Sunday, March 15, 2009

Sam the correspondent ...

... Letters from Beckett. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

I have read the first volume of “Du Côté de chez Swann”, and find it strangely uneven. There are incomparable things – Bloch, Françoise, Tante Léonie, Legrandin, and then passages that are offensively fastidious, artificial and almost dishonest . . . . His loquacity is certainly more interesting and cleverly done than Moore’s, but no less profuse, a maudlin false-teeth gobble-gobble discharge from a colic-afflicted belly. He drank too much tilleul. And to think that I have to contemplate him at stool for 16 volumes!

1 comment:

  1. Let me share an anecdote about Samuel Beckett and letter-writing. The article you link to includes the following: "Beckett was a prolific letter-writer." I did not know that tidbit about Beckett when I was a college senior. Nevertheless, I had the chutzpah to send him a letter (through his U.S. publisher) in which I invited him to attend my senior project production of Waiting for Godot at a small Pennsylvania college. (Only a naive college student would have the brass to proffer such an invitation.) At any rate, after sending the letter, I soon forgot about it and remained focused on the production. I and everyone in the theater department was surprised when I received a small hand-written postcard from Beckett upon which he thanked me for the invitation, graciously noted that his schedule would not permit him to attend, and generously wished all of us well in our production. Now, fast-forward to the present. I long ago misplaced Mr. Beckett's card (which is an unforgivable bit of carelessness on my part), but I shall always remember the warmth extended to me by a brilliant writer who is, in my estimation, the 20th century version of Shakespeare. Well, at any rate, thank you for sharing the link about Beckett's letter-writing because it reminded me of a very special moment in my own life. The carefully framed postcard may have disappeared (actually, I think someone stole it from me during a particularly ugly breakup long ago) but the good memory remains.

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