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The Kentucky Cycle
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264 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
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October 23, 2020
توی مدرسه بما گفتن اقوام آریایی که وارد ایران شدن مادها، پارسها و پارتها بودن و به ترتیب در غرب، شمال، و شرق ماوراءالنهر( که نمیدونم کجاست) حکومت تشکیل دادن و ساکن شدن. تورانیها هم از شمال اومدن و در آسیای مرکزی سکنی گزیدند.
اما کسی نگفت این اقوام برای برپایی امپراطوری های باشکوه خودشون که ما بهش افتخار و گاهی دعوا میکنیم، خون چه کسانی رو ریختن و چه کسانی رو از سرزمینشون بیرون کردن. ما نمیدونیم روی استخونهای چندتا بچهی شیرخواره، زن و مرد شجاع یا آواره پا میذاریم که روزی حاضر بودن خونشون روی این خاک ریخته بشه ولی ازش رانده نشن. اینه تاریخ خاک و همه جا داستان دقیقا به همین شکله.
...........
در سفر پیدایش آمده است که انسان به سبب گناه نخستین به لعنت دچار می شود و به همین سبب، زمین هم دچار لعنت می شود. در برخی ای موسی آمده است که وقتی " ایکی موتوبه" سرکرده قبیله سرخپوست " جیکاسا" کشف می کند که می تواند زمین قومش را بفروشد، لعنت مالکیت زمین به گردن مردم جنوب می افتد، ایکه مو توبه، به واسطة چنین کشفی، قوم خودش را دچار لعنت می کند. و ازآنجاکه مالکیت زمین سبب می شود که شخص مالک دیگران را از حق قانونی و خدایی محروم کند و به بیگاری وادارشان کند و در صورت تمرد خونشان را بریزد، حق مالکیت زمین اغشته به خون و خونریزی است. حقيقت این است که حق مالکیت زمین از بنیاد دروغینست، زیرا آدمیزاد حق دعوی چیزی را که نساخته باشد ندارد. تازه حق مالکیت زمین دست به دست می گردد و دست آخر این زمین چیزی نیست جز:
(( جنگل بزرگ... بزرگتر و دیرینهتر از نوشتههای مکتوب: - نقل سفیدپوستی بود که
از فرط بی شعوری باور نداشت قسمتی ازآن را خریده باشند، نقل سرخپوستی بود که از فرط بیباکی وانمود نمیکرد قسمتی از آن مال او بوده و واگذارش کرده...))
......
بقول اسحاق نبی فرزند ابراهیم:
خدا نخست زمین را آفرید، آن وقت انسان را آفرید تا خلیفة او در زمین باشد و به نام او اختیاردار زمین و حیوانات باشد، آن هم نه اینکه نسل اندر نسل در طول و عرض زمین برای خودش واخلافش تا ابد اسم و لقب یدک بکشد... بلکه زمین را زیر لوای اخوت همگانی و بی شائبه نام و رنگ دست نخورده و مرضی الطرفین نگه دارد .
اما کسی نگفت این اقوام برای برپایی امپراطوری های باشکوه خودشون که ما بهش افتخار و گاهی دعوا میکنیم، خون چه کسانی رو ریختن و چه کسانی رو از سرزمینشون بیرون کردن. ما نمیدونیم روی استخونهای چندتا بچهی شیرخواره، زن و مرد شجاع یا آواره پا میذاریم که روزی حاضر بودن خونشون روی این خاک ریخته بشه ولی ازش رانده نشن. اینه تاریخ خاک و همه جا داستان دقیقا به همین شکله.
...........
در سفر پیدایش آمده است که انسان به سبب گناه نخستین به لعنت دچار می شود و به همین سبب، زمین هم دچار لعنت می شود. در برخی ای موسی آمده است که وقتی " ایکی موتوبه" سرکرده قبیله سرخپوست " جیکاسا" کشف می کند که می تواند زمین قومش را بفروشد، لعنت مالکیت زمین به گردن مردم جنوب می افتد، ایکه مو توبه، به واسطة چنین کشفی، قوم خودش را دچار لعنت می کند. و ازآنجاکه مالکیت زمین سبب می شود که شخص مالک دیگران را از حق قانونی و خدایی محروم کند و به بیگاری وادارشان کند و در صورت تمرد خونشان را بریزد، حق مالکیت زمین اغشته به خون و خونریزی است. حقيقت این است که حق مالکیت زمین از بنیاد دروغینست، زیرا آدمیزاد حق دعوی چیزی را که نساخته باشد ندارد. تازه حق مالکیت زمین دست به دست می گردد و دست آخر این زمین چیزی نیست جز:
(( جنگل بزرگ... بزرگتر و دیرینهتر از نوشتههای مکتوب: - نقل سفیدپوستی بود که
از فرط بی شعوری باور نداشت قسمتی ازآن را خریده باشند، نقل سرخپوستی بود که از فرط بیباکی وانمود نمیکرد قسمتی از آن مال او بوده و واگذارش کرده...))
