Check out these GREAT Beckett books on Amazon! Samuel Beckett: A Biography: amzn.to/300Z0yt The Complete Dramatic Works of Samuel Beckett: amzn.to/2N3NK2B Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett: amzn.to/2ZNb8XP Three Novels: Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable: amzn.to/31532rh Join us on Patreon! www.patreon.com/ManufacturingIntellect Donate Crypto! commerce.coinbase.com/checkout/868d67d2-1628-44a8-b8dc-8f9616d62259 Share this video! Get Two Books FREE with a Free Audible Trial: amzn.to/313yfLe Checking out the affiliate links above helps me bring even more high quality videos by earning me a small commission! And if you have any suggestions for future content, make sure to subscribe on the Patreon page. Thank you for your support!
This is very good. I think it's worth trying to understand Beckett for people who don't immediately respond to his work or who just don't "get" him, but I also believe that those who immediately find a kindred spirit in Beckett are always going to enjoy him more. If you've spent long, rainy, pointless evenings in coffee shops trying to work up the nerve to talk to other people without ever opening your mouth, if you go home feeling completely stunted and try to sleep but can't, if you pass the sleepless hours by tapping various points on the surface of your mattress to hear and feel the minor differences in the vibration of the springs, and if you'd be relieved to die right then and there, yet you get up the next morning and tell yourself, "Well, I'll try just once more, maybe twice, three times at most" (and you do, and things turn out *exactly* as they did before), then you'll understand Beckett. If you were the captain of the football team or the prom queen, you'll wonder what in God's name he was talking about and probably conclude that he was insane. That's all right. Beckett's not for everybody.
Beckett is one of my favorite authors. I never felt the need to understand him. As soon as I deal with the understanding of his texts, the whole magic of his words evaporates and what remains is a barren framework, a construct without life.
This is lovely… and I think it’s read by David Rintoul who, for me is the voice of James Bond in the Bond audio books… so now I’m thinking of a Bond plot but with Samual Beckett as the lead… I think I’ll call it ‘Fail Better Mr.Bond’
Thank you for an enlightening Beckett literary biography, elegantly articulated. But why was there no mention of HAPPY DAYS? It was, I believe, one of Beckett's last stage successes
The Unnamable is the culmination of the „European literature and the Latin Middle Ages“, even if Ernst Robert Curtius never mentioned Samuel Beckett. It is pure joy to read.
@@xcaliberish I took it as the futility of life and how we have to develop meaning for ourselves. "Godot" being very close to the word God, both seemingly human constructs as a way of understanding ourselves. Always aiming for the horizon, never reaching it and then realising it
@@cahillgreg Ahh, you are correct, "and so it should be". It is clear to me that you are one of the lucky ones who have been reared by sane people.(An innate understanding of Beckett is a side-effect of spending one's formative years amongst savages and lunatics.)
No mention of Happy Days? The one with a female protagonist and widely taught and produced in universities? Everything said about Beckett as an individual is true of the character Winnie, but apparently this is a survey from an exclusive male lens.
Fabulous, thank you so much. However, it has to be said that the Irish accent is all over the place, and even includes an occasional visit to Scotland..
Re Beckett being Joyce's secretary and taking down Joyce's dictation - anyone who has ever tried to read/let alone understand 'Finnegans Wake' will realise you can't take it down by dictation unless Joyce is spelling it out loud letter by letter rather than word by word. 'How are you spelling: Aches-ley pains?' Like the English Town. A?' The 'Come in' is obviously apocryphal.
I wonder how much Beckett's depression was worsened by him drinking a great deal. It could have been a self perpetuating circle. This is offered as a possible part explanation for Becketts tone - not to trivialise Becketts vital voice and insights.
