• Home
  • About
    • Straight Up
    • Jan Herman
    • Contact
  • AJBlogs
  • ArtsJournal

Straight Up | Jan Herman

Arts, Media & Culture News with 'tude

Beckett But Not Beckett: ‘Being Human’

January 19, 2015 by Jan Herman

It begins in blackness with whispers. Jumps to a face with eyes closed. The eyes open. Words form: “I was almost human. But then something went wrong. I was a human being. But then I became a victim. I was almost a human being but then I ran out of time.” I wish I could embed the YouTube video here, but the embed function has been disabled. To see the video click the image.

If “Being Human” brings to mind Billie Whitelaw doing Samuel Beckett’s “Not I,” there’s nothing wrong with that.

Share on email
Email
Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on reddit
Reddit

Filed Under: Art, Literature, Media, Movies

Comments

  1. william osborne says

    January 19, 2015 at 1:21 pm

    Nice video and poem. Hard to pin it down. I sense the poem’s ethos coming from Germany. The Entfremdung is closer to a German than American mindset. Germans are closer to Beckett than Americans. The poem sounds to me more like the sentiments of Burroughs cast in the form of Beckett. Burroughs “told it like it is” while Beckett would have found the hipness another irony. I also enjoyed Carl Weissner’s translation. You travel in interesting circles!

  2. Jan Herman says

    January 19, 2015 at 3:36 pm

    You’re right about “the poem’s ethos coming from Germany.” The writer/performer Cody Mahler is an American expat who lives in Germany and has for many years. And the “entfremdung” you mention, which I take to mean “alienation,” fits his sensibility exactly. Which CW translation are you referring to? Please tell. I wish the circles I travelled in actually involved travel. I rarely leave the damned computer.

    • william osborne says

      January 20, 2015 at 10:19 am

      Carl’s translation can be found here:

      http://www.weststadt-online.de/?page_id=21885

      William Cody Maher and Carl did a few projects together, like public readings in which they read each other’s work. I watched a documentary a few days ago about Bukowski in which Carl was interviewed. His gentleness and kindness was a contrast to his hard boiled literary milieu.

      • Jan Herman says

        January 24, 2015 at 1:44 pm

        Thank you for that, Bill.

        Your observation about Carl’s “gentleness and kindness” in “contrast to his hard boiled literary milieu” catches him to the letter.

Jan Herman

When not listening to Bach or Cuban jazz pianist Chucho Valdes, or dancing to salsa, I like to play jazz piano -- but only in the privacy of my own mind.
Another strange fact... Read More…

About

My Books

Several books of poems have been published in recent years by Moloko Print, Statdlichter Presse, Phantom Outlaw Editions, and Cold Turkey … [Read More...]

Straight Up

The agenda is just what it says: news of arts, media & culture delivered with attitude. Or as Rock Hudson once said in a movie: "Man is the only … [Read More...]

Contact me

We're cutting down on spam. Please fill in this form. … [Read More...]

Archives

Blogroll

Abstract City
AC Institute
ACKER AWARDS New York
All Things Allen Ginsberg
Antiwar.com
arkivmusic.com
Artbook&
Arts & Letters Daily

Befunky
Bellaart
Blogcritics
Booknotes
Bright Lights Film Journal

C-SPAN
Noam Chomsky
Consortium News
Cost of War
Council on Foreign Relations
Crooks and Liars
Cultural Daily

The Daily Howler
Dark Roasted Blend
DCReport
Deep L
Democracy Now!

Tim Ellis: Comedy
Eschaton

Film Threat
Robert Fisk
Flixnosh (David Elliott’s movie menu)
Fluxlist Europe

Good Reads
The Guardian
GUERNICA: A Magazine of Art & Politics

Herman (Literary) Archive, Northwestern Univ. Library
The Huffington Post

Inter Press Service News Agency
The Intercept
Internet Archive (WayBackMachine)
Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
Doug Ireland
IT: International Times, The Magazine of Resistance

Jacketmagazine
Clive James

Kanopy (stream free movies, via participating library or university)
Henry Kisor
Paul Krugman

Lannan Foundation
Los Angeles Times

Metacritic
Mimeo Mimeo
Moloko Print
Movie Geeks United (MGU)
MGU: The Kubrick Series

National Security Archive
The New York Times
NO!art

Osborne & Conant
The Overgrown Path

Poets House
Political Irony
Poynter

Quanta Magazine

Rain Taxi
The Raw Story
RealityStudio.org
Bill Reed
Rhizome
Rwanda Project

Salon
Senses of Cinema
Seven Stories Press
Slate
Stadtlichter Presse
Studs Terkel
The Synergic Theater

Talking Points Memo (TPM)
TalkLeft
The 3rd Page
Third Mind Books
Times Square Cam
The Tin Man
t r u t h o u t

Ubu Web

Vox

The Wall Street Journal
Wikigate
Wikipedia
The Washington Post
The Wayback Machine (Internet Archive)
World Catalogue
World Newspapers, Magazines & News Sites

The XD Agency

Share on email
Email
Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on reddit
Reddit
This blog published under a Creative Commons license

an ArtsJournal blog

Copyright © 2025 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

 

Loading Comments...