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PATRICK ÁRMSTRONG closing smile in That Time, as the impending “shroud,” a metaphor for “nonexistence,” may well be welcomed by the Listener, who is tormented by the incessant surrounding voices. One of Beckett’s favourite aphorisms, Arnold Geulincx’s “Ubi nihil vales, ibi nihil velis” (“wherein you have no power, therein you should not will”), finds a close counterpart in Pliimacher’s rendering of Buddhism, “since nothingness is all there is, all thirst for knowledge is vain.”* Beckett’s study of philosophical works that compared Western religions to those of Buddhism and Taoism resonated with some of his central epistemological and metaphysical inclinations. Pliimacher’s text includes Gautama Buddha’s conclusion that “whatever lurked behind multiform existence had to be ‘pure nothingness’,” a line that Beckett underlined." In That Time, the darkness, or “pure nothingness,” ominously lurks beyond the floating head, as behind the multiple voices and complexity of the figure’s existence lies the “great shroud billowing in all over.”** The shroud constantly threatens to end the narrative, which is, in itself, simply one of the “old tales to keep the void from pouring in on top of you.”*? The description of the Listener also resembles iconic images of LaoTzu. Knowlson and Pilling suggest that “the inspiration [for the old man] is clearly pictorial, probably a William Blake engraving, and most likely his representation of the Listener’s fellow sufferer, Job.”°° However, the stage directions that detail the “old white face” and “long flaring white hair” of the protagonist, combined with the allusion to “that old Chinaman,” suggests that Beckett may well have been remembering the hanging scroll painting of “Laozi” that was on display in the British Museum during his time in London. Indeed, there is a notable similarity between the quasi-mythological figure of Lao-Tzu, whose name could be translated as “aged child,” and the temporal construction of That Time. The antithetical nature of “aged child” resonates throughout the play, as the Listener cannot distinguish between the voices describing, as confirmed by Beckett, youth (B), maturity (A), and old age (C). Given the paradoxical nature of Lao-Tzu’s name, senescence and time emerge as central themes. Here it is important to acknowledge Beckett’s knowledge of Chinese aesthetics and Zen philosophy, which contribute to the presentation of a cyclical concept of time and existence. Much like the alternating voices, instances of time are difficult to isolate and pinpoint, and merge through utterance: “was that the time or was that another time.” 56 Ibid., 153. 57 Ibid., 154. 58 Beckett: That Time, 394. 59 Ibid., 390. Knowlson-Pilling: Frescoes, 206. Joseph Thomas: The Universal Dictionary of Biography and Mythology, Vol. 3, New York, Cosimo, [1887] 2013, 1371. 62 Beckett: That Time, 394.
