Confinement in Paul Auster's Moon Palace and the New York Trilogy

INTRODUCTION

«Quand je considère (...) le petit espace que je remplis et même que je vois, abîmé dans l'infinie immensité des espaces que j'ignore et qui m'ignorent, je m'effraie et m'étonne de me voir ici plutôt que là, pour quoi a présent plutôt que lors. Qui m'y a mis ? Par l'ordre et la conduite de qui ce lieu (...) a-t-il été destiné à moi ?» ^1(*) In this `pensée', Pascal, realizing how infinitely small his `space' is in the immensity of the Universe, comes naturally to wonder about his place in the world and develops a series of metaphysical questions which, more than three centuries later, still feed philosophical reflection. As an admirer of Pascal, American novelist Paul Auster counts among those for whom these questions are more than ever topical. Indeed, almost the whole of his work is centered on these questions so that critics do not hesitate to refer to his fictional work as `metaphysical novels'.

Going back over `le petit espace' that Pascal says he occupies, a bell should ring in the mind of anyone having read Auster's novels. Indeed, the small space is a motif which recurs strikingly throughout his work: his novels and essays are riddled with countless instances of characters being locked up in small rooms or confined in limited areas. `Le petit espace' is thus an element which is much more important than it may first appear. For Pascal, it is `le petit espace' which brings out the opposition with the infinite Universe and consequently triggers off his metaphysical investigation. In this light, a study of confinement in Paul Auster's novels seems to be the appropriate way to penetrate the metaphysical reflection at its foundation. But, if confinement -in the sense of being shut up in a limited geographical space- is what features most obviously in his novels, we shall see that this motif can be studied at different levels. Indeed, in Auster's universe, as we shall see, writing and language are also confining structures. These three aspects of confinement are particularly apparent in two novels: The New York Trilogy, Auster's first and famous collection of three short stories written in 1987; and Moon Palace, written in 1989. These two books, which are totally different as far as their plots are concerned, make a pair insofar as they both deal with the theme of confinement, though treated differently by Auster whose philosophical reflection has apparently matured in between. But although there are different levels of confinement in Moon Palace and The New York Trilogy, it is crucial to bear in mind that Auster's conception of the very notion of confinement is much more vertiginous. In order to understand the different levels that Auster perceives within the notion of confinement, it might be helpful to have recourse to a drawing by Louise Bourgeois which is particularly eloquent in this context^2(*). This drawing is composed of a multitude of concentric circles and makes Auster's conception of confinement perfectly explicit. Indeed, if we consider that a circle symbolises a closed space, we realize that each circle contains another circle, and is itself part of a larger circle. Therefore, if you choose a point anywhere in the drawing, your point will automatically be enclosed in one or several circles. This is exactly what the issue of confinement boils down to: for the Austerian characters, it seems that wherever they might be, they inevitably find themselves confined in one of those circles. From this realization ensues the main point of these two novels: the metaphysical investigation undertaken by the characters and the readers.

The study of spatial confinement shall be the starting point and the first part of this work. We will see that spatial confinement implies three movements for the characters: firstly, a total disconnection from the world of the living. Secondly, a philosophical withdrawal into themselves that gives birth to a new being. Thirdly, the reconnection, through art, to the world.

The second part of this work will deal with the telling of stories. We shall first study how the act of writing books is linked to confinement. Then, we shall see that fiction is encircling. Finally, we shall examine the role of the author-characters as regards confinement.

The subject of our third and last part will be language. We shall study the confining role of the word in relation to the world and the self. We shall then analyze the different attempts towards mastering of language and eventually, we shall see that what everybody strives for is actually an answer to Pascal's metaphysical questions.

* ¹ Pascal, Blaise. Pensées. (Paris : Classiques Garnier, 1991), fragment 102, page 189.

* ² See page 4 for a reproduction of Louise Bourgeois's drawing.