Delight Springs

Monday, August 3, 2015

Tired of waiting

It's been sixty years since Samuel Beckett affronted English theater convention with Godot. WA
VLADIMIR: There's man all over for you, blaming on his boots the faults of his feet... We can still part, if you think it would be better. ESTRAGON: It's not worthwhile now.Silence.VLADIMIR: No, it's not worthwhile now.Silence. ESTRAGON: Well, shall we go? VLADIMIR: Yes, let's go.They do not move.
And the first curtain fell. Would you have stayed for the second act? Or would you have moved?

Peripatetics, or this one anyway, find that play's inertial heaviness unnerving. Those guys, like most angsty existentialists, just needed to go.

As do I, on this lovely autumnal August morning. Just a few lines of dialogue more, for the road, but then I'm not waiting another moment.
VLADIMIR: Try and walk. (Estragon walks.) Well? ESTRAGON: It fits. VLADIMIR: (taking string from his pocket). We'll try and lace it. ESTRAGON: (vehemently). No no, no laces, no laces! VLADIMIR: You'll be sorry. Let's try the other. (As before.) Well? ESTRAGON:(grudgingly). It fits too. VLADIMIR: They don't hurt you? ESTRAGON: Not yet. VLADIMIR: Then you can keep them. ESTRAGON: They're too big. VLADIMIR: Perhaps you'll have socks some day. ESTRAGON: True.VLADIMIR: Then you'll keep them?ESTRAGON: That's enough about these boots...VLADIMIR: Yes, but—ESTRAGON:(violently). Enough! (Silence.) I suppose I might as well sit down.He looks for a place to sit down, then goes and sits down on the mound.VLADIMIR: That's where you were sitting yesterday evening.  I could only sleep. VLADIMIR: Yesterday you slept. ESTRAGON: I'll try.He resumes his foetal posture, his head between his knees.VLADIMIR: Wait. (He goes over and sits down beside Estragon and begins to sing in a loud voice.) Bye bye bye bye
Bye bye– ESTRAGON: (looking up angrily). Not so loud! VLADIMIR: (softly).
Bye bye bye bye
Bye bye bye bye
Bye bye bye bye
Bye bye . . .
And there they go again, blaming the boot for the foot's ambivalence. What Beckett said of uncomprehending critics, I say of his characters and all who identify with them: "Why people have to complicate a thing so simple, I can’t make out.” Just pick a direction and go, guys!

Set some goals, make a plan, do something... like my young friend who, following the example of his hero Penn Jillette, has reclaimed health and happiness and set himself on the path of the philosopher."The most basic things we owe each other as humans are love, respect, and telling the truth as we see it."

In fairness to the real substance beneath his innovative and surprising style, I'm sure Beckett would agree

6 am/5:57, 66/97
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