How it is

As it is (Comment c'est) is a prose work by the Irish writer Samuel Beckett (1906–1989). It was created in 1960, first published in French ( Editions minuit 1961 ) and then translated into German by Elmar Tophoven in close collaboration with the author. It is Beckett's last novel , insofar as a generic term can claim any valence here.

History of origin and classification in the overall work

“In 1958 Beckett began to write a text called Pim . He mentioned to his friend Con Leventhal that he was in the process of: 'laboriously continuing to struggle where the nameless person left me behind, that means continuing with next to nothing.' (quoted in Knowlson 2001, p. 579). Beckett's last novel Wie es ist (Comment c'est) emerged from this text by 1961 . "(Hartel / Veit 2006, p. 97)

It is helpful in understanding the work, to remind you that Beckett was his life fascinated by the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer , in which he probably recognized a kindred spirit across the ages. Based on Immanuel Kant's attempt to determine the limits of human knowledge, Schopenhauer identified the “thing in itself” as the “will to live” as the metaphysical source of existence. This "world as will" stands opposite the "world as imagination". In man, as its highest goal, nature perfects itself from its blind drive to the knowledge of itself: while the will is canceled, it is at the same time redeemed.

The preoccupation with " As It Is " requires a basic familiarity with Beckett's other works. " As it is " appears to be the logical continuation of novels and Beckett's literary development in general. This is exemplified by the conception of the protagonists: as a result of an increasing abstraction process, the protagonist of each work represents the logical further development of its predecessor. It is no coincidence that a previous novel is called “ The Nameless ”: in “As It Is” the protagonist bears no name at all : he remains (including himself) largely faceless. While the names for things (sack, can, can opener) become codes of spiritual experience, the names for people (Pim, Bom, Krim, Kram) become monosyllabic, interchangeable, meaningless, indiscriminate. Only at one point does Beckett allow himself one of his popular autoreferential references to earlier works in the mention of Belaqua from the early story Dante and the Hummer .

Form considerations

While Hartel and Veit assign the work to the genre novel without hesitation (Hartel / Veit 2006, p. 97), Birkenhauer , for example, denies that one can even speak of a novel in “ Wie es ist ”: “ If you read the prose work Wie es ist als Trying to understand a novel - and from this point of view it always seems wrongly classified - you certainly don't get your money's worth: not even in the language, let alone in the 'content' structure, it has something in common with a novel. You don't have to go to great lengths to understand it as a web of words, as poetry, that is, to pay attention primarily to the 'tone' of this way of speaking and the rhythmic change of the few, but also all the more clear To closely follow imaginary images. "(Birkenhauer 1971, p. 148)

It can even be said that in Beckett's late work even the seemingly so clearly delineated boundaries between drama , prose and poetry begin to blur.

inside me who were outside when it stops panting

Scraps of an old voice in me not mine (" As it is " p. 7)

As the final result of a process of intensification, reduction to the essentials and a radical concentration on the minimal, which is consistently handled in the entire work, in Beckett's late work the inner monologue, the highest lyrical emotion and the rudiments of the narrative function almost coincide.

First of all, there are three parts clearly separated from each other by Roman numerals: The content of the description of life “ before Pim with Pim after Pim ” corresponds to them (“ As it is ” p. 7). Chapter headings are missing. With regard to their formal internal structure, the individual parts are only loosely subdivided by optically separated sections. The extensive lack of regular syntax and the complete abandonment of any punctuation support the intention to achieve a largely formlessness as a loose chain of fragmentary miniature episodes. In terms of content, an extremely limited reservoir of images used as a leitmotif is spread out kaleidoscopically in ever new compositions , formally this finds its equivalent in a refrain-like repetition of individual sequences and shape particles, for example the obligatory " there is something that is not right " (" As it is " P. 10ff). At the same time, the almost virtuoso ascetic style is largely attuned to an extremely succinct tone.

Content aspects

An external act worth retelling (for example in the sense of a plot ) is simply non-existent. The formal structure in three parts corresponds in content to the time before Pim with Pim after Pim (As it is p. 7).

