Shirky is nothing if not an optimist. He believes that, somehow, we will find a way to “secur[e] for ourselves an ability to concentrate amidst our garden of ethereal delights.” But here he’s stating a desire that he criticizes in others: a desire to turn the clock back. He simply assumes that the “ability to concentrate” will return even as the Net changes so much else about who we are and how we think. It’s telling that Shirky uses gauzily religious terms to describe the Net—“our garden of ethereal delights”—as what he’s expressing here is not reason but faith. I hope he’s right, but I think that skepticism is always the proper response to techno-utopianism.
126 Matching Annotations
- Jan 2020
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digitalpoeticsaup.wordpress.com digitalpoeticsaup.wordpress.com
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caused again by abundance, and taking it on will again mean altering our historic models for the summa bonum of educated life. It will be hard and complicated; abundance precipitates greater social change than scarcity. But our older habits of consumption weren’t virtuous, they were just a side-effect of living in an environment of impoverished access.
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However, when on the computer, the words appear on the screen much faster than they would if I were writing, meaning that less thoughts or opinions appear in my mind. This connects to Nietzsche's findings, that using a typewriter made his writing sound more telegraphic. That 'telegraphic' feeling is, in my opinion, the lack of thought that it takes to write on keyboard compared to writing the traditional way.
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I come from a tradition of Western culture, in which the ideal (my ideal) was the complex, dense and “cathedral-like” structure of the highly educated and articulate personality—a man or woman who carried inside themselves a personally constructed and unique version of the entire heritage of the West. [But now] I see within us all (myself included) the replacement of complex inner density with a new kind of self—evolving under the pressure of information overload and the technology of the “instantly available.” As we are drained of our “inner repertory of dense cultural inheritance,” Foreman concluded, we risk turning into “‘pancake people’—spread wide and thin as we connect with that vast network of information accessed by the mere touch of a button.”
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- Nov 2019
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www.ccsoh.us www.ccsoh.us
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"You think too many things,"
DON'T THINK TOO HARD
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pleasure to burn.
THEMATIC STATEMENTA
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SYMBOLS TO CONSIDER:
- FIRE
- BURNING
- WATER
- THE SALAMANDER (FIRE-RESISTANT)
- THE MECHANICAL HOUND
- THE CHAPTER TITLES
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edisciplinas.usp.br edisciplinas.usp.brEndgame.pdf119
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PSEUDOCOUPLE
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He doesn't realize, all he knows is hunger, and cold,and death to crown it all. But you! You ought to knowwhat the earth is like, nowadays. Oh I put him before hisresponsibilities! (Pause. Normal tone.) Well, there we are, there I am, that's enough. (He raises the whistle to his lips, hesitates, drops it.Pause.) Yes, truly! (He whistles. Pause. Louder. Pause.)
HE NEEDS SOMEONE TO LISTEN TO HIM AS HIS FATHER PREDICTED
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Old endgame lost of old, play and lose and havedone with losing.
WHAT ITS ABOUT
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Clov, you must learnto suffer better than that if you want them to weary ofpunishing you— one day. I say to myself—sometimes,Clov, you must be better than that if you want them tolet you go—one day. But I feel too old, and too far, toform new habits. Good, it'll never end, I'll never go.
i have nothing to learn from you
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What skilled attention they get, all these dying of theirwounds
senior home
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If he exists he'll die there or he'll come here. And ifhe doesn't... (Pause.) CLOV: You don't believe me? You think I'm inventing? (Pause.) HAMM: It's the end, Clov, we've come to the end. I don'tneed you any more
huh
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precipitately
to hasten the occurrence of; bring about prematurely, hastily, or suddenly
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I'm tired of our goings on, very tired
of limping in circles
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Why I always obey you. Can you explain that tome? HAMM: No... Perhaps it's compassion. (Pause.) A kind of great compassion. (Pause.) Oh you won't find it easy, you won't find it easy
without him<?
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What for Christ's sake does it matter? (He looks out of window.) HAMM: I don't know. (Pause. Clov turns towards Hamm.) CLOV (harshly): When old Mother Pegg asked you for oil for herlamp and you told her to get out to hell, you knew whatwas happening then, no?
is it HAMMS fault?
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Absent, always. It all happened without me. I don'tknow what's happened. (Pause.) Do you know what's happened?
to the world outside?