......
بقول اسحاق نبی فرزند ابراهیم:
خدا نخست زمین را آفرید، آن وقت انسان را آفرید تا خلیفة او در زمین باشد و به نام او اختیاردار زمین و حیوانات باشد، آن هم نه اینکه نسل اندر نسل در طول و عرض زمین برای خودش واخلافش تا ابد اسم و لقب یدک بکشد... بلکه زمین را زیر لوای اخوت همگانی و بی شائبه نام و رنگ دست نخورده و مرضی الطرفین نگه دارد .
September 8, 2020
معمولا نمایشنا مه ها برای من در حکم حرکات کششی و گرم کردن قبل ورزش هستند... کم حجم اند ،تصویر سازی قوی دارند،دیالوگ محور یا در مواردی منولوگ محور اند... خلاصه ویژگی بارزشان همان حجم کم ان هاست،حالا برای اولین بار در زندگی ام با نمایشنامه ای مواجه شدم،که حدودا 350 بود!!! بسیار حجم قابل ملاحضه ای برای یک نمایشنامه!!!داستان سه نسل از یک خانواده بر سر تصاحب یک زمین،داستان یک زمین که در تمام قصه مشترک است و ادم هایی که می ایند و می روند،جسدها یی که توی دل این خاک دفن میشوند،و زمین صبورانه جنایت را میبیند،صبورانه دروغ و تزویر ادم ها را در میابد،و همه را در خود دفن می کند.... انچه که برایم جالب بود ،کشش ادم ها به تصاحب زمین بود،میلی که از نظر من در ابتدا فقط ناشی از حرص و آز بود،هر چه نسل جلوتر می رفت حرص و آز جای خود را به حسی مثل تعلق خاطر می داد،تعلق خاطر ،احساس واقعی نسبت به یک مکان نه از سرآز ....این احساس تعلق خاطر را زنان و مادران بوجود اوردند. مادرانی که قصه می گفتند ،مادرانی که خاطره زمین و درختان ان و تصویر بهشت سانی از ان را در دل کودکانشان می نشاندند.تا نسل در نسل برود و رشد کند و تبدیل به یک مهر،به یک باور واقعی شود....موتور حرکت داستان اما از ابتدا آز بود،حرص برای داشتن،احساس مالکیت ثروت ،قدرت... برای بیشتر داشتن....هنوز ذهنم مغشوش است ؛هنوز نمی دانم از چه بگویم فقط می توانم بگوییم نمایشنامه ای با این حجم قابل توجه که اتفاقا کشش بسیار خوبی هم در مخاطب برای پیگیری ایجاد می کند ارزشش را دارد... دیگر این نمایشنامه حکم،حرکاتی برای یک گرم کردن ذهن را ندارد، بلکه خودش بمثابه بلند کردن یک وزنه سنگین چند تنی است.... !
November 18, 2018
این کتاب مجموعهای از نه نمایشنامهست که هر کدوم تاریخ یک نسل از خانوادهی روون رو توصیف میکنه و چقدر قشنگ و دقیق... حتی وقتی نمایشنامه پیش میره نقش زنها هم با توجه به پیشرفت در تاریخ عوض میشه و پررنگتر ترسیم میشه... نمایشنامهی خیلی خوبی بود.
October 12, 2020
«خواستن» ،«باید» ،«لازمه»
سه تا از غم انگیز ترین کلمات جهان
نمایشنامهٔ درد،نمایشنامهٔ قتل ،نمایشنامهٔ جنگ،نمایشنامهٔ انتقام،نمایشنامه طمع،ولع برای بیشترخواستن ،تلاش برای زنده ماندن ، . . .
