Sunday, February 20, 2005

Making and unmaking

Last night I saw a superb production of Endgame at The Irish Rep. I urge you to see it if you get the chance--it is an amazing play of course but the acting here is really magnificent. It's funny and touching and bleak and pretty much everything you could hope for. I do love Beckett--there is something about his sensibility that calls to me. Writers like Woolf and Joyce and Conrad leave me pretty much cold (isn't that an awful confession? I am full of admiration for the technique but ...)--my heart is much more with the novelists of older generations, Dickens and Austen and Burney, and then further back with the prose of Burke and Swift and such. Highly experimental writing is something I don't often turn to--while I do have a soft spot for Gertrude Stein and Georges Perec and a few others, I don't miss it if I'm not reading it. But Beckett is the one for me--I would kill to have written his novels and plays! Must go and reread the trilogy soon, it's years since I last looked at it.
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1 comment:

  1. Ari2/20/2005 8:58 PM

    Jenny,

    This is ridiculous - I couldn't figure out how to post without signing myself up for a blog. It's hideously titled Writing Myself and Others (stolen from Philip Roth's book). Let's hope I have the good sense not to use it.

    Just discovered your wonderful blog - was tipped off by Steph. We got to talking about you for no particular reason, but I had been thinking about you yesterday because I went to see Joey Slaughter's amazing talk here about Human Rights and BildungsR. (which I noticed you mention at some point on your blog), and thought about you, and visiting your office across the hall from his. Favorite moments/bits of info on your blog include:
    - Your appreciation of Robinson Crusoe (You DO have to write about it.)
    - You've quit smoking.
    - The fact that you excerpt/link bad reviews of Heredity.
    - The references to Nico.
    - Your dislike of crowds.

    Nice to hear your voice again - although I was disappointed (though not suprised) that you are principled enough not to comment on academia in your posts. Did you see the recent article on blogging and the MLA on the inside higher ed page(link:http://insidehighered.com/mla/bloggers_in_the_flesh)? Thought you might find it interesting if you haven't . . .

    I'll check in regularly now that I know you're here.

    later,
    Ari

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