Tag Archives: Samuel Beckett

MERRA

Posted on March 27, 2024 by Mark Kerstetter

He began speaking. He was right. Who is not right? —Samuel Beckett I am interested in the mechanization of the graphic procedure. —Richard Serra It may be that there has always been a visual art based on a relationship with … Continue reading →

Posted in drawing, visual art essay | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

For the Sake of Darkling Playfulness: Michael Brodsky’s “Invidicum” Part Three

Posted on November 30, 2023 by Mark Kerstetter

Packet Five: The aesthetics/ethics dyad I want now to produce a two-headed packet; it really needs two heads, trust me (by the way, this is not the first time Invidicum has recalled for me Brodsky’s novel Dyad, but I digress). … Continue reading →

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Paul Auster’s Transition from Poetry to Prose

Posted on July 7, 2021 by Mark Kerstetter

Paul Auster had written in Hand To Mouth about the terrible year in his early thirties when it seemed everything he touched failed and he began to doubt his future as a writer. But even earlier he had spoken about … Continue reading →

Posted in poetry essay | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Cold Brains

Posted on June 13, 2018 by Mark Kerstetter

The idea has crept into my mind that time wears at a person until the point comes when they’re ready for it to be over—they want it to end. Or don’t care if it ends. I also have the idea—true … Continue reading →

Posted in personal essay | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

Read, Pig!

Posted on February 1, 2017 by Mark Kerstetter

Once I saw the title, Think, Pig! I had to have Jean-Michel Rabaté’s book, published last year by Fordham University Press.

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The Letters of Samuel Beckett, Volume II

Posted on December 2, 2016 by Mark Kerstetter

…. being in [the world] discourages you from talking about it and not being in it disqualifies you from talking about it. —Samuel Beckett to Georges Duthuit, March 2, 1949 (p 131) I am no longer capable of writing in … Continue reading →

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The Letters of Samuel Beckett, Volume III

Posted on November 26, 2016 by Mark Kerstetter

Holes in paper open and take me fathoms from anywhere. —Samuel Beckett to Nancy Cunard, January 26, 1959 (p 193) The late 1940’s are often singled out as a peak in Samuel Beckett’s writing life. Indeed, that’s when he produced … Continue reading →

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The Letters of Samuel Beckett, Volume IV

Posted on November 15, 2016 by Mark Kerstetter

We shall never any of us know what we are worth, and it is the last question we should be asking. —Samuel Beckett to Robert Pinget, May 24, 1966 (p 30) On the 25th of November 1981, in thanking a … Continue reading →

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Beckett’s Labyrinth

Posted on September 18, 2016 by Mark Kerstetter

The Minotaur, not Narcissus, presides over the birth of art —Rosalind Krauss Patrick Bowles records a conversation he had with Samuel Beckett while the two were working on the English translation of Molloy. Bowles had shared a quotation from Blanchot: … Continue reading →

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Out of the Shadows with Maldoror

Posted on July 29, 2016 by Mark Kerstetter

Parle, et, puisque, d’après tes vœux les plus chers, l’on ne souffrirait pas, dis en quoi consisterait alors la vertu, idéal que chacun s’efforce d’atteindre, si ta langue est faite comme celle des autres hommes. —Lautréamont, Les Chants de Maldoror … Continue reading →

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