I was wondering if anyone has read, and appreciates, the works of Samuel Beckett. Beckett is most famous, I suppose, for his stage play Waitng for Godot [En Attendant Godot]. Although this is perhaps his most well-known stage play, Beckett did write others such as Krapp's Last Tape. He also wrote quite a fair amount of fiction such as Murphy; Malloy; Watt; and Malone Meurt [MaloneDies], among other fiction and prose.
Harold Hobson once described Beckett's plays as "amongst the most frightening prophecies of, and longing for, doom ever written." I agree with Hobson. I find reading Beckett to be frightening, almost to the point of nausea. Although there is certainly humor in Beckett's writings, it is the most darkest variety of "gallows humor."
Beckett presents the basic predicament of life - the entire complexity of the human condition - in these brutal and unsparingly simple terms: "There is nothing to express, nothing with which to express, nothing from which to express, no desire to express, together with the obligation to express."
In the preceding quote, Beckett repeats the word nothing three times, and adds [or is it "subtracts"?] the negating adjective no. Beckett is being neither subtle nor coy in assuming his position. In my opinion, this is a stark example of absolute nihilism [from the Latin nihil meaning "nothing"]. For those who fear the idea of nihilism, Beckett would not be a good choice to read.
However, at the end of his quote, Beckett does speak of the obligation to express, and this despite [or is it because of] the absurdity of the human condition. My question is: Is this precisely where the hope in Beckett resides or endures? Does the hope endure precisely in the obligation to express?
As I said, Beckett is not without humor. A quote by him that I find especially amusing is the following - "All I want to do is sit on my ass and fart and think of Dante."