absence, the myriad signifiers cycling around the empty "hole" at
　　　　  the center of the play(43) tear themselves apart under their own
　　　　  conceptual weight. With subjectivity and causality dispersed, all
　　　　  distinctions, all dualities -- all conceptual frameworks -- die,
　　　　  fading away into the "without-relationship" that exists between all
　　　　  the elements within and without Ohio Impromptu, and which only can
　　　　  be pre-reflective reality. Thus the characters, the set, the "sad
　　　　  tale" (287) -- all the elements which we have broken apart -- no
　　　　  longer exist, as the play in its entirety is "properly" born into
　　　　  the "without-perception" and "without-presence" of No-thing.(44)
　　　　  Though we have by now spent the bulk of our time with L and R and
　　　　  the reader and listener in the narrative, we must return to the
　　　　  beginnings of this inquiry once again: there is another, very
　　　　  important level at which the play functions as koan: it is an
　　　　  existential riddle for the playgoer as well. The ultimate forum for
　　　　  Ohio Impromptu must be those who view its performance; and here as
　　　　  well, the little play functions as koan. Via the fluid multiplicity
　　　　  of images at work in Ohio Impromptu, Beckett skillfully pulls us
　　　　  into the world and language of the characters until we ourselves
　　　　  begin to feel like L and R on stage: confused and agonized,
　　　　  listening intently to try to find relief from the vast levels of
　　　　  signification which assault our senses in the few words and fewer
　　　　  actions we observe. As noted above, our sense of logic is assaulted
　　　　  on many levels, one of the most shocking of which is the temporal
　　　　  destabilization of past, present, and future by the intersection of
　　　　  the narrative with stage time. Here again we are frustrated in an
　　　　  attempt to pile the "millet grains" of the play -- as Hamm would put
　　　　  it -- into a heap of meaning; yet here again it is only our need to
　　　　  connect together these self-sufficient, dynamically interacting
　　　　  moments of "being-time" which creates a problem. If we allow each
　　　　  moment to fall where it may, a pattern of discontinuity appears
　　　　  which releases us from the logical death of the play.
　　　　  As with its internal elements, the structure of the play as a whole
　　　　  is similar to that of a traditional koan: a short, sometimes
　　　　  humorous riddle "with no rational entrance or exit." The upshot of
　　　　  these brief stories is usually a mental (and/or physical) blow which
　　　　  we are told finally jars the student out of the old, causal frame of
　　　　  mind and "enlightens" her (and us as well, if we devote ourselves