'An awareness that man can never escape rationality . . . involves a logical contradiction which is impossible even when it exists . . . [O]ne can only affirm that meaning does not exist in terms which imply that it does. Nothing, therefore, implies Something, but this as we know is impossible: ex nihilo nihil fit. The concept of Nothing, therefore, whether we think of it, or speak of it, or write about it, destroys itself because it produces Something.
'Beckett's solution . . . is, in fact, mathematics. Even when his heroes cannot see or speak they can usually count [Beckett was a playwright]. In mathematics numbers exist because they function in relation to others, but we have no way of proving their existence, or indeed of defining them precisely. As Hugh Kenner points out, "somewhere between 1 169/408 and 1 70/169 we may expect the square root of 2 to exist, though we should not expect to find it. But we can name it, know it is there, although it is impossible."
'It is this rational mind which is as cause of obscurity as the meaninglessness of the world . . .'
