Does Waiting for Godot Count as Speculative Fiction?

[Winter]

Was I sleeping, while the others suffered? Am I sleeping now? Tomorrow, when I wake, or think I do, what shall I say of today? That with Estragon my friend, at this place, until the fall of night, I waited for Godot? That Pozzo passed, with his carrier, and that he spoke to us? Probably. But in all that what truth will there be? He'll know nothing. He'll tell me about the blows he received and I'll give him a carrot. re be? He'll know nothing, he'll tell me about the blows he recieved and I'll give him a carrot.

Astride of a grave and a difficult birth. Down in the hole, lingeringly, the grave digger puts on the forceps. We have time to grow old. The air is full of our cries. But habit is a great deadener.

At me too someone is looking, of me too someone is saying, He is sleeping, he knows nothing, let him sleep on.... I can't go on!

What have I said?

Off we go again.

I've been watching Waiting for Godot a lot at the time of this writing. It's always fascinated me as what the play is about has been hotly debated ever since it was released with several people asking what the play is about. Is it about anything, or is about nothing? Is Godot God or his he no one? Is this all taking place in the mind of a madman or is it all real? Is there a deeper meaning to the play or no meaning?

One point that's been debated is whether or not the characters are trapped in some kind of time loop or if more time has passed then we realize.

Part of this stems from the fact that Vladimir remembers the events that transpired in the last act yet no one else seems to. The Boy seems to be the same boy from the first act yet doesn't remember either Vladimir or Estragon. The repetition of the play doesn't help with characters repeating their lines and actions.

And yet, things have changed. Lucky kicked Estragon in the leg and there is a bruise where he was kicked. Pozzo and Lucky are not both blind and mute, Lucky's hat is right where he left it and the tree is now covered in leafs.

A big part of act 2 is Vladimir trying to get someone ANYONE to remember the events of act 1 yet no one does or worse, no cares to remember.

So, are the characters stuck in some strange time loop or are their lives so boring and repetitive that any change is just more notable purely by default?

For me, I think it's more of the latter than the former. This isn't a time loop, they're just caught in habits and routines as they have nothing to do but wait.

Though thing that's often goes overlooked is what the name Godot means. Godot comes from Go Deo which means forever. Vladimir or Estragon are waiting for forever.

[TGLS]

I wouldn't count it like that, even if that's how I interpreted it. That'd make the play metafictional, not necessarily speculative.

[Winter]

I wouldn't count it like that, even if that's how I interpreted it. That'd make the play metafictional, not necessarily speculative.

That actually reminds me, there's this fan theory I read on TV Tropes that I really liked which does tie into the the metafictional angle a little bit. Here it is.

The second act has some vague similarities to the first, some of which are inexplicable. Offstage, these changes continue until not even Didi can remember the previous acts. This means that theoretically in between performances of the play the wait continues until not even Didi can remember the previous day's waits, and in between different stagings of the play the characters and setting slowly change to however they are performed next.

Thus ever since the play was first staged, they have been waiting. Every performance is part of the same long wait. And until the final performance of the play, they will still be waiting. And Godot will never show up.

[CharlesPhipps]

It can also be just two guys who don't even know Godot.