''How It Is'' is a novel by Samuel Beckett first published in French as ''Comment c'est'' by Les Editions de Minuit in 1961. The Grove Press (New York) published Beckett's English translation in 1964. An advance text of his English translation of the third part appeared in the 1962 issue of the Australian literary journal, '' Arna''. ''L'Image'', an early variant version of ''Comment c'est'', was published in the British arts review, ''X: A Quarterly Review'' (1959), and is the first appearance of the novel in any form. The novel is a monologue by the

narrator Narration is the use of a written or spoken commentary to convey a story to an audience. Narration is conveyed by a narrator: a specific person, or unspecified literary voice, developed by the creator of the story to deliver information to the ...

as he crawls through endless mud, recalling his life separated into three distinct periods.

Synopsis

The title is Beckett's literal translation of the French phrase, ''comment c'est'' (how it is), a pun on the French verb ''commencer'' or 'to begin'. The text is divided into three parts: "before Pim" - the solitary narrator journeys in the mud-dark until he encounters another creature like himself thereby forming a "couple". His journey is abundant with recollections from his life above, including reminiscences of a woman and of his parents. "with Pim" - the narrator is motionless in the mud-dark until he is abandoned by Pim. "after Pim" - the narrator returns to his earlier solitude but without motion in the mud-dark. He postulates that there must be several others like him and Pim. As the attempted explanation however requires a constant accumulation of ad hoc hypotheses, he acknowledges the wish for a simpler explanation. Only the mud and the obscurity remain certainties. In a letter (April 6, 1960) to

Donald McWhinnie Donald McWhinnie (16 October 1920 – 8 October 1987) was a BBC executive and later a radio, television, and stage director. Educated at Rotherham Grammar School, McWhinnie worked for the BBC in administrative roles in the 1940s and 1950s and w ...

of the BBC

Radio Drama Company The Radio Drama Company is a company of actors formed by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in 1939, at the beginning of the Second World War. It is sometimes referred to as RDC, or the Rep, a survival from its original name, the Drama Re ...

, Beckett explained his strange text as the product of a " 'man' lying panting in the mud and dark murmuring his 'life' as he hears it obscurely uttered by a voice inside him... The noise of his panting fills his ears and it is only when this abates that he can catch and murmur forth a fragment of what is being stated within... It is in the third part that occurs the so-called voice 'quaqua', its interiorisation and murmuring forth when the panting stops. That is to say the 'I' is from the outset in the third part and the first and second, though stated as heard in the present, already over."

Theme

The theme may be the struggle of form to emerge from formlessness using

Leopardi Count Giacomo Taldegardo Francesco di Sales Saverio Pietro Leopardi (, ; 29 June 1798 – 14 June 1837) was an Italian philosopher, poet, essayist, and philologist. He is considered the greatest Italian poet of the nineteenth century and one of ...

's sense of the world as mud (''E fango è il mondo'') and therefore, a kind of

purgatory Purgatory (, borrowed into English via Anglo-Norman and Old French) is, according to the belief of some Christian denominations (mostly Catholic), an intermediate state after physical death for expiatory purification. The process of purgatory ...

, as well as Dante's image of souls gulping mud in the Stygian marsh of the ''Inferno'' (Canto VII, 109–126, in Palma's translation): :''Set in the slime, they say: 'We were sullen, with'' :''no pleasure in the sweet, sun-gladdened air,'' :''carrying in our souls the fumes of sloth.'' :''Now we are sullen in this black ooze' – where'' :''they hymn this in their throats with a gurgling sound'' :''because they cannot form the words down there.'' Dante's Belacqua and his foetal position also are referenced in ''How It Is'' and the following quotation is an example of the work's unpunctuated, dense, and poetic style: :''the knees drawn up the back bent in a hoop the tiny head near the knees curled round the sack Belacqua fallen over on his side'' :''tired of waiting forgotten of the hearts where grace abides asleep''Samuel Beckett, ''How It Is'', John Calder Publishers, 1964.

Influence

Jean-Luc Godard's 1962 short film "La Paresse" begins and ends with shots of

Eddie Constantine Eddie Constantine (born Edward Israël Constantinowsky; October 29, 1917 – February 25, 1993) was an American singer, actor and entertainer who spent most of his career in France. He became well-known to film audiences for his portrayal of se ...

and Nicole Mirel reading Beckett's work as well as of the text itself. The novel served as inspiration for Miroslaw Balka's 2009 work, ''How It Is'', in

Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It ...

's Turbine Hall. The character of the 'Angsal', the mysterious angel in

Jerry Hunter T. Gerald Hunter, more commonly known as Jerry Hunter, is an American graduate of the University of Cincinnati (BA), Aberystwyth (MPhil) and Harvard University (PhD). Originally from Cincinnati, he now lives in Wales and has held academic posts at ...

's mud-soaked novel ''Ebargofiant'' (Y Lolfa, 2014) is an intertextual reference. The song "How It Is" released on Lemon Sauce by Liad Eini in 2022, has been confirmed by the musician that the novel was a main influence aside from the title.

References

{{Beckett-prose 1964 novels Novels by Samuel Beckett