Saturday, November 16, 2002
 

Wow. It's been a long posting hiatus, at least for me. Catch-up: We finally wrapped up Joyce Thursday; it's not that I dislike the novel, but, as I was reading it for the first time, I felt like there was a very limited amount I could contribute. I now contend that no one should have to read both Middlemarch and Ulysses for the first time in the same term. It's just not healthy. Yesterday, I got my hair cut in the morning, as it was getting difficult to see. $10 at Supercuts, with student discount. Not bad at all. We had an ESGA meeting from about 3:00-4:00, then I came back here with a friend to kill time until we met two other people for supper at a local deli. After that, we went to see Waiting for Godot at this really cool theater a few blocks from me, which shows independent films and hosts plays. It was a good performance, and I particularly liked the staging. Female actors played Estragon and Vladimir, which was something I hadn't seen before. The last performance I saw of this played up the (absurd) humor, and this one focused a bit more on the surreal. When the play ended, we went to Jackson's, where we were lucky to get a table, and hung around there for awhile. I've been doing nothing but reading today; one of our grad students is in a performance on campus tonight, but I think I'm skipping in favor of doing homework. I also seem to be really tired today and had to take a nap before supper (I miss preschool). Furthermore, it's wind chill 33, and that does NOT suit me.

In conclusion, a few of my favorite parts of Godot:

Vladimir: But you can't go barefoot!
Estragon: Christ did.
V: Christ! What has Christ got to do with it? You're not going to compare yourself to Christ!
E: All my life I've compared myself to him.
V: But where he lived it was warm, and dry!
E: Yes. And they crucified quick.

* * *

Estragon: . . . There's no lack of void.

* * *

Vladimir: Let us not waste our time in idle discourse! (Pause. Vehemently.) Let us do something, while we have the chance! It is not every day that we are needed. Not indeed that we personally are needed. Others would meet the case equally well, if not better. To all mankind they were addressed, those cries for help still ringing in our ears! But at this palce, at this moment of time, all mankind is with us, whether we like it or not. Let us make the most of it, before it is too late! Let us represent worthily for once the foul brood to which a cruel fate consigned us! What do you say? (Estragon says nothing.) It is true that when with folded arms we weigh the pros and cons we are no less a credit to our species. The tiger bounds to the help of his congeners without the least reflexion, or else he slinks away into the depths of the thickets. But that is not the question. What we are doing here, that is the question. And we are blessed in this, that we happen to know the answer. Yes, in this immense confusion on thing is clear. We are waiting for Godot to come--
Estragon: Ah!
Pozzo: Help!
V: Or for night to fall. (Pause) We have kept our appointment and that's an end to that. We are not saints, but we have kept our appointment. How many people can boast as much?
E: Billions.
V: You think so?
E: I don't know.
V: You may be right.
P: Help!
V: All I know is that the hours are long, under these conditions, and constrain us to beguile them with proceedings which-- how shall I say-- which may at first sight seem reasonable, until they become a habit. You may say it is to prevent our reason from foundering. No doubt. But has it not long been straying in the night without end of the abyssal depths? That's what I sometimes wonder. You follow my reasoning?
E: (aphoristic for once) We are all born mad. Some remain so.

Elvisette philosophized at 7:15 PM