Well, it looks like the troglodytes have piled quite a bit of ridicule on you for daring to try to encapsulate Samuel Beckett and 90 minutes But I'm sure there's plenty of regular Joe's like me who would love to have the equivalent of a lecture, and of course where the professor tries to whet your appetite for knowledge And so I thank you for this lecture whether it is perfect or not, does not concern me It serves to motivate me to pay attention to Beckett and that's good enough for me
I once saw a youth theatre production of 'Endgame' which was both a brilliant comedy and a profound exploration of the depths of human experience throughout - and a few days later, a very tedious production directed by Beckett himself. Beckett's 'dead pan' humour needs to be played with some sort of 'twinkle in the eye', metaphorical or otherwise. He himself did not understand that completely. The productions directed by Beckett (many of which have been preserved on film) don't work very well, because they do not get much of the rich potential hovering within his sparse texts across, even to an audience of above average intelligence. It doesn't work to dead-pan dead-pan - It is simply counterproductive to reduce the means of communicating reduction
@@cahillgreg Beethoven was a notoriously bad conducter of his own music. Debussy a poor pianist with his. I genuinely think that the Beckett productions he directed himself were not the best. It was a great way for the writer to engage with something outside his lonely writing desk, and the productions are highly interesting nevertheless. Have you heard writers reading their own material? They are mostly (with exceptions of course) almost unbearably bad readers as compared with experienced actors.
Shouldn't someone now write Muffy and Hwat? Alloy, Stalone Dies and The Lino Mob, Le? Waiting for Krish-Nae? Crap's Last NFT? may not be ready for that one yet, how about then Krappps' Last Podcast (Krappp is, to be sure, non-binary and pluralized!).
Ulster "elected" not to be part of what was to become the republic. That plus the appalling lapses into an Irish accent is no more than a history rewrite.
Beckett was of Anglo Saxon descent and his early life was more than comfortable. His accent would most certainly not have been that of his impoverished Irish countrymen. Your comment was very apt.
Beckett was of Anglo Saxon descent and his early life was more than comfortable. His accent would most certainly not have been that of his impoverished Irish countrymen. Your comment was very apt.
Like most great " Irish " writers ( Shaw / Wilde / Sheridan etc ) they were protest ANGLO Irish. They were NOT living in the bogs of Mayo , cutting peats and living on spuds and herring. It's a moot point whether they were actually " Irish " at all ??!
I got ten minutes into this and had to turn it off. I don't care when and where he was born. I don't care that he moved here and moved there. I don't care what schools he went to. This is all useless information.
Check out these GREAT Beckett books on Amazon!
Samuel Beckett: A Biography: amzn.to/300Z0yt
The Complete Dramatic Works of Samuel Beckett: amzn.to/2N3NK2B
Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett: amzn.to/2ZNb8XP
Three Novels: Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable: amzn.to/31532rh
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Share this video!
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Also look for Samuel Beckett: A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by Martin Eslin. Published in 1965. Prentice-Hall, Inc.
This is very good. I think it's worth trying to understand Beckett for people who don't immediately respond to his work or who just don't "get" him, but I also believe that those who immediately find a kindred spirit in Beckett are always going to enjoy him more.
If you've spent long, rainy, pointless evenings in coffee shops trying to work up the nerve to talk to other people without ever opening your mouth, if you go home feeling completely stunted and try to sleep but can't, if you pass the sleepless hours by tapping various points on the surface of your mattress to hear and feel the minor differences in the vibration of the springs, and if you'd be relieved to die right then and there, yet you get up the next morning and tell yourself, "Well, I'll try just once more, maybe twice, three times at most" (and you do, and things turn out *exactly* as they did before), then you'll understand Beckett. If you were the captain of the football team or the prom queen, you'll wonder what in God's name he was talking about and probably conclude that he was insane. That's all right. Beckett's not for everybody.
Internet access doesn't change this feeling, some kind of universal angst
I was captain of the football team AND prom queen so I guess I'll never understand
The best doc on Becket--perceptive and concise, without a lot of pointless videos.
Beckett is one of my favorite authors. I never felt the need to understand him. As soon as I deal with the understanding of his texts, the whole magic of his words evaporates and what remains is a barren framework, a construct without life.
That sounds like you do understand him!
This is wonderful..... and beautifully narrated.... thank you.
In complete agreement.
Minds are so very universally mysterious and similar. Many thanks.
