David
thanks for the below. I was not so much distracted as e-mail- swamped when I
replied to Ken Edwards. Beckett I was landed with as he chose to invoke him.
Now I'd happily wait for nothing with Estragon and Vladimir and if the voice
of 'Not I' needed help in that supermarket I'd be there prompto but I
wouldn't relish living in the placescape of the 'Lost Ones'. When the spirit
fails in Beckett the distance is chilling.
On a general level, I would recall that there was a distinct anti-humanist
streak in Modernism. It's evident in Pound, Eliot, Benn, Wyndham Lewis,
T.E.Hulme, Lawrence, Marinetti etc. Perhaps more so in Anglo-Saxonry than a
la continent. Until we look at architecture ....
To return to Beckett-specifics, I imagine a Beckett-scape in concrete would
have a duality - certainly a spirit of wit and resistance would move among
its denizens, Max Wall with attitude, but there is also a certain bare,
denuded aridity of an old-style Protestant heaven in his defoliated
theologies that is as cold to the touch as , say, the centre of 'historic
Coventry' is to the eye.
BTW, I like most of all of his the radio play he wrote for Auntie - 'Words'.
in amity
david
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Bromige" <[log in to unmask]>
To: "david bircumshaw" <[log in to unmask]>
Cc: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, March 17, 2000 7:10 AM
Subject: Re: <no subject>
>
>
> > but I do know that architecture
> >exists in concrete and plaster as well as verbal architectonics and that
the
> >mass-produced urban spaces of the city centres are as much the progeny of
> >modernism as Becket's dying embers (Imagination dead imagine) _ I respect
> >and at times even like Becket's writing but would not want to work or
live
> >in a space that physically brought to form the spirit of his work. Would
> >you?
>
>
> David, but what is it keeps one turning the pages of a book by Beckett?
> Not the bleakness of human destiny encountered there, but the wit and
> resistance of the writing. I would love a cityscape that had as much wit
in
> its buildings as Beckett has in his writings! I would move to that city
> tomorrow. Tonight. Too late.
>
> Beckett doesn't destroy his characters--life does that. Yes, he keeps us
in
> mind of the worst that can (is going to) happen to us, but invests this
> worst with a humour that doesn't mock sickness, old age, dying, but rather
> our evasions, the many ways we have to turn away from our carnal fate. I
> believe spirit can only be reached through an acceptance of our
> carnality--although to write as much already goes too far from Beckett's
> tones.
>
> Anyway, I've been reading your posts for long enough to feel you were
> distracted somewhat from yourself when you compared the spirit of
Beckett's
> work to a cityscape produced by the profit-motive out of the wish to
> dominate.
>
> Best wishes, David
>
>
>
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