Why should you read Waiting For Godot? - Iseult Gillespie
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Date: 2020-08-22
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Comments and reviews: 10
WillN2Go1
Good video. I've always found Beckett to be tedious and ultimately annoying. Perhaps Beckett should be studied, as an aspiring writer close reads a novel or script, trying to figure out how they work so they can write one. Beckett to me then is more of a schematic or architectural drawing than an actual electronic device or building. (I watched all of his plays a few years ago; I could appreciate the variety and various bits and pieces but again found it all tedious). A way of looking at Beckett's work is as deconstruction which I think it most certainly is, perhaps the first example. But I don't think that was Beckett's intention, Beckett wrote plays and accepted that at some level they'd would annoy audiences. As a practitioner he was highly successful.
Something else I learned about how Beckett wrote. An Irishman living in France (he served in the Resistance during WWII. His Irish passport made him a neutral which was useful)/ He wrote his plays in French, a second language, and then translated them into English. I think any writer knows the experience of writing a sentence one day, and then the next day rewriting the sentence to make it clearer, simpler, better, then later doing it again without realizing they'd gone back to the first version. Or rewriting what they'd written just a day or a week before, and then later rewriting it again to again improve it without knowing they'd just gone back to version one. There are many ways of saying the same thing in your language, but in a second language as a non-native speaker fewer options. A game to play in Google Translates is to write a paragraph, then have the app translate it into French, and then back again. It becomes more poetic, as 'potato' becomes 'pomme de terre
and then 'apple of the earth, ' (except this example is too obvious to Google translates. If you translate into German and then back the trick seems to fail. If there are any gimmicks in Beckett, as a first time experience of Godot seems to only be just that, then it might be in this translation technique. If someone invited me to see either a Beckett play or a Michael Bay movie, I'd probably suggest staying home. What I can see doing is reading Beckett's scripts as schematics to be learned from for writing scripts about characters who are actually doing something. less philosophical. That after so many years I'm writing into the oblivion YouTube Comments about my frustrations with Beckett; it's clearly an admission: Beckett wins.
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Good video. I've always found Beckett to be tedious and ultimately annoying. Perhaps Beckett should be studied, as an aspiring writer close reads a novel or script, trying to figure out how they work so they can write one. Beckett to me then is more of a schematic or architectural drawing than an actual electronic device or building. (I watched all of his plays a few years ago; I could appreciate the variety and various bits and pieces but again found it all tedious). A way of looking at Beckett's work is as deconstruction which I think it most certainly is, perhaps the first example. But I don't think that was Beckett's intention, Beckett wrote plays and accepted that at some level they'd would annoy audiences. As a practitioner he was highly successful.
Something else I learned about how Beckett wrote. An Irishman living in France (he served in the Resistance during WWII. His Irish passport made him a neutral which was useful)/ He wrote his plays in French, a second language, and then translated them into English. I think any writer knows the experience of writing a sentence one day, and then the next day rewriting the sentence to make it clearer, simpler, better, then later doing it again without realizing they'd gone back to the first version. Or rewriting what they'd written just a day or a week before, and then later rewriting it again to again improve it without knowing they'd just gone back to version one. There are many ways of saying the same thing in your language, but in a second language as a non-native speaker fewer options. A game to play in Google Translates is to write a paragraph, then have the app translate it into French, and then back again. It becomes more poetic, as 'potato' becomes 'pomme de terre
and then 'apple of the earth, ' (except this example is too obvious to Google translates. If you translate into German and then back the trick seems to fail. If there are any gimmicks in Beckett, as a first time experience of Godot seems to only be just that, then it might be in this translation technique. If someone invited me to see either a Beckett play or a Michael Bay movie, I'd probably suggest staying home. What I can see doing is reading Beckett's scripts as schematics to be learned from for writing scripts about characters who are actually doing something. less philosophical. That after so many years I'm writing into the oblivion YouTube Comments about my frustrations with Beckett; it's clearly an admission: Beckett wins.
reply
Sean
You SHOULD read waiting for Godot and THEN you should read an average Mills and Boon romance novel because theat Mills and Boon nove is going to BLOW YOU AWAY AND SHATTER YOUR MIND WITH HOW FAST PACED AND EXCITING IT IS. .. .. swear to god, you will be BREATHLESS after reading that Mills and Boon!