زمینِ ثابت ،مردان وزنان وبچههای متغییر خودشو به آغوش میکشد
با این نمایشنامه،چند دهه رو زندگی کنید
سه تا از غم انگیز ترین کلمات جهان
نمایشنامهٔ درد،نمایشنامهٔ قتل ،نمایشنامهٔ جنگ،نمایشنامهٔ انتقام،نمایشنامه طمع،ولع برای بیشترخواستن ،تلاش برای زنده ماندن ، . . .
زمینِ ثابت ،مردان وزنان وبچههای متغییر خودشو به آغوش میکشد
با این نمایشنامه،چند دهه رو زندگی کنید
September 17, 2020
یه نمایشنامه فوق العاده
October 1, 2020
چرخه کنتاکی چرخه ای است از حرص و طمع پایانناپذیر انسانها، از قانون جنگلی که در ذات آدمها ریشه دوانده و حکم بخور تا خورده نشوی که بعد حیوانی بشر را خوب به تصویر می کشد. تنازع بقا و قدرتطلبی، انسان مدرن را بیش از پیش تحت تاثیر خود قرار داده و نداهای کوتاه و ضعیف عدالتخواهی و برابری متاسفانه چندان دوامی ندارد. تمام چرخه کنتاکی برای من تلنگری بود به ذات انسان که چه ساده از بعد انسانیت فاصله میگیرد و صفات حیوانی خود را به تمامه عرضه می کند.
October 17, 2014
An intricate, grand epic set in my home state—and a play, no less! The Kentucky Cycle is a perambulation through several generations of the Rowen family. The audience witnesses Michael Rowen, the patriarch, swindle a tract of land from Indians, and several generations later, we see the same land swindled from the family by a fast talking coal company representative.
It could just be my provenance, but the hills of Eastern Kentucky seem to me some of the richest land there is, steeped in blood; old, rusty things hiding in the brush; grand views marred by strip coal mines and high tension wires; chance encounters with three legged deer; long, untidy beards hiding tobacco stained teeth; rustles in the trailside kudzu, possibly a prowling lion; pictograms of hunters and antlered things drawn on the underside of cliffs, whether by ancient Indians or a mischievous camper I know not.
Eastern Kentucky is the best possible setting for a book, and sadly underutilized.
It could just be my provenance, but the hills of Eastern Kentucky seem to me some of the richest land there is, steeped in blood; old, rusty things hiding in the brush; grand views marred by strip coal mines and high tension wires; chance encounters with three legged deer; long, untidy beards hiding tobacco stained teeth; rustles in the trailside kudzu, possibly a prowling lion; pictograms of hunters and antlered things drawn on the underside of cliffs, whether by ancient Indians or a mischievous camper I know not.
Eastern Kentucky is the best possible setting for a book, and sadly underutilized.
July 21, 2019
خود نمایشنامه که عالی بود، ولی وای از ترجمه و ویراستش! -_- متن پر از اشکاله، از اصطلاح ها و جملات ساده بگیر تا حتی اسامی اشتباه ترجمه شده و ویراستی هم گویا نشده - با اینکه اول کتاب به وضوح اسم ویراستار هست- اصلا کسی قبل چاپ این کتاب رو خونده؟ البته ناگفته نمونه که نسخهای که من داشتم چاپ اول بود از سال ۱۳۹۰، ممکنه در چاپ های بعد اصلاحاتی شده باشه که من خبر ندارم.
March 1, 2008
One of the hardest plays I've ever read and one the most eye-opening. Easy to see why it won the Pulitzer. VERY rough language, graphic and deeply moving. Now that I live here, it just intensifies the feelings provoked in the play and the story of the land breathes underneath me, almost haunting.
July 29, 2017
These nine short, wonderful plays would, I think, have made a brilliant novel because the story, following three families over 200 years, is so rich and compelling. I liked the early plays which evoke the spirit of 'stolen' land from the Indians and the conflicts that ensued between the white settlers better than the 20th century coal-industry fights that I'm already familiar with and which told me nothing new. I read these plays, just like one of the other reviewers, because I was knocked out with Schenkkan's All The Way (the story of Johnson's battle with civil rights) and this, his earlier work, does not disappoint. If the plays are staged in England soon I will buy tickets for the first evening and skip the later plays albeit I'm aware that the final Act rounds the whole thing off.
Freak Out! My Life with Frank Zappa
Freak Out! My Life with Frank Zappa
September 7, 2011
This play is SUPER relevant today. While written almost 20 years ago, I think Schenkkan's timeline of America as a land and people is very powerful and poignant in this political and economic climate. How did we get into this mess and is there too much to undo?
