Page 29 - Studio International - November 1974

blindness, pared down, approaching nothingness, an end and all still once more. Here back a little
as are the continual Beckettian concerns with way to that suspense before head to rescue as EDINBURGH
the skeletons of all his works, the structures, if hand's need the greater and on down in
equally pared down approaching nothingness. what if not quite a single movement almost till
elbow against rest. All quite still again then
'At the end of my work, there's nothing but head in hand namely thumb on outer edge of OIL
dust. In L'lnnommable there's complete
right socket index ditto left and middle on left
disintegration. No "I", no "have", no "being".
cheekbone plus as the hours pass lesser contacts AN OIL CONFERENCE
No nominative, no accusative, no verb.
each more or less now more now less with the
There's no way to go on'. [29]
faint stirrings of the various parts as night wears AS AN ART EVENT?
One last image of silence, a representation, yet
on. As if even in the dark eyes closed not
an act so strong and so helpless in its self-
enough and perhaps even more than ever
destructiveness that after it there is, indeed, PETER COOK
necessary against that no such thing the further
nothing more to say. The examples are
shelter of the hand'. [30]
retrograde and should be seen as such. The
And the Kafka:
approach of hand and head. The first quote is
from Beckett's still unpublished manuscript, 'So wird es sein, nur dass man auch in
In the last decade, we have come to recognize
Still, the second from Kafka's Das Unglück des Wirklichkeit heute und spaeter selbst dastehen
the substance of the event. And the notion
Junggesellen in Betrachtungen (The wird, mit einem Körper und einem wirklichen
that it is the context, the atmosphere, the
Unhappiness of the-Bachelor); first the Beckett: Kopf, also auch einer Stirn, um mit der Hand
response — as well as the set piece — that forms
an sie zu schlagen'. [31]
'Half no but on the verge when in its turn the
the event as a work. It is essentially a concept
head moves from its place forward and down 'So it will be, except that in reality it will be
that derives from the theatre, and from the
among the ready fingers where no sooner oneself standing there now and later, with a
history of rallies, picnics and the sports field.
received and held it weight on down till elbow body and a real head, therefore also with a
After some extremely boring art-events in the
meeting armrest brings this last movement to forehead for one's hand to hit against'.
1960s we have also come to realize that it needs
also to take note of the expertise of really good
[1] For the beginnings of a theory of structural expression at the cost of erasing his (her PG) own. television directing or a Billy Graham rally:
materialist film which is much less eclectic a matter What he should do is to show the two faces to register the way in which discreetly a linear
than the present discussion warrants, see February overlapping. (Brecht, Messingkauf Dialogues). 'Not
progression takes place: The unexpected(?)
Studio International, p. the old slum coming down and the new slum then
going up, but both simultaneously'. emotional outburst, the point at which you can
[2] And I use the word feeling not as isolated
(S. Beckett; can't remember where). take a quiet nap, the deliberate mixing of
from the concept knowledge, not as a romantic
dissassociation from any cerebral functioning. [15] Samuel Beckett, Lessness, p/7, Calder and cultural types who can contrast each other, yet
Boyard, London, 1970.
[3] Steve Reich, Music as a Gradual Process, Notes still communicate with each other: this is
on Drumming, p/2, Hayward Gallery Programme [16] Tractatus Logico Philosophicus, Ludwig essential choreography in an essentially
Notes, 4 February 1972, London. Wittgenstein, Introduction by Bertrand Russell.
choreographic art-form.
[4] Jean Genet, 'Alberto Giacometti', p/55, [17] Samuel Beckett, Not I, original typescript,
Verlag Ernst Scheidegger, Zurich, 1962. New York, 1972. We are extremely tolerant. We allow of
[5] Samuel Beckett, '3 Dialogues with George [18] Samuel Beckett, Not I, p/7, Faber and Faber, almost anything, that it might be alright on the
London, 1973.
Duthuit', p/103, Calder and Boyars, London 1965. night, that professionalism might kill. That
[19] Roland Barthes, 'Writing Degree Zero', p/12,
[6] It must be understood that this is not to be perhaps is some kind of symbol of something.
