Le parti des choses

Prendre le parti des choses ce n'est pas s'y enfermer en s'identifiant à elles, ce n'est pas non plus les démonter pour en étiqueter les différents éléments, c'est s'introduire dans leur durée, introduire une durée vivante, mouvante, un temps de structure, dans leur espace arrêté.

Jean Bazaine, Notes sur la peinture d'aujourd'hui, Editions du Seuil, 1953

Stiff head-on breeze. River ebbing. Had to work without the protection of my parasol. Was underdressed, in shorts and sweatshirt, unprepared for the cold wind. SE wind, picking up humidity from the river. Takes ages for ink to dry. Around 6, a couple of drops of rain.
A herd of sheep passing behind me, most of them stopping for a moment to mutely observe me, chewing (the sheep, that is).

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The Unanswered Question

Nothing there either. Nothing stirring there either. Nothing stirring anywhere. Nothing to be seen anywhere. Nothing to be heard anywhere. Room once full of sounds. Faint sounds. Whence unknown. Fewer and fainter as time wore on. Nights wore on. None now. No. No such thing as none.

Samuel Beckett, A Piece of Monologue, 1979

Gibbous moon. As expected, nothing stirring, on this heat wave morning. No. No such thing as nothing.
After some time, a passing cyclist: - "Moiegeuhhh?"

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The Fire

Here I end this reel. Box - [Pause.] - three, spool - [Pause.] - five. [Pause.] Perhaps my best years are gone. When there was a chance of happiness. But I wouldn't want them back. Not with the fire in me now. No, I wouldn't want them back. [KRAPP motionless staring before him. The tape runs on in silence.]

Samuel Beckett, Krapp's Last Tape

Uneventful morning. Breeze from NE. Geese, oystercatchers, lapwings, hares. Lots of cargo ships.

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The vision at last

This I fancy is what I have chiefly worked to record this evening, against the day when my work will be done and perhaps no place left in my memory, warm or cold, for the miracle that ... [hesitates] ... for the fire that set it alight. What I suddenly saw then was this, that the belief I had been going on all my life, namely - [KRAPP switches off impatiently, winds tape forward, switches on again] - great granite rocks the foam flying up in the light of the lighthouse and the wind-gauge spinning like a propeller, clear to me at last that the dark I have always struggled to keep under is in reality my most - [KRAPP curses, switches off, winds tape forward, switches on again] - unshatterable association until my dissolution of storm and night with the understanding and the fire - [KRAPP curses louder, switches off, winds tape forward, switches on again ] - my face in her breast and my hand on her.

Samuel Beckett, Krapp's Last Tape

Calm and limpid morning, facing bank clearly visible even before dawn. No clouds. Wind N-NE, quite humid. Rather cold: 8°C.
Cold feet, cold paws, cold and wet nose, shiny coat (which is as much as can be said of the neighbour's dog).

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