Oh dear another genius who can totally explain Beckett in less than, not ònly 90 years but 90 minutes. What an absolute genius
Gee are you hogging the corner on brains? That just makes you a hog
Beckett's writing is often hilarious.
So are documentaries about him.
that's because the narrative is the gloss removed by Beckett.
@@VladimirOnOccasion Ah, I couldn't say, couldn't say.
@@Johnconno :D
This is lovely… and I think it’s read by David Rintoul who, for me is the voice of James Bond in the Bond audio books… so now I’m thinking of a Bond plot but with Samual Beckett as the lead… I think I’ll call it ‘Fail Better Mr.Bond’
Thank you for this accessible, well-narrated introduction.
Completely agree.
There is no field or tree or lane or town to call ones home, but the search becomes in the end the bus we must ride to the end ,
Thank you. Illuminating, inspirational.
Absolutely excellent !!
I love Beckett . thank you for this.
His epiphany wasn't on Dún Laoghaire pier -- it was on a tiny pier in Killiney
Thank you. That was wonderful.
Brilliant genius!Amazing Beckett.
Thanks 🙏
The compassion...
Thank you for an enlightening Beckett literary biography, elegantly articulated. But why was there no mention of HAPPY DAYS? It was, I believe, one of Beckett's last stage successes
Thank you for this!
To call the unnamable "arid" is I think a huge mistake... it is one of the few pieces of text that brings tears to my eyes every single time I read it
"each passage could be the gnomic prose-poem of our own experience"
The Unnamable is the culmination of the „European literature and the Latin Middle Ages“, even if Ernst Robert Curtius never mentioned Samuel Beckett. It is pure joy to read.
Max Wall's Vladimir in Waiting For Godot was amazing
Plz explain the way you understood.. be it your relationship with characters or the plot.. it will be a great help
@@xcaliberish I took it as the futility of life and how we have to develop meaning for ourselves.
"Godot" being very close to the word God, both seemingly human constructs as a way of understanding ourselves. Always aiming for the horizon, never reaching it and then realising it
Max Wall and Leo McKern I believe.
His funny walk was better.
I see my self in samuel becket
You cant understand Beckett in a lifetime, let alone 90 minutes...
A nd isn’t 5hat wonderful.
Fernando Graça All you need to do is spend a few months in Ireland.
becket didnt understand himself
@@irenemax3574 I spent 26 years there prior to emigration and still don't fully get him & so it should be.
@@cahillgreg Ahh, you are correct, "and so it should be". It is clear to me that you are one of the lucky ones who have been reared by sane people.(An innate understanding of Beckett is a side-effect of spending one's formative years amongst savages and lunatics.)
No mention of Happy Days? The one with a female protagonist and widely taught and produced in universities? Everything said about Beckett as an individual is true of the character Winnie, but apparently this is a survey from an exclusive male lens.
Fabulous, thank you so much. However, it has to be said that the Irish accent is all over the place, and even includes an occasional visit to Scotland..
Thank you..wonderful
Beckett is as suggestive and referential to the traditions of European literature as Joyce but in a more hidden and sublimated way.
well done! ❤thanks for sharing 👍
good work here, yet why no mention of "Happy Days"? - adieu
Re Beckett being Joyce's secretary and taking down Joyce's dictation - anyone who has ever tried to read/let alone understand 'Finnegans Wake' will realise you can't take it down by dictation unless Joyce is spelling it out loud letter by letter rather than word by word. 'How are you spelling: Aches-ley pains?' Like the English Town. A?' The 'Come in' is obviously apocryphal.
is there a transscript for this video?
A winding beautiful tale of pain and mental torture. A genius, but what agony he endured!
His humor suggests otherwise (as well).
An excellent journey through Beckett’s life and mind or it that mindful life?
I quite enjoyed that. Better to get someone else to do those bits of Not I though. It's something that can't be done slow.
PollisDrake Yes! It hurts to listen to his slow halting delivery
Duncan Idaho tells us about Beckett.
Dunesception.
Waiting for who...?
Sure he's a pretty good writer,, but what a profound shock of pepper lock, lacing his widows peak!!!!
