Manuscript Genetics, Joyce's Know-How, Beckett's Nohow

3. Strategies and Typologies

3 Strategies and Typologies Ratiocination inevitably takes place in what Beckett called the ivory dungeon . But more often than not, a pen and a piece of paper help materialize this thought process. Arthur Schopenhauer called this “thinking with the quill,” a phenomenon he did not exactly admire. He compared it to walking with a cane. The sharpest thinking proceeds without any tools; canes and quills are a sign of aging. At first sight, the comparison seems obvious, but the question is whether it is true. In 1982, the German textual critic Siegfried Scheibe made a clear distinction between two basic types of writing methods (12–29). Some authors develop not just an idea but a whole book in their minds before putting pen to paper; these are called “mindworkers” (Kopfarbeiter). Others think on paper; these are referred to as “paperworkers ” (Papierarbeiter). In spite of this manifest difference, Scheibe was of the opinion that these strategies had enough in common to draw up an “ideal” basic model of writing. This “ideal model” consisted of seven more or less distinct phases: 1. The first phase is characterized by the intention to write. This intention can materialize in the form of notes, when for instance the author looks something up in an encyclopedia and makes a few excerpts . Scheibe calls these preparatory writings Vorarbeiten, or paralipomena . 2. The first plan or scheme put down on paper is followed by 3. the actual writing (eigentliche Niederschrift), resulting in the first syntactic version that already shows some common elements with the textual structure of the work. 4. The changes made by the author on this document, with the exception of immediate corrections (Sofortkorrekturen, or currente calamo), bring about a new version. One document can thus contain several versions. 5. If the author changes a few things while copying, the (fair) copy or typescript is a new version. This process is usually repeated a number of times, 48 / Manuscript Genetics, Joyce’s Know-How, Beckett’s Nohow 6. until the author decides his work has reached a form that is fit to be shown to the public. The publication of this version does not necessarily imply the end of the writing process. 7. Even after publication, the author continues to revise his text, thus creating one or more new versions. Most typologies work with a model process as a kind of contrastive background against which any deviation in a concrete writing process can be highlighted. The other extreme is a typology that is so refined that one particular writing strategy of one particular author may be classified under several categories. That is the kind of typology suggested by Hanspeter Ortner, who discerns four general categories, subdivided in almost a dozen subcategories . Only one of these is referred to as mental designing. Authors working according to this method are categorized as the Typ des Nieder­schreibers because they devise both the macrostructure and the formulations on a microlevel in their minds and only have to write them down subsequently. This category corresponds to Scheibe’s category of the Kopfarbeiter. As an example, Ortner mentions Franz Kafka, whose texts came into being during his walks and were subsequently written quite quickly, almost without corrections—as if they were “abgerufen aus dem Kopf,” according to his biographer Klaus Wagenbach (Ortner 2000: 463). This classification already indicates that the “mindwork” (Kopfarbeit) is only one out of several writing strategies, most of which are forms of “paperwork” (Papierarbeit). The most extreme form of “thinking on paper” in this typology is writing as a form of ratiocination. This is the approach of the so-called “syncretists,” that is, authors who initially write separate blocks of texts that are later reshuffled and linked together. Their counterparts are authors writing “step by step” (more or less corresponding to Scheibe’s “ideales Grundmodell”). It is often quite difficult to discern these two subcategories, even within one single composition process. For instance, Joyce to some extent answers to the profile of the so-called Schritt-für-Schritt-Schreiber (subcategory a). For Finnegans Wake, he first collected information in his notebooks and subsequently used this information to draft the different sections of his novel. But these different sections were not written in the order of the final narrative structure. In these early stages of the writing process, Joyce wrote a half dozen short vignettes, which he referred to as “active elements.” Before he even had a clear structure in mind, he was confident that in due...