«There is nothing more to tell. The house was empty. The company had cut off the light. They have offered to let me have it back. But I told them they could keep it.» —Samuel Beckett: Molloy
Category: Beckett
There were times when I forgot not only who I was, but that I was, …
Don’t wait to be hunted to hide, that’s always been my motto. –SAMUEL BECKETT, Molloy
A note to Harold:
Harold asks: Do you read that as Beckett saying that he is writing not from “nothingness” in an existential sense but from “a place without intellect or the observation that could declare something to be ‘nothing’ or ‘something’”? That latter seems likely. I’m not sure if I quite understand your question (and this uncertainty of…
Maelstrom
I ended my last post by claiming that the nothingness of anxiety echoes the nothingness at the center of Beckett’s writing – but (how) can nothing function as a source, as the origin of creative production? Beckett offers two different ‘nothings’ as interpretative keys to his writing: If I were in the unenviable position of having to study…
Better to be afraid of something than of nothing …
Further musings on Edmund de Waal’s exhibition During the Night at Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna Edmund de Waal, Albrecht Dürer, Samuel Beckett & the concept of Angst A man (Albrecht Dürer) awakes from a nightmare in the depths of the night. He writes down his fears and illustrates them with a painting. 500 years later, another man (Edmund de Waal) is inspired…
Try again. Fail again. Fail better.
“It sometimes happens and will sometimes happen again that I forget who I am and strut before my eyes, like a stranger.”
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15 stones too many!
In my ongoing quest for blue I’ve today reached William Gass’ On Being Blue. A Philosophical Inquiry (1975). To my surprise, Gass starts off by quoting a text passage which I believe to be among the best pieces of literature ever written – The sucking-stones sequence, here is Molloy: I took advantage of being at the…
(creative?!???) MESS, or: a state of confusion and disorderliness
I’ve started working on a short essay on Maggie Nelson’s Bluets. the book keeps popping up in my imagination, so I’ve decided to try to write myself through my fascination. As for now I haven’t got any written stuff to show you, but this is what my desk looks like at the moment: in comparison…
while waiting for Red Doc>
I’m still waiting for Red Doc>. While waiting I kill time reading about it … (Oh, well, I have to admit; this is not a 100% correct description of my situation, I mean – killing time is not exactly a habit of mine, but it sounded good, didn’t? And it is true that I’m looking forward to…
sub rosa 