The truth is all lies

It took me awhile to understand why Beckett subtly lies to you throughout his novel, and for what reason could he find this advantageous, unless of course he finds truth in the duplicitous lives of the characters in his novels. And if you take a second to consider this, at first you may feel overwhelmingly pessimistic about life and who the people you know actually are. Do people I run into on the street or campus actually have an interior perspective on life as jaded as Moran, or as deceitful as Molloy? Are my close friends struggling with this double-consciousness? And who are these people really deceiving during these inner-monologues beyond themselves..and myself. The paucity (scarceness!) of truth in Molloy resembles that of a pathological liar, and then a light flickers in your head and you begin to understand the reason for the characters deceit, Beckett projects onto them another side of truth, wrapped up in lies. Where Joyce includes everything in Finnegans Wake Beckett empties all out, (Kenosis!!) so naturally a little hyperbole is necessary to keep the readers attention, even though Moran goes out of his way to tell you there will be none of this, "And in the main I observe it. And with such zeal that I am far more he who finds than he who tells what he has found, now as then, most of the time, I do not exaggerate" (126). Moran doesn't exaggerate, he lies outright and tells us while doing it no less, "it would not surprise me if I deviated, in the pages to follow, from the true and exact succession of events" (128). "When I said I had turkeys, and so on, I lied" (122). "It was not midnight, it was not raining." Beckett is writing in the modernist era, during a time when the rapid growth of industry is beginning to alienate people where once they felt optimistic. During this time, you can understand the anxiety Beckett has from modern advancements and influences by his contemporaries such as Joyce. And while Joyce focuses on themes such as eternal recurrence, Beckett can explore the ever growing themes of separation, and the declining ages which is causing people to become more deceitful in an attempt to keep up with the changes happening around them.

Daydream (my 20 minute lifetime)

I live about one mile from campus and since I do not have a parking pass (and have accumulated multiple tickets) I am fortunate enough to experience a 20 minute lifetime twice a day to and from campus. My walk takes me across College, through family housing, and up to my first class in Reid 101. During this short lifetime I throw my headphones on and trek throughout the expanses of my mind. Ever since I was in grade school I've always enjoyed walking to class alone, so that no one can disturb my daydreams. When I was young I can remember imagining normal little boy things, my action figures would go to battle in order to overtake different corners of my room. From what I can recall imagining them fighting on my way to and from school always seemed more colossal and glorified then what I could actually simulate with my toys in front of me. By the time I turned 13 however, I began to imagine what my life would be like and my twenty minute lifetimes went down a road they have yet to stray from. Every day on my walk to school, and every day since I was 13 my twenty minute lifetimedaydream has been about skiing. What I will do when I finally move out west, and once I got here, what I will do when I finally move wester. All day, every day, my short lifetimes revolve around snow,I get so entranced and excited to be skiing again when I'm walking to school that I forget to watch out for traffic. Nothing can break my concentration, sometimes girls, but even that is fleeting. I'm always surprised at just how long I can imagine the same run over and over again in my head, and then nod off while listening to a Professor lecture about Harold Bloom. Shocking!

Eternal reccurence in FWake and The Skin of Our Teeth

The theme of eternal recurrence is present throughout Wilder's play; The Skin Of Our Teeth and this archetype occurs as commonly as in Joyce's masterpiece. Both works are in a constant state of becoming, as the ending of both spills over into the beginning once again, representing life as cyclical rather than linear. One quote in particular that stood out to me in Thornton's piece was spoken by Sabina, in regards to how monotonous life can be, "That's all we do-always beginning again! Over and over again. Always beginning again" (Wilder 109). The way this piece of literature drives this point home has to do with the age of the characters, all of whom seem to be atleast four-thousand years old.
The idea that our lives will be the same everyday, and our children's lives will be the same, and on and on monotony to the next Millennium seems terribly depressing to me. However I suppose that after college life and then after the two year lee-way post college life graduates are granted, comes a career and with that reality. I guess all I have to look forward to will be the year or two I'm granted after I graduate to have irresponsible fun, before I will have to choose a career path and fall into a state of constant becoming. I guess that doesn't sound so bad, if the state and career which I am constantly becoming into will be a ski bum. Can a skier be in a constant state of becoming since he can only ski for half the season? Or do I need to move down to the southern hemisphere every summer to avoid a linear life.. I guess these are things I need to ask Joyce if I ever happen to bump into him.