[ 3 / biz / cgl / ck / diy / fa / ic / jp / lit / sci / vr / vt ] [ index / top / reports ] [ become a patron ] [ status ]
2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/lit/ - Literature

View post   
File: 528 KB, 1982x2696, Samuel_Beckett.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
18140611 No.18140611 [Reply] [Original]

Where do I begin with Samuel Beckett?

>> No.18140614

>>18140611
With his first book, how is this even a question?

>> No.18140621

>>18140611
Work back from his most recent work to his earliest, makes more sense than any other gay posts ITT

>> No.18140622

>>18140614
>implying chronological release order matters in literature

>> No.18140641

>>18140622
Books work start-to-end most often dumb faggot, that's how a story works. Do you need to go back to nursery?

>> No.18140648

>>18140622
Obvious bait

>> No.18140663

>>18140611
Waiting for Godot

>> No.18140684

>>18140611
If you're trying to go through his entire oeuvre then read it in chronological order

>> No.18140889

>>18140611
If you're reading in french Molloy if english probably watt or murphy

>> No.18140923

>>18140611
There was a nice file on Pirate Bay containing films of all of his plays. It's probably there still.

>> No.18140932

>>18140923
It's there.
Search for "Samuel Beckett on Film (19 Plays)"

>> No.18141169

First Love and the other short stories he wrote around the same time if you want a taste of his prose. You can’t go wrong with any of the major plays, my favourite’s Happy Days.

>> No.18141330

How are beckett's plays beyond godot and endgame? Also, how is endgame?

>> No.18141439

B U M P
U
M
P

>> No.18141609

>>18140889
is it better to read the english or french versions
my french is rough right now but I could probably do it by the end of the year

>> No.18141636

Definitely start with his collected letters, it's nice to get adjusted to the author's worldview before you read their books.
That's why i haven't read the greeks.

>> No.18141649

>>18141330
I tried to read Endgame once and had no idea what was going on. Maybe I will try again some day

>> No.18141682

>>18141649
Seems like a standard beckett reading experience. Thing with me is i've had that feeling all through the trilogy and kinda accepted it. Great trilogy, though it was tedious at points

>> No.18141850

>>18141636
Intradasting.

>> No.18142375

>>18140611
Godot, watch the Beckett on Film version

Bear in mind some of the entries in that series are absolute trash versions of the plays, Not I is a great example
>Julianne Moore dogshit version
https://youtu.be/FyvpyWXXD0I
>Version directed by Beckett to an autistic level of detail
https://youtu.be/M4LDwfKxr-M

The Endgame version is quite good and features some of the Harry Potter cast

>> No.18142384

>>18142375
Bleh, better quality Julianne Moore version
https://youtu.be/InbRIoyBmb0

>> No.18142456

Hey OP.

This is my personal recommendation.

Waiting for Godot first. You'll get the true sense of the absurd by starting with this. And I also suggest watching it, first, as well. Have the text with you, although you won't really need it. And you can watch Beckett direct his own play and the performance, as well.

Part 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqpjddXaw4E

Part 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiTr7n8kPac

To continue with the essence and themes that are Beckett, you should then continue with Krapp's Last Tape, one-act, produced a couple years after Waiting for Godot. I enjoyed this performance by Patrick Magee, who worked with Beckett for a number of years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otpEwEVFKLc

Then from here, go to Endgame.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok7Vc3jczNg

When you watch all three, you'll understand why this is a good progression. The absurdity of being alive but also just the atmosphere and feel of it and being within one's own mind as life, reality, a reality of no God but believing or wanting or not wanting or not caring for God, etc. etc. etc. etc and etc. Beckett does a great job of exploring this theme in these three works. He suffered in his life and in his art, it shows. You feel it here, in these three, man.

Then, from here, you have a few options. You can either continue on with his other works in theatre (Not I, Come and Go, Happy Days, Act Without Words I, II) or you can read his novels, for which you will have kind of attuned yourself towards having the right disposition to truly get into and understand and even feel his prose work.

He has 6 good novels.

3 are a trilogy. Molly, Malone Dies, The Unnamable.
And the other three that are very good are : Murphy, Watt, How It Is.

If you start with Molly, you should finish out the trilogy, so it's up to you if you are either so interested or have the time to read out those works.

If not, read Murphy, then Watt, then How It Is. All short, all less than 275 pages or so.

When you are done with these, come back, make a thread and tell us what you think of his work and how it changed you, anon.

>> No.18143077

>>18140614
Whoroscope?

>> No.18143089

>>18142456
How Beckett changed you anon?

>> No.18143530

>>18141649
>>18141682

dont read the plays, you idiots. beckett wouldve thought you were missing the point if you sat there and tried to play the play in your mind.

watch the plays. stop being scared.