Author Spotlight
Happy Belated Birthday, Beckett
if all that all that yes if all that is not how shall I say no answer if all that is not false yes
all these calculations yes explanations yes the whole story from beginning to end yes completely false yes
-from How It Is
Yesterday was Beckett’s birthday (he’d have been 104).
To think, when one is no longer young, when one is not yet old, that one is no longer young, that one is not yet old, that is perhaps something.
-from Watt
Last semester, while I was studying theories of modernism with S. E. Gontarski, I got the opportunity to copy edit Jean-Michel Rabaté’s contribution to the just-released collection of original essays by leading Beckett scholars and biographers, A Companion to Samuel Beckett.
Rabaté’s essay is called “Philosophizing with Beckett: Adorno and Badiou.” It’s pretty interesting. Here’s a taste:
On the whole, Adorno and Badiou presuppose that any respectable intellectual should be conversant with the most minute details of Beckett’s oeuvre; his oeuvre helps readers find their bearings in matters of ethics, dialectics, politics, and why not, more intimate issues of love and beauty.
As is sometimes the case with academic books, it’s outrageously overpriced, but the good folks at Google Books have made much of it viewable here. Plus, I’m sure you could find a copy at a library.
Also, here’s Beckett’s Ohio Impromptu:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HUJGyJF4cI
Tags: how it is, ohio impromptu, samuel beckett
jealous that you got to study with s.e. gontarski! i liked his introduction to the complete short prose, seems like a cool dude. ohio impromptu was written for gontarski, correct?
jealous that you got to study with s.e. gontarski! i liked his introduction to the complete short prose, seems like a cool dude. ohio impromptu was written for gontarski, correct?
this becket chick sounds p. cool but wtheck is a oeuvre
this becket chick sounds p. cool but wtheck is a oeuvre
Hi Stephen. Gontarski is a cool dude. And yeah, Beckett wrote O.I. for him — I’m not 100% sure about the story, but I think Gontarski asked Beckett to write it for him while he was in graduate school at Ohio State, working on a PhD dissertation on Beckett’s work. I’ll ask him to verify that story, when next I see him.
Hi Stephen. Gontarski is a cool dude. And yeah, Beckett wrote O.I. for him — I’m not 100% sure about the story, but I think Gontarski asked Beckett to write it for him while he was in graduate school at Ohio State, working on a PhD dissertation on Beckett’s work. I’ll ask him to verify that story, when next I see him.
something like a corpus
o that clears things up i used to beat up kids who took latin
o that clears things up i used to beat up kids who took latin
gontarski sounds like the name of a down on his luck cop whose methods are unsound and whos lieutenant is always riding his ass even when he only has two days left on the force
gontarski sounds like the name of a down on his luck cop whose methods are unsound and whos lieutenant is always riding his ass even when he only has two days left on the force
godddd on earrrrrrttttttttttt
godddd on earrrrrrttttttttttt
carpe my balls.
you clearly didnt take latin b/c carpe means pluck or seize, as in i plucked or seized the grapes from the vine, so if i carpe(d) your balls it would mean that i removed them and i dont think thats what you mean
you clearly didnt take latin b/c carpe means pluck or seize, as in i plucked or seized the grapes from the vine, so if i carpe(d) your balls it would mean that i removed them and i dont think thats what you mean
so i was listening to this conversation between john cage and nam june paik the other day via ubuweb and it came up that they were both asked to write something about beckett for this ‘australian man’ but neither of them liked beckett, they wrote something anyway.
thought it was interesting that cage didn’t like beckett. he said he did some shit with beckett’s prose where he put it in a computer to randomize the words i think, and with prose that he sort of liked it was just a bunch of garbage but with crap it became gold.
so i was listening to this conversation between john cage and nam june paik the other day via ubuweb and it came up that they were both asked to write something about beckett for this ‘australian man’ but neither of them liked beckett, they wrote something anyway.
thought it was interesting that cage didn’t like beckett. he said he did some shit with beckett’s prose where he put it in a computer to randomize the words i think, and with prose that he sort of liked it was just a bunch of garbage but with crap it became gold.