Beckett, Gidal and Lessness

Abstract

Not to grasp, not to know, to see while not seeing, to lose the already lost, again and again, that is the pleasure and pain of lessness, of dispossession to which the films and writings of Peter Gidal invite viewers and readers. A deictic centre — a fixed subject, time, or space — is nowhere to be found, thus setting interlocutors adrift to the point of vertigo.

I grieved then and now I grieve anew

when I turn my thoughts to what I saw,

and more than wont I rein in my powers…

Allot mi dolsi, e ora mi ridoglio

quando drizzo la mente a ciò ch’io vidi,

e più lo ‘ngegno affreno ch’i’ non soglio…

Dante, Inferno 26.19–21

Less is less.

Peter Gidal, Understanding Beckett 67