The Strangest Philosopher in History - Samuel Beckett

In this video, we explore the life and work of the renowned twentieth-century playwright, Samuel Beckett. First garnering notoriety from his play, 'Waiting for Godot,' Beckett's work explores dark, unnerving, and often humorous themes of existence that both mock as well as inform on the human experience.

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[PursuitofWonder]

As always, thank you so much for watching. I hope you enjoyed.

[winstonsmith]

"What time is it ?!" Pause;... looks at watch;..."Same as usual."
Got to be one of the best bits of dialogue ever.

[kimpeccable]

"Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better." -Samuel Beckett. This quote has been an rallying cry for persistence in the face of failure, but really, he was simply lamenting the the fact that he would never persuade the words to lie down on paper in a way that perfectly mirrored the thoughts in his head. But success was not his goal, it was the examination of his inner worlds and coming to terms with what could not be expressed or understood, only explored. That's why, though he might have wanted to quit, he could not. Language would not let him.

[ianfenwick]

I’ve never found Beckett bleak. I think his nakedness is liberating so, while it might not be exactly joyful, his work does bring enormous relief.

[bellareid]

Thich Nhat Hanh said "Desire is the obstacle of happiness" That is what I get from this. Waiting for what we don't have steals our joy in the present

[PromptStreamer]

As a massive Beckett fan, I thought your video was an excellent and accurate introduction to Beckett. I often cringe at or avoid layperson’s popularizations of various intellectual topics or writers, because they can cheapen, oversimplify or just plain misread the sources. But I felt that everything you said was spot-on. You have a good understanding of Beckett.

[mossfitz]

An amazing thing about Beckett is that his writing is informed by highly intellectual sources yet can appeal to the most uninformed public because he has distilled the essential, universal human experiences his sources deal with, so very well.
While i was working on a production of Godot, a quite uneducated acquaintance took it upon himsrlf to read it because we were close at the time, and he could identify so well with it that he was actually angry at me : "Why didn't you show this to me before?"
He then went on to be a great help in putting the stage together.

[jonclay]

Beckett’s work is joyful in a Spinozist sense because it’s so brilliantly creative.

[dansbike]

The recent film The Banshees of Inisherin smacks of Waiting for Godot. Great film. Great play. They both exemplify that characteristic sardonic Irish wit. The back and forth parrying of subtle quips set against the backdrop of ho-hum hardships and the absurdity of daily ritual. Nobody makes the english language dance quite like the Irish.

[dillonblack]

This is my introduction to this channel.. this might be one of the greatest videos I've ever seen.

[Sophiedorian]

My study of Beckett has brought me the single most profound insight in my entire life: I don’t like to be kept waiting by the waiting.

[travisdsimmon]

I've watched Not I soo many times..still gives me chills

[swealf-nonofficial]

Absurdity is kind of what makes life beautiful, we don't have to strive towards a common higher meaning of existence. We get to choose our path and create our own meaning.

[marshallodom]

I believe that same idea was summed up nicely in the animated show Jungle Book, with the three vultures sitting on a dead tree branch, one of them ask "So, whatcha wanna do?", the other replys by asking, "I don't know. Whatch YOU wanna do?", both of them tossing the question back and forth between them, forever.

[CheriePeden-oi]

Beckett is everything that this culture spurns. Modest, intelligent, brilliant in a way so prophetic that his writing seems to come out of nowhere.
His work makes it easier to question the existence of God without getting too upset about it

[SevenUnwokenDreams]

Well done. I love Waiting for Godot, Happy Days, and Endgame. I want to read more of his work. I don't find it confusing or frustrating. It is funny, brilliant, and so very true.

[Zagg]

Beckett suffered from clinical depression, as did his mother. His principal theme is that life is pain, but the pain must be endured. The “black humor” is in fact music hall humor, as music hall was one of Beckett’s diversions.

[stretke]

Bravo! This video is one of my favorites. Waiting patiently for my next

[scottydadout]

Im convinced that Pursuit of Wonder is regularly changing the titles of their videos as a social experiment that will be part of a future video. The amount of times ive skipped over a video when looking for an older video because the name was different than I remembered is... probably still in the single digits, but the fact that its happened more than 3 times astounds me.

[wpynaemnasuchegoprzestworo]

Beckett and Cioran were friends. What a wonderful duo.