Linda S. Gunther reviews Nikki Erlick’s The Measure

Burnt yellow book cover with an image of a bouquet of blue and gray leaves. White text reads The Measure, black text reads Nikki Erlick.

Writing a good story is something authors pray to be able to do every time we set out to craft a work of fiction. A clear voice and a zesty Imagination typically make for a satisfying fictional read.

When I picked up Nikki Erlick’s contemporary novel titled THE MEASURE, of course, I was hopeful it would be a read well worth the time I would invest. But I had no idea that within the first few pages I’d have my mind turned upside down and inside out; the disturbing tumble unfolding quickly.

The scenario presented involves a date in time when all human beings, 22 yrs or older, across the planet, receive a small wood box on their door step. These boxes appear out of the blue and from who knows where. Inside each box is a single piece of string, which serves to inform each person how long they will live, almost exactly how much time they have left. I scrambled to wrap my brain around the provocative scenario.

I must confess that on that night, after reading the first 75 or so pages, trying to get to sleep proved almost impossible.  I tossed-and-turned in my bed. A sense of dread coursed through my body. What I had taken for granted in terms of being unknown had been thrown out the window by this author. I’m not quite sure why I had such a visceral reaction. I believe it was the combination of personal fear and the sheer intrigue I had, which was generated by Erlick’s inventive premise. Of course, I knew the book was pure fiction but I kept thinking to myself, what if this ever really happened?

Each of the eight lead characters in this novel is deliciously vivid and authentically layered. These individuals come together in a support group held at a school after hours which is located on the upper east side of Manhattan. The purpose of the group’s formation is to help “short stringers” come to terms with the fact that they won’t have the privilege of living a long life. Sean, a therapist and the group’s facilitator, hopes to provide a safe and supportive space for each person to explore and navigate the slippery slope of knowing the difficult truth.

What was so fascinating to me about this read is how each character finds their own unique and personal way of dealing with the harsh reality. My immediate thought: would it be freeing or completely traumatizing to suddenly learn how long you will live and that no matter what you do, there is nothing that will alter your prescribed and timed ending. Your time left is fixed! Period.

Although an extreme theme is presented in this book, there are a number of parallels made relevant to today’s America, brilliantly yet subtly highlighted by the author. At least a few philosophical questions jammed my brain immediately after turning the last page.

So, get ready for a scary and provocative journey that may take you outside your comfort zone. Don’t pass up this opportunity to consider the potential key take-away from this story. It may simply be “live for today.”

If this book is a “pick” for your book club like it was for mine, I predict that your discussion about these colorful characters and the spell-binding plot will be extra rich. And perhaps the depth of the usual sharing of perspectives may go even deeper than your group’s ever been before. The one question that may come up is this:

      If such a tiny wood box holding a single string which indicated the exact amount of time you have left to live, landed on your doorstep, would you open the box to find out or would you put the box away in the very back of your closet, and maybe never open it?

THE MEASURE by Nikki Erlick. I invite all readers, young and old, to enjoy the ride.

Light skinned, middle aged, smiling blonde woman with her hair up in a scarf and a dark pullover sweater standing in front of a London cityscape.

Linda S. Gunther is the author of six published suspense novels: Ten Steps from the Hotel Inglaterra, Endangered Witness, Lost in the Wake, Finding Sandy Stonemeyer, Dream Beach, and Death is a Great Disguiser. Most recently, her memoir titled A Bronx Girl (growing up in the Bronx in the 1960’s) was released in late 2023. Ms. Gunther’s short stories, poetry, book reviews and essays have been published in a variety of literary journals across the world. Website: www.lindasgunther.com

Poetry from Yucheng Tao

Where am I

where am i

an extremely

cold stream

soot-streaked trees

desolate

& bare mountain

grains grow

in the roses

but 

the roses reach

into the vast tracts

the wheat is dancing

beneath obsidian clouds

the rain kisses the roses 

with tender lips

where am i

there are no peacocks

crowned in rainbow hues
there are no hummingbirds

alight in beams

there is no shimmering lake

to mirror Eden’s vision

i’ve forgotten 

i am cast out from 

the Garden of Eden

hard to harvest my soul

whispering for the time past

choking back my tears

praying

until my spirit recovers—

after

leaving god

Blue Horse

We had seen the bold and blue horse
in my dream; its strong body,
like a horse on the prairie,
like a cowboy’s horse.
It could fight, it could run.

