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Black diamonds of pessimism: the letters of Samuel Beckett
- jmduke 10y agoOnly tangentially related to the article, but: if you haven't read any Beckett, you owe it to yourself to check out at least Waiting for Godot and Endgame, two relatively short plays that alternate nicely between black comedy and surreal despair.
- coldtea 10y agoAnd if you can't tell what it's all about or make sense of what's said, then wait until you feel such despair yourself (after a loss, because of depression, betrayal, existentual anxiety, loss of faith, etc., and try again).
- relyio 10y agoAgreed. Though I would recommend that anyone attempting to read "Waiting for Godot" first start by reading about the philosophy of the absurd, and early 20th-century artistic movements like Dada and surrealism. Those are the very basic keys you need to understand the work of Beckett, that is work that remains opaque to the viewer/reader unless they do some groundwork.
- q3r3qr3q 10y agoOh man, I watched Waiting for Godot on Youtube, and it was tough to get through.
- dang 10y agoOne thing to notice about Beckett (and the article kind of makes this clear) is how much glee he took in his pessimism. He wasn't depressed, he was articulating something. There are a lot of fun things in there. I like the letter whose text was "No."
- qwrusz 10y agoAgree. I think a big part of his work and letters try to show/remind how the menu of human emotions and feelings is far more vast and complicated than many people internalize. And seemingly incompatible emotions can be happening at the same time. Becket did appear to take some pleasure in nudging people back towards the uncomfortable reality.
- hackuser 10y agoThe older I get the more I realize that the absurd theater is depressingly real, and the other stuff is what's absurd. Beckett et al were telling the truth, putting before our eyes all the absurdity that we learn to overlook.