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Prophecy and Ontology in Paul Auster's Oracle

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Prophecy and Ontology in Paul Auster's Oracle The Burden of Proof: Prophecy and Ontology in Paul Auster’s Oracle Night A thesis submitted to the faculty of San Francisco State University In partial fulfillment of The requirements for The degree Master of Arts in English: Literature by Maximilian Rankenburg San Francisco, California May, 2005 The Burden of Proof: Prophecy and Ontology in Paul Auster’s Oracle Night Maximilian Rankenburg San Francisco State University 2005 The Burden of Proof: Prophecy and Ontology in Paul Auster’s Oracle Night is a structuralist reading of Auster's text. By examining the relationship between the structures of the text, and of its protagonist-narrator, I reveal, primarily and specifically, the complex narrative surrounding the question of identity, and formally, the strange border between structuralist and post-structuralist approaches to literature. The essay is in three parts. I begin my investigation with analysis of the concept of an oracle. What does the idea of prophecy do to a normal definition of narrative? I use throughout my essay, more as a heuristic and test-site for my investigation than analogy, the figure from Delphi in Oedipus the King. The second theme, rising from Oedipus's difference with Jocasta – meaning is ab extra; meaning is ab intra – concerns structuralism, or the reassemblage of narrative-parts in an effort at revealing the intelligible function of the whole. The third theme concerns the shortfall of a structuralist view. I do not go so far as to compare my approach to a post-structuralist one; but I make it clear that Sidney Orr's project at memoir, and Oracle Night, indict a form of structuralism. ii to Güneli Gün iii TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Appendices…………………………………………………………. v Prologue …………………………………………………………………… 1-9 Part One: Lexemes 1-12 …………………………………………………… 10-51 Part Two: Lexemes 13-24 …………………………………………………. 52-93 Part Three: Lexemes 25-30 ………………………………………………... 94-110 Epilogue …………………………………………………………………… 111-114 Appendices ………………………………………………………………… 115-120 Notes ……………………………………………………………………….. 121-134 Works Cited and Consulted …………………………………………………135-137 iv LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix Page 1. Dramatis Personae ……………………………………………………… 115-117 2. Lexemes and References ………………………………………...……….. 118-119 3. The Narrative Line ………………………………………………………. 120 v Prologue vaticinor: tr. to foretell, prophesy; to keep harping on ║ intr to prophesy; to rant and rave, talk wildly1 This essay is about a conflicted character, and has a conflicted character. The bipartite foundation will first become apparent in descriptions of my intent, and my act. P.i The Intent To describe my intent, I quote the prospectus I wrote for this essay five months ago. In this essay I intend to examine the lies perpetrated by Sidney Orr, the protagonist of Paul Auster’s Oracle Night, to examine the illusion of reality these lies create, and, in revealing the emptiness at the core of his character, to examine the consequences of his condition. Why does Sidney Orr – since Oracle Night is the story of his rehabilitation – lie to, and delude, himself? To answer this question I will concentrate on narrative structures. The novel itself – a description Orr’s transition from a question, a perplexed, estranged point of view, to a state of unparalleled happiness – exposes a large facet of the protagonist’s character. So, beginning with the 1 macrocosm, or (1) an overview of the structure of the novel, I will then sharpen my focus and consider particular elements of the narrative. I will examine (2) the narrative structure of an oracle. What form of order does this character impose? In what ways does Oedipus the King illuminate Orr’s problem? I will examine (3) the narrative structure of Hammett’s Flitcraft episode, and examine how it is used by Orr. What form of order does this character suggest? How is chance defined by, and woven into, the narrative? More specifically, how do intertextuality, and peripeteia, complicate Orr’s narrative? Concluding that Orr is not a detective of the Dupin-order – that is, not a semiotician – I will argue for (4) the hermeneutics of Oracle Night. Are the illusions of Oracle Night only aspects of an interpreter-centered narrative? Is intertextuality a consequence of such a structure? And, returning to the initial problem, is there a place for ethics in this structure?2 P.ii The Act I can assert with confidence that number one, above, I more than accomplish in this essay. Numbers two and three are also accomplished, but I anticipate not, for differences of perspective, to everyone’s satisfaction. I can safely say that number four, 2 above, is not a part of this essay. While the questions I raise therein