bookshelves: #47

In bookshelves i send out twice a week an invitation to someone for presenting his/her favorite bookshelf or writer. To let them explain their choice or let the shelf speak for itself. Bookshelves is concerned with collecting, collections and the sincere love for books. In bookshelves nodig ik tweemaal per week iemand uit om zijn/haar favoriete boekenplank of schrijver te tonen. Om iets over hun keuze te vertellen of de plank te laten “spreken”. Bookshelves gaat over verzamelen, collecties en de oprechte liefde voor boeken. Today/Vandaag bookshelves: #47 Gary Deirmendjian

 

“I don’t have purpose built shelves. Each one of my seven shelves is different. The reason being that they have all been salvaged from the streets where I live, Kings Cross, the most densely populated postcode in Australia, sited on top of a hill at the edge of Sydney CBD, that once hosted many windmills. Further, I can’t take a collective picture of them as they exist in different parts of the small apartment that I share with Nyree and our son Jasper. Naturally some of the books belong to them.

bs#47This is my favourite shelf. If I was forced at gunpoint to choose one name only, it would be Samuel Beckett, and if further pushed to select one work, it would have to be the play without words titled:

Act Without Words I – A mime for one player

I know of no other single work that depicts the human condition more fully. It was originally written in French in 1956, with music by his cousin John Beckett. Here I have the english translation in the book titled Samuel Beckett – The Complete Dramatic Works. It is amusing to suggest that a play without words is written … but of course in his case much of his dramatic works reside in his very precisely and crisply worded, propped and timed directions, which here total only three pages.

I really do see him as a visual artist. After having read his plays I now refuse to see any adaptations no matter how accomplished the direction or actors. This since he has already managed to plant, and with my help give form to, his suggestions directly in my mind. I’m just terrified of tainting those arrived at images in my head.”

GD

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Gary Deirmendijan
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