In our hearts,
we once rode a blue horse
in our dreams,
galloping in the land of freedom.

Some pain was like a lean horse,
running fast for a moment before collapsing.

Because my sister and I—

our memories didn’t fade.
There was some joy in them,
fresh as the blue horse.

Sometimes we lacked the courage
to carry ourselves far enough to escape our family—
a home filled with liquor bottles.
Father’s face was red,
quarreling and fighting.

Illness took you away;
you never broke free from the cage.
The funeral flowers mirrored
your snow-white skin—
it was your grand festival.

In death, you become weightless.
Death carries you on a blue horse
to a place of freedom.

Minotaur

The Art Institute into Tuesday’s snow.

When my eyes opened, I was trapped in the museum’s labyrinth (Tiny as a shadow). Unknown monsters faced me, horns casting twin shadows. / Hallucination? / /Blood! People! / I want to escape the twisted halls. /

/ Too vast, the museum warped into impossible geometry. / / Blood, blood, blood, the Minotaur drinking museum’s lights like wine. / / I saw the monster devour the soul of a person, and the Minotaur ate the monsters, as if history endlessly repeats itself. /

/ Just like two sides of history’s dark mirror. / / I couldn’t separate myth from memory. The monster becomes real only in relation to trauma; both past and present might be true or false. /

/ b / bl / bla / / b, bla, b, black black black black black sun sun sun sun sun / I exorcise Munich’s beer hall memories, 1923 to1933, darkness envelops Chicago snow. I try to comprehend-histories. Outside the painting, only one museum, Inside the painting, multiple wars, The ghosts of WWII, European ghosts, red and black, bleeding.

As the Minotaur devours monsters, I seek meaning in chaos. Especially beneath the museum’s artificial lights, I remember what Minotaur told me: “The survivors of horror become storytellers, and all stories and human are one.”

In this moment, the endless snow falls silent. The black sun falls silent. Like human of memory. Like history coming to a still. Back to reality, everything is fine. I am enjoying  Picasso’s Minotaur with ease.

Yucheng Tao is an international student, who has been studying songwriting at MI College of Contemporary Music in Los Angeles. His work won the Open Them Wingless Dreamer 2024 contest, and Moonstone Art Center published it.

Synchronized Chaos’ First January 2025 Issue: Lazy Susan of Ideas

By GeorgeLouis - While on a tour of China, I took this photo for my own use. Previously published: Never published., CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28867244
By George Louis – While on a tour of China, I took this photo for my own use. Previously published: Never published., CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28867244

First of all, an announcement from contributor Chimezie Ihekuna, who is seeking an investor/executive producer for the project, One Man’s Deep Words. It is set in the US.

Produced By Vincent Turner, Developed By Robert Sacchi, 115 pages. Phase: Pre-production/Development, Budget Estimation: $23,000-314,000. Pitch deck and budget list available, please email synchchaos@gmail.com if interested.

Charles Griffin, a philosophy professor, is challenged by Adam, one of his students, over his unruly behaviour while lecturing. Though Charles is unhappy lecturing by the books, Adam’s challenge becomes the inspiration behind his nascent philosophy.

The first issue of 2025 presents a Lazy Susan of Ideas. This phrase comes from Desiree Richter, author of The Presence of Absence, about the accidental death of her young son and her journey out of rigid religious fundamentalism, out recently from the University of New Orleans Press.