Strathern never mentioned Happy Days.
Superb narration. English as English should be spoken.
Too quirky an accent for my ear.
I wonder how much Beckett's depression was worsened by him drinking a great deal. It could have been a self perpetuating circle. This is offered as a possible part explanation for Becketts tone - not to trivialise Becketts vital voice and insights.
The foibles of human nature and behaviour ?
I can't go on...
I'll go on
@@gregleonard1562 :)
1:19
38:00
Well, it looks like the troglodytes have piled quite a bit of ridicule on you for daring to try to encapsulate Samuel Beckett and 90 minutes
But I'm sure there's plenty of regular Joe's like me who would love to have the equivalent of a lecture, and of course where the professor tries to whet your appetite for knowledge
And so I thank you for this lecture whether it is perfect or not, does not concern me
It serves to motivate me to pay attention to Beckett and that's good enough for me
I once saw a youth theatre production of 'Endgame' which was both a brilliant comedy and a profound exploration of the depths of human experience throughout - and a few days later, a very tedious production directed by Beckett himself.
Beckett's 'dead pan' humour needs to be played with some sort of 'twinkle in the eye', metaphorical or otherwise.
He himself did not understand that completely. The productions directed by Beckett (many of which have been preserved on film) don't work very well, because they do not get much of the rich potential hovering within his sparse texts across, even to an audience of above average intelligence.
It doesn't work to dead-pan dead-pan - It is simply counterproductive to reduce the means of communicating reduction
In other words - different types of production cater to your specific taste.
Congratulations on understanding what the nobel laureate couldn't.
@@cahillgreg
Beethoven was a notoriously bad conducter of his own music. Debussy a poor pianist with his.
I genuinely think that the Beckett productions he directed himself were not the best. It was a great way for the writer to engage with something outside his lonely writing desk, and the productions are highly interesting nevertheless.
Have you heard writers reading their own material?
They are mostly (with exceptions of course) almost unbearably bad readers as compared with experienced actors.
Hello, do you have an email address I can use to contact you?
Quite interesting thanks for uploading. You would have thought the narrator would have learned how to pronounce Godot.
The alienation of being a protestant in a catholic land maybe explains some things
More likely growing up in miserable s******e like Ireland ?
No wonder he and Joyce left never
to return. Mind you : it's nearly as bad today.
Samuel Beckett died #otd in 1989 ⚰️
Good but whats with the dodgy Irish accent?
Ireland had been destroyed by British policies. The Catholic Church was it's only friend. You're totally biased and wrong about Ireland.
Shouldn't someone now write Muffy and Hwat? Alloy, Stalone Dies and The Lino Mob, Le? Waiting for
Krish-Nae? Crap's Last NFT? may not be ready for that one yet, how about then Krappps' Last Podcast (Krappp is, to be sure, non-binary and pluralized!).
Ulster "elected" not to be part of what was to become the republic. That plus the appalling lapses into an Irish accent is no more than a history rewrite.
The put-on Irish accent at every text reading made this unlisenable after about 20 mins.
Beckett was of Anglo Saxon descent and his early life was more than comfortable. His accent would most certainly not have been that of his impoverished Irish countrymen. Your comment was very apt.
Beckett was of Anglo Saxon descent and his early life was more than comfortable. His accent would most certainly not have been that of his impoverished Irish countrymen. Your comment was very apt.
To be sure, to be sure
@@yingyang1008 ah here
Like most great " Irish " writers
( Shaw / Wilde / Sheridan etc )
they were protest ANGLO Irish.
They were NOT living in the bogs
of Mayo , cutting peats and living
on spuds and herring.
It's a moot point whether they were actually " Irish " at all ??!
Very informative but the narrator's bad Irish accent is extremely annoying and unnecessary
I got ten minutes into this and had to turn it off. I don't care when and where he was born. I don't care that he moved here and moved there. I don't care what schools he went to. This is all useless information.
Full of inaccuracies.
Drivel
Am I the only one who got sent here through a Reddit post. This isn't funny.
1:44