Saturday, December 8, 2012

What Where Who How?: A Question of "it"

"Give him the works."
Finding "it."  Yet where has "it" gone?  The part of Beckett's "What Where" that interests me more than any other is the treatment of people by other people.  The interrogations.  I am stuck and fascinated by Beckett's very literal representation of humanity's thirst for "more."  For something not known but desired.  "It."



The presumption by Bam that others know "it"(which we must assume is some sort of secret knowledge, or really any knowledge not possessed by the speaker) very much mimics the incorrect assumption made by most people that there are others who have life's riddle figured out.
But, like Beckett himself, it is a mystery.  A mystery made even more mysterious and alluring by the fact that there is no such thing as an easy answer.  There is no resolution.  Only torture and questions and longing.  The play offers no answers, but always eloquently states the questions.

Because I couldn't resist.

Still, the fact that the characters of "What Where" have not surrendered to I-Don't-Knows is something significant.  They are not resigned to their fates, but always searching for life's answers.  It is this search which makes the whole thing, though painful, worthwhile.

No comments:

Post a Comment