In a recent interview on the podcast I Was a Teenage Fundamentalist, Richter describes reading a wide variety of books in her time of grief and being exposed to a whole “lazy Susan of ideas.”

This month’s contributors present a whole turntable of thoughts as well. Some, like Richter’s, are in response to personal or larger griefs, while others are philosophical or introspective or academic or celebratory.

Vintage stylized image of a globe with the US in front, biplanes and trains and bridges and city scapes in view.
Image c/o Andrea Stockel

Jack Mellender travels on a lyrical romp through many decades of wild living in California. Shahnoza Ochildiyeva celebrates her educational and personal accomplishments. Ashraful Kabir conveys the journey of self-discovery with a metaphor of a boat ride as Abeera Mizra renders personal awakenings through determined verse and Nick Gunter laments that a person doesn’t recognize his capacity to change. Shukurillayeva Lazzatoy Shamshodovna outlines some pathways towards building new and positive habits while Robiya Ismailjonova brings a spiritual perspective to her call for moral accountability and repentance.

Nathanael Johnson highlights the internal struggles of a boy as he figures out how to grow into a man. Jessica Hu illustrates the self-destructive urges that can come with moments of despair.

Linette Rabsatt’s poetry prepares us for comfort, then joggles our mind with clever contradictions. Marc Frazier’s introspective poetry probes childhood, memory, desire, mortality, and our search for meaning. Noah Berlatsky humorously explores the sometimes-vague boundaries between whimsy and reality. Mark Young’s postwoman pieces frame the world’s many random offerings as gifts to be opened and explored. Susie Gharib speaks to the stories we take from history, mythology, literature, and science. Peter Cherches’ humorous story highlights the wonder, curiosity, and humor that emerges as very different beings meet each other.

Eva Petropoulou Lianou interviews Jeanette Eureka Tiburcio, president of a women’s intellectual organization, on how her new book is a fulfillment of a childhood dream and on her wishes for the world.

Older man in a suit and coat and top hat with a beard examines an Impressionist oil painting of two peopel and some flowers.
Image c/o Omar Sahel

Yahia Lababidi’s book What Remains to Be Said shares aphorisms and blurbs of his wisdom. Gulsora Mulikboyeva reflects on the impact of a teacher who inspired her to better write in her native Uzbek language.

Farangiz Abduvahidova outlines the life and literary works of Uzbek poetess Mohlaroyim and her importance to Uzbekistan’s literary heritage. Maftuna Bozorova honors the cultural legacy of Uzbek poet Alexander Feinberg. Aziza Burkhonova discusses various pedagogical techniques for language learning. Olimova Shahina explores creative ways to teach English. Eva Lianou Petropoulou outlines the accomplishments of Italian Naive panter Nino Camardo. Mamazoirova Rayhona regales us with poetry on the beauty of the colorful Uzbek flag. Federico Wardal interviews Dr. Ahmed Elsersawy on his renewed efforts towards cultural partnership between Egypt and the United States.

Rachida Belkacem’s bilingual poetry evokes a transcendent spiritual companionship. Gabriela Peinado Bertalmio elucidates the beauty of the love between a mother and child. Rahmiddinova Mushtariy pays tribute to her wise and caring father. Duane Vorhees explores sensual intimacy from a variety of angles and perspectives. Lan Qyqalla jumps ahead to Valentine’s Day and autumn in his metaphoric and mythical love poems. Graciela Noemi Villaverde, within intricate verse, compares her love to a sunset and to the dawn.

Kassandra Aguilera illuminates the exquisite agony of unrequited love. After losing love, Taylor Dibbert finds unexpected comfort in solitude.

Stylized woman's face with long eyelashes and two cartoonish people near her, a girl and a guy, with the guy upside down. Flower petals and butterflies in the pink and blue and purple background.
Image c/o Victoria Borodinova

Don Edwards’ poetry deals with themes of love, loss, uncertainty, and the corrosive nature of domination and control on love. David Sapp’s poems critique the ease and sexiness all too many people have given to forms of violence and domination. Daniel De Culla lampoons dictators, and those with the ambition to become such, from around the world, including the U.S. Pat Doyne mourns the recent U.S. presidential election by parodying a famous poem about a loss in baseball.

