“I’ll tell”: Beckett, Geulincx and the Will to Fail

En el presente trabajo buscamos rastrear la influencia que tuvo la Ética del filósofo Arnold Geulincx en los Fizzles de Samuel Beckett, a los cuales consideramos representativos de la poética beckettiana tardía ya que las constantes referencias a textos anteriores del autor irlandés dan la idea de una condensación de su obra. Para esto, analizamos las primeras referencias que Beckett hace a Geulincx luego de haber leído su Ética y mostramos el cambio que se da en la poética beckettiana, especialmente en relación con la idea de la voluntad humana subsumida a la voluntad divina, como quienes caminan hacia el este a bordo de un barco que se dirige al oeste. Beckett reemplaza a la voluntad de Dios por el azar, pero acepta que no hay manera de expresar la voluntad de la conciencia. Así, su poética se modifica: el esfuerzo negativo se transforma en una voluntad de crear aunque el fracaso sea inevitable. Esto lo vemos especialmente retratado en “Three Dialogues”, donde Beckett realiza su famosa aseveración acerca de la imposibilidad de expresarse. Finalmente, procedemos a un análisis de los Fizzles en sí y reparamos en la insistencia en el fracaso voluntario en la forma y el contenido de estas prosas.In this paper, we look for traces of the effect Arnold Geulincx’s Ethics had on Samuel Beckett’s Fizzles. We consider this work to be representative of Beckett’s later poetics, given the multiple references he makes to his previous works in it, which signals an intent to create a text that works as a summation of his oeuvre. With this objective in mind, we trace the references to Geulincx in Beckett’s text after his reading of the Ethics and we show how Geulincx’s philosophy, especially the idea that human will is subjected to a divine will just like the people walking eastward on a ship heading West. Beckett’s replaces God with randomness, but he accepts that there is no way to express the will of the ‘I’. Here, his poetics mutate: the negative effort of his early texts becomes a will to create, even though it will inevitably end in failure. This is announced in “Three Dialogues”, where Beckett makes his famous claim about the impossibility of expressing oneself. Finally, we proceed to an analysis of the Fizzles themselves, where we encounter an insistence on willful failure, both in the form and content of the texts that compose it

If smoking increases absences, does quitting reduce them?

Objective: This study examined the impact of smoking, quitting, and time since quit on absences from work. Methods: Data from the nationally representative Tobacco Use Supplements of the 1992/93, 1995/96, and 1998/99 Current Population Surveys were used. The study included full time workers aged between 18–64 years, yielding a sample size of 383 778 workers. A binary indicator of absence due to sickness in the last week was analysed as a function of smoking status including time since quit for former smokers. Extensive demographic variables were included as controls in all models. Results: In initial comparisons between current and former smokers, smoking increased absences, but quitting did not reduce them. However, when length of time since quit was examined, it was discovered that those who quit within the last year, and especially the last three months, had a much greater probability of absences than did current smokers. As the time since quitting increased, absences returned to a rate somewhere between that of never and current smokers. Interactions between health and smoking status significantly improved the fit of the model. Conclusions: Smokers who quit reduced their absences over time but increase their absences immediately after quitting. Quitting ill may account for some but not all of this short run impact

Reduction of quantity smoked predicts future cessation among older smokers.

AIM: To examine whether smokers who reduce their quantity of cigarettes smoked between two periods are more or less likely to quit subsequently. STUDY DESIGN: Data come from the Health and Retirement Study, a nationally representative survey of older Americans aged 51-61 in 1991 followed every 2 years from 1992 to 1998. The 2064 participants smoking at baseline and the first follow-up comprise the main sample. MEASUREMENTS: Smoking cessation by 1996 is examined as the primary outcome. A secondary outcome is relapse by 1998. Spontaneous changes in smoking quantity between the first two waves make up the key predictor variables. Control variables include gender, age, education, race, marital status, alcohol use, psychiatric problems, acute or chronic health problems and smoking quantity. FINDINGS: Large (over 50%) and even moderate (25-50%) reductions in quantity smoked between 1992 and 1994 predict prospectively increased likelihood of cessation in 1996 compared to no change in quantity (OR 2.96, P<0.001 and OR 1.61, P<0.01, respectively). Additionally, those who reduced and then quit were somewhat less likely to relapse by 1998 than those who did not reduce in the 2 years prior to quitting. CONCLUSIONS: Reducing successfully the quantity of cigarettes smoked appears to have a beneficial effect on future cessation likelihood, even after controlling for initial smoking level and other variables known to impact smoking cessation. These results indicate that the harm reduction strategy of reduced smoking warrants further study

Value to smokers of improved cessation products: Evidence from a willingness-to-pay survey

This paper demonstrates the use of willingness to pay to value hypothetical new smoking cessation products. Data comes from a baseline survey of participants in a clinical trial of naltrexone combined with nicotine patch for smoking cessation (N=400) conducted in New Haven, CT. We analyze individual willingness to pay for a hypothetical tobacco cessation treatment that is 1) more effective than those currently available, and then 2) more effective and attenuates the weight gain often associated with smoking cessation. A majority of the respondents (280 or 86 %) were willing to pay for the more effective treatment, and of those, 175 (66 %) were willing to pay more if the increased effectiveness was accompanied by the attenuation of the weight gain associated with smoking cessation. This study suggests the validity of using willingness to pay surveys in assessing the value of new smoking cessation products and products with multifaceted improvements. From these data we calculate estimates of the value of a quit. For the population studied this survey suggests a substantial market for more effective smoking cessation treatments.This research was supported by grant 039787 from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and by grant P50-DA13334 from the National Institutes of Health as part of the Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Center at Yale