LITERATURE - Samuel Beckett
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- Опубліковано 30 вер 2024
- Samuel Beckett is perhaps the greatest playwright of the 20th century, and the author of the masterpiece, Waiting for Godot. It’s hard to understand the modern world without his perspective.
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CREDITS
Written by:
Professor Ronan McDonald
hal.arts.unsw....
Produced by:
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/ somegreybloke #TheSchoolOfLife
Estragon: What am I to say?
Vladimir: Say, I am happy.
Estragon: I am happy.
Vladimir: So am I.
Estragon: So am I.
Vladimir: We are happy.
Estragon: We are happy.
What do we do now, now that we are happy?
Vladimir: Wait for Godot.
Thank you T for your trenchant post: the point you emphasize in your selected quote, a summary of Beckett's struggle to convey, the naval gazing of these posters waiting for some magic upload of an apotropaic phrase that will solve their life conflicts. You may be the single guy (I assume you are a guy, and single) poster who was impacted by the boredom of waiting....for some poster to say something of his pain.
Thank you so much for this text
@@eugenefrankmd5433 Why do you include the "MD" in your UA-cam username, Eugene? Just wondering.
WOW. So funny. So fresh. Actors can do SO MUCH with that.
Great play.
I'm theatre student, and when I first saw you've done this episode about Samuel Beckett, I was extremely excited.
Finally ! I've been waiting for literature piece for a while now .
Great video! An episode on Julia Kristeva or Doris Lessing would be awesome.
Could you do a video on Gabriel Garcia Marquez?
I feel like I am not entitled to hear/see such content for free. What you are doing is so, so good.
And hella inaccurate as well.
@@shielinglai1599 care to elaborate?
@@shielinglai1599 yes please elaborate. i would like to know if what i'm learning should be unlearnt due to inaccuracy
Nexus won't reply because he's a knoblord
You may be getting this content for free but they get paid millions from ad and UA-cam revenue
Gogo: Let's go
Didi: We can't
Gogo: Why not
Didi:We're waiting for Godot
Gogo:Ah!
Ah, yes!
great video!
I'd love the school of life to make more academic videos- videos pertaining to literature, philosophy etc. Really appreciate the work you guys are doing!
Do Jorge Luis Borges please! I see you lack spanish-speaking authors, a lack which Borges would marvelously fill.
And of course, excellent video. Just as always
I agree! As a brazilian and also a latin-american, there are so many writers they can talk about, like Neruda, Gabriel Garcia Marquez (nobel prize), Clarice Lispector, Machado de Assis, Guimarães Rosa, José Saramago (portuguese, also nobel prize laureate) etc. Although they've been producing great videos, literature exists beyond europe and united states.
Gary Loor, They should make Julio Cortazar as well, his work is fantastic
Yea!
+Gustavo Soares I wish they would do one on Machado do Assis, he's my favorite luso writer. Him and Fernando Pessoa
Chema Vazquez Indeed! He would make a great video. But i think if the channel wants to start big with hispanic writers, it should be with Borges. Borges or Cervantes
No man understands the Human Condition better than Dan Schneider: creator of Drake and Josh, Zoey 101, ICarly, and Victorious.
If this comment wasn't made an year ago I could've very well reported it lol
this didn't age well
the joke went over my head. please explain
Still true too. Life is like a feet
@@abdullahmohammedali192 i think he's just making an absurdist joke about how Dan made some good shows and that means he holds the meaning of life.
Love to see one on Thomas Mann or Anton Chekov
Any chance on doing a video on Kurt Vonnegut? Would love to see one of him!
Joe Yes!
Yes that’d be amazing
Ted ed has one
William Faulkner, please!
Do Edgar Allan Poe
Sylvia Plath
Mahmoud Darwish
Do the Banana Splits. Please.
Waiting for Godot was a weird play but perhaps what makes it timeless is the objectivity of the writing and how we can interpret it in myriad ways, based on what we believe to be 'Godot'.
Really enjoyed 'Waiting For Godot' actually, and 'Play' was an interesting experience too - my friends at drama school show me his works, and they're good.
23 Oktober 1969.
Samuel Beckett. The Nobel Prize. What a humiliation for such a proud man. The sadness of being understood! Beckett or the anti-Zarathustra.The post-humanity vision (as we say "post-Christianity") Beckett or the apotheosis of the subhuman
He didn't experience it as a humiliation. The attitude you portray is immature. Beckett largely succeeded in leaving most of such poseur allures behind him after the war.
Good quote.
Great video... I love how Beckett's works especially Waiting for Godot can be interpreted in different ways. For me it meant the endless cycle of human suffering, we just keep waiting and waiting for things to get better, for someone to come and save/help us.
