'Malone Dies' and 'About His Person'

Malone dies by Samuel Beckett tells the story of an old man, who is sitting in a hospital bed writing. He recalls being brought to the hospital in an ambulance and is now resigned to his bed, unable to move. It becomes clear that his memory has deteriorated resulting in disorientation and Malone seems unsure if he is remembering events or making them up. He then begins to write a story about a a person called Saposcat. While writing the story he drops his pencil and it takes him 2 days to get the pencil back. While continuing with the story he changes the protagonists name and then takes a break from storytelling to list an inventory of his possessions. I am not going to tell the story that he writes as I think upon reflection the bits we can take inspiration from for fringe are the bits dealing with the existence of Malone himself. 

It made me think a lot about the restrictions and routines of life for Malone, He is concerned with his inventory and possessions that he owns and takes great delight in listing them in detail. He is concerned with the material world and it often read, to me, as if he was listing the artifacts of his life. There are also several gaps in time, the time frames are blurred and it became unclear if he was writing in the present or from  a memory. sometimes there are almost blank entries "nothing at all to report today." and "Ate at 7, fell asleep shortly after" are two examples that  got me thinking about the routines of people who are restricted through age, as malone is. It would be interesting to observe this in real life, and see if we can draw anything from that. The inventory is also an interesting idea, the artifacts of someones life, the little things we keep, that make us who we are. It reminded me of a poem by Simon Armitage called 'About his person.' It got me thinking that it might be interesting to bring in some documents and artifacts we have from our own families etc that we could use as a stimulus for creating characters or material. Would be interesting to see really old things like that and see what we can do with it. Let me know what you think.

Simon Armitage 'About his Person'

Five pounds fifty in change, exactly,
a library card on its date of expiry.

A postcard stamped,
unwritten, but franked,

a pocket size diary slashed with a pencil
from March twenty-fourth to the first of April.

A brace of keys for a mortise lock,
an analogue watch, self winding, stopped.

A final demand
in his own hand,

a rolled up note of explanation
planted there like a spray carnation

but beheaded, in his fist.
A shopping list.

A givaway photgraph stashed in his wallet,
a kepsake banked in the heart of a locket.

no gold or silver,
but crowning one finger

a ring of white unweathered skin.
That was everything.