Quote and updates

I know it's not reliable, as it's translated by a Youtube user, but this video has a clip of Adorno talking about Beckett. In the comments, someone translated the text and it says something to the effect of: "it is always said of Beckett that he employs a technique of total reduction, I have said so myself and it is no remarkable discovery to say so, but this reduction is actually what the world does to us, to quote Karl Kraus. What the world has made out of us, these stumps of people who have lost their "selves" ["I"], these really are the products of the world we live in."

With this in mind we can talk about the characters that Beckett creates, because all are hindered, crippled, sick and/or mentally blunted. They have no selves. It would be interesting to talk about Nell and Nagg in this respect.

I picked up a copy of Bernstein's essay on Adorno and Beckett and have somewhat started it. MSR left the copies in a manila folder outside the Liberal Arts office. It has a specific part about Endgame, which will be very useful to our discussion. I think we should try to find some time tomorrow to get together and talk about our presentation--it's less than 48 hours away! I guess I will just call you.

Julia