The observed and the created. The Seen
and the Said. Both done ill. Both maintained in their forms by the
observer. Both erroneous in their own way.
Despite the observed and the created
being two separate forms of exploration for the observer, they are in
many ways connected. The observation is constructed by the observer
and, in a sense, created as a separate thing from the base reality of
what it truly is. The same can be said of the created which, while
coming purely(“pure” being a word that Beckett relies on in this
piece in particular) from the observer, must still be observed and,
therefore, recreated by the observer who must rationalize it with
their own observation. Clearly, this could go on and on with creation followed by observation and recreation.
Beyond the nature of the reality of
things, Beckett as a writer could be referring to any number of
things which are inexact, as the observed and the created make up all
of life. For Beckett in particular it appears to apply to translated
texts. As Evin O'Riordain points out, there are lines which Beckett
himself chooses to translate in unexpected ways in the transition
form French to English within the piece.
When Beckett, in English, refers to the
“pure figment” that the lead character desires to be, the
translation appears to be at odds with the original French word
“ombre” which “tends to mean shadow, darkness, shade or ghost.” While "pure figment" seems to imply something that is wholly created, the interpretations of ombre seem to point to things which are instead images which are brought about by the observation of things. While in the English translation the character desires to be wholly created, in the French version she seems to long to be wholly observed. It is highly unlikely that this was lost on Beckett, who uses this as yet another way to stress the importance of the observer over that of the observed or created. In this instance, the reader herself is the observer and the very language that they comprehend has a profound effect the meaning of Beckett's words.
A good deal of the ideas for this blog
developed from points raised in Evin O'Riordain's piece Ill Seen
Ill Said: Interpreting the World which can be found at:
http://arts.monash.edu.au/ecps/colloquy/journal/issue010/oriordain.pdf
