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r/BooksAMA•
arc13

Samuel Beckett: Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable [F]

I finished reading Beckett's trilogy (I feel they really could be more accurately referred to as three books of the same novel) a couple weeks ago and can honestly say I've never had such mixed feelings about something I've read. On one hand, I feel like they are amongst the worst piles of pointless, mind-numbingly boring, pseudo-intellectual masturbation ever published. On the other hand, I feel like Beckett does some extremely interesting and valuable things in the books. My favorite, by far, is The Unnamable although it was also the one I had the most trouble getting through. I've read some of his plays and I feel like he is a much better playwright than novelist. How do you citizens of BookAMA feel about the trilogy? Have you read all three, and if so which one was your favorite?

Posted Apr 9, 2011, 6:21 AM UTC

54
UberSeoul•

The only Beckett I've read is Waiting for Godot and looking back at the notes I took, and from what little I can recollect, I'm inclined to most agree with the above assesment:

I feel like they are amongst the worst piles of pointless, mind-numbingly boring, pseudo-intellectual masturbation ever published.

Do you have any memorable or favorite quotes that you can pick out from the trilogy and share?

1
arc13OP•

I have to say that the most memorable passage for me has got to be the famous "stones" passage.

The main character in Molloy has a sucking stone that he carries around with him. At one point he goes to the beach and collects another 15 stones, for a total of 16 stones. His problem: He wants to find a system where he can suck each stone in succession, without sucking one stone twice before sucking all stones at least once. This insane character spends around 10 pages talking about this dilemma with such choice quotes as:

I distributed them equally among my four pockets, and sucked them turn and turn about. This raised a problem which I first solved in the following way. I had say sixteen stones, four in each of my four pockets these being the two pockets of my trousers and the two pockets of my greatcoat. Taking a stone from the right pocket of my greatcoat, and putting it in my mouth, I replaced it in the right pocket of my greatcoat by a stone from the right pocket of my trousers, which I replaced by a stone from the left pocket of my trousers, which I replaced by a stone from the left pocket of my greatcoat, which I replaced by the stone which was in my mouth, as soon as I had finished sucking it.

3 pages later

Watch me closely. I take a stone from the right pocket of my greatcoat, suck it, stop sucking it, put it in the left pocket of my greatcoat, the one empty (of stones).

I apologize for making you read that, but it does say something about the rest of the books that this is in fact the most memorable episode.

In Malone Dies, I think, there is a similar extended passage about bees. It basically goes on a 5 or 6 page exposition on bee dances. I can't seem to find the actual page to give you a word for word quote, but suffice to say it is as fascinating and riveting as the above stone sucking episode.

As for my favorite quote, I have to say the last page of The Unnamable really ties the rest of the book together nicely. The narrator, if you can call him that, is this disembodied voice with a constantly changing identity/sense of self. His 100 pages or so of rambling is an interesting read and the ending, in my opinion, fits perfectly with the rest of the book. I think, however, that in isolation and out of context it loses a lot of its impact.

I'll never know, in the silence you don't know, you must go on, I can't go on, I'll go on.

I think out of the three, The Unnamable is the one that is most worth the read. It provides almost none of the traditional trapping of a novel, but still manages to say something interesting. I should mention that the three books are not connected plot-wise (they barely have any plot as it stands), but they are pretty strongly linked thematically.

2
Valerius•

I recently picked up the trilogy with great enthusiasm, got about a third of the way through Molloy and lost all interest. I love Beckett, his ideas and his writing but my sense of the trilogy was that it was too dense to be duly rewarding for the amount of labor I was willing to put into it. To put it otherwise, I couldn't go on and I mustn't go on and so I didn't go on.

I don't really understand why the trilogy is praised as much as it is. I'm certainly extrapolating my opinion of the novels it contains, but it seems like the mere feat of a novel earns them higher regard than some of his other prose work which in either it's brevity or pacing makes for a more effective work. His texts for nothing are written around the same period as Godot and the trilogy and explores many of the same themes and I'm sure recycles many of the same lines but they're a length more suitable to a monologue and so they have less of a sense of the long winded ramble that I got from Molloy.

Would you read them again? I don't particularly care to read them now, but I'm certain I some day will. I find Beckett very memorable and so know that even if I'm bored at the tedium of picking through his extended monologues many of the scenes and impressions within them will linger with me, like they speak to some inner sense of despair or appeal to a morbid sense of humor but like his texts for nothing they're probably better dealt with in smaller doses. Perhaps I'll leave it by the toilet, leave it amongst my papers. Make it a heavy book for some light reading. That's the thing. You've inspired me now. I will go on! I'll be back in several months, maybe years or even a lifetime with the full report of how many shits I've given to finish this book.

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arc13OP•

To be honest, I don't think I would ever read any of them again, there are just far better books out there I could spend my time on. It sounds like we both like the same aspects of Becket's work and find the same things very memorable. For example, I think Becket's "Not I" is downright awesome, I recommend anyone with even a passing interest to watch it on youtube, its only 8 minutes if I recall correctly.

ninja edit: I have a feeling Becket would approve and even encourage reading the trilogy in its entirety while taking a shit :>

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