Fayowole Benjamin’s poetry laments the toll of war on civilians and families. Mesfakus Salahin reflects on how some of the world is still reeling after the two world wars of the past century. Mykyta Ryzhykh evokes wartime and unanswered calls for love. Through his tale of violation and self-defense, Bill Tope highlights the ubiquitous problem of sexual violence. Christopher Bernard explicates and excoriates the violence inherent within neoliberalism manifested through healthcare systems, showing how organizations and procedures can be more destructive than thugs on the street.

Mirta Ramirez’ piece highlights how true romantic love can inspire artistic and intellectual creativity. Abigail George expresses her poetic hopes for peace in the Middle East as Lidia Popa highlights how artistic creation and the sharing of ideas can be noble pursuits bringing people together across cultures.

Z.I. Mahmud digs out the psychological and sociological and spiritual themes embedded within Samuel Beckett’s play Waiting for Godot, the tale of two “everymen” condemned, or blessed, with eternal anticipation. Arjun Razdan probes our obligations to each other in his short story “The Misanthrope” and questions what we owe each other and the best ways to do good.

Sepia toned middle aged short haired woman with dark hair and a bag and pants and shoes waiting alone on a bench near a fence.
Image c/o George Hodan

Peter J. Dellolio’s novel The Confession elucidates the psyche of a condemned man who may or may not be guilty. J.J. Campbell’s poetry emanates from the lingering effects of childhood abuse, memories particularly acute around the holidays. Jake Triola’s poetry troubles itself with the state of the world and the speaker’s perceived personal failures, yet finds solace in walking outdoors.

Jumanazarov Zohidjon ponders the calming beauty of rain while Sayani Mukherjee celebrates a beautiful day on the green earth. O’tkir Mulikboyev pays homage to snow, trees in winter, romance, his home country, song, cheer, childhood, and the holidays. Brian Barbeito reflects on nature and his childhood on a still, snowy day. Jacques Fleury revels in a woodland dawn and the diversity and richness of the natural world. Corey Cook’s new haiku chapbook heads held low hallows a sacred moment when a cardinal bird sings in an empty church.

Sunrise outdoors in a clearing of trees. Yellow, orange, pink, light and dark blue sky with cloud cover and black flying birds.
Photo Art © Jacques Fleury All rights reserved

Isabel Gomez de Diego’s photography illuminates the glory of a city lit up at night for Christmas. Marc Frazier’s photography spotlights moments of intersection among nature, urbanity, and the human imagination. In Mahbub Alam’s piece, a couple watches a thunderstorm from indoors through a window, captivated by the effects of the wind. In contrast, Sodiqova Adolatxon’s poetic speaker gets tired of staying inside through a rainstorm and longs to go back outdoors.

Nurmurodova Gulsoda explores elements of trigonometry in her piece, reveling in the beauty of mathematics as one of the languages of nature. Jasur Mulikboyev celebrates the way a gifted chemistry teacher makes the material come alive for students. Ruxshona Toxirova presents some methods for better diagnostics and treatment for children with type 2 diabetes.

Maftuna Mehrojova outlines the need for and progress towards sustainable and green economic development in Uzbekistan. Alisher Muhtarjonov issues a strident call for people of the world to protect nature.

Eva Lianou Petropoulou encourages us to choose care and respect for others in the face of life’s personal and global struggles. Zuhra Ruzmetova celebrates the New Year and the dawning of renewed hope. Lilian Dipasupil Kunimasa reflects on the meaning of the nativity scene and on starting afresh to choose kindness and a compassionate attitude in the New Year.

