I'm taking a play analysis class and yesterday we discussed Waiting for Godot, an situational play of the Absurdist genre by Samuel Beckett.

I won't go into too much detail about the play except to say that nothing eventful actually happens in it (it's a show about nothing).

The concept of Absurdist theater is based on the idea that humanity is alone in the cold and dark and that humanities efforts against fate are ultimately pointless.

My professor gave us a longer description similar to what I just wrote and when she had finished I commented that the description sounded like it had been written by H.P. Lovecraft. Believe it or not, my professor then said that she did not know who that was. Let me be clear; my Professor is very knowledgeable and well read, but I was stunned that she had never heard of him.

I gave her a brief description; basically that most of his writings were based on the idea of there being these horrifically powerful beings, either monsters of the deep, aliens, or god-like creatures, against whom humanity was an insignificant spec which had no hope of defeating these creatures. The creatures were always either determined to destroy us or didn't even really perceive us or consider us significant. They would either defeat us instantly, or destroy us by accident or with out thought in the way we would a mosquito.

She asked me several questions about Lovecraft after the class was over. I mentioned Smith to her as well. She asked about this because she realized that their writings if the 1920s and 30s could have been influential in spawning the Absurdist genre which seemed to develop spontaneously in the 1950s.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 4 Dec 10 | 07:54PM by Evil Iggy.

Your teacher's response was not surprising - I found the same thing in Syracuse Univ. in the late 50's, though there were some who knew of Lovecraft - Also, however, they did not know Lewis or Tolkien, though by the time I got to grad school in Berkeley, Tolkien was moving in the Student Underground - but at the "academic" level - ignored or more precisely not "in" - a space still occupied by T.S. Eliot and a few others; even Dylan Thomas was a novelty because he was touring the "red brick" colleges along with Kingsley Amis and a few others of his ilk.
You have done a good thing in opening her eyes - I directed "Godot" many years ago, and it is indeed about "something" - Bert Lahr was in the original production by the way - the "cowardly lion", and in "Godot" made a great sensation with his excessive "crotch scratching" - Great performance - I directed my production as part of a class I taught in "Drama as a Worship Form" (I assume you know that all theatre began as part of religious ceremonies - the word "tragedy" is from Greek "tragos-odes" - "Goat songs" - in which the boys dressed in goat skins with all necessary apparatus still attached, and pursued the girls in ecstatic orgies about the sylvan glandes - "gimme dat ole time religion" -

Your teacher's response was not surprising - I found the same thing in Syracuse Univ. in the late 50's, though there were some who knew of Lovecraft - Also, however, they did not know Lewis or Tolkien, though by the time I got to grad school in Berkeley, Tolkien was moving in the Student Underground - but at the "academic" level - ignored or more precisely not "in" - a space still occupied by T.S. Eliot and a few others; even Dylan Thomas was a novelty because he was touring the "red brick" colleges along with Kingsley Amis and a few others of his ilk.
You have done a good thing in opening her eyes - I directed "Godot" many years ago, and it is indeed about "something" - Bert Lahr was in the original production by the way - the "cowardly lion", and in "Godot" made a great sensation with his excessive "crotch scratching" - Great performance - I directed my production as part of a class I taught in "Drama as a Worship Form" (I assume you know that all theatre began as part of religious ceremonies - the word "tragedy" is from Greek "tragos-odes" - "Goat songs" - in which the boys dressed in goat skins with all necessary apparatus still attached, and pursued the girls in ecstatic orgies about the sylvan glades - "gimme dat ole time religion" -

A former high school English teacher of mine knew an actor who was in a production of Godot for which Beckett was consulting. The actor spoke with Beckett, and confessed his inability to understand what the play is about. In reply, Beckett snapped at him, "It's about symbiosis!"

P.S. Absurdism did not spontaneously generate during the 1950's. It has its forebears, like everything else. Also, Existentialism is a far more likely candidate for parentage to the absurdists than HPL or CAS. Likewise, there are such precursors as Jarry and the Surrealists. For more information, Martin Esslin's volume The Theater of the Absurd remains an invaluable historical study of the subject.

Quote:

(I assume you know that all theatre began as part of religious ceremonies [...])

Calonlan, are you familiar with Theodor H. Gaster's Thespis, which explores that aspect of drama in the myths and rituals of the Near East? I was a student of Gaster's, by the way. He was a mean and crotchety old SOB, but also an endless fount of erudition on the subjects of myth, language, ritual, and the origins of drama.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 5 Dec 10 | 08:31PM by Absquatch.

I do not know that work, but I will take a look at it when I get a chance - Robert Graves was my mentor/source in the area of a deep understanding of the ancient mythographers - he gives away many secrets in his novels which he pointedly fails to footnote - his attitude toward the scholarly "club" was very much in line with my own -

Gaster was definitely a member of the "club", but what he has to say is well worth the loan of an ear. His abridged and annotated edition of Frazer's Golden Bough is still the best introduction to that unwieldy masterpiece, and Gaster was also the first to translate the Dead Sea Scrolls into English.

So, in sum, Gaster was a crotchety SOB, as I mentioned, at least in his old age, but a most eminent scholar. I'll be curious to hear what you think of Thespis.

side note of small interest - The scrolls were first on tour in the US in 1965 at the UCBerkeley - they were on display in the law school and lines snaked up and down Shattuck Ave, 300 yards long up and down 6 times from the Law Library to the entrance to the campus - We seminarians had the opportunity to play with them a little - particularly the Isaiah scroll - the copper scroll was not yet unrolled, and that time seemed unlikely ever to be.
Great fun though for those of us with some skill.

When I was in college, about nineteen years ago, I took a class from a professor of literature who had never heard of Lord Dunsany. I was happy to write a paper about Dunsany and introduce him to those works, which open like a window onto a more beautiful world.

The English language has a lot of writers, and Literature departments are stultifying. It's not surprising to find that excellent writers are too often overlooked.

I was supposed to learn about Waiting for Godot when I was in college, but the lecturer never turned up.