Ever Tried Ever Faild Tray Again Fail Again
Samuel Beckett: Fail Ameliorate and "Worstward Ho!"
Today we're featuring a Samuel Beckett quote that has gained immense popularity in contempo years. You may not have known that this quote comes from Irish gaelic author Samuel Beckett, but there'southward no doubt you know the words.
Fifty-fifty if you aren't involved in tech, entrepreneurship, lifehacking, or other such digital-age ubiquities, you've probably heard the well-nigh famous role of this Samuel Beckett quote: "Neglect amend."
The "Neglect Better" Quote by Samuel Beckett
The "fail better" quote was originally published in Samuel Beckett's brusk piece of prose entitled Worstward Ho!, his 2nd-to-last work e'er published. The full Samuel Beckett quote reads like this (and past "full," nosotros really mean the part that gets repeated):
"Ever tried. Always failed. No matter. Endeavor once more. Fail once more. Fail better."
By itself, you can probably understand why this phrase has become a mantra of sorts, especially in the glamorized world of overworked get-go-up founders hoping confronting pretty high odds to make it.
Even outside of the business evolution niche, this quote does sound inspiring. Right?
We call back so, too. That is…until you lot read the rest of information technology.
Is the "Fail Improve" Quote Really Inspirational?
Hither's the continuation of that Samuel Beckett quote, the part that immediately follows the famously catchy bit (our emphasis added):
"First the torso. No. First the place. No. First both. Now either. Now the other. Ill of the either try the other. Sick of it back sick of the either. So on. Somehow on. Till sick of both. Throw upwards and go. Where neither. Till sick of at that place. Throw up and dorsum. The body again. Where none. The place again. Where none. Try once more. Neglect again. Better once more. Or better worse. Fail worse again. Still worse again. Till ill for good. Throw upward for good. Go for good. Where neither for good. Adept and all."
As this markedly darker snippet of text demonstrates, Worstward Ho! seems to have nothing to do with positivity, motivation, or progress.
In fact, it seems that the only recompense Beckett's narrator tin can come up up with for the absurdity of being is to "fail meliorate" the next time.
Non exactly inspiring, correct?
The Meme-ification of the "Fail Amend" Samuel Beckett Quote
In Beckett'south bleak worldview, life is already a grand failure (or a tragi-one-act, if you'd adopt) 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 and so far from its original roots is pretty fascinating.
Mark O'Connell, a writer forSlate, describes the ironic meme-ification of the "fail meliorate" quote like this:
"The entrepreneurial fashion for failure with which this polished shard fits so snugly is not really concerned, as Beckett was, with failure per se—with the necessary defeat of every human being try, of all efforts at communication, and of language itself—but with failure every bit an essential phase in the individual's progress toward lucrative self-fulfillment."
As O'Connell notes, Samuel Beckett was interested in failure, full stop. Not failure as a necessary path toward riches, or fame, or (everyone's favorite buzzword) "innovation." Merely failure.
The "Dim Void:" Beckett'due southWorstward Ho!
Except for this one "fail better" quote, near every other snippet fromWest Ho! reflects the real Samuel Beckett: heart-searching, morbid, and completely avant-garde.
Indeed, far from encouraging techie CEOs to achieve their greatest potential, Beckett's primary obsession inWestward Ho! is "the void":
"Longing that all go. Dim go. Void go. Longing go. Vain longing that vain longing go."
In many means, this text can exist seen equally an extended meditation on the inexplicable nature of being and not-being. Beckett'due south narrator seems to be trying to work out the paradox of emptiness and presence, of birth and death.
Worstward Ho! vs. W Ho!
The title ofWorstward Ho! is a riff on the 19th century novelWestward Ho! by the English novelist Charles Kingsley, offering a very contrasting view of life.
While the phrase "West Ho!" is associated with expansion, growth, and smashing optimism for the future, Beckett's title reminds us that, ultimately, we are all journeying "worstward" towards the grave…
…and perhaps back again. It's not quite clear, just some people see the theory of reincarnation in this work, just equally "metempsychosis" is a major theme in Joyce'sUlysses.
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Unreliability of Language
Some other important theme inWorstward Ho! (over again, something skipped over in the famous Samuel Beckett quote) is the narrator's lack of faith in language. Later on in the piece, Beckett writes the post-obit:
"With leastening words say to the lowest degree best worse. For desire of worser worse. Unlessenable least best worse."
This phrase succinctly encapsulates Beckett'south after minimalist aesthetics. Y'all can also see the unreliability of language as "discussion" almost slips into "worse" in this quote.
What DoesWorstward Ho!Even Hateful?
A few literary critics have tried to allocateWorstward Ho! as a novella, but it's quite hard to make out a clear plot in this text. Readers who support the theory thatWorstward Ho! is a novella point out that this text is mainly about an erstwhile homo, an onetime woman, and a child visiting a graveyard. Information technology's left up to us, perhaps, to fill in the blanks surrounding these 3 figures.
As with many of Beckett's other works, there's a neat deal of disagreement over whatWorstward Ho! really "means." The woman, human being, and child might be symbolic of stages in the human condition. Or they might non.
Every bit with any other piece of work of fiction, readers but get out of Beckett'southward text as much as they put into information technology.
Samuel Beckett: And so Much More "Neglect Amend"
A Nobel Prize-winning writer, Samuel Beckett's been called many things: Avant-garde. Nighttime. Intense. Depressive.
But inspiring? Not so much.
Samuel Beckett Portrait [Public Domain], via Wikimedia Commons
In fact, Morris Dickstein at The New York Times Book Review says this of Beckett'southward life and piece of work:
"He arrived early at an extremely bleak view of life and a sense of the peculiarity of his own detached and morbid temperament."
