FRAGMENT OF SAMUEL BECKETT'S PLAY WAITING FOR GODOT BEING READ BY STUDENTS IN BAGHDAD UNIVERSITY'S DRAMA STUDIES CLASS

ESTRAGON:

----His name is Godot?

VLADIMIR:

----I think so.

ESTRAGON:

----Fancy that. (He raises what remains of the carrot by the stub of -------leaf, twirls it before his eyes.) Funny, the more you eat the worse it ----gets.

VLADIMIR:

----With me it's just the opposite.

ESTRAGON:

----In other words?

VLADIMIR:

----I get used to the muck as I go along.

ESTRAGON:

----(after prolonged reflection). Is that the opposite?

VLADIMIR:

----Question of temperament.

ESTRAGON:

----Of character.

VLADIMIR:

----Nothing you can do about it.

ESTRAGON:

----No use struggling.

VLADIMIR:

----One is what one is.

ESTRAGON:

----No use wriggling.

VLADIMIR:

----The essential doesn't change.

ESTRAGON:

----Nothing to be done. (He proffers the remains of the carrot to ---------Vladimir.) Like to finish it?

A terrible cry, close at hand. Estragon drops the carrot. They remain motionless, then together make a sudden rush towards the wings. Estragon stops halfway, runs back, picks up the carrot, stuffs it in his pocket, runs to rejoin Vladimir who is waiting for him, stops again, runs back, picks up his boot, runs to rejoin Vladimir. Huddled together, shoulders hunched, cringing away from the menace, they wait. #

Enter Pozzo and Lucky. Pozzo drives Lucky by means of a rope passed round his neck, so that Lucky is the first to enter, followed by the rope which is long enough to let him reach the middle of the stage before Pozzo appears. Lucky carries a heavy bag, a folding stool, a picnic basket and a greatcoat, Pozzo a whip.

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• The whole play can be found here:
  http://samuel-beckett.net/Waiting_for_Godot_Part1.html
  
  
• The idea of irony (both as philosophy and principle) was for my money crystallized in the work of Søren Kierkegaard:
  http://www.stolaf.edu/collections/kierkegaard/newsletter/43005.htm
  
  
• Beckett's work in being studied in Baghdad is ironic but not surprising. The history of British Colonialism in Iraq runs deep. And despite the fact that Iraq has ruled itself since the 1950's, remnants of British rule remains, especially in fields of "high" culture. British (or perhaps more appropriately Anglo-Saxon art ) is touted as the pinnacle of culture. T.S. Eliot, Matthew Arnold, even Bertrand Russell rule the PH.d Literature and Humanities curcuit in Baghdad University.