There is no actor on the planet and im including Sir Ian here, that can make waiting for godot even remotley interesting. .. .its a play so empty of meaning and substance that you can quite literally take any social movement, any current societal upheaval or change, and fit it into the play. .. .. ga ahead, give it a try. .. .give it a minute. .. im telling you, BLM and WFG. .. It'll happen. .. .
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You SHOULD read waiting for Godot and THEN you should read an average Mills and Boon romance novel because theat Mills and Boon nove is going to BLOW YOU AWAY AND SHATTER YOUR MIND WITH HOW FAST PACED AND EXCITING IT IS. .. .. swear to god, you will be BREATHLESS after reading that Mills and Boon!
There is no actor on the planet and im including Sir Ian here, that can make waiting for godot even remotley interesting. .. .its a play so empty of meaning and substance that you can quite literally take any social movement, any current societal upheaval or change, and fit it into the play. .. .. ga ahead, give it a try. .. .give it a minute. .. im telling you, BLM and WFG. .. It'll happen. .. .
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Julia
Have read it - school? University? Glad I did - never again - would like to see great (not just good, great performance of it - make more sense - whatever sense can be found- isnt that point, pupose - search for understanding, purpose - meaning - how fickle and confusing that search it - endless - wrong trails - missteps - wrong steps - no steps - contraindication and confusion on search for meaning and purpose - what I remember from 20, no, 30 years ago
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Have read it - school? University? Glad I did - never again - would like to see great (not just good, great performance of it - make more sense - whatever sense can be found- isnt that point, pupose - search for understanding, purpose - meaning - how fickle and confusing that search it - endless - wrong trails - missteps - wrong steps - no steps - contraindication and confusion on search for meaning and purpose - what I remember from 20, no, 30 years ago
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Paper
I just love how the message given here in this play. The sad state of human existence, the waiting process, waiting for life to be given a meaning by something or someone. And this play is relevant even now. Just look at what is happening around us. We are all waiting for this lockdown to be over with. We are all waiting for life to return to normal.
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I just love how the message given here in this play. The sad state of human existence, the waiting process, waiting for life to be given a meaning by something or someone. And this play is relevant even now. Just look at what is happening around us. We are all waiting for this lockdown to be over with. We are all waiting for life to return to normal.
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Brownalebelly
Why should you read Waiting For Godot? You shouldn't. It's a play. Always better to SEE a play not read it. Reading Shakespeare in schools is a big mistake. Go to the theatre, see it, act it out yourself, but reading it is usually boring.
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Why should you read Waiting For Godot? You shouldn't. It's a play. Always better to SEE a play not read it. Reading Shakespeare in schools is a big mistake. Go to the theatre, see it, act it out yourself, but reading it is usually boring.
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Renzo
Actually, Theatre of the Absurd wasn't a movement, like surrealism or dadaism. It was a term coined by Martin Esslin due to the similarities he found in the plays of Beckett, Ionesco, Adamov, and Genet. Ionesco even resented the term
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Actually, Theatre of the Absurd wasn't a movement, like surrealism or dadaism. It was a term coined by Martin Esslin due to the similarities he found in the plays of Beckett, Ionesco, Adamov, and Genet. Ionesco even resented the term
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Anarchic
Gadot is similar to hope will Gadot arrive? Certainly not then why vlamir and E are waiting is because of hope at this point it shows absurdity or necessity of hope
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Gadot is similar to hope will Gadot arrive? Certainly not then why vlamir and E are waiting is because of hope at this point it shows absurdity or necessity of hope
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Dorothy
I read this story for years starting from around twelve and loved it! I have never had anyone to discuss it with and it has been annoying me for decades!
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I read this story for years starting from around twelve and loved it! I have never had anyone to discuss it with and it has been annoying me for decades!
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Cayleen
this video does such a good job of describing the artistry behind the play. still not gonna read it, but i appreciate it quite a lot more
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this video does such a good job of describing the artistry behind the play. still not gonna read it, but i appreciate it quite a lot more
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Hannah
Oh sure, I take a whole class on Samuel Beckett and at the end write an essay on this play, and NOW youtube recommends this video
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Oh sure, I take a whole class on Samuel Beckett and at the end write an essay on this play, and NOW youtube recommends this video
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