Herb Blau

Herbert Blau moved to the side of the podium leaving one hand rested on top for support his eyes turning deep and serious as if his next statement came from some well within him. “We remember most what we’d rather forget,” he said. This statement was the answer to a question I had asked him about Beckett’s reference to throughout his work. Why had Beckett constantly brought up memory in so much of his work, especially in “Krapp’s Last Tape”? Blau who is now working on his autobiography is confronted with his own memories, as Krapp was confronted, as we are all confronted. We cannot rid our minds of memory, and especially those memories which, for one reason or another, we want to forget. Our perception of the world around us is shaped by those inescapable memories. No matter how hard one may try to simply experience his existence he is inevitably forced to juxtapose present experience with past memories. We must live through those memories, we cannot simply experience.