Friday, November 20, 2009
Eppur Si Muove
Willing enough to speak out in committee, one learns key behavior:
Casual politeness.
Good cheer.
Understanding of 'the task'.
Reconfirmation of each participant's position.
Helpful, clever support of what clearly is the pre-established outcome.
This despite utter opposition. Despite the sickened feeling of astonishment at such implicit social hierarchy, the flattery dance. Such forced tribal agreement. Cro-Magnon.
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Your writing reminds me of Pinter, and also of Beckett. In my bookcase there is a copy of a college book, now frayed, with my favorite plays, The Caretaker and The Dumb Waiter. Next to that sits a copy of Waiting For Godot. One of my favorite films is House of Games, which no one else has seen, save you. Theatre of the Absurd is marvelous. It is life.
ReplyDeleteTo paraphrase Charlie Rose, is there a direct line from Beckett to Pinter to you?
I'm seriously flattered. Never thought I'd developed from that dramatic tradition, mostly followed lyric poets, few of them so minimalist as Pinter, Beckett, or Mamet.
ReplyDeleteBut I must have absorbed 'dramatic moment', actorial techniques, pitch, irony, phrasing, somewhere along the way.
Also, the absurdist world view -- though I'm so 'positively liberal' a man -- that kind of pessimism, sometimes comic, comes from my hopeful reason held in check by my shocked, fearing vision.
Thank you for what I regard as a strong compliment.
It was intended to be just that, a strong compliment. You are a gifted writer. Your vision is enriching as well as eloquent.
ReplyDelete