Passion in a vacuum...

[Mark David Tristan Brenchley]

Sorry, if you've already received a version of 
this but my email
system doesn't seem to
have registered the first reply.

Bob,

re: Shakepeare  As a Shakespeare novice, perhaps you'd suggest which plays
I should be looking to read (or should that be "see")

re: the Elizabethan audience

   so Iguess Romeo and Juliet would have been their favourite too, huh?


re: Beckett

 I agree about the difficulty of comparing Becket to Joyce. If I had to, I
would do so using a H. G. Wells short story about a man who disappeared
into a parallel universe,  only to reappear in this one as a mirror image
of himself. 
But if I had to compare Beckett to anyone, I think perhaps Duchamp is the
closest
comparison. Duchamp's reply to Neo-Dadaism: "I taunt them with my jokes,
and they call it art!" would have been quite at home coming from Beckett's
mouth.

 to finish, a Beckett anecdote (I loathe biographies, but will confess 
to  a soft
spot for anecdotes):

   On a visit to England, Beckett went for a stroll with some friends. One
of them remarked: "What a beautiful day. It makes one aalmost glad to be
alive!". To which Beckett replied: "I wouldn't go that far"

  
Mark