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Christ, she's under water! (He looks.) How can that be? (He pokes forward his head, his hand above hiseyes.) It hasn't rained. (He wipes the pane, looks. Pause.) Ah what a fool I am! I'm on the wrong side!
mother earth
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Sometimes I wonder if I'm in my right mind. Thenit passes over and I'm as lucid as before
he is only passively insane
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He whistles. Enter Clov with alarm-clock. He haltsbeside the chair.) What? Neither gone nor dead? CLOV: In spirit only. HAMM: Which? CLOV: Both. HAMM: Gone from me you'd be dead. CLOV: And vice versa. HAMM: Outside of here it's death!
CLOV is no longer scared to leave..
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..that old Greek, and all life long you wait for thatto mount up to a life
deep
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Perhaps I could go on with my story, end it andbegin another. (Pause.) Perhaps I could throw myself out on the floor. (He pushes himself painfully off his seat, falls backagain.) Dig my nails into the cracks and drag myselfforward with my fingers. (Pause.) It will be the end and there I'll be, wondering whatcan have brought it on and wondering what can have..
what can i scrounge from this world OR what could have been
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Get out of here and love one another! Lick yourneighbor as yourself! (Pause. Calmer.) When it wasn't bread they wanted it was crumpets
delusional & going mad
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If I don't kill that rat he'll die.
fair point as always CLOV
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HAMM: Kiss me. (Pause.) Will you not kiss me? CLOV: No. HAMM: On the forehead. CLOV: I won't kiss you anywhere. (Pause.) HAMM (holding out his hand): Give me your hand at least. (Pause.) Will you not give me your hand? CLOV: I won't touch you
he needs comfort
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Than it's not worth while opening it? CLOV: No. HAMM (violently): Than open it!
nothing is worth it- its a trick question- they are just biding their time until nothingness consumes them
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And then we got into the way of it.
of routine
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senile
hes losing it
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Will it not soon be the end? HAMM: I'm afraid it will. CLOV: Pah! You'll make up another
stories never end
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What is there to keep me here? HAMM: The dialogue.
well the dialogue is driving me insane
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I hope the day will come when you'll really need tohave me listen to you, and need to hear my voice, anyvoice
and i won't be there....
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God first! (Pause.) Are you right?
does he think hes preaching to the choir
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It was an extra-ordinarily bitter day, I remember,zero by the thermometer. But considering it wasChristmas Eve there was nothing... extra-ordinary aboutthat. Seasonable weather, for once in a way
unlike now
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meerschaum
a fine light white clayey mineral that is a hydrous magnesium silicate found chiefly in Asia Minor and is used especially for tobacco pipes.
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Something dripping in my head, ever since thefontanelles
a baby's soft spot on their skull
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Scoundrel! Why did you engender me?
cause or give rise to (a feeling, situation, or condition).
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You stink already. The whole place stinks ofcorpses. CLOV: The whole universe.
the corpsed world
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This... this... thing. CLOV: I've always thought so. (Pause.) You not? HAMM (gloomily): Then it's a day like any other day. CLOV: As long as it lasts. (Pause.) All life long the same inanities
a nonsensical remark or action. lack of sense or meaning; silliness.
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you weren't in the land ofthe living. CLOV: God be with those days
when i wasn't alive - MELANCHOLY
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ll he had seen was ashes. (Pause.) He alone had been spared. (Pause.) Forgotten. (Pause.) It appears the case is... was not so... so unusual.
because he was right?
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Yesterday! What does that mean? Yesterday! CLOV (violently): That means that bloody awful day, long ago, beforethis bloody awful day. I use the words you taught me. Ifthey don't mean anything any more, teach me others. Orlet me be silent
everything meshes together at a certain point
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castors
a fly pupa used as bait.
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ere's your gaff. Stick it up. (He gives the gaff to Hamm who, wielding it like apuntpole, tries to move his chair.)
a stick with a hook or barbed spear, for landing large fish.
