Understanding Samuel Beckett in 90 Minutes with Paul Strathern (2005)

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  • Опубліковано 28 вер 2024
  • Samuel Beckett's work evokes passionate responses: readers and playgoers either revere it or consider it a load of pretentious nonsense. But his philosophy of pessimism will always find a new generation of young readers, for it bursts the rainbow soap bubbles of illusion, leaving us blinking with stinging eyes at unremitting reality.
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КОМЕНТАРІ • 115

  • @ManufacturingIntellect
    @ManufacturingIntellect  5 років тому +10

    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!

    • @irenemax3574
      @irenemax3574 2 роки тому

      Also look for Samuel Beckett: A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by Martin Eslin. Published in 1965. Prentice-Hall, Inc.

  • @TheWhitehiker
    @TheWhitehiker 3 роки тому +15

    The best doc on Becket--perceptive and concise, without a lot of pointless videos.

  • @zichbold
    @zichbold 3 роки тому +11

    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.

  • @hirschowitz1
    @hirschowitz1 5 років тому +30

    This is wonderful..... and beautifully narrated.... thank you.

  • @johnryan2193
    @johnryan2193 Рік тому +3

    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 ,

  • @sealisa1398
    @sealisa1398 5 років тому +8

    Minds are so very universally mysterious and similar. Many thanks.

  • @paulklee5790
    @paulklee5790 Місяць тому +2

    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’

  • @jonathanmitchell9886
    @jonathanmitchell9886 3 роки тому +23

    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.

    • @yingyang1008
      @yingyang1008 2 роки тому +4

      Internet access doesn't change this feeling, some kind of universal angst

    • @RoshDroz
      @RoshDroz 2 роки тому +3

      I was captain of the football team AND prom queen so I guess I'll never understand

  • @tropicanacarmelita
    @tropicanacarmelita Рік тому +1

    Thank you. Illuminating, inspirational.

  • @aafiasardar9565
    @aafiasardar9565 2 роки тому +3

    I see my self in samuel becket

  • @johnmccann8319
    @johnmccann8319 3 роки тому +3

    Brilliant genius!Amazing Beckett.

  • @allanleicht5181
    @allanleicht5181 3 роки тому +5

    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

  • @wordjunkys
    @wordjunkys Рік тому +1

    well done! ❤thanks for sharing 👍

  • @thecritic81
    @thecritic81 Рік тому +2

    Oh dear another genius who can totally explain Beckett in less than, not ònly 90 years but 90 minutes. What an absolute genius

    • @ybrueckner5589
      @ybrueckner5589 2 місяці тому

      Gee are you hogging the corner on brains? That just makes you a hog

  • @cassielgarward9748
    @cassielgarward9748 3 роки тому +1

    Thank you for this!

  • @trabouliste1037
    @trabouliste1037 2 роки тому +3

    Beckett is as suggestive and referential to the traditions of European literature as Joyce but in a more hidden and sublimated way.

  • @Shm00ly
    @Shm00ly 5 років тому +4

    A winding beautiful tale of pain and mental torture. A genius, but what agony he endured!

  • @MegaFount
    @MegaFount 4 роки тому +1

    An excellent journey through Beckett’s life and mind or it that mindful life?

  • @michaelkomnenos
    @michaelkomnenos 4 роки тому +1

    good work here, yet why no mention of "Happy Days"? - adieu

  • @alanlawrence2954
    @alanlawrence2954 2 роки тому

    Superb narration. English as English should be spoken.

    • @cahillgreg
      @cahillgreg 2 роки тому

      Too quirky an accent for my ear.

  • @richardrickford3028
    @richardrickford3028 3 роки тому +2

    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.

  • @onthered
    @onthered 3 роки тому

    1:19

  • @yoyoassful
    @yoyoassful 4 роки тому

    38:00

  • @apexxxx10
    @apexxxx10 6 років тому +1

    Addendum: Merci infiniment for the the 'upload' Johnnie de Bangkok

  • @TD-qy5gn
    @TD-qy5gn 2 роки тому

    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.

  • @bungorogers7067
    @bungorogers7067 3 роки тому +1

    The put-on Irish accent at every text reading made this unlisenable after about 20 mins.