Beacon Press, Boston, 1970.
misapprehended as an idealist notion of apparent
Yet how do we embrace a conference of
'openness' which would in fact merely be an [20] Peter Gidal, 'Andy Warhol: Films and Paintings',
politicians, economists, environmentalists,
ideological mystification. It does bear relation p/84, Studio Vista-Dutton, London, 1971.
to historical and dialectical materialism, see [21] The ideologically rigidified signifier/signified welders, architects -- discussing — for the most
especially Louis Althusser 'Ideology and the State' relation is persistently attacked. part dispassionately — the background, logistics,
and 'On the materialist Dialectic', and Mao Tse Tung
[22] John Fletcher, Afterword and Notes to and social tactics of an essentially industrial [1]
'On Contradiction' and 'On Practice' as well as, of
Waiting for Godot, p/117, Faber and Faber, London,
course, 'Capital' and 'Wolfman'. In addition it bears problem?
1971.
relation to the notion of the signifier as arbitrary. The Black and White Oil Show — as this
[23] Samuel Beckett, 'Samuel Beckett inszeniert
[7] Steve Reich, Music as a Gradual Process, conference was titled — managed to avoid the
das Endspiel Bericht von Michael Haerdter', p/100,
Notes on Drumming, p/3.
Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt, AIM, 1969. major trap: that of being a comfortable meeting
[8] Samuel Beckett, 'Samuel Beckett inszeniert das
Endspiel. Bericht von Michael Haerdter' p/103. [24] Samuel Beckett, Play in Evergreen Review No. place for those economists, environmentalists,
34, p/92, Evergreen Review Inc., New York, December
[9] Samuel Beckett, quoted in Samuel Beckett: architects and professional climbers who typify
1964.
En Attendant Godot, Colin Duckworth, p/xxiv, conferences. Coming as part of this year's
Harrap & Co. Ltd., 1966, London. [25] Maholgy-Nagy, Laszlo, Dynamic of the
Metropolis, in 'Painting Photography Film', p/1 37, 'Edinburgh Arts' — that is the Ricky Demarco
[10] Samuel Beckett, The Lost Ones, p54/55,
Lund Humphries, London, 1969. Festival — it could never have been. To Ricky
Calder and Boyars, London, 1972.
[26] Samuel Beckett, in a letter to Peter Gidal, its context was that of Scotland: its mystery,
[11] Hugh Kenner, 'Samuel Beckett', (Quoting
12/9/1972.
Harold Hobson), p/100, John Calder Ltd., London, its poetry, its dynamic: and of art as survival,
1961. [27] Here theatrically structural devices are still and (if I can guess into his imagination) the
posited within largely transparent, pseudo-documentary
[12] Samuel Beckett, Film, p/11, Faber and Faber,
film sequences. paradox of black gold/evil gold: as an art
London, 1972.
[28] Ian Kott, King Lear or Endgame, in Evergreen concept in itself. That's lovely. But the
[13] This in no way connects to a notion of
Review, No. 33, p/52, Evergreen Review, Inc. New background to the event was curious, and
ambignity, the latter being a concept deeply
York, August/September, 1964.
(ideologically) positioned within the bourgeois merits some discussion, since it led to some
culture. [29] Samuel Beckett, quoted in 'Samuel Beckett; near-misses, or exchanges that might-have-
En Attendant Godot', Colin Duckworth, p/xxi,
[14] Alienation in the Brechtian sense. 'To achieve
Harrap & Co. Ltd., London, 1966. been; and its ultimate failure on both counts —
the A-effect the actor must give up his complete
conversion into the stage character. He shows the [30] Samuel Beckett, Still, courtesy Luigi Majno, as an art-event, and as a useful public explosion
character, he quotes his lines, he repeats a real-life m'arte, s.r.l. Milano, Italy, 30th December, 1972, of the fallacy of the Scottish oil policy of both
incident. The audience is not entirely 'carried away'; Via Gustavo Fara 4, Milano.
the Conservative and Labour administrations,
it need not conform psychologically, adopt a [31] Franz Kafka 'Betrachtungen, Das Unglück des
is not compensated for by the occasional
fatalistic attitude towards fate as portrayed. There's Junggesellen', p/41, Ernst Rowohlt Verlag, Leipzig,
no A-effect when the actor adopts another's facial 1912. moments of magic.
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