sus
Moderator
Version gives... And version takesIn case anyone's confused, Versions deleted about 10 of his posts from the last couple of pages for no reason I can see
Samuel Beckett
- Thread starter Melmoth
- Start date
sus
Moderator
Have you read Pound Era then? And has Jenks not got an Internet connection?
vershy versh
Well-known member
sus
Moderator
What did you make of it? I'm through to the fourth chapter. I sort of love it, though I can only take it in small doses. The Sapphic fragments chapter a bit of a slog. Are there chapters later on I should jump through? Or you think it's a book to be taken whole or not at all?
vershy versh
Well-known member
I liked it, although I had a similar experience to you in that it took me a while to read and some of it was a slog. That Sapphic fragments section, the sections on Chinese poetry and the close readings didn't interest me as much as the stuff on 'The Vortex' and 'Fossil Poetry' and some other bits and pieces. The highs were worth the lows though and even when it wasn't interesting I felt I was learning something.
I would read the whole thing, but Luke's right about 'Knot and Vortex' being perhaps the best chapter of the lot. That's the one where he talks about a knot being a pattern of energy made visible by the rope then extends the model to poetry.
The book ends strongly too. There's this brilliant bit right at the end where he describes Pound at different ages sitting on a step in his hometown that's really moving. A killer last line as well.
jenks
thread death
Yes. I’ve read Pound Era ( big discussion on the Pound thread) and I do have an internet connection but I thought I’d ask the board as there might be some experts on here - some who might say ‘Don’t bother with Kenner on Beckett, he’s not as good as he is on Pound’ or some such thing.
sus
Moderator
I think I'll try hopping to Knot and Vortex thanks. I can always go back. Thank you!!
vershy versh
Well-known member
Beckett gets a brief mention or two in The Pound Era, but I haven't read any of the books focused on him yet. There's a reader's guide, a critical study and a few where he focuses on a handful of writers, Beckett among them. I think they met irl at least once.
Benny Bunter
Well-known member
Serenely in the crystal jet
as the bright ball that the fountain tosses
(Verlaine) as diamond clearness
How soft the wind under Taishan
where the sea is remembered
out of hell, the pit
out of the dust and glare evil
Zephyrus / Apeliota
This liquid is certainly a
property of the mind
nec accidens est but an element
in the mind's make-up
est agens and functions dust to a fountain pan otherwise
Hast 'ou seen the rose in the steel dust
(or swansdown ever?)
so light is the urging, so ordered the dark petals of iron we who have passed over Lethe.
as the bright ball that the fountain tosses
(Verlaine) as diamond clearness
How soft the wind under Taishan
where the sea is remembered
out of hell, the pit
out of the dust and glare evil
Zephyrus / Apeliota
This liquid is certainly a
property of the mind
nec accidens est but an element
in the mind's make-up
est agens and functions dust to a fountain pan otherwise
Hast 'ou seen the rose in the steel dust
(or swansdown ever?)
so light is the urging, so ordered the dark petals of iron we who have passed over Lethe.
vershy versh
Well-known member
vershy versh
Well-known member
Back to Beckett, I got one of his for Christmas. One of the Faber editions that collects some of his late pieces. The one with Company, Ill Seen Ill Said, Worstward Ho, Stirrings Still and some other bits and bobs.
Benny Bunter
Well-known member
Was just thinking it was almost exactly a year ago I read Beckett for the first time and almost exactly 2 years ago when Luka was in COVID confinement and we went through the 1st Pisan canto in great detail on here. Good times.
Did you ever read any of the plays, Version? I still haven't got round to the novels but I hope to this year.
Did you ever read any of the plays, Version? I still haven't got round to the novels but I hope to this year.
vershy versh
Well-known member
Nah, none of them.
Benny Bunter
Well-known member
You went straight into the hard stuff.
Benny Bunter
Well-known member
It's weird reading the Beckett plays cos a lot of them are like 90% stage directions. Godot and Endgame are great reads though.
vershy versh
Well-known member
The novels seemed more appealing.
Benny Bunter
Well-known member
Age is when to a man
Huddled o'er the ingle
Shivering for the old hag
To put the pan in the bed
And bring the toddy
She comes in the ashes
Who loved could not be won
Or won not loved
Or some other trouble
Comes in the ashes
Like in that old light
The face in the ashes
That old starlight
On the earth again.
Huddled o'er the ingle
Shivering for the old hag
To put the pan in the bed
And bring the toddy
She comes in the ashes
Who loved could not be won
Or won not loved
Or some other trouble
Comes in the ashes
Like in that old light
The face in the ashes
That old starlight
On the earth again.
jenks
thread death
I always got bogged down about thirty pages into Molloy. This time I used the audiobook and it was revelatory. In many ways more like a play than a novel - the rambling voice, the digression, the self interrogation, the interruptions, all made much more sense. And, of course, the rhythms that come from an Irish voice reading Irish prose.
vershy versh
Well-known member
I was really taken with Molloy. Thought it was brilliant. A detective story folded into a Mobius strip. Read Malone Dies last year and wasn't as impressed. Felt like the same thing again, only diminished. Suppose some might argue that's the point, but it just wasn't as engaging a read. It did have its moments, but I found myself wishing I was rereading Molloy instead.