Comments on: Murphy by Samuel Beckett http://johnbakersblog.co.uk/murphy-by-samuel-beckett/ Reflections of a working writer and reader Thu, 20 Nov 2008 12:15:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: Pamela Hawthorne http://johnbakersblog.co.uk/murphy-by-samuel-beckett/#comment-110112 Pamela Hawthorne Sun, 19 Oct 2008 13:39:54 +0000 http://johnbakersblog.co.uk/?p=1226#comment-110112 " Beckett is preoccupied with this dilemma from the beginning of his career. Unlike pigment and musical notes, words signify beyond any writer's control. "Is there any reason," Beckett asks a friend in 1937, "why that terrible arbitrary materiality of the word's surface should not be permitted to dissolve...?" As an avant-garde writer Beckett fretted from the start of his career over the inescapable signification that accompanies the words he wants to use abstractly. In a world deprived of meaning how can the linguistic artist express this meaninglessness with words that necessarily convey meaning? How can he produce what he called a "literature of the unword?" Throughout his long writing life Beckett conducted a war on words that led him to startling innovations in form and language. He went on experimenting to the end, never content with the increasingly minimal, pared down fictions that characterize the second half of his writing life. Nothing satisfied him for long. Words, the enemy, continued to signify beyond every defeat he inflicted on them. His fictions are the progressive record of his fight to subdue language so that the silence of the Real might make its presence felt." Brian Finney. 1994. By permission: Columbia University Press. (First published in The Columbia History of the British Novel. Ed.John Richetti. New York: Columbia UP, 1994. 842-66.) <strong>jb says</strong>: Thanks for this, Pamela. A great quote which helps a lot. ” Beckett is preoccupied with this dilemma from the beginning of his career. Unlike pigment and musical notes, words signify beyond any writer’s control. “Is there any reason,” Beckett asks a friend in 1937, “why that terrible arbitrary materiality of the word’s surface should not be permitted to dissolve…?” As an avant-garde writer Beckett fretted from the start of his career over the inescapable signification that accompanies the words he wants to use abstractly. In a world deprived of meaning how can the linguistic artist express this meaninglessness with words that necessarily convey meaning? How can he produce what he called a “literature of the unword?” Throughout his long writing life Beckett conducted a war on words that led him to startling innovations in form and language. He went on experimenting to the end, never content with the increasingly minimal, pared down fictions that characterize the second half of his writing life. Nothing satisfied him for long. Words, the enemy, continued to signify beyond every defeat he inflicted on them. His fictions are the progressive record of his fight to subdue language so that the silence of the Real might make its presence felt.” Brian Finney. 1994. By permission: Columbia University Press. (First published in The Columbia History of the British Novel. Ed.John Richetti. New York: Columbia UP, 1994. 842-66.)

jb says: Thanks for this, Pamela. A great quote which helps a lot.

]]> By: Dick http://johnbakersblog.co.uk/murphy-by-samuel-beckett/#comment-109661 Dick Sat, 07 Jun 2008 07:12:52 +0000 http://johnbakersblog.co.uk/?p=1226#comment-109661 My copy of 'Murphy' was bought in 1962 in a recherché little bookshop in Cecil Court, just off the Charing Cross Road. There was a small treasure trove of New Directions and Grove Press paperbacks scattered around and the 'Murphy' was a 1957 Grove Press imprint. I guess it would be worth a three figure sum now had its twat of an owner not written, 'And the gravedigger puts on the forceps...' in blue italic on the title page and an hommage poem to SB inside the back cover. And it's bound in antique cellotape because the pages kept flying out. <strong>jb says</strong>: Hi Dick. Maybe this is a feature, the pages flying out? Joyce was very keen on the exact colour green of the cover of <em>Ulysses</em>; maybe Bennett stipulated crap binding. My copy of ‘Murphy’ was bought in 1962 in a recherché little bookshop in Cecil Court, just off the Charing Cross Road. There was a small treasure trove of New Directions and Grove Press paperbacks scattered around and the ‘Murphy’ was a 1957 Grove Press imprint. I guess it would be worth a three figure sum now had its twat of an owner not written, ‘And the gravedigger puts on the forceps…’ in blue italic on the title page and an hommage poem to SB inside the back cover. And it’s bound in antique cellotape because the pages kept flying out.

jb says: Hi Dick. Maybe this is a feature, the pages flying out? Joyce was very keen on the exact colour green of the cover of Ulysses; maybe Bennett stipulated crap binding.

]]> By: Jim Murdoch http://johnbakersblog.co.uk/murphy-by-samuel-beckett/#comment-109660 Jim Murdoch Fri, 06 Jun 2008 20:42:40 +0000 http://johnbakersblog.co.uk/?p=1226#comment-109660 I have the exact same copy of 'Murphy'. It was the first of Beckett's prose that I read. I was nineteen at the time and so much of it went over my head. It's been a while since I last read it but it's also pretty tatty. My 'Collected Shorter Plays' did fall to pieces. It was so bad that I had to upgrade it about a year ago. But I still couldn't bear to throw it out. I clearly remember my first reading of the book though. I got through the first chapter with the rocking chair and I thought: What the heck have I bought? But by the time I got to the pub and the ashes I'd forgotten all about that. I never warmed to the character of Murphy though it's not that surprising I suppose when you consider his philosophy of life. <strong>jb says</strong>: One doesn't really warm to him. Some of the others more so; though Beckett is a little mean with all of the characters in the book, especially the women. I have the exact same copy of ‘Murphy’. It was the first of Beckett’s prose that I read. I was nineteen at the time and so much of it went over my head. It’s been a while since I last read it but it’s also pretty tatty. My ‘Collected Shorter Plays’ did fall to pieces. It was so bad that I had to upgrade it about a year ago. But I still couldn’t bear to throw it out.

I clearly remember my first reading of the book though. I got through the first chapter with the rocking chair and I thought: What the heck have I bought? But by the time I got to the pub and the ashes I’d forgotten all about that. I never warmed to the character of Murphy though it’s not that surprising I suppose when you consider his philosophy of life.

jb says: One doesn’t really warm to him. Some of the others more so; though Beckett is a little mean with all of the characters in the book, especially the women.

]]> By: Patti Abbott http://johnbakersblog.co.uk/murphy-by-samuel-beckett/#comment-109659 Patti Abbott Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:43:28 +0000 http://johnbakersblog.co.uk/?p=1226#comment-109659 Looks brilliant, John. Thanks. Looks brilliant, John. Thanks.

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