Bloom, Tennyson, Beckett, Webern, and Ideas about Influence

On the friendship between Alfred, Lord Tennyson and Arthur Henry Hallam, our venerated critic, Harold Bloom writes, "The friendship between the two was the most important experience of Tennyson's life, and if it had a repres

cogito ergo Beckett (Solipsist, but no soul):

"That's how he speaks, this evening, how he has me speak, how he speaks to himself, how I speak, there is only me, this evening, here, on earth, and a voice that makes no sound because it goes towards none, and a head strewn with arms laid down and corpses fighting fresh, and a body, I nearly forgot...

...There's my life, why not, it is one, if you like, if you must, I don't say no, this evening.  There has to be one, it seems, once there is speech, no need of a story, a story is not compulsory, just a life, that's the mistake I made, one of the mistakes, to have wanted a story for myself, whereas life alone is enough."

Elsewhere, "...clear to me at last that the dark I have always struggled to keep under is in reality my most..."

"...precious ally."

An interesting conduit for exploring modernity.  Less > more. Neat perspective.

This post has very quickly become larger than I could control.