Act Without Words II and Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Peer review/Korean War/Archive 1: Difference between pages

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=== [[Korean War]] ===

'''''Act Without Words II''''' is a short [[play]] by [[Samuel Beckett]], first published in 1956. It is Beckett's second [[mime]] play (after ''[[Act Without Words I]]'').

I have been editing this article for a few days. I ran down through the article and fixed any grammer mistakes I could find. I would appreciate any suggestions on what to do and how I can really improve it further. Thanks a lot. [[User:Mr. Killigan|Mr. Killigan]] 06:17, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

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==Synopsis==

Two sacks and a pile of clothes sit on a low, "violently lit" platform at the back of a stage. A long pole (described in the text as a "goad") enters, prods the closest sack, then exits. An awkward, slow man ("A") crawls out of the sack and performs a brief [[pantomime]]: he prays, takes his medication, dresses, drags the his and the other sack to centre stage, undresses, takes more medication, prays and crawls back into his sack. The goad reappears (this time with a wheel attachment), similarly prods the other sack and exits as before. Another man ("B"), this time brisk and rapid, crawls out of the sack and performs another pantomime: he [[exercise]]s, brushes his teeth, combs his hair, dresses, checks a compass and map, drags his and A's sack to the other end of the stage, brushes his teeth, combs his hair, undresses, exercises and crawls back into his bag. Once again the goad appears and wakes A. He once again goes into the same pantomime, but this time is cut off by a blackout. The play ends.

==== Kirill Lokshin ====

==Interpretation==

The play is often compared to the Greek myth [[Sisyphus]] (just as ''AWWI'' is compared to the myth of [[Tantalus]]. In the underworld, Sisyphus was compelled to roll a large stone up a steep hill; but before it reached the top of the hill the stone always rolled down and Sisyphus had to begin all over again. Interpreted as an allegory, the play shares the theme of the futility of human life with the myth (i.e. human life subsists of pointless, repeitious tasks that ultimately lead to nothing). Some have pointed to the similarity of the characters "A" and "B" to the protagonists of Beckett's ''[[Waiting for Godot]]'', [[Vladimir (character)|Vladimir]] and [[Estragon]]. Vladimir and Estragon spend their time in much the same way, performing pointless tasks and dialogues to amuse themselves and pass the time, though ultimately leading to nothing.

There are a number of areas to work on, at this point; keep in mind, though, that this is a very high-profile article, so you should be careful to move slowly and carefully to avoid getting entangled in any editorial conflicts here.

==External links==

* <s>The article is, in my opinion, simply too long; we're looking at 72K (~12,000 words) of prose. The "Legacy" section, in particular, is ripe for splitting out into a separate [[Legacy of the Korean War]] article, with a much shorter summary left in the main one.</s>

http://www.drama21c.net/text/actIIbeckett.htm

* <s>"Korean War (1950 – 1953)" should really be something like "Course of the war"; you probably don't want to repeat the article title as a section heading.</s>

[[Category:Irish plays]]

* The citations need cleanup; at a minimum, all of the embedded external links should be converted to footnotes. There are also a number of "citation needed" tags floating around. Beyond that, more thorough citation would be appropriate throughout the article; see [[WP:MILHIST#CITE]] for some guidelines.

[[Category:Theatre of the absurd]]

* <s>The "Depictions" section should be turned into prose, rather than a laundry list of films; see also [[WP:MILHIST#POP]].</s>

* <s>The "Names" section, as it's presently constituted, would work much better as a narrow sidebar; it's of some interest, but I doubt there's enough material to sustain a separate section.</s>

* <s>The "See also" section should be eliminated. If something isn't worth linking from the text, it's generally not worth linking at all. </s>

* <s>The rump "Bibliography" section should be removed as well.</s>

* The "External links" section could use trimming.

Hope that helps! [[User:Kirill Lokshin|Kirill]] 04:08, 13 July 2007 (UTC)<s>cool</s>

::Thank you very much for offering your opinion! [[User:Mr. Killigan|Mr. Killigan]] 00:57, 14 July 2007 (UTC)

{{Beckett}}