One other thing. I had a marriage similar to Plath and Hughes. I do not believe she would be happy with her married name being taken off in any manner from her tombstone or elsewhere. She died so soon after their separation that I'd call it 'incomplete;' primary seperations rarely take. I was adopted. I understand feeling a lack of identity, and her married name was a piece of identity puzzle. Whether one's intentions in taking 'Hughes' off were good or not, it was actually selfish and short-sighted.

One other thing. I had a marriage similar to Plath and Hughes. I do not believe she would be happy with her married name being taken off in any manner from her tombstone or elsewhere. She died so soon after their separation that I'd call it 'incomplete;' primary seperations rarely take. I was adopted. I understand feeling a lack of identity, and her married name was a piece of identity puzzle. Whether one's intentions in taking 'Hughes' off were good or not, it was actually selfish and short-sighted.

One other thing. I had a marriage similar to Plath and Hughes. I do not believe she would be happy with her married name being taken off in any manner from her tombstone or elsewhere. She died so soon after their separation that I'd call it 'incomplete;' primary seperations rarely take. I was adopted. I understand feeling a lack of identity, and her married name was a piece of identity puzzle. Whether one's intentions in taking 'Hughes' off were good or not, it was actually selfish and short-sighted.

I don't have a knack for poetry, I'm learning, but I like her use of the word 'effacement' in a poem about a new baby and mother; it feels so apt. Effacement is what the cervix does during birth. Most people know of dilation, I think less know about effacement. It felt like an Easter egg kind of, like a hidden surprise.

Shouldn't the reference to Chaplan be Keaton?

Incredible lecture. Thank you for helping make clear for us a nearly impenetrable poem!

Thank you so much for posting this wonderful lecture!

Took Professor Mount’s class the last year he taught it (2021/22). At the time I was too busy being a first year student to appreciate the beauty of the poem and eloquence of his lecture. Looking back as a (slightly) older student, I find it to be one of the most painfully emotional depictions of modernity. Gone are the gods of old and hope of the new. All we’re left with is the knowledge that we are responsible for where we are, and there’s little chance of us getting out of it.

masterful lecture… phew!

Thank you, Nick. Woolf's novel comes alive for me via your lecture --- all the way to tropical Philippines. Brilliant.

Thank you for this brilliant lecture sir

A wonderful presentation

This is a brilliant analysis! Thank you for making this lecture publicly available!

I learned much from your lecture, even as a Gallant fanatic, but I am surprised that you do not mention the unparalleled perfection of her prose.

Just... beautiful ❤

when the guy opens pronouncing it wrong nothing good to be expected

Brilliantly delivered exposition 👌🏻.

I've listened to this several times over the past six years -- wonderful lecture!

That was a trailer for a first year university course? That was nothing short of amazing.

Leonard Cohen is one of Canada's few internationally renown poet singer song writers. Mount does a great job of mostly running Cohen down from start to finish. If you are a Cohen fan and don't want to invite nausea, don't bother accessing this lecture..

Brilliant insights into one of my favourite novels of all time. Thank you for sharing this!

This was so well presented and articulated. Thank you for this, it helped me understand so many more layers that "Waiting For Godot" has to it.

I am just a random person and for me this is the best lecture of all times

Thank you so much, absolutely brilliant.

Or 2023

A Scapeshifter

I read WFG when I was young, in the US Navy off the coast of Viet Nam. Didn't really get it. Read it many times over the years and watched the play on KZfaq a few times. Why would someone who didn't get it, return to it over and over? Because there is something intriguing in it. A thing of beauty that we can't describe. A hole that shouldn't be there with an unknown depth. Fortunately, by flipping through various things on KZfaq, this lecture came up. Now I understand what I don't understand. Absolutely brilliant lecture that opened many doors to different universes. Never thought I'd be able to see something invisible, but your lecture has changed my view.

Whether literary genious and mental illness are synonymous is a very middle class conceit, mental illness is ugly, brutish, smothers and kills those it inflicts, more often poor and uneducated that 'literary' in pretention. Some poets were mentally ill, it doesn't make it magical, insightful or special, academia, get over yourselves.

That this lecture is awe-inspiring would be an understatement. It is unparalleled.

Thankyou

Amazing that they had the presence of mind to bring back scraps of stained glass, with everything they faced on a daily basis. Impressive

Very good. Very interesting. Much to disagree with.

I appreciate your honest assessment of Duddy K. I read it in my late twenties and was not that impressed by it (Roth and Bellow were simply better). But I love Atuk, Barney, and the collections of non-fiction. Great to find this up!

I found this an absolutely impossible read. The grammar is just ridiculous. There are a hundred commas and bracketed sections within paragrahps making it difficult to remember what the first part of the paragraph was even about.

Another thing - it's not a play, it's a statement. A play that goes on too long, repeating the statement. The statement could last just 5 minutes. I'm debunking a myth. It's not a clever play, it's in fact boring. Enjoyed by the actors - easy to act out and they get paid. But for the audience, dull. Could well be Beckett's intention, seeing how cynical he was. In other words, he's taking the piss!

Godot is Death. Death determines all. Beckett was a cold-eyed intellectual, not what we'd call a fun person. His loss I think. Could be the Irish Protestant in him - I know what they can be like, my father's family was Irish Protestant, a tiny minority in County Galway. They wallowed in being different and unlike the 'mad' Catholics. I can see that very serious, problematical side in Beckett. Fools really.

Check out these amazing summaries of the waste land 1. The burial of the dead kzfaq.info/get/bejne/prBodcaHspPcp2g.htmlsi=L6uavnM-PY-W_zzY 2. A game of chess kzfaq.info/get/bejne/p9Cpaa9516u8ZZs.htmlsi=L9ARNIrEaduSl2yp 3. The fire sermon kzfaq.info/get/bejne/n8qFrN1lqZiwn6M.htmlsi=bsYDPfa2RlnDpf8E 4. Death by water kzfaq.info/get/bejne/iZaDe69yrruolYk.htmlsi=Wi0osahnCH8kYf4h 5.what the thunder said

(Hagar )..."is the only one for whom she had to use her imagination" is the stupidest most ridiculous comment in the history of everybody. you've certainly lost my attention.

This was amazing ! Thank you

when one like is just not enough . . Thankyou Sir

my god this is a genius, extremely informative, enriching lecture. i wish it were longer. so many points that you mentioned, i noticed while reading the play, and it's amazing to have you analyze it and share your knowledge. teachers like yourself are the ones who make me love learning. thank you a ton, can't wait to watch your lecture on woolf's to the lighthouse!

Absolutely stunning!!

This is such a unique captivating lecture. I have been teaching Dramatic Arts on secondary level for over 20 years and tonight, your lecture rekindled the reason why I love teaching. Thank you for reminding me. I needed that.

Beautiful lecture. Thank you very much for making this public.

Impressive analysis of this work of art. Thank you.

he lost me at the whole masculinity=hunting feminity=weather and emotions

fucking legendary. well well done

2:14

or the regular audience is not bereft of humanity, having the decency of some sort in their lives and prisoners are, well, primarily amoral bottom feeders

It is about the dichotomy between the humans search for meaning in a meaningless universe. But we just keep going as we've no option. 'Try, fail, try again, fail better' as Sam said.