Keeping Track of Beckett

Following my apparent theme of apologizing for something at the beginning of each of these posts, I want to apologize for letting my blog for this class slip for the past week or so.

So far, I have studied Samuel Beckett in two of my classes this semester, and am ashamed to admit I was not familiar with his works before this.  That is one small reward for being involved with this area of study - when I'm introduced to something entertaining, something important, that I was not aware of before.  That is one of the shames of my life though.  I feel like I should have read far more at this point, or at least have familiarized myself with more writers.  I know in order to be a good (or even competent) writer you have to read far more than you write, and I feel at the pace I am going I will never be able to achieve the level I want my writing to be at.

Beckett's writing is only similar in my mind to Stein in that it is more entertaining to me when I'm able to see it or hear it performed in the manner with which the author intended.  Four Saints, as well as Waiting for Godot were more entertaining to me as I saw them being performed.  Maybe this is due to my lack of imagination, but sometimes it is more valuable, at least in certain pieces, to recognize the author's truest intentions first.  That statement does have to be paired with the idea, "There's always room for interpretation...in any piece."

I wish I wrote this a day ago, or even two days ago.  Not because I would've felt better about turning it in on time - it wouldn't have made me feel better - but I think I had better ideas yesterday.  I should probably write those down somewhere when I get them.