Waiting for Godot
by Samuel Beckett · first published 1956
32% recommend65% neutral3% critical
Why HN recommends it
A short, bleak play blending black comedy and surreal despair. It suits newcomers to theatre or to Beckett, and pairs naturally with existentialist works like The Stranger and Notes from Underground.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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…of the essays, but especially "Shooting an elephant" and "A hanging" Stendahl: Red and Black James Joyce: A Portrait of The Artist as a Young Man Andre Dumas: The Three Musketeers Samuel Beckett: Waiting for Godot Tom Stoppard: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead I'll shut up, except to say that although I agree with some of the people on the thread that reading "great books" just because they're considered…
on “Becoming "well read"” ↗Only tangentially related to the article, but: if you haven't read any Beckett, you owe it to yourself to check out at least Waiting for Godot and Endgame, two relatively short plays that alternate nicely between black comedy and surreal despair.
on “Black diamonds of pessimism: the letters of Samuel Beckett” ↗…work. Oh, in that case...I can recommend so much. It'd take way too long. Here are a few, off the top of my head: The First Man by Albert Camus (novel) The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde (short story) Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett (play) If you want something challenging, try Cervantes' Don Quixote.
on ““A book is a sneeze”” ↗…is to totally embrace the feeling of being somber, and binge on some of the classic sort of miserable apathetic existentialist books. Things like Albert Camus' The Stranger, Sartre's Nausia, Beckett's Waiting for Godot, and Dostoyevsky's Notes from Underground. Sometimes after I have read those works, after I have stopped trying to ignore the feeling and just went all in for a few days, do I even get bored with being…
on “Ask HN: I'm a solopreneur and I feel demoralised” ↗Short stories by Haruki Murakami - The Elephant Vanishes Waiting for Godot (play) - Beckett Neuromancer - Gibson
on “Ask HN: Recommend a short fiction book” ↗Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino Waiting For Godot by Samuel Beckett
on “Ask HN: Please name two of your most favorite books.” ↗…entertain modern children that aren't unapproachable tomes translated from ancient, dead languages, or written in Iambic Pentameter. One of the first plays I read that actually interested me in Theater was Waiting for Godot. Reading The Stranger in high school exposed me to so many new and complex ideas. Even extremely recent books like "Something that May Shock and Discredit You" by Daniel M. Lavery or "Trick Mirror" by…
on “Poland puts computer game “This War of Mine” on school reading list” ↗You're making me aware of that larger point, though it may have been implicit. And the thing is that I love Waiting for Godot, so I could make a strong pitch. I've just read an interview with the writer, David Goyer: https://variety.com/2021/tv/features/foundation-apple-adapta... It's frustrating and I'm not sure why. I think…
on “When “Foundation” Gets the Blockbuster Treatment, Asimov’s Vision Gets Lost” ↗Agreed. Though I would recommend that anyone attempting to read "Waiting for Godot" first start by reading about the philosophy of the absurd, and early 20th-century artistic movements like Dada and surrealism. Those are the very basic keys you need to understand the work of Beckett,…
on “Black diamonds of pessimism: the letters of Samuel Beckett” ↗…Peter Wessel Zapffe "The Last Messiah": https://philosophynow.org/issues/45/The_Last_Messiah - Lion Feuchtwanger "Power": https://archive.org/details/powerbookbylionf00zieliala/page/... - Samuel Becket "Waiting for Godot": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waiting_for_Godot - Fyodor Dostoevsky "The Dream of a Ridiculous Man": https://www.amazon.com/Dream-Ridiculous-Man-Fyodor-Dostoyevs...
on “Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?” ↗The title refers to the play "Waiting for Godot" by Samuel Beckett. The phrase, "waiting for godot," has come to mean a situation where people are waiting for something to happen, but that particular thing will likely never happen. So, in the title…
on “Stop Waiting for Godot” ↗It's an excellent title for a post but not everyone is familiar with Samuel Beckett's 'Waiting for Godot'. Terry is Irish and I certainly like the homage.
on “Stop Waiting for Godot” ↗…apparently that play it where Godot got its name from. TIL. Excerpt from Wikipedia: > Linietsky stated in a presentation that the name "Godot" was chosen due to its relation to Samuel Beckett's play Waiting for Godot, as it represents the never-ending wish of adding new features in the engine, which would get it closer to an exhaustive product, but never will.
on “Stop Waiting for Godot” ↗Reminds me of "Waiting for Godot" by Samuel Beckett...
on “Python 3 can revive Python” ↗…long way to go to catch up, though. Duke Nukem Forever was in development before Half Life 1 came out. I'm going to miss not having it. It's like finding out that Samuel Beckett has written a sequel to Waiting for Godot. It just kinda spoils the whole thing. ACT 1, Scene I (Enter Vladimir, Estragon, Godot)
on “Duke Nukem Forever has gone gold” ↗