STOPPARD, ALBEE, AND THE MEANINGLESSNESS OF WORDS. The article by Ben Brantley I linked to yesterday argues that Tom Stoppard and Edward Albee follow Beckett and Pinter in believing that words are inadequate to communicate. Further, Brantley contends that Pinter and Stoppard believe that their words in particular are inadequate, saying that “[no other living playwright] is more achingly conscious of the inadequacy of how they say what they say.†Brantley also says, “Mr. Albee and Mr. Stoppard respond to the echoing silence by talking a purple streak. That doesn’t mean that they don’t know that unfathomable quiet will always vanquish the sound and fury of speech, however impressively loud and polysyllabic.†One would think that Stoppard would be disheartened to know that all the words in his two recent plays (THE COAST OF UTOPIA and ROCK ‘N’ ROLL)– which distill into twelve hours much of the European history of the last 150 years– can be so easily dismissed.
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It’s interesting, in both Conrad’s HEART OF DARKNESS and Sterne’s SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY, which I’ve been reading recently, the narrators both speak about how they find it impossible to convey a feeling to another human being. Perhaps the whole point of a play, though, is that it isn’t just words, it’s a visual experience as well?
Joyce seemed to struggle with this in all of his works, as well. I think it’s kind of a straw man. Who cares, really?
I should clarify that when I say “Who cares?” I don’t mean it in the apathetic sort of way. I mean in it the sense of, “Even if we come to some sort of conclusion – whether or not words are adequate – how will this change anything?” Say we decide words aren’t enough to express something. Will we stop using them?
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