After seeing and reading Angels in America when HBO did the miniseries, I thought "what could possibly be better than this to have won the Pulitzer and the Tony?" Now I know. What a great year for (long) plays that was. I think The Kentucky Cycle speaks beautifully to an America that literature often ignores, or at least the literature I read.
After seeing and reading Angels in America when HBO did the miniseries, I thought "what could possibly be better than this to have won the Pulitzer and the Tony?" Now I know. What a great year for (long) plays that was. I think The Kentucky Cycle speaks beautifully to an America that literature often ignores, or at least the literature I read.
May 6, 2023
Absolutely stunning
April 27, 2024
A brilliant play, covers several generations of a family and fights over land in Eastern Kentucky. Through the years we see scenes of crimes against the native people who first occupied the land, patricide, rape, blood fueds, war, union conflicts with the coal companies, and desperation. There is a wonderful final scene.
I read this sometime in the mid 90s to mid 2000’s, the decade where after studying several plays in college English courses I remained interested in the form and continued reading plays that interested me, and attending productions when possible.
I read this sometime in the mid 90s to mid 2000’s, the decade where after studying several plays in college English courses I remained interested in the form and continued reading plays that interested me, and attending productions when possible.
June 13, 2018
A good, depressing, magisterial and grimy look at generation upon generation of shitty people. This is ostensibly about Borderers settling and living in deepest Appalachia. America's original sins of slavery, indigenous genocide, rapacious capitalism, and eco-despair are the stars, with a supporting cast of three families: the white and wealthy Talberts, the white and poor Rowens, and the black and poor Biggses.
We follow these three families through 6 (I think? I lost count) "reincarnations"/generations. We watch the sad inevitability of multi-generational feuds and revenge-seeking. We touch on the major points of Manifest Destiny, frontierism, Appalachia/"hillbillies", the rise and fall of coal, and - well, it ends there, with a rust belt Kentucky looming on the horizon.
So, I did enjoy this - though I found some of the violence and hideous cruelty of some of those Rowens (JEEZ) to be hard to swallow, both emotionally (too violent for me!) and rationally (okay, not everyone in America's Past was a treacherous, patricidal villain). I found the Civil War to be a little glossed over - actually, the race relations were pretty glossed over (this is a very white-centric history that acknowledges, but doesn't investigate, the historical crimes of smallpox blankets and slavery). I think my favorite plays in the cycle were the first two "coal" ones: the one where the Rowen patriarch sells his land to the coal company (noooo) and the one where, in peak coal dystopia, a rabble-rousing union man comes to town. Those were richly drawn, evocative, and illuminating. They also felt more immediate than the others: again, you can sort of see Trumpism looming amidst all the 1920s despair. Also labor history gets ignored too much in this country!
Anyway, recommended.
We follow these three families through 6 (I think? I lost count) "reincarnations"/generations. We watch the sad inevitability of multi-generational feuds and revenge-seeking. We touch on the major points of Manifest Destiny, frontierism, Appalachia/"hillbillies", the rise and fall of coal, and - well, it ends there, with a rust belt Kentucky looming on the horizon.
So, I did enjoy this - though I found some of the violence and hideous cruelty of some of those Rowens (JEEZ) to be hard to swallow, both emotionally (too violent for me!) and rationally (okay, not everyone in America's Past was a treacherous, patricidal villain). I found the Civil War to be a little glossed over - actually, the race relations were pretty glossed over (this is a very white-centric history that acknowledges, but doesn't investigate, the historical crimes of smallpox blankets and slavery). I think my favorite plays in the cycle were the first two "coal" ones: the one where the Rowen patriarch sells his land to the coal company (noooo) and the one where, in peak coal dystopia, a rabble-rousing union man comes to town. Those were richly drawn, evocative, and illuminating. They also felt more immediate than the others: again, you can sort of see Trumpism looming amidst all the 1920s despair. Also labor history gets ignored too much in this country!
Anyway, recommended.
January 13, 2018
A Pulitzer-Prize winning play, this series of vignettes (referred to as one-act plays) covers several generations of the same family in Appalachia. It’s ambitious, but it’s to the story’s detriment that it’s written as a play and not a novel. The play is long enough that reading it almost qualified it as a novel, and I cannot imagine sitting through hours upon hours of this story onstage.
