[lit-ideas] FW: Six Characters in Search of an Author
- From: "Andy Amago" <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "lit-ideas" <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 26 Dec 2005 22:23:42 -0500
Glen Campbell?s life is a journey. My life too. With Joseph Campbell it
should be "life is a journey", in quotes.
----- Original Message -----
From: Andy Amago
To: lit-ideas
Sent: 12/26/2005 9:56:04 PM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Six Characters in Search of an Author
I finished reading Six Characters in Search of an Author. I want to say that
the following are simply notes, quick thoughts and direct quotations without
credit from the Internet, although I do indicate when I?m plagiarizing. It?s
written with total stylistic abandon.
I can?t say I loved the play, but, I did get a sense of the surrealism in it.
I couldn?t help but notice that it?s a play that had to be written in the
1920?s and not, for example in the 1820?s or even the 1890?s. It was
revolutionary for its time, like much of the literary and artistic work of the
early 20th century. Audiences actually rioted when it was first produced.
The early 20th century had to be a wonderful time to be in literature and the
arts. The atomic age was dawning; Einstein?s relativity had just come along,
together with Heisenberg and his principle of uncertainty. The Industrial Age
had a tremendous impact on architecture. The Heisenberg principle alone
explains the inevitability of surrealism. I want to say this sounds obvious,
but I?ve never heard it expressed on this list, so maybe it?s not so obvious.
Six Characters also is consistent with the discovery of unconscious motivation
by Freud, and it foreshadows the discovery of post traumatic stress disorder
(my words) as well as the work of Joseph Campbell (my words). Quoting from the
Internet:
?Six people arrive in a theatre during rehearsals for a play. But they are not
ordinary people. They are the characters of a play that has not yet been
written [Joseph Campbell?s life is a journey]. Trapped inside a traumatic event
from which they long to escape [a veritable definition of PTSD], they
desperately need a writer to complete their story and release them
[contemporary psychotherapy, indeed the whole New Age thing is about telling
one?s story; Toni Morrison was mentioned recently]. Intrigued by their
situation, the director and his company of actors listen as the characters
begin to describe and argue over the key events of their lives...One of the
most extraordinary and mysterious plays of the 20th century, Six Characters
speaks directly to an age of uncertainty: where do we come from, where are we
going, how do we become what we want to be??
More from the Internet: "Pirandellian themes like the relativity of truth [very
early and mid 20th century], the constantly changing nature of personal
identity, or the difficulty of distinguishing between reality and illusion or
between sanity and madness all have a common thread?they all point to
uncertainty as a significant part of human experience. As John Gassner has
observed, Pirandello was consistently "expressing a conviction that nothing in
life is certain except its uncertainty.'"
I can?t at the moment see how this play is seminal per se, however. Its
concepts sprang out of and reflected much of the early and mid 20th century,
but I can?t think of any works that it would have directly influenced or
spawned. Anybody have any ideas? Other than the Twilight Zone or Woody
Allen?s movie where the character comes off the screen? Or even indirectly?
Other related posts:
