Samuel Beckett Try Again Fail Again Fail Better
Samuel Beckett: Fail Improve and "Worstward Ho!"
Today we're featuring a Samuel Beckett quote that has gained immense popularity in recent years. Yous may not have known that this quote comes from Irish author Samuel Beckett, but there's no uncertainty you know the words.
Even if yous aren't involved in tech, entrepreneurship, lifehacking, or other such digital-age ubiquities, you've probably heard the most famous part of this Samuel Beckett quote: "Neglect better."
The "Fail Better" Quote by Samuel Beckett
The "fail better" quote was originally published in Samuel Beckett's curt piece of prose entitled Worstward Ho!, his 2d-to-last work ever published. The full Samuel Beckett quote reads like this (and by "total," we really mean the part that gets repeated):
"Always tried. Always failed. No matter. Effort again. Fail again. Neglect better."
By itself, you can probably understand why this phrase has become a mantra of sorts, peculiarly in the glamorized earth of overworked showtime-up founders hoping against pretty loftier odds to brand it.
Fifty-fifty exterior of the concern development niche, this quote does sound inspiring. Right?
We think so, besides. That is…until y'all read the remainder of it.
Is the "Fail Better" Quote Really Inspirational?
Hither's the continuation of that Samuel Beckett quote, the function that immediately follows the famously catchy bit (our emphasis added):
"Outset the body. No. Outset the place. No. Kickoff both. Now either. Now the other. Ill of the either try the other. Sick of it dorsum sick of the either. And then on. Somehow on. Till sick of both. Throw upwardly and go. Where neither. Till sick of in that location. Throw upwards and back. The body over again. Where none. The place once again. Where none. Try over again. Fail again. Better again. Or ameliorate worse. Fail worse again. Still worse over again. Till sick for good. Throw up for practiced. Go for proficient. Where neither for good. Good and all."
As this markedly darker snippet of text demonstrates, Worstward Ho! seems to accept zip to do with positivity, motivation, or progress.
In fact, information technology seems that the only recompense Beckett's narrator can come with for the absurdity of existence is to "fail amend" the next time.
Not exactly inspiring, right?
The Meme-ification of the "Fail Better" Samuel Beckett Quote
In Beckett'southward bleak worldview, life is already a grand failure (or a tragi-one-act, if you'd prefer) in which we are all, like the narrator ofWorstward Ho!, sitting in an inexplicable "dim void." The fact that this Samuel Beckett quote has been taken so far from its original roots is pretty fascinating.
Mark O'Connell, a writer forSlate, describes the ironic meme-ification of the "fail better" quote like this:
"The entrepreneurial fashion for failure with which this polished shard fits so snugly is non really concerned, as Beckett was, with failure per se—with the necessary defeat of every man attempt, of all efforts at advice, and of language itself—but with failure as an essential phase in the private's progress toward lucrative self-fulfillment."
As O'Connell notes, Samuel Beckett was interested in failure, total stop. Non failure as a necessary path toward riches, or fame, or (everyone's favorite buzzword) "innovation." Just failure.
The "Dim Void:" Beckett'sWorstward Ho!
Except for this i "fail meliorate" quote, nigh every other snippet fromWestward Ho! reflects the real Samuel Beckett: brooding, morbid, and completely avant-garde.
Indeed, far from encouraging techie CEOs to achieve their greatest potential, Beckett's primary obsession inDue west Ho! is "the void":
"Longing that all become. Dim go. Void go. Longing go. Vain longing that vain longing become."
In many ways, this text can exist seen every bit an extended meditation on the inexplicable nature of existence and not-being. Beckett'due south narrator seems to be trying to work out the paradox of emptiness and presence, of nativity and expiry.
Worstward Ho! vs. West Ho!
The title ofWorstward Ho! is a riff on the 19th century novelW Ho! by the English novelist Charles Kingsley, offer a very contrasting view of life.
While the phrase "West Ho!" is associated with expansion, growth, and nifty optimism for the time to come, Beckett'due south title reminds us that, ultimately, we are all journeying "worstward" towards the grave…
…and maybe dorsum over again. It'south not quite clear, but some people see the theory of reincarnation in this piece of work, merely as "metempsychosis" is a major theme in Joyce'sUlysses.
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Unreliability of Language
Some other important theme inWorstward Ho! (again, something skipped over in the famous Samuel Beckett quote) is the narrator'south lack of organized religion in language. Afterwards in the slice, Beckett writes the following:
"With leastening words say to the lowest degree best worse. For desire of worser worse. Unlessenable least best worse."
This phrase succinctly encapsulates Beckett'southward later on minimalist aesthetics. You can besides see the unreliability of language every bit "word" nigh slips into "worse" in this quote.
What DoesWorstward Ho!Even Hateful?
A few literary critics take tried to classifyWorstward Ho! as a novella, but it's quite difficult to brand out a clear plot in this text. Readers who back up the theory thatWorstward Ho! is a novella indicate out that this text is mainly well-nigh an old human, an old adult female, and a child visiting a graveyard. It's left up to u.s., perhaps, to make full in the blanks surrounding these 3 figures.
Equally with many of Beckett'southward other works, there'southward a great bargain of disagreement over whatWorstward Ho! actually "means." The woman, man, and child might be symbolic of stages in the human status. Or they might not.
As with whatsoever other work of fiction, readers simply get out of Beckett's text equally much as they put into it.
Samuel Beckett: So Much More Than "Neglect Better"
A Nobel Prize-winning writer, Samuel Beckett's been called many things: Avant-garde. Nighttime. Intense. Depressive.
But inspiring? Non so much.
Samuel Beckett Portrait [Public Domain], via Wikimedia Eatables
In fact, Morris Dickstein at The New York Times Book Review says this of Beckett's life and piece of work:
"He arrived early at an extremely bleak view of life and a sense of the peculiarity of his ain discrete and morbid temperament."
To sympathise more nearly this famous Irish author—and see what's beyond his out-of-context "fail better" quote—permit'southward take a little deeper await at his life.
Friendship with Joyce and WWII
Samuel Beckett was built-in in 1906 in Dublin and was raised in a Protestant household.
After receiving his BA in Romance languages at Trinity College, Beckett moved to Paris where he became shut friends with young man Irish writer James Joyce. Beckett learned a groovy deal about writing from Joyce and helped the great author with his last novelFinnegans Wake.
When World State of war Ii broke out, Beckett remained in France and worked with resistance fighters. For his efforts, Beckett was awarded the Croix de Guerre from the French government in 1945. Before the war, Beckett mainly wrote essays on literary criticism. The but work from this catamenia students read today is Beckett'due south assay of French author Marcel Proust.
Advanced Theater and Literary Evolution
Most literary historians agree that Beckett's outset great novel wasWatt, which was published in 1953. Beckett and then published a major trilogy of novels chosenMolloy,Malone Dies, andThe Unnamable.
Just information technology wasn't until he produced his classic absurdist drama Waiting For Godotthat Beckett became a celebrity of Avant-garde theatre.
Beckett spent the remainder of his life mostly moving between the Marne Valley and Paris. He was a famously reclusive author who rarely gave interviews, although he was generous with his fourth dimension for serious artists that sought him out.
As he matured, Beckett tried to parse down his prose to the bare essentials. In fact, some of Beckett's afterwards works (like the thirty-2nd play "Jiff") had no words at all.
Beckett's style of prose went in the exact opposite of his mentor James Joyce. Whereas Joyce'southward works expanded over time, Beckett's later on texts had fewer and fewer words. A few of the neat works from his middle and late career include:
- Endgame
- Eh Joe
- Krapp's Last Record
Manuscript of Embers, a one-act radio play past Samuel Beckett, by Dmitrij Rodionov, via Wikimedia Commons
Nobel Prize in Literature and Later Life
The Nobel Prize Committee awarded Beckett the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1969. Although he accepted the award, he didn't make a speech and he generously gave away all of his prize money.
Beckett passed away in 1989, but a few months after his wife Suzanne Déchevaux-Dumesni. The two were buried in the French capital's famous Cimetière de Montparnasse.
Samuel Beckett Bridge, Dublin, by Surrell, via Wikimedia Commons
To award the neat writer, Parisian officials (possibly ironically) named the Allée Samuel Beckett well-nigh the infamous Catacombs in his award. In 2007, Dublin as well honored the influential writer with the Samuel Beckett Bridge over the River Liffey.
Generally all of Beckett's works explore heavy themes:
- Death
- Retentiveness
- Language'due south relationship to reality
Although Beckett is often seen every bit a morbid writer, he often injects his ain unique sense of Irish humor into many of his plays and novels. Much like Joyce's work, many of Beckett's texts are full of references to some of his favorite authors in the Western literary canon, peculiarly Dante Alighieri.
Connections Between Beckett and Dante
Beckett was a great admirer of Dante's verse. It's even possible that Beckett had the terminal lines ofParadiso in heed when he composed some sections ofWorstward Ho!
As Dante stands before God in the finale to his k epic, he utters these unforgettable verses:
Here force failed my high fantasy; but my
Desire and volition were moved already—like
A wheel revolving uniformly—by
The Love that moves the sun and the other stars.
For Dante, as it seems for Beckett too, the highest happiness is to surrender all peckish and, at least in Dante's vision, to allow God to work through us. Unlike Dante, however, Beckett is living later on the horrors of World State of war II and after the Nietzschean "Death of God."
Merely like united states of america, Beckett is in an age far removed from the organized religion of the Eye Ages that inspired the soaring cathedrals all across Europe. Indeed, instead of building the grand cathedrals, nosotros are living amidst their rubble. With these immense suffering of World War Two at the forefront of his mind, Beckett suggests that there's piddling to exist hopeful for in the atomic age.
Interestingly, despite all of his pessimism nigh the human condition, there is yet a faint desire in Beckett'southward work for spousal relationship with the divine.
Tips for Further Study ofWorstward Ho!
Beckett'sWorstward Ho! is extremely rhythmic and relies on short staccato sentences.
When yous listen to thisprose-poem, it almost sounds like an incantation and can take a hypnotic consequence. If you exercise decide to listen to this text from a trained reader, then you lot will want to hold a copy of the poem in your hand to go on track of Beckett's wordplay.
A few words Beckett switches around in the piece include the pairs "know"/"no" and "two"/"too." Also, later in the text, Beckett uses the word "prey," which could exist mistaken for "pray" if you're just listening to the verse form.
There are many splendid readings ofWorstward Ho! online. You tin also notice Beckett's originalWorstward Ho! text alongside helpful glosses by Colin Greenlaw on this webpage.
"Fail Improve": What Does It All Mean?
Here at Books on the Wall, we love earthworks into quotes and all things quote related—from what work the quote came from, what the writer meant by it, how modern society has interpreted it, and whether the supposed author even wrote the quote in the first identify.
When you start looking deeper into the many quotes that float around our collective conscience and the cyberspace (and in this example, on tennis player Stan Wawrinka's tattooed arm), yous'll run into pretty speedily that there'due south ever more to the story than the little flake of text that happened to get famous.
And by now, you'll realize that this is definitely true of this detail Samuel Beckett quote.
And this all raises an interesting question: Does a quote's context matter?
If not for the misplaced fame of this Samuel Beckett quote, tons of people would never have even heard of this groundbreaking Irish author. Plus, information technology could be argued that—despite its undisputed out-of-contextness—the "fail better" quote has truly inspired people, maybe fifty-fifty changed lives.
So does it matter that its author would probably blench to acquire how commercialized and, well, positive it's become? How much should an author'southward original intent color our view of his or her words?
In the terminate, nosotros really don't know. It's certainly an interesting question to consider.
What do you think? Allow us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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