Essay from Farangiz Abduvahidova

Photo is of a young Central Asian woman with dark hair, brown eyes, and a gray pant suit over a white collared top speaking at a podium.

Abduvahidova Farangiz

2nd stage student of Samarkand State University named after Sharof Rashidov. 

Abduxalilboyev Alisher 3rd stage student of the Tashkent University of Information Technologies named after Muhammad Al-Khorazmi​​​​. Uzbekistan. 

Artistic arts found in Nadirabegim’s life path and ghazals.

Abstract: In the article, we have mentioned the life path and literary heritage of our poetess Mohlaroyim, who made a great contribution to the development of Uzbek poetry. Also, we will get acquainted with the explanation of the artistic tools used in her ghazals and the sentences that are the basis for the creation of this art.

Key words: Nadira, Maknuna, Komila, metaphor, tazad, ghazal, muhammas, literary environment.

Our talented poet Mohlaroyim, who wrote ghazals in Persian and Turkish under the pseudonyms “Komila”, “Maknuna” and “Nadira”, was born in 1792 in the family of Andijan governor Rahmonqulbi. He was not only a teacher, but also an enlightener and a statesman. In 1807, Nadira was married to Omar Khan, governor of Margilan. Nadira plays a major role in shaping the literary atmosphere in the palace. The reason is that her husband Omar Khan also created under the pseudonym Amiri. Nadira meets Uvaisi and invites him to the palace as a teacher. In 1810, Amir Olim Khan dies and Umar Khan comes to the throne. From this year, Nadira will continue her work in Kokon. Due to the tragic death of Amir Umar Khan in 1822, his son Madali Khan took over the throne. During Madali Khan’s rule, many madrasahs, mosques, caravanserais were built and served to improve the creative environment. Nadirabegim and his family were executed by Amir Nasrullah, the ruler of Bukhara Emirate in 1842.

 Although the poetess did not live long, her works of about 10,000 verses were inherited. In addition to ghazals, he also penned mukhammas, rubai, and fard genres. In his ghazals, separation and grief are sincerely described and he continued the traditions of famous poets such as Navoi, Bedil, and Fuzuli. There are 19 (328 verses) ghazals under the pseudonym “Komila”, and one divan with 333 ghazals under the pseudonym “Maknuna”. Under the pseudonym “Nadira” 180 poems are collected, 136 of them are in the Uzbek language, 44 in the Tajik language. Among them, there are 11 muhammas, 2 musaddas, 1 muhammas, 1 translation, 1 table of contents and 1 statement.  

Nadira’s radiative ghazals “Vasl uyin obod mem…”, “Marhabo”, “Dahrni examinet ke te”, “Sogindim” are very popular. A number of artistic arts were also used to make the ghazals more subtle.

I improved the house, but it was destroyed by the emigration

Unfortunately, this building was destroyed.

In this verse, the art of tazad was created by means of the words prosperity and destruction. Tazad is an art created by imitating things. Seli ghamdin is used in the meaning of a flood of sorrow and was the basis for the creation of the art of Mubolaga. Exaggeration is the art of exaggerating beyond belief.

He did it until the piraham stain revealed my tongue,

I don’t have any more love hidden in my heart.

The words love, heart, and soul created the art of harmony, and the words open and hidden created contrast. Contrast is an art created by contrasting things. Proportion – Many art forms rely on the spiritual association of words in poetry. It is the poet’s use of words that are logically related to each other and require each other.

Zahida, forgive the people of love,

What happened to Sheikh San’an in Yor Bay?

This verse describes the art of talmeh. Sheikh San’an used this art by mentioning his name. Ishq, love, asceticism are the basis of the art of relationship. The art of proportion is formed from cognate words and synonyms in linguistics. Talmeh is one of the widely used art forms in classical poetry. In this, the poet summarizes his thoughts by referring to a famous story, event or work, person. 

Although there was a special order of the giants,

After all, Suleiman died in a bad way.