    • @TD-qy5gn
      @TD-qy5gn 2 роки тому

      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.

    • @TD-qy5gn
      @TD-qy5gn 2 роки тому

      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.

    • @yingyang1008
      @yingyang1008 2 роки тому

      To be sure, to be sure

    • @cahillgreg
      @cahillgreg 2 роки тому

      @@yingyang1008 ah here

    • @2msvalkyrie529
      @2msvalkyrie529 Рік тому +1

      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 ??!

  •  6 років тому +36

    You cant understand Beckett in a lifetime, let alone 90 minutes...

    • @gjingodjango
      @gjingodjango 5 років тому +2

      A nd isn’t 5hat wonderful.

    • @irenemax3574
      @irenemax3574 4 роки тому +2

      Fernando Graça All you need to do is spend a few months in Ireland.

    • @shangrila73eldorado
      @shangrila73eldorado 4 роки тому +1

      becket didnt understand himself

    • @gregleonard1562
      @gregleonard1562 3 роки тому

      I wouldn't agree or disagree or go so far as to say that so I would.

    • @cahillgreg
      @cahillgreg 2 роки тому

      @@irenemax3574 I spent 26 years there prior to emigration and still don't fully get him & so it should be.

  • @Johnconno
    @Johnconno 4 роки тому +10

    Beckett's writing is often hilarious.
    So are documentaries about him.

    • @VladimirOnOccasion
      @VladimirOnOccasion 3 роки тому +2

      that's because the narrative is the gloss removed by Beckett.

    • @Johnconno
      @Johnconno 3 роки тому +2

      @@VladimirOnOccasion Ah, I couldn't say, couldn't say.

    • @VladimirOnOccasion
      @VladimirOnOccasion 3 роки тому +1

      @@Johnconno :D

  • @andrewleibs
    @andrewleibs 5 років тому +9

    Thank you for this accessible, well-narrated introduction.

  • @kateduffy1052
    @kateduffy1052 Рік тому +1

    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.

  • @lukusridley
    @lukusridley 4 роки тому +4

    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

    • @lukusridley
      @lukusridley 4 роки тому +2

      "each passage could be the gnomic prose-poem of our own experience"

    • @trabouliste1037
      @trabouliste1037 2 роки тому

      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.

  • @tedbear2441
    @tedbear2441 3 роки тому +2

    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..

  • @RichMitch
    @RichMitch 4 роки тому +6

    Max Wall's Vladimir in Waiting For Godot was amazing

    • @xcaliberish
      @xcaliberish 3 роки тому +1

      Plz explain the way you understood.. be it your relationship with characters or the plot.. it will be a great help

    • @RichMitch
      @RichMitch 3 роки тому +1

      @@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

    • @BradBrassman
      @BradBrassman 2 роки тому +1

      Max Wall and Leo McKern I believe.

    • @2msvalkyrie529
      @2msvalkyrie529 Рік тому +2

      His funny walk was better.

  • @darylcumming7119
    @darylcumming7119 Рік тому +1

    The foibles of human nature and behaviour ?

  • @lokaldenker
    @lokaldenker 2 роки тому +2

    Being able to write such stories in a language outside of his own language gets me.

  • @davejanssen5851
    @davejanssen5851 Рік тому +1

    Waiting for who...?

  • @alannolan3514
    @alannolan3514 Рік тому +1

    His epiphany wasn't on Dún Laoghaire pier -- it was on a tiny pier in Killiney

  • @nictegki
    @nictegki 2 роки тому +2

    Thanks 🙏

  • @dM-ij1we
    @dM-ij1we 3 роки тому +2

    Thank you. That was wonderful.

  • @tobydobbs8668
    @tobydobbs8668 2 роки тому +2

    Absolutely excellent !!

  • @circlesinthenight3141
    @circlesinthenight3141 6 років тому +13

    I love Beckett . thank you for this.

  • @mickdevlin
    @mickdevlin 7 місяців тому +1

    The compassion...

  • @MikeGaughan-jq4eq
    @MikeGaughan-jq4eq 4 місяці тому

    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.

  • @ybrueckner5589
    @ybrueckner5589 2 місяці тому

    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

  • @William1866
    @William1866 2 місяці тому

    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.

  • @PollisDrake
    @PollisDrake 6 років тому +2

    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.