Here’s what I don’t understand: The Kentucky Cycle would make a great novel. If anything, it would have been to the story’s benefit for the added depth and nuance a novel could provide. It’s a worthwhile story and the use of multiple generations of one fictional family to explore the history of a region of the U.S. is brilliant. But the story would have had more impact and reached a larger audience as a novel, and I wish Mr. Schenkkan had chosen that format. Recommended.
Here’s what I don’t understand: The Kentucky Cycle would make a great novel. If anything, it would have been to the story’s benefit for the added depth and nuance a novel could provide. It’s a worthwhile story and the use of multiple generations of one fictional family to explore the history of a region of the U.S. is brilliant. But the story would have had more impact and reached a larger audience as a novel, and I wish Mr. Schenkkan had chosen that format. Recommended.
September 12, 2010
It's a shame about Angels in America, but Broadway made its decision on who was the better biographer of the land in its 1993 season. However, this should not belittle the accomplishment of The Kentucky Cycle, and whereas Angels in America chronicles through discourse, this chronicles in blood. Providing a savage parallel history of America's birth and coming of age, The Kentucky Cycle fares better when it focuses on imagined families and circumstances than in later passages where the anchor of history drags down the earlier, more imaginative savagery.
April 21, 2016
The author won a Pulitzer in 1992 for this epic play, which is actually a cycle of nine plays that chronicle the history of three fictional families over a period of two hundred years in eastern Kentucky. It is a story of the settling of America, and it is a story of violence, mayhem, and treachery. The characters seem more like historical stereotypes than real people, and as one Amazon reviewer noted, the dialogue sounds contrived, not how people of that time and place would likely have talked. Think 1950s TV Western script. Two & a half stars.
February 12, 2010
This series of plays spans two hundred years in both the United States and a real asshole family. I enjoyed how characters moved often from play to play. The watch trope was a nice touch. However, given the violent and stark feel of the play(s), I felt the ending was a bit hoakey. Hopefully, I'd get to see this some day.
January 3, 2016
I read this at Monica's urging. She had read it for a class (it's a play and they read it out loud). It follows 3 families in Kentucky from the late 18th century to the mid 20th century, focusing primarily on the devastating apparently perpetual legacy of relationship built on violence and cruelty.
June 20, 2009
This is a play I discovered through tutoring a high school student in English. I couldn't put it down, and neither could my husband when I encouraged him to read it. Intriguing, compelling, thought-provoking.
August 26, 2009
This is a set of plays chronicling generations of a few families on a piece of land beginning in colonial times, and continuing right up until the late 1970's. A beautiful picture of the flaws that are handed down through time. Thanks for recommending, Jordana!
November 28, 2012
A simple idea that is genius. 9 short plays that tell the story of American capitalism through the examination of Appalachian wealth, poverty and blood-lust. The denouement of the cycle gave me goose-bumps the first time I read it 14 years ago and did so again tonight. This is great writing.
September 18, 2013
The Kentucky Cycle explores the history of Eastern Kentucky and tries to explain the regions culture of violence and grinding poverty. Some locals took offense, especially because it was written by an outsider, but it won a Pulitzer for drama.
June 13, 2018
Brilliantly told story . . .
Brilliantly conceived story of three families told over nine amazing short plays. Life in eastern Kentucky over the two hundred year period culminating in 1981. This was, for me, like finding hidden treasure. A moving and unexpected delight!
Brilliantly conceived story of three families told over nine amazing short plays. Life in eastern Kentucky over the two hundred year period culminating in 1981. This was, for me, like finding hidden treasure. A moving and unexpected delight!
November 9, 2018
Nine plays covering 200 years of an eastern Kentucky family, much of it in dialect (Indian, sharecropper, coal miner) but very readable and a gripping tale. Won the Pulitzer for Drama in 1994. Boils down to the story of America, driven by myth and hard work and rage. Highly recommended.
June 5, 2009
Started to read this book...
July 13, 2010
It was impressive, but I wish the dialogue was more accurate to the region.
December 11, 2014
1992 Pulitzer. 1994 Tony for Best Revival of a Play: A great play of epic proportions illustrating American mythology. Just a badass, American historical fiction.
August 1, 2011
1992 PEN Center USA Award Winner for Drama
March 8, 2013
Whoa nelly! 200 yr recounting of US history, as told through family in e. Ky. The real deal.
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