What is so beautiful about Beckett?

[Undesired Walrus]

She lay streched out on the floorboards with her hands under her head and her eyes closed. Sun blazing down, bit of a breeze, water nice and lively. I noticed a scratch on her thigh and asked her how she came by it. Picking gooseberries, she said. I said again I thought it was hopeless and no good going on, and she agreed, without opening her eyes. (Pause.) I asked her to look at me and after a few moments--(pause)--after a few moments she did, but the eyes just slits, because of the glare. I bent over her to get them in the shadow and they opened. (Pause. Low.) Let me in. (Pause.) We drifted in among the flags and stuck. The way they went down, sighing, before the stem! (Pause.) I lay down across her with my face in her breasts and my hand on her. We lay there without moving. But under us all moved, and moved us, gently, up and down, and from side to side.
Pause.
Past midnight. Never knew--

Seeing how we are talking about Beckett in the other thread, I was hoping someone with a more learned hand in literature could explain to me what is so unbearably beautiful about that speech in Krapp's Last Tape? Or any of his other works that is..

[ChristineR]

Well it helps if it's spoken by a brilliant actor. Brilliant actors tend to like complicated language. Beckett and other masters of the "Theatre of the Absurd" tend to be more about mood and language and how they convey meaning outside of the story itself.

Which is to say, there is no story, or what story there is makes no sense.

[calebprime]

Orpheus?

btw, I noticed Orph had already mentioned Malloy/Mallone Dies/The Unnameable in the lit section. My later mention was just coincidence...

paging Orpheus...

I said the excerpt was beautiful. I don't know the work.

:duck:

[calebprime]

I am in my mother's room. It's I who live there now. I don't know how I got there. Perhaps in an ambulance, certainly a vehicle of some kind. I was helped. I'd never have got there alone. There's this man who comes every week. Perhaps I got there thanks to him. He say not. He gives me money and takes away the pages. So many pages, so much money. Yes, I work now, a little like I used to, except that I don't know how to work any more. That doesn't matter apparently. What I'd like now is to speak of the things that are left, say my goodbyes, finish dying...

[orpheus]

Orpheus?

btw, I noticed Orph had already mentioned Malloy/Mallone Dies/The Unnameable in the lit section. My later mention was just coincidence...

paging Orpheus...

I said the excerpt was beautiful. I don't know the work.

:duck:

Hi calebprime et al, I'm here. BTW, calebprime, thank you for your kind reply in the other thread. After I'd posted, I felt bad, thinking I'd been unnecessarily snarky. Good to know there are no hard feelings. And thank you for bringing up Beckett again - near and dear to my heart. :)

Okay, this requires either a really full response or none at all. Having little time right now, I'll settle for the latter - I just wanted to let you know that I received the page - I'm on the case, cheif! :D

More soon.