I think you might be getting Behan mixed up with another well known Dublin writer James Joyce. A lot of Joyces later work - Finnegans Wake - is pretty tedious and hard to follow.
Brendan Behan came from a very famous Dublin family.His Uncle, Peadear Kearney, wrote the Irish National Anthem
The real star of the family was Brendan.
Caught red - handed making explosives in a Liverpool lodging house he was sent to Borstal - a youth offenders prison camp - because of his age.He was sixteen years old at the time.His stay in Borstal inspired his most famous work “Borstal Boy”.A great novel in which brutality and humour stand side by side.
He also wrote some wonderful plays
I have family buried in the Republican plot in Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin and when I go home I always pay a visit and Brendans grave is close by so I always lay a small wreath on his grave.
One of Dublins most adored sons,
May he rest in Peace.
Well, I know I didn’t have him confused with James Joyce because I know for sure I can’t read him —not saying he isn’t great, of course.
I did enjoy The Dubliners in college many years ago, but I know that his other works are not something I could manage.
I must have misunderstood something somewhere about Brendan Behan—maybe I read something about him by a literary criticism type—that sort of thing can put you off a lot of things. But, just because you can’t understand what the heck the literary critcism type is talking about, doesn’t mean the book is that way. Thanks for these links, that will make for a nice afternoon. It is always exciting to find out that one can read a great writer after all.
I guess I should try reading plays. I have always avoided them. I think I feel as though I am not competent to direct a play so why would I be competent to read one? But I should probably give it a shot.
Yes, Behan is a wonderful playwrite, and reading plays
is easy and often delightful–rather like the radio when
I was a kid.
I saw The Hostage performed once–terrific play, which
includes the memorable line:
“I’m a secret agent and I don’t care who knows it!”
A story about Behan is that, when coming into his favorite
pub, he would drop his coat on the floor. When finally asked
why he responded: "It’s the only place it can’t fall off.’
I’m not so sure you’d have all that much trouble with Portrait of the Artist. It takes a bit of getting used to but I think it’s pretty accessible. Mind, it’s a long time since I read it. Ulysses isn’t as difficult as it’s often said to be but it’s certainly harder than the earlier works. It’s screamingly funny but you might need a guide to negotiate it. Finnegan’s Wake is just about unreadable, IMO. In fact, I’d be curious to know if anybody here has read and enjoyed it.
On the money there Wombat.
Portrait… is handy enough to get a grip on and Ulysses is full of wonder and great beauty but a guidebook is needed for the average non-academic reader.
I was very fortunate with Ulysses because coming from Dublin ,I knew every street and alley way mentioned in the book and that gave me the strength to get through it the first time.Later readings became easier to understand but it was hard work the first two times - well worth the effort though.
Finnegans Wake..well..if ever there was an Emperors new clothes of world literature then Finnegan is it! I do not believe for one moment that anybody has ever got any sense out of that although I have seen David Norris,who was Professor of English in Trinity College Dublin,reading excerpts in his one man show and it was very amusing..at the time.
Norris has always maintained that it needs to be read aloud to appreciate the rhythm and musicality of the text..interesting idea if you live alone.
I noticed that in your post you used an apostrophe in Finnegans.Well I once read a very long and detailed study which addressed that issue and I had a headache for two days afterwards…and that was only discussing the title.
One for the psueds and poseurs that Finnegan fella
I’ve heard the Norris theory. I don’t know how that would help.
I’ve seen careful explanations of what it is Joyce was trying to do. Write a one volume history of the world which is cyclical, beginning exactly where it ends. Write extensively in multilingual puns: fine if you know as many languages as Joyce did, but not much use otherwise. (Derrida does that too but is actually easier to read than the late Joyce, although very few of his fans and followers understand him or get the jokes.)
Frankly I think it’s a waste of scholarship. Joyce was always a bit of a snob and always highly intellectual but he could also be earthy and funny (in a wordy kind of way). What a shame he lost those virtues late in the piece.
hehe, senator Norris is still at it, he did his ‘Do You Hear What I’m
Seeing’ thing last week in Glor in Ennis:
JOYCE is unapproachable. Joyce is lofty. Joyce is inaccessible. Senator David Norris knows you think this. He thought it himself.
“Yes, Joyce is difficult to understand at the beginning,” he says, “but that essentially is what makes it beautiful,” he said.
Norris, known for his Joycean appreciation, comes to Ennis early next month with his acclaimed one man show ‘Do You Hear What I’m Seeing’.
Inspired by the life and works of James Joyce, the drama, brought to life by Senator Norris, has played to packed houses across the globe and has been lauded for introducing a whole new audience to the writing of Ireland’s most famous and least understood author.
Norris first encountered James Joyce as a curious eight year old, perched at knee high level in an adult world.
“I had a very glamorous uncle who had travelled the world. He was culturally very Irish and I managed to pinch a copy of Dubliners from him. I’d heard the names of Joyce, Shaw and these great bohemians thrown about. Of course, at that stage, Dubliners merely managed to mystify me.”
Most have, at some stage, found themselves mystified with Joyce but Norris reckons his on stage performance can turn people towards the musings of the Dublin writer.
“Clare is a very musical place and this drama taps into the musical aspect of Joyce’s writing. When this play is performed on stage, it brings his work to life in a way that people have never really seen before. A lot of people can be intimidated by Joyce but nobody has to be an egg head to understand this play. It’s very accessible.”
Norris has broadcast and published internationally on a variety of literary, sociological and legal topics and has lectured at international scholarly gatherings but says most satisfaction comes from taking this drama on the road.
“I performed this in Pittsburgh recently and there were 1,200 in the audience. It goes to show the interest in Joyce and also the willingness to take him and his writing on board.”
He says the life story of Joyce, which is laced through the performance, is impressive and entertaining.
“Yarns about how he met his wife, some personal anecdotes, these take the story to another level. He was really interested in human nature and this shines through, as does his genius,” says the senator.
‘Do You Hear What I’m
Seeing’ runs at Glór on Friday, May 6, at 8 pm.
—not saying he isn’t great, of course.