Thanks for uploading this a week before my GCSE literature exam, this video reassures my option of choosing English Literature for A levels. Just shows how important, complex and beautiful literature is.
amreen shaju best of luck with your exam next week :)
Thank you very much, with English as my second language, this means a lot to me.
amreen shaju As you're a School of life viewer at the age of 15/16, I have great faith in you to succeed without knowing you.
School of life has taught me many things, and I am forever in debt to this channel. But it is people like you who spend a minute of their day to say something positive that in turn brings a great effect to one's day- ever so subtly, that will ultimately be the cause for a positive change in the world. So all I can say is- thank you.
amreen shaju Another reason I like SOL is even though the world is full of different people with many cultures, they bring too light how very similar we all are deep down inside. Most people from all cultural backgrounds just want to love and be loved, to live peacefully and to provide a safe educational environment for our children and loved ones. Amreen I hope you have a brilliant day full of love and happiness. :)
Finally a literature video. I've waited for this for ages. Oscar Wilde showed be next.
Literature was born not the day when a boy crying wolf, wolf came running out of the Neanderthal valley with a big gray wolf at his heels: literature was born on the day when a boy came crying wolf, wolf and there was no wolf behind him. That the poor little fellow because he lied too often was finally eaten up by a real beast is quite incidental. But here is what is important. Between the wolf in the tall grass and the wolf in the tall story there is a shimmering go-between. That go-between, that prism, is the art of literature.
― Vladimir Nabokov, Lectures on Literature
Rahman Firoz : Hense, fable meaning 'little lie'; perhaps !
Make a video of Leibniz, Antoine de saint Exupery, Eminescu, Balzac or Gabriel Garcia Marquez
de ce sa faca cu eminescu? n-a avut niciun impact international
Teodora Goidea eram doar curios cum l-ar expune Alain. Dar de ce spui "niciun" . Am fost odata intr-o excursie si am trecut pe langa mormantul lui Eminescu si erau 2 tineri care ii aduceau un omagiu si recitau versuri. Am intrat in vorba cu ei si am fost uimit sa vad ca erau nemti( dar care erau maaari fani ai lui Eminescu)
frumos! no, eu zic că e puțin probabil să fie de interes - totuși, e un autor obscur pe plan european, chiar dacă ne convine sau nu. că sunt oameni care au auzit de el și le place poezia romantică, adolescenți.. mă rog. cred că dacă ar face despre vreun autor român, cărtărescu, dan lungu sau gabriela adameșteanu ar merita expuși mai degrabă.
gica craioveanu vream autori români cu impact international? Tristan Tzara, Ionescu, Eliade.
I recently watched Waiting For Godot and am currently reading Molloy. I enjoy both.
Joel Fry THE UNNAMEABLE is almost unbearable.
Waiting for Godot was the greatest theater I've seen so far. I loved laughing my head off while also feeling intense empathy and wonderment. I'll be looking for his other later works, too, such as Molloy. I tell my Christian friends that "Perhaps" is a reassuring response, not an alienation to creeds.
Reading Beckett I got the notion that he, like Swift & many others, was making mockery of our overblown rationalism.
"We always find something, eh Didi, to give us the impression we exist?"
Gabriel Garcia Marquez :~)
His writing is fine, but I was always more impressed with his time travel achievements as revealed in the documentary series Quantum Leap.
Oscar Wilde
One of my favourites: "To know you can do better next time, indescribably better, and that there is no next time and that it is a blessing there is not. Now there's a thought to going on with"
I'm not sure if anyone noticed this but at around the two minute mark, there is meant to be a photo of Beckett, but instead, it's just Max Stirner's head photoshopped onto a suit. Not sure what you're trying to say....
Beautifully written and animated video Alan! Samuel Beckett is indeed incredibly interesting.
You reeaaally need to do one on Kurt Vonnegut, and a philosophy video on JS Mill, please! Thank you for everything you do!
PS: a philosophy video on Peter Singer seems absolutely necessary at some point as well! Please and thank you.
Do latin american literature! :)
Thank you! I've been missing these biographical videos. I know a lot of research and time goes into making them, but it is so worth it. I rewatch them several times a week, så it's nice with some new ones. Keep up the good work!
There's a great audiobook of Molloy if people want an easy starting place for Beckett
Estragon: What about hanging ourselves?
Vladimir: Hmm. It'd give us an erection.
Estragon: (highly excited). An erection!
Vladimir: With all that follows. Where it falls mandrakes grow. That's why they shriek when you pull them up. Did you not know that?
Estragon: Let's hang ourselves immediately!
