a little bit of humor

a little bit of humor

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Instances of Story Telling

The more I look into it, the more I see Beckett's thinly veiled directive. He is always trying to show the reader his capacity for telling stories, not truths, but stories.
"And truly it little matters what I say, this or that or any other thing. Saying is inventing" (pg. 27 Molloy).

This, I personally felt, is a jab at the gullable reader... "I should add, before I get down to facts, you'd swear they were facts, of that distant summer afternoon, that with this deaf blind impotent mad old woman, who called me Dan and I called Mag, and with her alone, I-no, I can't say it" (Molloy pg. 15) In particular, the bit about "you'd swear they were facts" seems to be a direct insult to any reader believing Beckett's story. Also, the implication at the end, where the reader is left hanging with the disturbing thought of incest, Beckett seems to seek out the gullable side in the reader, directly after slapping him/her in the face with the little comment about facts.

"Oh the stories I could tell you, if I were easy. What a rabble in my head, what a gallery of moribunds...Stories, stories. I have not been able to tell them. I shall not be able to tell this one" (Molloy pg. 132). This, I beleive, is one of Beckett's moments of irony.

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