Subject: Digesting four weeks posts in two big chunks
From: The Laughing Man (the_laughing_man@hotmail.com)
Date: Mon Apr 10 2000 - 08:31:44 EDT
Dearest of Fishes,
Swimming through four weeks of fresh bananafish posts has made me somewhat
dizzy. It reminds me of something Proust (yes, Cecilia, I'm still on - are
you?) said about reading books as the only time when the process of life is
so compressed we notice the change. But that, dear Marcel, goes for our
mailing list, too, after a longer absence. The identity debate followed by
sudden droppings off our beloved list, in the same second as beautiful
posts, some of them even salinger related (Mr Fishman and Tim comes to mind,
just scrapping the surface) - not to even mention (I'm a foreigner, Scotty,
don't beam me up for splitting those infinitives) entire posts about our
silent master. Collected glances.
Suddenly I can't help but shouting, loudly: Have you not done tormenting me
with your accursed time! It's abominable! When! When! One day, is that not
enough for you, one day he went dumb, one day I went blind, one day we'll go
deaf, one day we were born, one day we shall die, the same day, the same
second, is that not enough for you? … They give birth astride of a grave,
the light gleams an instant, then it's night once more.
How do you all cope with time, with the parallel thoughts inside of you,
with wanting to be everywhere at the same time, yet having only one life for
it? That damn light gleaming for an instant.
Missed you all. So much I had to dive in, even though recent posts about
declining work-efficiency are true about me, as well.
/Your Forever Laughing Man
Strangely tormented by attacking Beckett moments, quotations from Godot and
Happy Days taking big chunks of me.
PS
I knew all along you were an old Russian nobleman, J.
>
>
> Jason V
PPS
Internet is great. I just ask Alta Vista in a nice voice, and it fetches
http://www.gradesaver.com/ClassicNotes/LiteratureOnline/samuelbeckett.html
for me to translate the Swedish voice of Didi and Gogo to your guttural
language.
Actually, I like internet so much I just have to give you one of my abolute
favorite extracs of the play (Damn I love every word of this scene):
VLADIMIR:
Gogo.
ESTRAGON:
(irritably). What is it?
VLADIMIR:
Did you ever read the Bible?
ESTRAGON:
The Bible . . . (He reflects.) I must have taken a look at it.
VLADIMIR:
Do you remember the Gospels?
ESTRAGON:
I remember the maps of the Holy Land. Coloured they were. Very pretty. The
Dead Sea was pale blue. The very look of it made me thirsty. That's where
we'll go, I used to say, that's where we'll go for our honeymoon. We'll
swim. We'll be happy.
VLADIMIR:
You should have been a poet.
ESTRAGON:
I was. (Gesture towards his rags.) Isn't that obvious?
Silence.
VLADIMIR:
Where was I . . . How's your foot?
ESTRAGON:
Swelling visibly.
VLADIMIR:
Ah yes, the two thieves. Do you remember the story?
ESTRAGON:
No.
VLADIMIR:
Shall I tell it to you?
ESTRAGON:
No.
VLADIMIR:
It'll pass the time. (Pause.) Two thieves, crucified at the same time as our
Saviour. One-
ESTRAGON:
Our what?
VLADIMIR:
Our Saviour. Two thieves. One is supposed to have been saved and the other .
. . (he searches for the contrary of saved) . . . damned.
ESTRAGON:
Saved from what?
VLADIMIR:
Hell.
ESTRAGON:
I'm going.
He does not move.
VLADIMIR:
And yet . . . (pause) . . . how is it -this is not boring you I hope- how is
it that of the four Evangelists only one speaks of a thief being saved. The
four of them were there -or thereabouts- and only one speaks of a thief
being saved. (Pause.) Come on, Didi, return the ball, can't you, once in a
while?
ESTRAGON:
(with exaggerated enthusiasm). I find this really most extraordinarily
interesting.
VLADIMIR:
One out of four. Of the other three two don't mention any thieves at all and
the third says that both of them abused him.
ESTRAGON:
Who?
VLADIMIR:
What?
ESTRAGON:
What's all this about? Abused who?
VLADIMIR:
The Saviour.
ESTRAGON:
Why?
VLADIMIR:
Because he wouldn't save them.
ESTRAGON:
>From hell?
VLADIMIR:
Imbecile! From death.
ESTRAGON:
I thought you said hell.
VLADIMIR:
>From death, from death.
ESTRAGON:
Well what of it?
VLADIMIR:
Then the two of them must have been damned.
ESTRAGON:
And why not?
VLADIMIR:
But one of the four says that one of the two was saved.
ESTRAGON:
Well? They don't agree and that's all there is to it.
VLADIMIR:
But all four were there. And only one speaks of a thief being saved. Why
believe him rather than the others?
ESTRAGON:
Who believes him?
VLADIMIR:
Everybody. It's the only version they know.
ESTRAGON:
People are bloody ignorant apes.
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