Tray bong, tray tray bong.
Indeed these words are incredibly ridiculous but recognisable for their intents and purposes. Perhaps this is the reason that they stuck in my mind following the reading of Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett. A particularly absurd play indeed. It focusses upon two main characters, Estragon and Vladimir - confusingly also known as Didi and Gogo - who are inexplicably waiting for Godot. Who, or what, Godot is, I am yet to know. The plot appears to be quite repetitive and unexplicably uneventful. Two men are waiting, by a tree (or is it a shrub, or a bush?) for someone named Godot. They are unsure as to when he will arrive. The audience is unsure as to who he is, and why they need to see Godot. Are the characters even sure why they need to see Godot? I don't know. Who could Godot be? Immediately I think God - purely due to the similarities of 'God' and 'Godot'. Perhaps that's what is. Perhaps Beckett felt that through life we are all in fact just waiting for something or someone. Or perhaps he just felt he needed to write a play that didn't conform to theatrical norms.
I haven't read to the end yet, but maybe I will. It is here that I should perhaps mention that English is not the subject of my degree, but rather that of my friend Gwen - without her my sparkly new blog would not have this smashing title (and would in fact, quite possibly not exist). One evening we embarked on reading this play in an effort to assist towards her exam preparation. And maybe also to alleviate mine and Sarah's boredom.
So, tray bong...tray tray bong. My blog is begun, from here it can only grow...let's hope it will be tray bong!
4 comments:
Tray bong indeed, my dear Oestrogen! I'm loving the sparkles, and the intellectual level is pretty high (isn't literature just awesome?). But I want to know more about the girl behind the brain (clicheeeee) oh tell us more about this elusive tray bong girl. Who is she? What are her passions? Her whims? Her deepest desires ... ? (I'm assuming they all involve me somehow, of course) (just kidding, please don't mention me, I'd blush)
By the way, there is a good performance of a little bit of Vlamdimir's final speech here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmoDMdLoUZw
I recommend it - shows how good actors are at taking a load of stuff that doesn't make sense and making it glass-clear.
Someone plx elaborate the term tray bong?
hi!
Context: Pozzo asks how Gogo and Didi found him. "[Good? Fair? Middling? Poor?]". He's fishing for validation on if his company was satisfactory or if he bored the pair.
Didi is first to reply, and says he found Pozzo just fine. Pozzo turns to Gogo, who replies in very poor French "très bon", which means "very good". But, he butchers it... (perhaps intentionally), as "Tray bong! Tray, tray, tray bong."
Amusingly, we see later that Didi *can* speak French just fine (or at least a little bit). When he and Didi are discussing whether thinking is a curse or a blessing, he brings the conversation in for a close with "Que voulez-vous?", and says it just fine. Another amusing thought is the fact that Samuel Beckett, an Irishman, originally wrote this in French, then translated it himself to English.
...While replying here, curiosity finally struck me in a way that couldn't be ignored. In the orignal French text, he does have it written in correct French, but the [stage direction] says to say it with an English accent. 😂 So, I guess it's always been intentionally poorly spoken.
Hrm. That's got me thinking about new things, now. Nice. I like this play.
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