After Utopia: The Rise of Critical Space in Twentieth-Century American Fiction

4. Realizing Abstract Space

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 [First Page] [139], (1) Lines: 0 to 37 ——— 0.0pt PgV ——— Normal Page PgEnds: TEX [139], (1) [4] Realizing Abstract Space Thomas Pynchon and William Gaddis Among the texts that represent critical space in twentieth-century American fiction, Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow (1973) and William Gaddis’s JR (1975) occupy a decisive transitional position. In these novels the localized spatial analytics of Goodman’s The Empire City are greatly expanded. Goodman portrays the effects of power in spatial terms, and he attempts to imagine forms of community amid the alienating aspects of midcentury American culture. In contrast, Gaddis and Pynchon represent social power as inherently spatial in nature. For them, power imposes itself on society through spatial initiatives that reconfigure the entirety of social space. They are especially concerned with the imposition of spatial power through transformations of urban space. Of course, the urban domain dominates Goodman’s narrative as well, but for Gaddis and Pynchon this milieu is an agent of the social, economic, and political restructurings of postmodernity. Much of Gravity’s Rainbow takes place at the end of the Second World War, but the novel is oriented toward urban postmodernity in the United States. JR is obviously concerned with the urban sphere of New York City and Long Island in the 1970s. The emphasis on spatial power that is evident in Gravity’s Rainbow and JR is associated with different forms of spatial dialectics than are articulated in The Empire City. Whereas Goodman’s novel portrays the oscillating characteristics of everyday life, the narratives of Pynchon and Gaddis identify the struggle between power and its opposition in the larger domain of social space. The vast social vision of Gravity’s Rainbow and JR, more so than Goodman’s exploration of the possibilities of everyday life, represents a definitive replacement 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 [140], (2) Lines: 37 ——— 0.0pt P ——— Normal PgEnds: [140], (2) of historical with spatial dialectics. At the same time, overt political commitments disappear in the narratives of Gaddis and Pynchon. While articulating some anarchist sentiments, Gravity’s Rainbow criticizes anarchist utopianism in more stringent terms than are apparent in The Empire City. JR is wholly devoid of political attachments. The lure of the utopian past that recurs in Goodman’s novel is nowhere to be found in either Gravity’s Rainbow or JR. The perspectives on spatial dialectics that are articulated by Gaddis and Pynchon also mean that all forms of oppositional space are severely threatened. Reading the novels of Pynchon and Gaddis in relation to the critical theory of Henri Lefebvre enables us to position them within twentieth-century spatial culture. In particular, Lefebvre’s The Production of Space and The Urban Revolution posit theories of the spatial nature of power that illuminate the modes of critical analysis in these fictions of postmodernity.1 In these texts Lefebvre reiterates many of the spatial concerns of the earlier-published first two volumes of Critique of Everyday Life. Chiefly, his theories remain deeply rooted in Marxist categories and continue to negate historical dialectics in favor of a model of dialectical struggle among different types of social space. However, in these texts Lefebvre emphasizes what Edward Soja calls “a socio-spatial dialectic” (Postmodern 77). Whereas in the Critique Lefebvre charts the dialectical interplay of alienated and unalienated aspects of everyday life, in The Production of Space and The Urban Revolution he polemically argues that spatiality is a fundamental determinant of all areas of society (social relations, class relations). The two texts are quite different in nature and scope. As its title implies, The Urban Revolution focuses on the social space of the city. In The Production of Space, Lefebvre offers a highly theoretical account of social space that is not limited to urban applications. Both texts represent a broadening of the Critique’s area of inquiry. Rather than being an empty or insignificant dimension, space in these texts influences the nature of society and is in turn influenced by society. This process of mutual influence de...