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The Review - BOOKS
 

Samuel Beckett


John Hurt in Krapp’s Last Tape showing as part of the Barbican’s celebration of Beckett’s centenary from April 25 to May 6
Samuel Beckett gave the world everything he had

It's Beckett's centenary. His friend John Calder recalls a kind man who couldn't come to terms with the cruelty of the world

SAMUEL Beckett was born in a significant year, that of the great Liberal Party landslide which signalled Irish Home rule, which his Dublin middle-class protestant family almost certainly were against.

Unfortunately the Great War delayed it at great cost in suffering. But the studious sport-loving boy who grew up there always had his sympathies with the underdog and he was to leave Ireland as soon as his studies were finished to become a typical Parisian Bohemian.
This year, his centenary is being celebrated everywhere, and everyone who ever met him is exaggerating their acquaintance and producing anecdotes, true or false, first or second-hand, about a man who was simple, straightforward and hated attracting attention.
He was a genius certainly, very like Shakespeare whose work his much resembles, and very erudite, but he wore his knowledge invisibly. No man was easier to talk to and he had no sense of being in any way superior.
I knew him for 35 years more as a friend than as my author and in consequence he never tried to hide his feelings where we disagreed or where I was late for an appointment or neglectful, whereas with most others he put on a mask, either for protection or out of politeness.
My discoveries in his work about sources were not particularly welcome because they usually revealed some long-buried secret, such as sexual humiliation or the use of a religious reference that he knew would bring attack if made public. Although he is thought of as being difficult to understand, I profoundly disagree. What is difficult in a world that values celebrity, short-term success and pleasures, and the need to always be optimistic about life, is to accept his view of human life and the world it lives in. To be born into the world was the worst thing that can happen to anyone, as Beckett saw it.
Life is tragic because it is short, usually full of pain and suffering, and ruled by a malign morality where everything eats everything else, or enjoys being cruel or is simply indifferent about the plight of everything out of immediate sight.
Religion – and Beckett grew up in a religious protestant family – tries to hide all this and make us think of a heaven to come, but Beckett could not swallow that. He did, however, use the mythology of Christianity, which he knew well, to give a picture of the world which is sometimes very funny as he describes our follies and obsessions, often shocking to the conventional mind as he follows the logic or some religious dogmas to their impossible conclusions, and very thought-provoking to anyone philosophically inclined.
Many years ago I used to say that if Beckett had set himself up as the creator of some new faith that he would have had many converts. Now I realise that much of his work can be seen as secular theology. He examined religion – all religions – and saw them as improbable, but knew they were believed in because people wanted to believe in them.
It was not love or God that moved people to religious observance, but the desire to remain conscious and continue existing in an afterlife. Beckett was very interested from his days in Trinity College in the many theories of dualism, that of the division between mind and body as two different entities for one, but even more in the continual battle between good and evil.
This was much discussed in the early days of Christianity, but the church disapproved, particularly in the theory that God was so far away making more universes that he had forgotten all about us and put a deputy, often called the Demiurge, in charge. This deputy was sometimes identified with the Devil and as it is obvious to anyone that more bad things are going on than good, it was clear that the devil ruled.
Many religions other than early Christianity have seen the world as a conflict of the two opposing forces and have formed ultra-puritan sects to let the good have a chance against the power of evil, and these have been ruthlessly put down, like the Cathars of France.
Much of Beckett’s work comes out of his fascination with this conflict, which can also be seen as a conflict going on inside nature, including human nature. Krapp’s Last Tape, his most autobiographical play, is about this exactly.
So to return to a look at the man himself, Beckett was a Christian who lost his faith, always missed it emotionally, and used it as the underpinning of his vision of the world. As he knew that he could do little to change the world, he helped those he could with money when he had it, but with everything else he had, risking his life during World War II, although Ireland was neutral, by joining the French Resistance, largely out of loyalty to his friends.
As life is a bad accident all you can do is describe it as such if you are a writer, and in practical terms try to do no harm to anyone, always show kindness, and be willing to help those worse off then yourself.
His kindness was legendary, in small as well as in large things. He died in 1989 at Christmas, having been born on a Good Friday, not only symbolically reversing the Christian dates for birth and death, but illustrating his famous dictum: “One is born astride of a grave.”
It is a pity that the competition to have some kind of exclusive hold on Beckett’s work and personality has given rise to rivalries and even hostilities between theatre companies, academics exploring his writings and even those who knew him. He gave the world everything he had.
His legacy lies in the world, not God’s, which we could make better if we wanted to, but don’t because of tribalism, selfishness, short-sighted self interest and stupidity. If you take his work at its real worth and can accept his ethic you will be a better person and improve the world a little. He was wise enough and realistic enough to know that no one can do more than that.

• John Calder is an internationally renowned publisher best known for his commitment to Samuel Beckett. He runs Calder Bookshop opposite Old Vic theatre. He is the administrator of the Godot Company, which performs Beckett’s plays every Tuesday and Wednesday from April 4 until end of 2006.
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