Uploaded September 2014 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Here's a virtual movie of a mindblowing literary piece from the very great Samuel Beckett "How it is" Like a lot of Beckett explanation of the piece is not easy,but as far I can glean its the lightning fast manic terrifying thoughts of a man stuck in the mud,perhaps a swamp,hence the image I have used in in my virtual movie of a model of a mans face in mud made by means of a plaster cast. The definitive almost superhuman recital is by the late great Scottish actor Nicol Williamson.
How It Is is a novel by Samuel Beckett first published in French as Comment c'est by Les Editions de Minuit in 1961. The Grove Press (New York) published Beckett's English translation in 1964. An advance text of his English translation of the third part appeared in the 1962 issue of the Australian literary journal, Arna.[1]
L'Image, an early variant version of Comment c'est, was published in the British arts review, X: A Quarterly Review (1959), and is the first appearance of the novel in any form.[2]
The novel is a monologue by the narrator as he crawls through endless mud, recalling his life separated into three distinct periods.
The title is Beckett's literal translation of the French phrase, comment c'est (how it is), a pun on the French verb commencer or 'to begin'.
The text is divided into three parts:
1. "before Pim" - the solitary narrator journeys in the mud-dark until he encounters another creature like himself thereby forming a "couple".
2. "with Pim" - the narrator is motionless in the mud-dark until he is abandoned by Pim.
3. "after Pim" - the narrator returns to his earlier solitude but without motion in the mud-dark.
In a letter (April 6, 1960) to Donald McWhinnie at BBC Radio Drama, Beckett explained his strange text as the product of a " 'man' lying panting in the mud and dark murmuring his 'life' as he hears it obscurely uttered by a voice inside him... The noise of his panting fills his ears and it is only when this abates that he can catch and murmur forth a fragment of what is being stated within... It is in the third part that occurs the so-called voice 'quaqua', its interiorisation and murmuring forth when the panting stops. That is to say the 'I' is from the outset in the third part and the first and second, though stated as heard in the present, already over.
Samuel Barclay Beckett (/ˈbɛkɪt/; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet, who lived in Paris for most of his adult life and wrote in both English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.
Beckett is widely regarded as among the most influential writers of the 20th century.[2] He is considered one of the last modernists. As an inspiration to many later writers, he is also sometimes considered one of the first postmodernists. He is one of the key writers in what Martin Esslin called the "Theatre of the Absurd". His work became increasingly minimalist in his later career.
Beckett was awarded the 1969 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his writing, which—in new forms for the novel and drama—in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation".[3] He was elected Saoi of Aosdána in 1984
Kind Regards
Jim Clark
All rights are reserved on this video recording copyright Jim Clark 2014
Here's a virtual movie of a mindblowing literary piece from the very great Samuel Beckett "How it is" Like a lot of Beckett explanation of the piece is not easy,but as far I can glean its the lightning fast manic terrifying thoughts of a man stuck in the mud,perhaps a swamp,hence the image I have used in in my virtual movie of a model of a mans face in mud made by means of a plaster cast. The definitive almost superhuman recital is by the late great Scottish actor Nicol Williamson.
How It Is is a novel by Samuel Beckett first published in French as Comment c'est by Les Editions de Minuit in 1961. The Grove Press (New York) published Beckett's English translation in 1964. An advance text of his English translation of the third part appeared in the 1962 issue of the Australian literary journal, Arna.[1]
L'Image, an early variant version of Comment c'est, was published in the British arts review, X: A Quarterly Review (1959), and is the first appearance of the novel in any form.[2]
The novel is a monologue by the narrator as he crawls through endless mud, recalling his life separated into three distinct periods.
The title is Beckett's literal translation of the French phrase, comment c'est (how it is), a pun on the French verb commencer or 'to begin'.
The text is divided into three parts:
1. "before Pim" - the solitary narrator journeys in the mud-dark until he encounters another creature like himself thereby forming a "couple".
2. "with Pim" - the narrator is motionless in the mud-dark until he is abandoned by Pim.
3. "after Pim" - the narrator returns to his earlier solitude but without motion in the mud-dark.
In a letter (April 6, 1960) to Donald McWhinnie at BBC Radio Drama, Beckett explained his strange text as the product of a " 'man' lying panting in the mud and dark murmuring his 'life' as he hears it obscurely uttered by a voice inside him... The noise of his panting fills his ears and it is only when this abates that he can catch and murmur forth a fragment of what is being stated within... It is in the third part that occurs the so-called voice 'quaqua', its interiorisation and murmuring forth when the panting stops. That is to say the 'I' is from the outset in the third part and the first and second, though stated as heard in the present, already over.
Samuel Barclay Beckett (/ˈbɛkɪt/; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet, who lived in Paris for most of his adult life and wrote in both English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.
Beckett is widely regarded as among the most influential writers of the 20th century.[2] He is considered one of the last modernists. As an inspiration to many later writers, he is also sometimes considered one of the first postmodernists. He is one of the key writers in what Martin Esslin called the "Theatre of the Absurd". His work became increasingly minimalist in his later career.
Beckett was awarded the 1969 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his writing, which—in new forms for the novel and drama—in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation".[3] He was elected Saoi of Aosdána in 1984
Kind Regards
Jim Clark
All rights are reserved on this video recording copyright Jim Clark 2014
