Journal Article

The Spirit of Walden: Art, Asceticism and Coercion in Paul Auster's Early Fiction

Rodenhurst, Nigel

2022

Overview

The image of the storyteller, actually or metaphorically imprisoned because of dominant social conditions, attempting to make an impact on consciousness and avert tragedy from the margins, interacts with the figure of the ascetic writer throughout Paul Auster’s fiction. In several novels Auster’s protagonists retreat to a small room and emerge as something other than a storyteller, acting within a supposedly “democratic” process. Indeed, the scenario often outlined in Auster’s fiction is that the protagonist encounters obstacles to the production of narratives that can influence the consciousness of the reader, and resorts to some form of political activism, coercion or “terrorism”. In many respects it could be argued that Auster’s interaction with writing, politics and direct political action mirrors that of one of his literary idols, Henry David Thoreau. As I will outline below, Thoreau’s writing and documented career can be taken as an exemplary illustration of the paradox between the literary writer’s drive to move readers’ hearts and minds as part of the democratic process of publication, and the drive towards coercion, a drive to impose one’s own world view on one’s subject. This is a true paradox, as often a coercive figure such as a terrorist and a writer can work from a point of opposition to exactly the same political issue, and only differ over which method to adopt. It could also be argued, conversely, that in certain instances the terrorist, in common with the dominant social order, uses methods of coercion to assume total authority over its subject. This may bring to mind Richard Rorty’s succinct summary of the central problem of contemporary literary theory as being: “the problem of how to overcome authority without claiming authority” (105). This “Thoreauvian paradox”, it will be demonstrated, is present in Auster’s early work and could be used to challenge some of the tunnel-visioned “postmodernist” readings that seemed to pervade the critical response. In this essay, I will first outline how the career of Thoreau can be seen as an exemplary illustration of the competing drives in a literary writer towards asceticism and political activism. After this I will demonstrate similarities in Auster’s approach to these subjects before providing an alternative reading of Ghosts set in the context of The New York Trilogy as a whole, arguing that Auster consciously uses both Walden and Thoreau as a literary figure to investigate contradictions which concerned him as a young writer. Having established the presence of these competing drives in Auster’s early works, I will conclude by focusing on the way that this tendency was revisited and evolved in later works.

• Publisher: Vishvanatha Kaviraja Institute of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics
• Subject: Asceticism / Auster, Paul / Auster, Paul (1947-2024) / Civil disobedience / Consciousness / Criticism and interpretation / Fiction / Literary criticism / Literary influences / Narratives / Novelists / Political activism / Portrayals / Readers / Rebellions / Slavery / Social philosophers / Stereotypes / Terrorism / Thoreau, Henry David / Thoreau, Henry David (1817-1862) / Writing