Beckett / O'Hara

John Latta:

(Strangely Beckettian, that pus, that Godot “reproachful tree”—I check dates, curious—oddly enough, En attendant Godot premier’d 5 January 1953 at the Théâtre de Babylone, while O’Hara’s “Second Avenue”’s composed in March and April of that year—f. w. i. w.) What jumps up my sleeve “more”: some of the remarks O’Hara made in “[Notes on Second Avenue].” Immediately after the lines quoted here, he writes—with prior disclaimer “the remarks are explanatory of what I now feel my attitude was toward the material, not explanatory of the meaning which I don’t think can be paraphrased (or at lest I hope it can’t)”: “To put it very gently, I have a feeling that the philosophical reduction of reality to a dealable-with system so distorts life that one’s “reward” for this endeavor (a minor one, at that) is illness both from the inside and outside.” (And—irritable aside—one need only look to the self-appoint’d precinct-captains of Blogland, to witness that particular disease, ah, the petty glory-hounds with they dealable-with systems!)

Read the rest.