lighting. Eventually there was only a lit space leaving the audience to imagine the rest. I've been reading Godot for the first time. I can feel the space in between the words as if that space was a football pitch. Most of the play I play in my mind. Beckett provides architecture. I supply the meaning. It is a beautiful meeting of minds. If you put all your energy into an effort to understand what Beckett is driving at, you are almost certain to miss the point. Sam wants you to write the play you will write anyway. O'Casey does exactly the same, in a different way. How you read O'Casey depends on what you bring into the theatre. You inevitably bring your view of Irish history. Your beliefs, feelings, prejudices & preferences for sure. You enjoy O'Casey without realising how much you are interpreting the action and making your own meaning of its significance. O'Casey can leave you unaware of your culpability for your own experience. You can easily think you have been to an O'Casey play without realising that you have been a playwrite by attending to the play. Beckett make it so clear that people are often burdened by the work of collaborative construction that lies at the heart of all creative process. Jesus, you'd think I know what I was talking about! I'm making this up as I go along and I am thinking out loud. While you are reading this, I know that you are in dialogue with your own artistic self. you are saying: "what a feckin eejit... I don't agree... this is brilliant... because I agree... because he's a bluffer... I feel this about what I feel about Beckett... why the hell did Paige let all this stuff through? and so on..." We are never one person. A full stop is never simply a full stop.
Isn't that right Lucky, you miserable thing. Where did I put my rope?
16 Comments:
Sarah Carey over at Gubu (wish I knew how to add HTML in blogger comment) drew my attention to the recently discovered new Beckett play as noted by theonion.com (again apologies for lack of link).
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/47722
This post is my homage to our Sammy
I saw that too on The Onion, very funny. Well done Paige, I think yours is equally as good an effort!
(Right I'm probably going to get lynched here but is it only me who doesn't like Beckett? I just......can't! I don't get his plays, I know that makes me sound like an ignoramus, but they bore me to tears. I don't see what's so special about him, give me Sean O'Casey any day!)
Thank God Kaz - I can't bloody stand Beckett. I just don't get him either, and in the last month the guilt and feelings of literal inadequacy have been overwhelming.
I need to remind myself of Beckett before I pass judgement, but I'm more than a little inclined to agree with you both. As I understand it, Beckett probably took abstract and reductionism so far that it became totally absurd. And then a shower of intellectuals over-analysed the poor man and condemned him to a life of high brow, low intellect critical acclaim.
If you are up for it, I'm going to start BARBI, "Bloggers Against Rank Beckettian Intellectualism". (I always wanted to be a Barbie Doll!)
But we'll have to work hard at this as the tide is running with Beckett supporters at present. We might be able to rope in a few of the Blogosphere Intellectorati (Carey, Gleeson, ThatGirl et al) to help our cause.
Paige
(P.S. lovely to have Fiona back if even only in comment form. Blogosphere is a much duller place without you.)
If you wanna add html in comments just use the tags; D'oninion. Course it doesn't accept them all, but it does accept the usual; linking, bold, italics etc.
I was going to ask if this was a minimalist post, but then you have your explanation in the comments, you shoulda stumped us for a while :) Or maybe you did, and I'm just late?
Thanks for tips, Fence. I figured out italics and Bold tags but I couldn't trust myself with hyperlink. I must be more brave.
Re: Post, it wasn't a minimalist post. It was in fact a violent articulation of the constant struggle between the craving for blog meaningness and the profound loneliness of having framed a comprehensive analysis of the geo-political landscape of modern Dublin. The absence of words reflects the futility of our everyday language yet the inclusion of a single punctuation mark (I agonised for hours over the Full Stop and the more evocative ampersand) demonstrates the pressure to conform to which even the most innovative blogger is resigned.
Was it not obvious?
Paige
As I said to Sexy Beauty recently, I've tried Waiting for Godot three times now, and I still don't get it. Are they in Purgatory? Are they soldiers? What is the story with Lucky?
Eventually I gave up. Beckett be dmaned, give me O'Casey any day.
Eek, I just read your comment mizz Kaz, I should have know you'd be a person of exquisite taste too.
Ha FMC, jinx! No comebacks!
Phew I'm delighted I'm not the only one who doesn't get Beckett! Makes me feel less like an idiot, especially with all the hoopla going on about him these days.
Christ, I'm a complete Philistine when it comes to playwrights. I don't think I've read any plays since Leaving Cert English!
Surely I'm not the only blogger who doesn't read a lot of poetry or plays?
I'm without you on the Beckett stuff. It's very bitty and nonsensical. I had to review Ghosts in the Project recently and felt that I missing something for most of the way through.
There's a real snobbery about Beckett - people feel they're supposed to like it when they just don't.
I like Waiting for Godot and Krapp's Last Tape but after that, it all gets a bit dull and frustrating really...
"with", not "without" obviously.
Maybe I subconsciously had U2 on the brain?
Damn you Beckett!
?
Paige how very uncouth of me not to have realised. I shall try harder next time.
Wow.
This woman isn't simply Lucky... she the full stop.
You are too too bloody smart for me. I clicked on thinking there were 14 comments about JP L and the mafia, thinking Paige had changed the format of her blog and admiring the idea of putting the number of comments on top instead of the conventional bottom.
And...
Wow again.
I don't know Sam well enough to not like him. I love the idea of Beckett, the idea of nothing, and even better the idea of nothing twice. Reminds me of what they did to my old mate Richard Wagner after WW2: they stripped away all the rich stage furniture and brought the action into the interior by lighting. Eventually there was only a lit space leaving the audience to imagine the rest.
I've been reading Godot for the first time. I can feel the space in between the words as if that space was a football pitch. Most of the play I play in my mind. Beckett provides architecture. I supply the meaning. It is a beautiful meeting of minds. If you put all your energy into an effort to understand what Beckett is driving at, you are almost certain to miss the point. Sam wants you to write the play you will write anyway. O'Casey does exactly the same, in a different way. How you read O'Casey depends on what you bring into the theatre. You inevitably bring your view of Irish history. Your beliefs, feelings, prejudices & preferences for sure. You enjoy O'Casey without realising how much you are interpreting the action and making your own meaning of its significance. O'Casey can leave you unaware of your culpability for your own experience. You can easily think you have been to an O'Casey play without realising that you have been a playwrite by attending to the play.
Beckett make it so clear that people are often burdened by the work of collaborative construction that lies at the heart of all creative process.
Jesus, you'd think I know what I was talking about! I'm making this up as I go along and I am thinking out loud. While you are reading this, I know that you are in dialogue with your own artistic self. you are saying: "what a feckin eejit... I don't agree... this is brilliant... because I agree... because he's a bluffer... I feel this about what I feel about Beckett... why the hell did Paige let all this stuff through? and so on..."
We are never one person.
A full stop is never simply a full stop.
Isn't that right Lucky, you miserable thing. Where did I put my rope?
The word 'wow' seems too short. Never thought my full stop post would generate so much comment.
Why is there no extra marks for productivity in blogosphere instead of in work?
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