Thank you for adding perspective on the challenging works of this remarkable playwright. It adds a dark humor to the prose of Camus and Sartre, and Nietzche’s nihilism. I truly enjoyed it. Look forward to reading their works again.
nietzsche wasnt a nihilist
My attention span wouldn't allow me to learn these things any other way.
Thank you for this TSOL.
You guys should do a philosophy episode on George Carlin
That would be a perfect idea for an episode
I'm a standup comic and would love to see that episode show up in my UA-cam feed. I've been messaging Joe Rogan, trying to get Alain (the narrator) on his podcast.
So if they were to do an episode on him, what should they focus on? His criticism of consumer culture and American society conveyed through comedy?
+
They should do Sagan before Carlin.
School of life, I love your video.
Kindly consider Manto, a Pakistani progressive dramatist who was jailed many times for his ideas.
People were too stupid to appreciate Beckett's novels and plays when they were first published and still are. I've got all his work and I'd say the best thing he ever did was Watt, funniest book ever written.
Ever tried ever failed, no matter try again fail again, but fail better
"To know that you can do better next time; indescribably better, and that there is no next time, and that it is a blessing there is not. There's a thought to be going on with."
Your Literature type contents are really good! Actually these kinda are very important video under 10 mins to explain the insight of a person and work of his or her life. Also I love other SOL video types!
Kind of* typo
A video about Oscar Wilde would be great too.
"No one comes, no one goes, nothing happens. It's awful!"
Can anyone tell me what word the narrator is saying at 9:55? It goes "calm ___ structure". Thanks
6:26 SPOILERS@!!#!#@
the reason all the philosophers/ academics are obsessed with Beckett is because he perfectly describes their pathetic, obsessive, plotless existence.
marinetti It is why I like him best.
marinetti Pathetic? Pointless?
Why all this hate? What have they done to you?
'Their'? Are you suggesting that you aren't human? Because he perfectly describes humanity's pathetic, obsessive, plotless existence. :)
Well that´s harsh.
ha, jealous ??
Here are the lines I love the most by Beckett, from " Waiting for Godot":
" You are human beings nonetheless.
As far as one can see
Of the same species as myself"
I find these words very helpful when I get stuck with certain type of very difficult people. I mean the kind of people, where you need to make an enormous effort to understand.
In this case it would be good to keep Beckett in mind together with Terence who said:
" Nothing human is alien to me".
2. " Perhaps" is a very wise word indeed. A psychologist once said that the greatest sign of mental health is " flexibility". That's why a person who is full of rock solid convictions and certainties cannot be very sane, despite seeming very confident .It seems that becoming wise doesn't mean to be more and more certain over time, but rather learning to be more "at peace with uncertainty".
There is an incredible RADIOLAB podcast episode about this, it is called " Are you sure". . For friends who may not know, that's a two-time Peabody Award winner, incredible podcast. They sometimes spend 2 years investigating for one episode. Don't miss it!
3. Talking about how complex the truth can be, I remembered these words by the Nobel Laureate Physicist Frank Wilczek:
“You can recognise a deep truth by the feature that its opposite is also a deep truth.”
If you want to know more, you can hear him talking about this on an " On Being with Krista Tippett" podcast.
4. It is very true that we are either in the past or in the future. Always craving for something that we don't have. It has a lot to do with our terror of death too. As long as you wish to have this and that, you don't have to think about the fact that there will be a LAST day.
But Meditation helps enormously.
I have found the following lines in a book I liked a lot.
" Re-igniting your innate human curiosity is a wonderful way of dealing skilfully with the frantic world in which we so often live. You'll soon discover that although you feel time-poor, you are actually MOMENT-RICH. "
( From " Mindfulness" by Mark Williams)
Thanks a lot for this valuable lesson and for the wonderful animation. What I loved the most is the part when you talked about "a fragile necessary grace".
I saw Waiting for Godot on Broadway. Godot didn't show up but Keanu Reeves did.
He also drove Andre the Giant to school where they only talked about Cricket
I think anyone who has experienced mental health issues like high anxiety, or just depressed at the fact of getting old,can relate to his plays,especially,,Endgame.
please victor hugo ! i can't bleive we still don't have a victor hugo video essai !
Thank you, The School of Life, for these beautifully crafted videos.
Literature - Alexandre Dumas.
Richard Brautigan, Boris Vian or Mikhail Bulgakov would be great to examine...
For political theory, I think it would be interesting to do a video on Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. He was a significant departure from traditional Marxist theory, and an incredibly important figure.
J.D. SALINGER PLEASE
Please do Sylvia Plath or Charlotte Brontë for Literature. Ayn Rand for Philosophy
GABRIEL GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ!!!
Please, spanish traduction, i need it, i love beckett
Could you make a video on Victor Hugo and perhaps Nikolai Gogol as well? That would be fantastic!
