Waiting for Godot
I have never been quite sure what the Beckett play Waiting for Godot was actually supposed to mean. But I have always associated it with a state of suspension. Which, I suppose, is what life is. A state of being sandwiched between nothingness.
When one is in nether-state, neither here nor there, it can be uncomfortable. Or it can be restful as death ... you are waiting for something, you are not sure what, you have nothing to do but watch for the unfolding that heralds a new state of being.
Ambivalence is host emotion for this suspended state. Because you are unwilling or unable to generate energy needed to propel you into one or another quality of being, you abdicate to stasis.
And wait. And watch.
artwork by ceramicist Hanneke Leenders
posted by mireille at 11:31 AM
5 Comments:
Imagine spending four years deconstructing this, Mother Courage and (my favorite) The Dumb Waiter. And to find out at the end of that four years that nothing happened and you were just as terminally dulled as you were when you began the adventure. I think Beckett, Pinter, Brecht etal are oracles and should be read early and often.
2:13 PM
I really love Beckett, but oh how he hurts me. Endgame was (is?) my favourite. But when I was studying him and his works (as two separate and contradictory documents) I became depressed to the point of absolute inertia. The idea of toiling away, writing a stupid essay when I was an unloved puppet in a meaningless universe slayed me. In the bad way.
I frequently reference Godot: I am going to bed, I am almost nearly just about to rise from this sofa, I don't want to watch tv anymore, I need the toilet, I'm going, I am, I'm just about to...
1:20 PM
i prefer Waiting for Guffman. (same concept, more fun)
lovely post... as per your usual! xoxo
2:12 PM
Waiting for Guffman is more fun, it's true.
But...I find when the sensation of the waiting feels too heavy, for me personally,
it is because I am too disconnected.
I have to work to maintain a balance between being so involved with the minutiae of life I lack the larger perspective and being so objective and concentrating on the big picture that I am not enjoying and living the moments I have.
I am very nearly almost going to quit blogging now.
10:03 PM
I always thought it was about waiting for god or Jesus to come back or something like that.
Or it's an early Seinfeld episode since it's about NOTHING.
4:55 PM
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