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CLOV: Do this, do that, and I do it. I never refuse. Why? HAMM: You're not able to. CLOV: Soon I won't do it any more. HAMM: You won't be able to any more
because theres nothing else to do in such a desolate world - even if doing this pains you
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We too were bonny—once. It's a rare thing not tohave been bonny—once
attractive/beautiful
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But naturally she's extinguished! (Pause.) What's the matter with you today? HAMM: I'm taking my course. (Pause.) Is she buried?
making my rounds
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Leave him like that, standing there imploring me.
he needs attention / servitude / to matter
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(Enter Clov holding by one of its three legs a blacktoy dog.) CLOV: Your dogs are here. (He hands the dog to Hamm who feels it, fondlesit.) HAMM: He's white, isn't he? CLOV: Nearly. HAMM: What do you mean, nearly? Is he white or isn't he? CLOV: He isn't
i love the way CLOV half-asses every question
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I love the old questions. (With fervour.) Ah the old questions, the old answers, there'snothing like them
because they prove him right - make him feel righteous and not a bag of mean bones
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Or you'llcome to a standstill, simply stop and stand still, the wayyou are now. One day you'll say, I'm tired, I'll stop. Whatdoes the attitude matter? (Pause.) CLOV: So you all want me to leave you. HAMM: Naturally. CLOV: Then I'll leave you. HAMM: You can't leave us
.... WHAT'S THE POINT OF THIS CONVERSATION
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because you won't have had pity on anyone and becausethere won't be anyone left to have pity on you
GUILT TRIP
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In my house. (Pause. With prophetic relish.) One day you'll be blind like me. You'll be sittinghere, a speck in the void, in the dark, forever, like me
trying to guilt trip him into not leaving for fear that irony will bring him the same fate as HAMM
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If there are there will be
good way to put anything
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Alone, I'll embark alone! Get working on that raftimmediately. Tomorrow I'll be gone forever.
you can;t move
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nless he's lying doggo. CLOV: Ah? One says lying? One doesn't say laying? HAMM: Use your head, can't you. If he was laying we'd bebitched.
like laying eggs...
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perturbed
anxiety
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To think perhaps it won't all have been for nothing!
us being in this room?
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Routine. One never knows. (Pause.) Last night I saw inside my breast. There was a bigsore
your heart is diseased?
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Routine. One never knows. (Pause.) Last night I saw inside my breast. There was a bigsore
your heart is diseased?
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We're not beginning to... to... mean something? CLOV: Mean something! You and I, mean something! (Brief laugh.) Ah that's a good one
so he laughed
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GRRAY
everything is dull
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Lead
poisonous
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What in God's name could there be on the horizon?
ironic mentioning god
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The light is sunk.
let there be light! aka there is no god
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Corpsed.
the world is dead
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Nothing stirs. All is— CLOV: Zer— HAMM (violently): Wait till you're spoken to! (Normal voice.) All is... all is... all is what? (Violently.) All is what? CLOV: What all is? In a word? Is that what you want toknow? Just a moment.
he isn't very appreciative of CLOV doing the same thing over and over again for him- DEFINITION OF INSANITY
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I see... a multitude... in transports... of joy
WHAT DOES IT MEAN
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I did it on purpose.
add some dramatic effect to liven things up perhaps?
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This is deadly.
their interactions?
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If I could kill him I'd die happy.
but you can
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You'd say so! Put me right in the center! CLOV: I'll go and get the tape. HAMM: Roughly! Roughly! (Clov moves chair slightly.) Bang in the center!
hypocritical
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Am I right in the center? CLOV: I'll measure it. HAMM: More or less! More or less!
so literal
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He wasn't old. HAMM: But he's dead? CLOV: Naturally.
so .... howd he die?
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Will this never finish?
like will we die?
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Yes Sir, no less Sir, the WORLD! Andyou are not bloody well capable of making me a pair oftrousers in three months!"
hilarious
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I never told it worse. (Pause. Gloomy.) I tell this story worse and worse.
spirits are at an all time low
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Raconteur's
a person who tells anecdotes in a skilful and amusing way.
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It was not, it was not, it was my STORY andnothing else. Happy! Don't you laugh at it still? Everytime I tell it. Happy!
what's the point of him telling the story?