Mor is the art of dev tazad, Sulayman is the art of talmeh.

Because the jewel of my heart is blood instead of love,

 Tears dripped from my eyesThis verse uses the art of tashbeh, the gem of love – the gem of love. Allegory is one of the most productive poetic arts widely used in literature. It can be said to make it into Uzbek. In metaphor, things, signs, and actions are described by analogy and comparison. In addition, another art was involved in this very verse. It emphasizes the tears through the word necklace. This art is called metaphor. Istiora is an Arabic word that means “borrowing”. One thing is called by another name.

My figon, the collar of my son,

I am very sad, my heart, you are not aware of it.

In this verse, the word “heart” is used as an exhortation. From the fine arts, it was the basis for the art of exclamation. Nido is distinguished from other poetic arts by its ability to openly and powerfully describe the feelings and emotions of the human heart. In this case, the thought is focused on a person or an object.

If you want to repair the Kaaba,

Turn the broken heart into a prosperous one.

In this verse, the word Ka’ba is contrasted with the words talmeh and abad – ruin. In our linguistics, the words that form the art of contrast are called antonyms – words with opposite meanings.

The work of the poetess is a great heritage for us. Despite being the wife of the king, Nadirabegim did not stop her creativity. He worked to make people and people intelligent and enlightened people. He managed to unite the intellectuals of that time around him. Life at that time was a little easier. The work of the poet began to be studied during her lifetime and works dedicated to her were created. For example, “Tuhvatut-tawarikh” by Avazmuhammad Attar, “Muntahabut-tavarikh” by Hakim Khan Tora, “History of Fargana” by Ishaq Khan Tora, “Haft Gulshan” by Nadir-uzlat. We saw the poetic arts in the analysis of the poet’s ghazals and analyzed them. We will continue the analysis in our next work.

List of used literature.

1) 10th grade literature part 1. “National Encyclopedia of Uzbekistan” state scientific publication.: Tashkent – 2017

2) 6th grade literature part 2. “Spirituality”.: Tashkent – 2017.

3) Uz.m.wikipedia.org

4) knowledge.uz

5) n.ziyouz.com

Poetry from Sayani Mukherjee

Green


A slowly cacophonous morning
Screaming of faultless surprises
I call back at the ruinous evening
The way the sea chanters will sing
And mourn the last evening
The soil of earth soaked happiness
The numbness, the choice of green fragility
The bemoaning madness of survival of green moist
Is this a new horizon of tumultuous ocean? 
I sign and beck a call of happiness
The night knows thousand epiphanies
A fireglow at the tale end 
Till I lose my breathe for the sky line wine. 

Essay from Jumanazarov Zohidjon

Young Central Asian man with short dark hair, brown eyes, and a black suit and tie.

I love the rain

I love the rain, its gentle touch

A soothing balm, I love so much

It washes away my worries and pain

And fills my soul with peace again

The pitter-patter on the window pane

A symphony of nature’s refrain

The earth drinks in its sweet embrace

And all the world seems in its place

The air is cool, the scent is clean

A tranquil beauty, rarely seen

I love to dance in the falling drops

And feel the rhythm, my heart never stops

The rain brings life to every living thing

A gift from above, like a melody to sing

I love the rain, its calming sound

It brings me joy, wherever it’s found

Jumanazarov Zohidjon Eldor’s son was born on March 14, 2006 in Narpay district of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Samarkand region. Nation is Uzbek. Incomplete education. In 2012-2023 he studied at the 16th comprehensive school of Narpay district of Samarkand region. In 2023, the Uzbek State Institute of Arts and Culture was admitted to the “Culture and Arts Management” on the basis of a grant. He has achieved a lot of success during school and now. During the institute, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Uzbekistan, and in December 2023, set a global ranking record for IQ (40 seconds).

Z.I. Mahmud Explores Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot

Four men in ordinary clothes, pants, bags, work jeans and vests, hold baggage and stand by a tree. One man is older and tied to the tree.