    • @irenemax3574
      @irenemax3574 4 роки тому

      PollisDrake Yes! It hurts to listen to his slow halting delivery

  • @Dr_Robodaz
    @Dr_Robodaz 3 роки тому +1

    Duncan Idaho tells us about Beckett.
    Dunesception.

  • @RichMitch
    @RichMitch 4 роки тому +3

    I can't go on...

  • @heathcliffearnshaw1403
    @heathcliffearnshaw1403 4 роки тому +1

    Strathern never mentioned Happy Days.

  • @prabhasridhar9667
    @prabhasridhar9667 4 роки тому +1

    Thank you..wonderful

  • @maryarchangel2131
    @maryarchangel2131 2 роки тому

    Ireland had been destroyed by British policies. The Catholic Church was it's only friend. You're totally biased and wrong about Ireland.

  • @griffinsdad9820
    @griffinsdad9820 Рік тому

    Sure he's a pretty good writer,, but what a profound shock of pepper lock, lacing his widows peak!!!!

  • @JohnMark-nb5ek
    @JohnMark-nb5ek 3 роки тому

    Quite interesting thanks for uploading. You would have thought the narrator would have learned how to pronounce Godot.

  • @kaitlynmarshall8917
    @kaitlynmarshall8917 3 роки тому

    is there a transscript for this video?

  • @fintonmainz7845
    @fintonmainz7845 3 роки тому

    Full of inaccuracies.
    Drivel

  • @1968KWT
    @1968KWT Рік тому

    Samuel Beckett died #otd in 1989 ⚰️

  • @yingyang1008
    @yingyang1008 2 роки тому

    The alienation of being a protestant in a catholic land maybe explains some things

    • @2msvalkyrie529
      @2msvalkyrie529 Рік тому

      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.

  • @tsubarashiii6251
    @tsubarashiii6251 2 роки тому

    1:44

  • @katoness
    @katoness 5 років тому +5

    Good but whats with the dodgy Irish accent?

  • @jungastein3952
    @jungastein3952 2 роки тому +1

    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!).

  • @mossfitz
    @mossfitz 4 роки тому +4

    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
      @cahillgreg 2 роки тому

      In other words - different types of production cater to your specific taste.
      Congratulations on understanding what the nobel laureate couldn't.

    • @mossfitz
      @mossfitz 2 роки тому +1

      @@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.

  • @Alan69696
    @Alan69696 3 роки тому

    Am I the only one who got sent here through a Reddit post. This isn't funny.

  • @beduelle
    @beduelle 6 років тому

    Hello, do you have an email address I can use to contact you?

  • @apexxxx10
    @apexxxx10 6 років тому +1

    I adore Sam Beckett but I despise Le Cricket! (Samuel Beckett was a respected cricket player - not his fault) Now, this anachronistic, colonial, goofy game called cricket should be phased out! This is how it can be done: Step One: ADIDAS, BMW, Hugo Boss and Porsche will donate 999 Million footballs to Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. StepTwo: The Kiwis, the Aussies, the South Africans and West Indies will follow. In five to ten years one of these great countries will qualify for FIFA World Cup. Think about the children! Your sons and daughters. YOU really want them to play CRICKET? Bangkok-Johnny CarSanook Media Thailand (where the only cricket we know is the insect)

    • @RichMitch
      @RichMitch 4 роки тому +3

      I never read such bollocks

    • @simonlee8889
      @simonlee8889 4 роки тому +1

      Sorry to spoil the plan, but the Chinese are VERY keen on cricket... something to do with its similarity to chess, the psychological dimension to playing it over a long period and the intense concentration involved, not to mention the physical strength and ball-playing skills required... All in all, the Dao of Cricket greatly appeals to them.. It's growing fast there... piss off

    • @apexxxx10
      @apexxxx10 4 роки тому

      Simon Lee *Here is s popular Chinese EV (electric vehicle) MG ZS (ZULU SIERRA)* ua-cam.com/video/nnwi5oxrv7w/v-deo.html

    • @cahillgreg
      @cahillgreg 2 роки тому

      @@simonlee8889 You mustn't let it upset you so.

    • @cahillgreg
      @cahillgreg 2 роки тому

      @@RichMitch Behave!