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The first time I thought you'd die. NELL: It was on Lake Como. (Pause.) One April afternoon. (Pause.) Can you believe it?
nature
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Are you crying again? NELL: I was trying. (Pause.) HAMM: Perhaps it's a little vein
in vain
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And we laugh, we laugh, with a will, in the beginning.But it's always the same thing. Yes, it's like the funnystory we have heard too often, we still find it funny, butwe don't laugh any more
a dead horse kind of joke
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Nothing is funnier than unhappiness, I grant youthat. But—
but i say dont laugh at them
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If I could sleep I might make love. I'd go into thewoods. My eyes would see... the sky, the earth. I'd run,run, they wouldn't catch me
i would be free
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Has he changed yours? NELL: No. NAGG: Nor mine. (Pause.) I won't have it!
like kitty litter
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When we crashed on our tandem and lost ourshanks. (They laugh heartily.)
they both lost their legs at the same time - tandem biking
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So much the better, so much the better. NAGG: Don't say that. (Pause.) Our sight has failed.
they know they look ghastly
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elegiac
sorrowful
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Kiss me. NELL: We can't. NAGG: Try. (Their heads strain towards each other, fail to meet,fall apart again.) NELL: Why this farce, day after day? (Pause.)
in hopes something will change
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Nell appear,gripping the rim. Then her head emerges. Lace cap. Verywhite face.)
mother
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It's the end of the day like any other day, isn't it,Clov?
nothing ever changes
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Did you scratch round them to see if they hadsprouted? CLOV: They haven't sprouted. HAMM: Perhaps it's still too early. CLOV: If they were going to sprout they would havesprouted. (Violently.) They'll never sprout!
nothing new will come
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CLOV: You shouldn't speak to me like that. (Pause.) HAMM (coldly): Forgive me. (Pause. Louder.) I said, Forgive me. CLOV: I heard you
but nothing will change
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Is it not time for my pain-killer? CLOV: No.
he doesn't know the time...
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No one that ever lived ever thought so crooked aswe. HAMM: We do what we can. CLOV: We shouldn't.
we could be better even if everything has gone to shit
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Nature has forgotten us. CLOV: There's no more nature. HAMM: No more nature! You exaggerate. CLOV: In the vicinity
from what we can see out of these two windows
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No phone calls? (Pause.) Don't we laugh?
humor falls flat
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I can't sit. HAMM: True. And I can't stand.
so pretend i guess
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Bottle him!
can't handle the complaints of his own father
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fornicator
breeder
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Do you hear that? There's no more pap. You'llnever get any more pap
bland soft or semi-liquid food such as that suitable for babies or invalids.
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Oh not just yet, not just yet.
giving himself something to look forward to eh?
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Accursed progenitor!
ancestor
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(The lid of one of the bins lifts and the hands ofNagg appear, gripping the rim. Then his head emerges. Nightcap.Very white face
Nagg..... any meaning?
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When there were still bicycles I wept to have one. Icrawled at your feet. You told me to go to hell. Nowthere are none.
you have always deprived me & even now when there is no option
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HAMM (violently): Then move!
that feeling of remorse didn't last very long
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You don't love me. CLOV: No. HAMM: You loved me once. CLOV: Once! HAMM: I've made you suffer too much. (Pause.) Haven't I? CLOV: It's not that. HAMM: I haven't made you suffer too much? CLOV: Yes!
of course you have... you're insufferable
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Why do you stay with me? CLOV: Why do you keep me? HAMM: There's no one else. CLOV: There's nowhere else
a depressing codependence
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I'll give you nothing more to eat. CLOV: Then we'll die. HAMM: I'll give you just enough to keep you from dying.You'll be hungry all the time.
the idea of who is in control is warped
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All life long the same questions, the same answers
so why bother posing them.. or living?
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Have you not had enough? CLOV: Yes! (Pause.) Of what? HAMM: Of this... this... thing. CLOV: I always had. (Pause.) Not you?
they just are chasing eachothers own tail
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Zero
that's the time
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One of these days I'll show them to you. (Pause.) It seems they've gone all white.
how would the blind man know
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And what of it? CLOV: I can't be getting you up and putting you to bedevery five minutes, I have things to do.
things like....
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You pollute the air!
perhaps the smell is himself...
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the bigger a man is the fuller he is. (Pause. Gloomily.) And the emptier.
very profound
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ery red face. Glasses withblack lenses.)
he is blind
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I can't be punished any more
is that his goal or a statement?
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him to whistle me.
like a dog
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Grain upon grain, one by one, and one day,suddenly, there's a heap, a little heap, the impossibleheap.
every day we will get a little closer.. to what, however?
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tonelessly
so dryly?
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blood-stained handkerchie
he's sick
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a whistlehanging from his neck,
why?
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toque
a woman's small hat having a narrow, closely turned up brim
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removes sheet covering them
he decides when their day begins
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Brief laugh.
perhaps laughing at himself for even checking to see what's out there
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