Samuel Beckett

Ok, you wanna talk about Beckett? Let's talk Beckett.

What do you think is the significance of the "Child" in Waiting for Godot? Why do you think Pozzo "lost" his sight and Lucky his speech in Act II?

the penis &/or his jar-born self

The first two pages of the trilogy were incredible and fell asleep from boredom after that. How'd he fuck it up Veeky Forums?

This is a very good post
t. Irish Beckett student

>What are you doing wasting so much time making an internet thread for a few minutes??
>You should spend your time wisely and just jump into a forty hour commitment blindly

Started Mercier and Camier and really liking it so far. Who else into it?

But please start discussion threads!
I agree with you to some extent but there's no use complaining about it rather than creating threads to discuss literature. You whiny bitch

You just shat a post you could have just farted, kid. In conversation, the trick is not to summon your own wit, you just proved my point deliciously.
Sit back your ego now, I feel its ache.

>pssh nothin personnel kid

Anyone care to share their opinions on these questions? Since this other idiot can't start a discussion on his own.

Start by learning French

The vast majority of writers do not need any sort of chart to read, this board just has some weird preoccupation with it. Start anywhere with Beckett, it does not matter.

He translated most of his own stuff. Not imperative.

Starting with the Unnameable would be a bad idea. Starting with his late short prose might be as well.

re: everyone moaning just read, it doesn't matter, etc., etc: have you ever actually read Beckett and/or are you aware there is a very particular trajectory to his body of work and certain things absolutely should not be read before others?

>where do I start with Joyce
>oh god user just fucking read a book, start with Ulysses, it doesn't matter

Why? It's where I started and I went on from there. It's wonderful.

>start with Ulysses, it doesn't matter
But you can. Dubliners won't prepare you for it at all and Portrait can be a nice addition but is hardly necessary.

>Why? It's where I started and I went on from there. It's wonderful.

Because its part of a trilogy you fucking idiot. Even though there's no clear continuity the significance of the developement and progress of the novels is hugely important.

Unnameable is the name of the final book and the trilogy as a whole. It's pretty obvious you are going to start with the first book, you don't need a flowchart for that. Thanks for being a huge cock for no reason btw.

I apologise, I've always heard people call it simply The Trilogy

Ulysses is literally a sequel to Portrait, though.

The "trilogy" might be the only way you've ever seen it published in English, but it's not obvious if someone picks up the individual book without researching it first (imagine that!).

And some of the short stuff is nearly impenetrable prose-poetry which would put off those looking for more Godot before they even know what they're getting into.

delillo's mao II

Opie here again.

On my shortlist, but how does it relate to Beckett?

Thanks a bunch, friendyo

Would you read him in english or french?

You may also want to check his poetry. I personally am not very fond of it, but he did write some great poems (Cascando, for example).

If you can also read him in French, do so. Even if Beckett was his own "translator", there are differences between his works depending on the language, and it is also very interesting to see how Beckett interpreted Beckett through translation.

He claimed that Infinite Jest was a huge influence on him

And The Lord of the Rings is a sequel to The Hobbit. You don't need to read either before those works. It can be helpful but it is not necessary. And that's the whole point I am making. Most of the charts can be nice, emphasis on the can, but most authors don't need them at all (for Christ's sake I've seen charts like this for Hemingway, Lovecraft and Camus) and even for most of the ones where it could be nice they are usually far from necessary.

>looking for more Godot before they even know what they're getting into
And if they want that complex prose instead of Godot are you not putting them off all the same? I'm glad I started with the trilogy preciously because I probably would have dropped Beckett if my first experience was through that play.

>The "trilogy" might be the only way you've ever seen it published in English
If you are stupid enough to pay for a book without reading the dust jacket or a quick look through the introduction you deserve what you get. Only an idiot would start with that specific book not knowing it was not part of a larger work. It's a piece of information so basic I wasn't even thinking of anything like it when I talked of lits preoccupation with charts. Wanting a chart =/= not knowing that The Unnameable is part of a trilogy.

>If you are stupid enough to pay for a book without reading the dust jacket or a quick look through the introduction you deserve what you get. Only an idiot would start with that specific book not knowing it was not part of a larger work.
Off the horse, you're no expert. The Unnameable HAS been printed without a "dust jacket", introduction, or indication that Molloy and Malone were somewhat supposed to be read before it (save inclusion in the usual "From the same author" list).
Bloody millenials...

As each art deteriorates and degenerates due to the gradual abandonment of laboriously invented and refined conventions (which, contrary to popular belief, do not restrict an art but on the contrary create, refine, and help it flourish — the reason bunglers find conventions "restrictive" is because they lack the training and discipline required to adhere to them and the talent and creativity to add to (i.e. further complexify) and/or modify them), we find in every field the same movement: a regression to previous, in many cases even primitive critical standards. Moreover, at the same time as standards collapse the number of aspiring artists increases (indeed, as we have seen, it is this very increase that leads to the collapse, the two movements unfolding simultaneously once the masses have been "emancipated" and the means of artistic creation become widely available), whilst the resulting artworks come to increasingly resemble a repulsive junk- and rubbish-soup that no one in their right mind would want to have anything to do with.

Hoenstly, just read all his poetry. There's not too much of it, you might as well get an idea of what he did.

>How do I get started with Samuel Beckett?
Start and end with the trash.