to think that Samuel Beckett = Emperors New Clothes

[ohmychrist]

People seem to want to be seen to be in awe of his genius. But, I don't 'get it'. It all just seems like a jumble of words, with ill-formed characters and ambiguous situations.

Yes, I know stream of consciousness stuff is supposed to be interesting. But, I'm not fascinated by it.

Anyone able to show me up for the dramatic ignoramus that I am?

Its personal taste, I love Waiting for Godot but I hate this latest series of Dr Who. You might love Dr Who & you don't like Beckett. Personal taste & postmodernism doesn't suit everyone.

I like James Joyce though, so I'm weird ;)

Ha! Finally! Do you know how many times I have said that exact same phrase... Yes, Beckett is the emperor's new clothes of literature. Although I did get a first on a presentation about Beckett at uni.

Didn't Beckett himself say that he has no idea what Not I is about?

I just can't help thinking that everyone's secretly thinking "This is rubbish", but won't dare admit it and risk appearing uncultured and thick.

Lucky's speech in Waiting for Godot is what happens if you chop up a newspaper and glue it together wrongly. Anyone could write that, surely?

Well directed and well performed, Beckett can be genius and very very funny. I love waiting for Godot, and Endgame is both funny and very moving.
But they are plays to be performed not read. A bit like Pinter I suppose, who I also love.

But each to there own - there are no rules as to who's work you enjoy, and there is a lot of intellectual snobbery about what people should like or not. Life is far to short to feel you've got to spend time watching or reading stuff you don't like.

I also love Alan Aykbourn, Tom Stoppard and anything that makes me laugh - and that also includes Laurel and Hardy and Bottom

sorry - each to their own

I've seen good actors, such as Gambon in Endgame and Liz Smith in Happy Days on the stage, and of course John Hurt on telly in Krapp's Last Tape. I don't get it. :-S

I like all the other playwrights you list. I understand them.

I'm a bit dim I think.

I saw some recently, I enjoyed the theatre of it but had no idea what, if anything it was about.

I did read up on it afterwards and some of it became clearer. It's maybe something you need to study to understand.

Oh, I saw Lisa whatsit and Billie Whitelaw on tv doing Not I.

It just seems like a nothingness to me.

I agree. Nothing happens. Nobody comes, nobody goes. It's awful.

:)

Yes I think he is much better seen on the stage and can be v.v. funny, depending on how he is played. I think if you think of his plays as kind of knockabout, vaudeville comedy with a bit of existential philosophy on the side, they are more palatable.

I like his plays but can't get into his books at all, btw.

I was once waiting for a friend at Birmingham New Street in a café and at the next table were two fellas who seemed to be homeless. They had apparently arranged to meet earlier but missed each other and were now waiting for a third person. They had a loooooong discussion about who had said what, and who had been waiting where.

Beckett/Waiting for Godot suddenly seemed very very prophetic ad relevant! Their conversation was uncannily Becketesque.

Not sure whether that makes Beckett more or less relevant to your title but it was amazing! Personally I enjoyed meeting him for the first time, and loved seeing Rick Mayall and Ade Edmondson in Godot a very very long time ago

Beckett never said he didn't know what 'Not I' was about. He did say, when he got impatient with some method-type Godot actors wanting to know about their character's motivation/home address/first let's name, that if he'd known who Godot was, he'd have said so in the play.

There's no requirement to be in awe of his genius, if he's not to your taste. Personally, I loathe Pinter, and David Mamet plays make me want to throw things. I love Beckett, though, admittedly some of his late prose is on the indigestible side - but I think the short plays Lisa Dwan is touring at the moment (though I've not seen her version of them, apart from Not I) are astonishing, and pretty accessible/affecting in performance. Though not reducible to neat plot-and-character summaries. But nor is a lot of drama. Look at the new Enda Walsh currently at the NT, which definitely has a debt to Godot (two men passing the time in a room they can't leave by slapstick routines and telling stories). Lots of modern art isn't a nice, recognisable picture of flowers in a jug, either.

For interest's sake, what is it you don't like about Beckett?

First PET's name.

I studied Becket during an English Lit degree at Uni and actually used that phrase myself! The tutor, a Becket fanatic, was horrified. My fellow students agreed in almost total unison. And I got a high mark for writing the essay they expected from me. I jumped through the right hoops and interpreted the daft and meaningless text of becket with detailed reverence.
It's crap; people are afraid to admit it for fear of appearing uncultured or ignorant.

I really enjoy his plays. Waiting for Godot isn't my favourite but I enjoy it. I love Not I. I'm actually not that 'literary' failed O level English repeatedly but maybe that helps. I enjoy the lyrical sound of the words and the pace of the plays. I couldn't write an essay on what any of it means but I still get pleasure from seeing it. IySWIM

If you want to talk about pretentious crap try looking at Ballyturk which is on at The National Theatre at the moment. I Worked out why there was no intermission.

Do I sense you went to the Not I/Footfalls/Rockaby touring production this week and didn't like it, OP?

I have often thought exactly the same thing OP.

Mum, just reread my BallyTurk comments - I should have added that it is an excellent performance and Cillian Muphy (not sure of spelling) is very handsome and a great actor. Trouble is nothing detracts from the actual rubbish'ness of the play. It's got nothing to do with Beckett at all.

I don't think it's anything to do with being dim OP - I'm sure you are not, and I certainly wouldn't class myself as an intellectual just because I like Beckett. I am far from it and I like a huge variety of stuff whether it is Pinter or Strictly Come Dancing.

It's just personal taste - there are poets and artists I love, that leave others cold, and vice versa - but I guess the idea of art is that you try to communicate with some people, not that you expect to please everyone. I think we all bring our own feelings, personalities and life experiences to everything we watch or read, and so sometimes one person will really connect with something which doesn't have meaning for another person. No one is right or wrong.

I do think it's great that these plays are being performed and people are going to see them, you sometimes have to sit through a lot of dross to find you're own personal treasure, but when you do find it, it is worth the search.