plays

I was just watching a booktube video: books i'd sell my soul to read again for the first time 

There aren't many books I would say that about. It has to be something extraordinary. There are a lot of really good books that I wouldn't say that about just because re-reading them is as much a pleasure as the first reading. The best books are like that. I know the book that I think is the most worthy of such a statement: Wuthering Heights, but I think the idea of envying the first time reader of the book was actually suggested to me by the introduction of the edition I read, because whoever wrote the introduction wrote exactly that. But then I think it's true. What a reading experience! And it's such a distinctive reading experience that I have actually wished that I could read it again for the first time. 

But Wuthering Heights isn't one of the books Jack Edwards talks about. What made me want to write about the video was that the first book he talks about is The Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller. My sentiments could not be more different about that play, but it's probably because of when and where I read it - in year 10 (or thereabouts) in high school. I didn't get it and I didn't particularly like it. English was actually my worst subject in high school. But yeah - what Arthur Miller was expressing in this play completely eluded me. I had no sympathy for any of the characters and I had no idea what the play was actually about. I couldn't understand the significance of any of the action or dialogue. It just all seemed unpleasant, ugly and sad. Many years later I remember watching a production of Arthur Miller's The Crucible and being deeply impacted by it. It's still one of the best dramatic performances I've ever seen. 

.....I just came to the funniest realisation. Everything that I was thinking about The Death of a Salesman was actually about A Streetcar named Desire by Tennessee Williams (I found out because I went searching for The Death of a Salesman on Amazon and other plays came up as well). I still even remember the names of the characters - Blanche, Stella, Stanley Kowalski. I have a lot of memories of studying that play and not getting it and not liking it. But I have no memory at all of The Death of a Salesman....maybe some memory of it....was there a character named Biff? At least Streetcar made an impression on me. 

There's actually a pretty decent film version of both plays on YouTube. Streetcar from 1995 and The Death of a Salesman from 1985. I'm really interested in watching them now. I'm sure I will have a greater appreciation for them. 

Italo Calvino wrote: "There should therefore be a time in adult life devoted to revisiting the most important books of our youth. Even if the books have remained the same (though they do change, in the light of an altered historical perspective), we have most certainly changed, and our encounter will be an entirely new thing." So, when I watch these two films, it will be as if I was coming to them for the first time.