Meet Samuel Beckett With Richard Wilson 2015 Manufacturing Intellect Princeton University Library Playing the Spectator While Waiting For Godot, Kimberly Bohman-Kalaja, The Princeton University Library Chronicle, Vol. 68, No. 1-2 Winter 2007,
Princeton University Library Publishers.

Discuss the use of repetition and doubling as dramatic devices in Beckett’s Waiting for Godot.
Or
Bring out the significance of the stage setting in Waiting for Godot or in Look Back in Anger.
Or
Discuss the theatre of the absurd and connect it to some of its social and philosophical antecedents.


That postmodernist Irish tragicomical Waiting For Godot is a poetic drama of the Anglo-Franco absurdist tradition that evades both the meaning of life and purpose and that of memory and
jurisdiction as envisioned by the vaudeville stock buffoon archetypal everyday humanity country bumpkins and fool-like jester tramps.

These protagonists Vladimir and Estragon’s histrionic
rhetorics “Yesterday’s evening it was black and bare. Now it’s covered in leaves” and “It must be the spring” respectively delineate the trajectory of stage directions behind the stage and
alleyways of a baffling generation of scholarly drama critics. Time is a patterning of memories in a narrative sequence as observable by these characters’ microcosmic natural world amidst blasted
heaths and ruined countryside. Representations of recurrent imageries associated with boots and hats, gastric inflammation, and pouches of belching bear resemblance to outfit wardrobe and food
crises prevalence of French resistance of the post world war epoch.


Emissary’s implication of Godot’s continual dismissal is lachrymose news to the readers of existentialism and nihilism. After all Pozzo’s declarative “Have you not done tormenting me with your accursed time?” postulates that the natural world is a purgatory without a promissory note of salvation as envisioned by these tramplike vagabonds; they cannot reminisce on past memories and
are thus entwined within this gossamery of past and present spatiotemporality to be certain about who they are, where they are and why they are like rhetorical questions.

Estragon’s and Vladimir’s hanging upon the tree is a figurative trope of melodramatic hyperbolism that concerns finding meaning within a meaningless world. Lucky’s beastly burdensome stoicism [lifting of
sand bags every now and then and then dragging them down to relift them] subjective to Pozzo’s tyrannical regime upon the behest of mindless and purposeless errand is symbolic of power
dynamics concerning humanity’s enslavement to chasmic maze.

Lucky being deafened and Pozzo being blind incriminate subversion of power polity through the inversion of power dynamics, through banishment of colonial hegemony and thus proclaim emancipation to freedom by resistance and rebellion. That literature laureate absurdist and existentialist playwright Samuel Beckett crafts electrifying and spellbinding aural specks of allegorical enchantment in canonizing the fiction of absurdist poetic drama. After all, this is an allegory of the human condition for eternity as if we are cataclysmically falling with the rolling boulders from the cliff.

Fatalistically these tramp protagonists are eternalized for waiting and Beckett has transformed the destitution of mankind into exaltation through Lucky’s personae: “He’s Lucky to have no more expectations.” Furthermore, the polar binaries between the powerful Pozzo and the powerless Lucky, Estragon, and Vladimir insinuate extended metaphors of the Cold War, the French Resistance, and the Irish rebellious spirits of the nationalist freedom movement.


“Let us not waste our time in idle discourse! Let us do something while we have a chance.” Vladimir’s speech is evoked in implication of salvaging the quagmire of Pozzo and Lucky’s funebrial crisis. Angst and pangst of existentialist crisis has been translated to the traumatic psyche of these priggish and prudential beings. However the stage directions of being stationary connotes their dwarfish dormancy and alienated stagnation. That the pointlessness of existence is implicated in salvation being awaited by external force and that self is incapable of self-knowledge. In cloak and dagger connotations of Estragon and Vladimir symbolically represents
ego and id while Pozzo and Lucky symbolically represents superego.