remain pertinent, and are indirectly considered, I never focus my attention on hermeneutics per se. The problem, intrigue, and allure of the oracle’s narrative, I contend, is essentially a problem of hermeneutics; but I do not examine this relationship to any depth in this essay. The act itself is a structural one. In Barthes’s terminology, I dissect and articulate.3 I collate lexemes and analytically compare, in a restructuring (articulation) of the protagonist and of the novel, repeated signifiers of structure.4 That is not to say that my paradigm is structuralist. I keep too respectful (i.e. fearful) an eye on the themes of chaos, cognitive dissonance, the indeterminacy of meaning, paradox, and the like, to fall into that category. More specifically, my paradigm is not structuralist for two reasons: first, I do not presume or suggest an historical context to the lexemes apart from the fictional history of their evolution;5 and second, I am not de-coding the text into a general, poly-textual or cultural, form. My primary concern, as an unfortunate redundancy will soon make clear, is a question of character, of the protagonist’s hidden, and possibly criminal, characteristics. That said, I do build, or rebuild, a text. I do pay special attention to symmetry, and objectivity. But these apparent acts are done under a kind of duress, in a kind of dream whose end is imminent and in which I desire something that I know I will never find, that I know is just out of reach, around the next corner. A more precise description of the form of the essay is this: the three parts roughly reflect three distinct sections of Oracle Night.6 I begin my investigation with analysis of the concept of an oracle. What kind of narrative does she inhabit? What does the idea of 3 prophecy do to a normal definition of narrative? I use throughout my essay, more as a heuristic and test-site for my investigation than analogy, the figure from Delphi in Oedipus the King. The second theme I consider, rising from Oedipus's difference with Jocasta – meaning is ab extra; meaning is ab intra – concerns structuralism, or the reassemblage of narrative-parts in an effort at revealing the intelligible function of the whole. The third theme concerns the shortfall of a structuralist view. I do not go so far as to identify my approach as a post-structuralist one, but I make it clear that Sidney Orr's project at memoir, and Oracle Night, indict a form of structuralism. The disparity, then, with which I conclude – the antagonism between structure and de-structure, and the clear difference between my intent and my act – I would now like to introduce. P.iii Spelling it Out: The Oracle’s Narrative I made the following analysis in October of 2003, for a presentation on the novel Cane by Jean Toomer. The phenomenon of reflexivity is dazzling: my words on prophecy, in 2003, return to me two years later, in a more revealing, powerful, and useful way. That is, I act, by necessity, as if today, and these words, were my last; but I know otherwise. … Consider the Latin word oraculum, for the English oracle, or prophesy. And further: ora- for the English boundary, edge, coastline, or region. And –culum, denoting a place, or tool-instrument-device. Does 4 this dissection lend a clear definition of oraculum in English? I suppose the boundary place is close to my idea of prophecy; it beats instrument of the coast. But it is obvious that the boundary place or the edge is not exactly what we mean in English by oracle. Consider the word prophesy. Its Latin cousin is vaticinor, to foretell, to play the harp, to rant and rave. Little did I know that the strange word oracle had a strange lineage. The strangeness lies beneath a veneer of contrasted ideas: the boundary place, the edge, and to rant and rave. Boundaries are clear; in fact, in order for the word to function, the boundary must be clear. You can walk toward the beach, for instance, and see from a long distance off where land ends and water begins. And in a facile sense of defining the word, an oracle, or prophecy, is the establishment of a boundary for some aspect of the future. Prophesy, that is, clarifies a distant point in time; it is a story that corrals understanding of the future, and in doing so determines the point beyond which knowledge is forbidden. Rant and rave is not as co-operative. One thinks of teenagers, or senile geriatrics; of anger and madness. Question: how does rant and rave fit with the boundary place to make prophesy? The how is not important in this case. What is important to consider is the strident contrast of ideas inside of the word oracle. To rant 5 and rave and, simultaneously, to define a boundary, is part of the performance of an oracle. Because of this ungainly requirement, the oracle – say the woman at Delphi, chosen and touched by the Gods – requires a translator.
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