Late in the course of David Markson’s quirky novel, the equally
quirky narrator Kate decides that perhaps she should write a
novel too.
But then Kate hesitates because, as she notes, any novel she
might write would have only character—and who would want to
read a book with just one character?
Wittgenstein’s Mistress is a novel with just one
character.
I wondered: What if the narrator of that novel also
decides to write a novel, and so on and so on?
That’s an invitation to infinite regress.
Which reminds me of Inifnite Jest, a novel by
David Foster Wallace, who called Wittgenstein’'s
Mistress "pretty much the high point of
experimental fiction in this country."
This country meaning the United States.
Although Wittgenstein himself was a British
philosopher.
Well, not really a British philosopher, since he was born in Austria.
But he did most of his philosophizing in Britain.
And Kate probably wasn't his mistress, since Wittgenstein was
homosexual.
But if he had been heterosexual, his mistress still wouldn't be
Kate, who never met Ludwig Wittgenstein.
Which raises the obvious question: why is this book call Wittgenstein's
Mistress?
Kate's style of writing does resemble Wittgenstein’s Tractatus
Logico-Philosophicus, a philosophical work broken down into a
series of isolated declarative statements. The reader needs to do
the heavy lifting to connect them into a meaningful whole.
Wittgenstein's Mistress is a novel broken down into a series of
isolated declarative statements. The reader needs to do the heavy
lifting to connect them into a meaningful whole.
This essay on Wittgenstein's Mistress is broken down into a series
of isolated declarative statements.
You have to do the heavy lifting.
Kate is isolated too.
Did I forget to mention that she is the last living person in the world?
She is the last living person in the world.
Which makes Wittgenstein's Mistress sound like a science fiction
book. Sorta like I am Legend or The Road.
That’s not really fair. Wittgenstein's Mistress is more of a
postmodern experimental novel.
In fact, I’m really not sure that Kate is the last living person in the
world. Despite what I just said.
She is an unrealiable narrator, and often contradicts what she
just said. And she might just be crazy.
Just like me.
Well, not the crazy part. I am not crazy. But I did just contradict
what I had previously said.
But only because Kate contradicts what she tells me.
That is not to say that she tells me anything. I just read her book.
And really it’s not her book. It's a novel written by David Markson.
Who probably wasn't crazy. And may possibly have never said
something and immediately contradicted himself.
But he probably did. Because a lot of people do that.
Contradict themselves, that is. Not write novels.
But a lot of people do talk about writing novels. I've seen that a lot.
People saying: "I’m going to write a novel some day."
But usually they never do it.
Write the novel, that is.
Assuming that there really are other people. Which this book might
make you doubt.
It being a somewhat solipsistic book.
Solipsism being a philosophical system in which only the
philosopher exists, and no one else.
Which is sort of like being the last living person on the planet.
Or being really, really lonely. Which is what David Foster Wallace
thought this novel was actually about.
Which is sad to think about. Since David Foster Wallace
committed suicide, and might have been really, really lonely
himself.
Which reminds me that Ludwig Wittgenstein had three brothers
who committed suicide, and he considered doing so himself.
Which is quite a coincidence.
Or maybe not, when you think about it.
Which makes it all the sadder.
But a sad story doesn't always make the reader feel sad.
In fact, sometimes a sad story makes the reader feel better.
I think Aristotle said something about that.
But maybe now I am just showing off.
Kate also shows off. She always mentions famous people she
has met.
Which is strange in a solipsistic novel.
Well, a solipsist shouldn't even write a novel.
Who would read it?
I read it.
And I wasn't sad I read it, even if it is a sad novel.
You probably won’t be sad either.
I mean you won’t be sad about reading the book. Although you
might be sad about other things.
But that won’t have anything to do with David Markson’s book.
Ted Gioia writes on music, books and popular culture. He is currently
writing his ninth book, Love Songs: A Secret History.
Published May 11, 2013
quirky narrator Kate decides that perhaps she should write a
novel too.
But then Kate hesitates because, as she notes, any novel she
might write would have only character—and who would want to
read a book with just one character?
Wittgenstein’s Mistress is a novel with just one
character.
I wondered: What if the narrator of that novel also
decides to write a novel, and so on and so on?
That’s an invitation to infinite regress.
Which reminds me of Inifnite Jest, a novel by
David Foster Wallace, who called Wittgenstein’'s
Mistress "pretty much the high point of
experimental fiction in this country."
This country meaning the United States.
Although Wittgenstein himself was a British
philosopher.
Well, not really a British philosopher, since he was born in Austria.
But he did most of his philosophizing in Britain.
And Kate probably wasn't his mistress, since Wittgenstein was
homosexual.
But if he had been heterosexual, his mistress still wouldn't be
Kate, who never met Ludwig Wittgenstein.
Which raises the obvious question: why is this book call Wittgenstein's
Mistress?