The first part is the preview of the encounter with Pim: it is largely about a kind of self-assurance of the narrating subject (if one can speak of such a subject): about his own state of mind and his connection with the world. The world appears exclusively as a world of things, whereby things can be interpreted both as real and as codes of psychic life. A freely flowing consciousness takes an inventory of the existing (inventory of oneself and the environment) in mind. The different layers of consciousness (wakefulness, dream, sleep, remembering) seem to merge constantly. The flow of the 3 main categories of time corresponds to this: past, present and future can hardly be distinguished from each other, but are gathered in the moment of subjective (dreamy) experience. Beckett creates a floating phantasmagoria of quiet, soft and delicate tones within the conceptual opposites such as mud, dirt and dark on the one hand and light, sky and butterfly, for example . The basic mood is that of expectation: waiting for Pim.
The second part describes the encounter with Pim: within the context, whether it is real or imagined remains irrelevant. Pim stands for every possible you, i.e. for the possibility of sociality, encounter, exchange or even love in general. The actual encounter with one's fellow being essentially consists of a tragic miss. The subject remains locked in its monad.
The third part is essentially a review of the encounter with Pim. The starting point now is the basic thought that man is condemned to do what was done to him to others. This fundamental fatality of a return of the same thing (something in the sense of original sin ) is conjured up in the metaphor of an eternal procession, borrowed from the religious sphere: In this the purgatory of eternal torture coagulates symbolically : “ and these same couples that are eternally moving from one end to the other form this immense procession anew and that the millionth time it can be imagined as in the unthinkable first time two strangers are united for the purpose of tribulation ”. As a result, 3 different stages of human existence can be identified: as a flayer, as a victim and in between as a traveler. “ … You can't change anything about it, you are in righteousness, I've never heard the opposite say ” (“ How it is ” p. 171). In the following, this range of ideas expands into a grandiose hallucination about justice in the form of a quasi-mathematical-statistical excursus. The image of subjective identity is initially projected onto the image of the whole of humanity, only to become questionable in this reflection and then to break: " Which, to put it clearly, means I quote either I am alone and no longer a problem or we are innumerable and also none Problem more ”(“ As it is ”p. 171). But as a result, Beckett also lets the entire previous attempt to grasp the world in a structuring manner are dispersed as an illusion. The attempt of thought to create order and to create meaning in the world of appearances turns out to be Beckett's subtle caricature of one-sided narrow-minded rationality:

" All these calculations yes explanations yes the whole story from one end to the other yes completely wrong yes / it happened differently yes completely different yes, but how no answer how did it happen no answer what happened no answer WHAT HAPPENED shouting good / … / And this story of a procession no answer this story of a procession yes never given a procession no also no trip no never given a pim no also no bom no never given no one just me no answer yes that was true yes I was true yes and what my name is my name no answer HOW DO I AM roar okay. "(" As it is "p. 199ff)

Overall, at the end of the work, the circle closes back to the beginning in terms of form and content: the time after Pim is again the time before Pim. Nothing significant happened and everything could actually start all over again: Return to the initial monadological situation:

“ But these stories of voices yes quaqua yes from other worlds yes from someone in another world yes whose dream I would be yes he would dream all the time yes would tell all the time yes his only dream yes his only story yes. "(" As it is "p. 200)

The boundaries to the metaphysical remain open, only they cannot be determined other than as a dream. All that remains is the telling of scraps of a story and its inevitable recursiveness.

" Good good end of the third part as it is as it is end of the quote from Pim as it is " (" as it is " p. 203)

reception

"And because the author eluded the guessing games and pointed out that he had written down everything he knew, an interpretive dynamic of its own developed around his work." (Hartel / Veit 2006, p. 118)

Attempts have often been made to label Beckett's works under catchwords such as “nihilism”: in addition to the helplessness of reception, this also expresses the attempt to ignore what is disturbing about these works by making them as comfortable as possible Forgotten handed over. In contrast, Beckett's consistently applied and fundamental rejection of any attempt to reduce it to aesthetic clarity. At the same time there is the temptation to avoid employment under the pretext of a principled hermeticism in his works.

A vanishing point of reception lies in the possibility of initially accepting the work in its strangeness. Due to the great importance of cross-references in Beckett's work, the question arises to what extent a single apparently closed work can have a separate statement or meaning. Perhaps even here the movement of a literary intention taking place in the individual works seems more important than a work in progress . Then there is the possibility of showing the relation to reality again and again aesthetically. This is what the title means: "As it is".

"Then it becomes obvious - as one of many conceivable attempts to create a world of your own out of words in order to escape the confusion of things in the 'real' world and to oppose it with something that is ordered." Birkenhauer p. 148f)

" And if you can still think of other worlds at this late hour " (" How it is " p. 197)

literature

Klaus Birkenhauer: Samuel Beckett . 10th edition. Reinbek near Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-499-50176-7 , p. 138 ff.
Gaby Hartel, Carola Veit: Samuel Beckett . Frankfurt 2006, ISBN 3-518-18213-7 , pp. 97f.