To understand more near this famous Irish author—and see what's across his out-of-context "fail better" quote—let's accept a little deeper look at his life.
Friendship with Joyce and WWII
Samuel Beckett was born in 1906 in Dublin and was raised in a Protestant household.
After receiving his BA in Romance languages at Trinity Higher, Beckett moved to Paris where he became close friends with fellow Irish writer James Joyce. Beckett learned a neat deal about writing from Joyce and helped the great author with his last novelFinnegans Wake.
When Globe 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 regime in 1945. Earlier the war, Beckett mainly wrote essays on literary criticism. The only work from this menstruation students read today is Beckett's analysis of French author Marcel Proust.
Advanced Theater and Literary Development
About literary historians agree that Beckett's outset great novel wasWatt, which was published in 1953. Beckett then published a major trilogy of novels calledMolloy,Malone Dies, andThe Unnamable.
But it wasn't until he produced his archetype absurdist drama Waiting For Godotthat Beckett became a celebrity of Avant-garde theatre.
Beckett spent the rest of his life generally moving between the Marne Valley and Paris. He was a famously reclusive writer who rarely gave interviews, although he was generous with his time for serious artists that sought him out.
Equally he matured, Beckett tried to parse down his prose to the bare essentials. In fact, some of Beckett'south subsequently works (like the 30-2nd play "Breath") had no words at all.
Beckett's style of prose went in the exact contrary of his mentor James Joyce. Whereas Joyce'southward works expanded over fourth dimension, Beckett'southward later texts had fewer and fewer words. A few of the slap-up works from his middle and late career include:
- Endgame
- Eh Joe
- Krapp's Last Tape
Manuscript of Embers, a one-act radio play by Samuel Beckett, past Dmitrij Rodionov, via Wikimedia Commons
Nobel Prize in Literature and Later Life
The Nobel Prize Commission 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 coin.
Beckett passed abroad in 1989, just a few months after his wife Suzanne Déchevaux-Dumesni. The two were buried in the French capital's famous Cimetière de Montparnasse.
Samuel Beckett Span, Dublin, by Surrell, via Wikimedia Commons
To laurels the great writer, Parisian officials (perhaps ironically) named the Allée Samuel Beckett near the infamous Catacombs in his honor. In 2007, Dublin also honored the influential author with the Samuel Beckett Bridge over the River Liffey.
Mostly all of Beckett's works explore heavy themes:
- Decease
- Retentiveness
- Linguistic communication'southward relationship to reality
Although Beckett is often seen as a morbid author, he often injects his own unique sense of Irish humor into many of his plays and novels. Much similar Joyce'southward work, many of Beckett's texts are full of references to some of his favorite authors in the Western literary canon, especially Dante Alighieri.
Connections Betwixt Beckett and Dante
Beckett was a great admirer of Dante's poetry. It's even possible that Beckett had the concluding lines ofParadiso in mind when he equanimous some sections ofWorstward Ho!
As Dante stands before God in the finale to his chiliad epic, he utters these unforgettable verses:
Here forcefulness failed my high fantasy; just my
Want and will were moved already—similar
A wheel revolving uniformly—by
The Love that moves the sunday and the other stars.
For Dante, equally information technology seems for Beckett besides, the highest happiness is to give up all craving and, at least in Dante's vision, to permit God to work through united states of america. Different Dante, however, Beckett is living later the horrors of World State of war II and later on the Nietzschean "Expiry of God."
Just similar us, 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 II at the forefront of his heed, Beckett suggests that there's niggling to be hopeful for in the diminutive age.
Interestingly, despite all of his pessimism most the human condition, there is still a faint desire in Beckett'southward piece of work for union with the divine.
Tips for Further Study ofWorstward Ho!
Beckett'southWorstward Ho! is extremely rhythmic and relies on brusk staccato sentences.
When you listen to thisprose-poem, information technology almost sounds similar an incantation and can have a hypnotic consequence. If you do decide to mind to this text from a trained reader, then y'all will want to hold a re-create of the poem in your hand to proceed track of Beckett's wordplay.
A few words Beckett switches around in the slice include the pairs "know"/"no" and "two"/"too." Also, afterward in the text, Beckett uses the give-and-take "prey," which could be mistaken for "pray" if you're just listening to the poem.
There are many first-class readings ofWorstward Ho! online. You lot tin also find Beckett's originalWorstward Ho! text aslope helpful glosses by Colin Greenlaw on this webpage.
"Fail Ameliorate": What Does It All Mean?
Here at Books on the Wall, we love excavation into quotes and all things quote related—from what work the quote came from, what the author meant by it, how modern society has interpreted it, and whether the supposed author even wrote the quote in the first place.
When yous outset looking deeper into the many quotes that float around our collective conscience and the cyberspace (and in this case, on tennis player Stan Wawrinka'due south tattooed arm), yous'll see pretty rapidly that there's always more to the story than the lilliputian flake of text that happened to get famous.
And by at present, you'll realize that this is definitely truthful of this particular Samuel Beckett quote.
And this all raises an interesting question: Does a quote'south 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, it could be argued that—despite its undisputed out-of-contextness—the "neglect better" quote has truly inspired people, peradventure even changed lives.
Then does it matter that its author would probably blench to larn how commercialized and, well, positive it's become? How much should an author'due south original intent color our view of his or her words?
In the end, we really don't know. Information technology'south certainly an interesting question to consider.
What do you call up? Permit us know your thoughts in the comments beneath.
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