Kate's style of writing does resemble Wittgenstein’s Tractatus
Logico-Philosophicus, a philosophical work broken down into a
series of isolated declarative statements. The reader needs to do
the heavy lifting to connect them into a meaningful whole.
Wittgenstein's Mistress is a novel broken down into a series of
isolated declarative statements. The reader needs to do the heavy
lifting to connect them into a meaningful whole.
This essay on Wittgenstein's Mistress is broken down into a series
of isolated declarative statements.
You have to do the heavy lifting.
Kate is isolated too.
Did I forget to mention that she is the last living person in the world?
She is the last living person in the world.
Which makes Wittgenstein's Mistress sound like a science fiction
book. Sorta like I am Legend or The Road.
That’s not really fair. Wittgenstein's Mistress is more of a
postmodern experimental novel.
In fact, I’m really not sure that Kate is the last living person in the
world. Despite what I just said.
She is an unrealiable narrator, and often contradicts what she
just said. And she might just be crazy.
Just like me.
Well, not the crazy part. I am not crazy. But I did just contradict
what I had previously said.
But only because Kate contradicts what she tells me.
That is not to say that she tells me anything. I just read her book.
And really it’s not her book. It's a novel written by David Markson.
Who probably wasn't crazy. And may possibly have never said
something and immediately contradicted himself.
But he probably did. Because a lot of people do that.
Contradict themselves, that is. Not write novels.
But a lot of people do talk about writing novels. I've seen that a lot.
People saying: "I’m going to write a novel some day."
But usually they never do it.
Write the novel, that is.
Assuming that there really are other people. Which this book might
make you doubt.
It being a somewhat solipsistic book.
Solipsism being a philosophical system in which only the
philosopher exists, and no one else.
Which is sort of like being the last living person on the planet.
Or being really, really lonely. Which is what David Foster Wallace
thought this novel was actually about.
Which is sad to think about. Since David Foster Wallace
committed suicide, and might have been really, really lonely
himself.
Which reminds me that Ludwig Wittgenstein had three brothers
who committed suicide, and he considered doing so himself.
Which is quite a coincidence.
Or maybe not, when you think about it.
Which makes it all the sadder.
But a sad story doesn't always make the reader feel sad.
In fact, sometimes a sad story makes the reader feel better.
I think Aristotle said something about that.
But maybe now I am just showing off.
Kate also shows off. She always mentions famous people she
has met.
Which is strange in a solipsistic novel.
Well, a solipsist shouldn't even write a novel.
Who would read it?
I read it.
And I wasn't sad I read it, even if it is a sad novel.
You probably won’t be sad either.
I mean you won’t be sad about reading the book. Although you
might be sad about other things.
But that won’t have anything to do with David Markson’s book.
Ted Gioia writes on music, books and popular culture. He is currently
writing his ninth book, Love Songs: A Secret History.
Published May 11, 2013
| David Markson's Infinite Regress: A Solipsistic Novel Finds a Reader or An Essay on Wittgenstein's Mistress in the Style of Wittgenstein's Mistress by Ted Gioia |
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Exploring the non-realist
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Great literary works
published since 1985
Great Books Guide
Reviews of current books
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Experimental works of
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Follow Ted Gioia on Twitter
at www.twitter.com/tedgioia
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a website devoted to radical,
unconventional and experimental
fiction with a particular focus on the
rise of modernism and its aftermath.
unconventional and experimental
fiction with a particular focus on the
rise of modernism and its aftermath.
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The Adventurer's Guide to
Finnegans Wake
The Rise of the Fragmented
Novel
Virginia Woolf's Orlando
The First Postmodern Novel?
William Gaddis's The
Recognitions
The Many Lives of James Joyce
A Fresh Look at The Man
Without Qualities
Three Experimental Novels on
Music
The Weirdest 1960s Novel of
Them All
The Making of Ulysses
Buddenbrooks and the Novel of
Business
William T. Vollmann and the
Bumbling Shostakovich
Italo Calvino's Winter's Night
Can a Dictionary be a Novel?
William Burroughs, Abstinence
Teacher
Ken Kesey's Novel-in-a-Box
The Magic Mountain and Mein
Kampf
Why Only Revolutions Will Not
be Televised
Three Literary Gossip Novels
My Favorite American Novel
The Finnegans Wake Toolkit
Manhattan Transfer: The
American Novel as Scrapbook
William Burroughs's Mexican
Adventure
Still Golden After All These
Years: A Look Back at Lessing
William Gaddis's Eight Rules of
Unruly Dialogue
A Solipsistic Novel Finds a
Reader
Raymond Queneau's Exercises
in Style
Escape from Mango Street
Revisiting James Joyce's
Dubliners
Ishmael Reed's Mumbo Jumbo
Life A User's Manual
William Gaddis's JR: The
Eleven-Year-Old Tycoon
John Dos Passo's Obsession
with Reflected Light