Would love it if you did one on Thomas Pynchon! He's had such a large influence on postmodernism and is so interesting to hear about precisely because of how little we know about him
Great! Beckett is probably my favorite author. Thanks, School of Life!
I'd love to see a video on Nikos Kazantzakis at some point.
I need help in his novel...dream of a middling women...I cant understand it...can you help
please do Gabriel Garcia Marquez
D.H. Lawrence needs one of these
Thank you School of Life! These videos focused on an individual and their life's work are my favourite of your video formats. Please do more of them! If you haven't already done them, perhaps you could do videos on Hannah Arendt, Carl Jung, and Erasmus.
Please do Ernest Hemingway
I think the quote "The world is a comedy to those that think; a tragedy to those that feel." is from Hippokrates and not from Horace Walpole. At least that is what German google tells me.
Ernest Hemingway
Waiting for Godot is one of the funniest things i've ever seen in a theatre. Beautiful piece of art.
WOW! Finally literature video is back! Thanks a lot! Please do Thomas mann next!
It might be a bit obscure but what about Flann O'Brian.
Myles too obscure.
'there is a shape to his chaos' - Sounds like Beckett himself
DO IONESCO
How about, for psychoanalysis, Erich Fromm ?
Nothing to be done
i feel like we should give more credit to the editor
Um... MIND BLOWN
I've been away from this channel for too long. Feels great to be back. 🙌🏽
Thank you School of Life for introducing me to all of these great artists and influencing me to read their works.
have you guys featured any people of colour here?
That's a fair question. Shame they did not get back to you.
can you do a video about Charles Bukowski?
He was a drunk and terrible writer. You don't need a video.
Jessica S I really like him because I can relate to him, he seems human.
Jessica S Hemingway, Kerouac, Faulkner, Joyce, Fitzgerald, and a boat load of others were drunks as well. Bukowski hijacked poetry from the academics and allowed the Everyman to enjoy it. My God do you have a stick up your ass when it comes to literature.
yess
pound did the same thing. pound is a lot more interesting than bukowski
godot, isn't that the name of the first machine of the "boring company" from elon musk?
if it is, why?
I wrote my AP essay on Waiting for Godot. Smart dude 👍🏽
The life and work of Aldous Huxley should be in this collection of videos, he start writing poetry then move to short tales and then create dystopian societies while traveling around the world, amazing life and amazing literature
Great video, haven't read anything by Beckett yet, but I'm gonna!
His works sounds very postmodernist too (questions of identity, who are we, what are we) and seems to be extremely modern for it's time
Beckett is the best damn ever was, ya know?
And what about Steinbeck,Faulkner,Melville,Hemingway,Thomas Wolfe,Louis Ferdinand Celine,Malcolm Lowry,Emile Zola and Joseph Conrad or some russians,like Sholokhov and Gorky?
Andrei Dmitriev Sholokhov yes!
Do Louis Ferdinand Celine!.. That would be the shit!.. non-controversial at all!.. youtube comments love good shit, is all I'm saying...
I do not like sports at all, which is why I like cricket because it's just a big board game played outdoors. Nobody need get hurt in a game of cricket unless you throw your shoulder out from overexuberant bowling or cop a fast delivery where it hurts, but there is no deliberate violence unless you're some old Winchester boy with a thing against colonials.
Having operations across the world, why your videos doesn't have subtitles? The Alan's accent and his so typical british english isn't so easy to understand as many of you might think. That's why I am unsubscribing from school of life right now. For God's sake, even Slavoj Zizek is easier to listen.
well you've explained godot better than my philosophy professor did.
Can you make one about Joseph Heller? People should know him!
I just woke up and am of course hungover but looking for the quote “Life is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel.” It looks to be attribuyed to ne, Jean Jean Racine. Am I missing something? Other than vodka?
I mean, how can anyone respond to that? I understand what he is saying of course. Hey, anyone would. However, there are ‘opposite polarity’ writers from the same generation. I’d tend to agree more with the thinking of C.S. Lewis. But hey, every man for himself.
“I should stop reading now and be more productive.”
“Yeah, you should.”
They don’t move.
Great job on Beckett. We love the Literature and Philosophy videos too!
Nothing here that would refute the futility of those ever more desires, perhapses, or goings-on. Tis a pity that business of the Nobel. Nothing noble there. Humor is not hope. Thanks for not painting him into a corner palatable to optimists. "I shall always be depressed," said Sam.
Hmm. The thumbnail colour is off. I don't like that. please change it, my inner OCD is triggering.
And while you are at it. Voltaire is in literature here but is under philosophy in the book of life..
its the small things that we notice that annoys us.
All the best
An avid listener
could the next video be about miguel de cervantes the one who wrote don quixote