As a result these characters are alter egos or shadows or persona soul image of themselves weaved by the gossamery of existentialist crisis. In this context, Lucky is the shadow of the superego of the egocentric Pozzo whose emotion becomes repressed pouring forth of the unconscious state through monologue.


Estragon is feminized with sensitive, irrational and poetic traits while Vladimir is masculinized with rational, contemplative and intellectual traits. Godot is a political satirical idiom of modern popular culture symbolic of the gothic monsterish figure of loathsome whangdoodle as dracula macabre. Pathos of nothingness is a dire catharsis by the crucial existentialists’ plight engendering from being sublime to travesty within universalistic spatiotemporality by the indication of “A country road”. “A tree”. “Evening”.


Domineering colonizer master Pozzo with his whip and the subservient colonized subaltern Lucky’s servility in burdensome stoical endurance is the inversion of the amnesty between
Estragon and Vladimir despite these individualists’ nihilistic despair with insurmountable frustrations. Antiphrasis of stage directions hint to “They do not move” despite speech acts of voluntary action: “Let’s us go” furthermore metaphorically suggestive of philosophical
pessimism as embodied silence, stasis, absence and negation.

Becket’s poignant revelatory envisioning from Biblical allusions point out that “Do not despair, one of the thieves was saved; do not presume, one of the thieves was damned.” Although the tragicomedy lacks female reproductive machinery however, the tree is symbolic of that utopian hope in a world of futility.


Frugal and mundane existence in a characteristic bleak landscape in expectation and anticipation of the messianic Saviour Christ through the mediation of the emissarial convoy exhibit the maudlin encumbrance of these stock characters like vaudeville fools and country bumpkins in mainstream absurdist realism. “I’ll never forget this carrot. The more you eat, the worst it gets. I’ll get used to the muck as I go along.”

These dialects are philosophical prompts propounded by the childish, materialistic, feminist, poetic, melodramatic Estragon and rational intellectualist wimpy guffaw of Vladimir contrasting differences of their outlook in life. The essence of struggling and wriggling is both bogus and vague as contemplated by these speculative skeptical states of affairs. Godot might be a satirical human condition of both waiting and achievement throughout Christmas, birthday celebration, job prospect, love of the life, funeral anniversary and so forth.
Sadomasochism of Pozzo and Lucky are allegorically satirized by brevity of intertextual allusions that mirrors habitual distraction and interruption that embodies Didi and Gogo’s world of nihilistic pessimism, stasis and repetition, skepticism and ambiguity.

Their forlorn and obscuring of train of thoughts and chain of events, forgotten memories, obliviousness of dreams, discarding of dialogues and abandonment of suicide attempts are verily brought to the foray of this justification. Language has lost the essence of the core of communication by the farrago of charlatantry and buffoonery in Lucky’s monologue. Audiences would walk out by the off stage characters’ frustration and oppression after all in correspondence with the effect of defamiliarization. Lucky isolated island of retreat from dialogism critiques the purgatorial nightmare pestering into the
infested microcosmic existence of these slapstick vaudeville country bumpkins tramps. Lucky is the symbolic thinktank Beckettian institution which dismantles establishment of linguistic games
and sheds light on the furthering of ideas into the dialogic proximity.

After being traumatized and tortured by these existentialist characters, Lucky is doomed into thinking and functioning as
Pozzo’s porter.


Further References Youtube Podcasts and Documentary Films and Lecture Presentations
Seminary Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, Professor Dr. Nick Mount, Department of English, University of Toronto The Meaning of Godot, Professor Dr. David Pattie, Department of Drama and Theatre, University of Birmingham Theatre and Language: Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, Professor Dr. Belinda Jack, Gresham Professor of Rhetoric, Gresham College, London, UK
Cambridge PhDcasts John Gallagher presents Any Wimbush’s Samuel Beckett and Quietism
Ian McKellen Discusses “Waiting For Godot” Staging Shakespeare