Something that really struck me while reading Worstward Ho is Beckett's ability to pare language down to its most essential elements in order to get a point across. Beckett definitely explored this concept in Company and Ill Said Ill Seen, but he seems to really achieve this linguistic minimalism in Worstward. Take for example, this passage:
"All of old. Nothing else ever. Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."This quote encapsulates two things that I find fascinating about Beckett's writing: 1) somehow, he's able to transcribe the artistic human psyche and 2) he knows he can never transcribe the artistic human psyche. There is no way to ever succeed in documenting, making sense of, and sharing one's thoughts, but the process of doing so is a success in itself. This self-aware dichotomy is what makes Beckett so compelling; by writing about the void, one falls into the void. By falling into the void, one falls out of the void. Awareness, acceptance, and acknowledgement of the void is the same as being engulfed by it and the same as climbing out of it. Furthermore, such acknowledgement of the void gives it the power to both create and destroy as evidenced by this quote found close to the end:
"The whole narrow void. No blurs. All clear. Dim clear. Black hole agape on all. Inletting all. Outletting all."By writing about absence in such sparse language, Beckett allows his words to swirl around him, creating a buzzing nest of sound. One your ears are used to the sound, however, it disappears.
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