Reading 1001 discussion

Review thread: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

1. What is Watt's role and purpose in the story, and how does his situation change throughout the novel?

2. Who is Mr. Knott, and what can we understand about his household and its inhabitants?

3. Does the story have a conventional plot, or is it intentionally plotless? If so, what is the main idea or central conflict?

4. How do the characters evolve or devolve throughout the story? Do they seem to learn or change, or do they remain static?

5. How does the novel use language, repetition, and circular logic to create a sense of absurdity or meaninglessness?

6. What is the significance of the ending, particularly the "Addenda"? What does the injunction "no symbols where none intended" mean in the context of the novel?

7. How does the novel explore the concept of sanity and madness, especially in relation to the characters' experiences and the reader's interpretation?

8. What does the story suggest about the nature of communication and the human attempt to find meaning in a confusing world?

9. How does the author's style, including the use of a narrative voice and language, contribute to the overall feeling or message of the novel?

10. Does the novel offer a particular view of the world, or is it designed to challenge the reader's assumptions and leave them with more questions than answers?

11. Why might a reader find Watt difficult to read or understand? What is Beckett's purpose in making it so challenging?

12. How can the experience of reading Watt be compared to other works by Beckett or to other works in the Theatre of the Absurd?

1. What is Watt's role and purpose in the story, and how does his situation change throughout the novel?

Watt travels to Mr Knott’s place to perform a stint as servant, first on the ground floor, then on the first floor, before leaving to be replaced another preordained servant. His status, duties and contacts with Mr. Knott do not change much throughout his stay. In fact, his knowledge (and ours) of Mr. Knott is still fairly limited at the end.

2. Who is Mr. Knott, and what can we understand about his household and its inhabitants?

We can only guess a few things about Mr. Knott: he has irregular sleep hours; he does not always eat his meals, the leftovers being given by Watt to a local dog; he has a piano that needs to be tuned, but we don’t know if he plays it; he has at least two servants and a gardener, the servants serving one year on the ground floor and one year on the first floor before being replaced by a new servant; he sleeps with his night clothes on top of his day clothes. The purpose of all this nebulous and subject to multiple speculations throughout the novel.

3. Does the story have a conventional plot, or is it intentionally plotless? If so, what is the main idea or central conflict?

We can’t really talk of a plot here, but more of a description or commentary of something that happens without any specific purpose but must happen as if preordained.

4. How do the characters evolve or devolve throughout the story? Do they seem to learn or change, or do they remain static?

I guess we can say that Watt learns about his duties in his two years of service but does not resolve anything which aroused some questions while he served on the ground floor about curious goings-on on the first floor. Overall, Watt does not seem to evolve at all throughout the novel.

5. How does the novel use language, repetition, and circular logic to create a sense of absurdity or meaninglessness?

The most potent method used to create this meaninglessness is the use of combinatorial lists of all possible actions or attributes relating to a given scene or character. It conveys a sense that nothing very precise can be known or remembered about these characters and actions; it also gives a sense of futility as quite often these repetitions do not add anything to a possible plot or development of the action.

6. What is the significance of the ending, particularly the "Addenda"? What does the injunction "no symbols where none intended" mean in the context of the novel?

Initially, I thought that each item referred to one of the several passages labelled with a question mark (?) within the text. But I quickly realised that it was not the case. Then the final injunction, which in the French version could be translated loosely as “shame on you if you see any symbols”, gives you some hint about the purpose of the addenda. In fact, it has none; I read somewhere that these fragments could be seen as “outtakes”, just like those we sometimes see in movies or TV series.

9. How does the author's style, including the use of a narrative voice and language, contribute to the overall feeling or message of the novel?

Whatever the angle or perspective you want to look at this, there is not much evolving in this situation; certain things happen repetitively, sometimes through a cycle, with no end in sight.

12. How can the experience of reading Watt be compared to other works by Beckett or to other works in the Theatre of the Absurd?

Considering this was one of his first works, one could think of it as a good entry point into his works; or, at least, it feels more accessible and less disorientating than his later trilogy (Molloy; Malone Dies; The Unnamable). You can feel the influence of James Joyce in some aspects, such as the derision against the Irish, certain play on words to trigger some laughter (e.g. when he referred to Laurel and Hardy towards the end), the use of multiple languages (in the French edition, I noted also English, German and Latin), etc. It also hints at what will happen in Waiting for Godot (well, not much!).