Posted by Steven on 26/3/2011, 21:32:04, in reply to "Wittgenstein's Mistress (spoilers)"
76.186.51.185
I read Wittgenstein's Mistress last week and was just waiting to see if Guillermo and Joffre were joining us.
I don't know if anything "really" happens. I took the whole novel as a sort of allegorical exercise. Kate's being entirely alone in the world brings to mind the philosophical question "how do I know anything really exists and is not a product of my imagination." She explores the question of meaning and existence through the pathways of the arts, beginning where Western culture begins, at the Siege of Troy.
The book is also an exploration of language and how it shapes our thoughts and ideas, along with the cultural associations attached to it. She is constantly jumping from one subject to another and asking "Why did I do that." She points out and laughs at the ambiguities in language and how they lead us unintentionally to new ways of meaning. I know very little about Wittgenstein's writings, but I think these explorations of language and meaning are illustrations of his ideas.
The notion of insanity is also there, and I'm sure the book is much deeper than what I've been able to grasp of it--for example I don't have an explanation that relates the death of her child to the themes I've just described.
--Previous Message--
: March is almost gone, and no one has wanted to discuss
: this novel. I have been wondering how others read the
: book. Are we to take literally that she drove all
: over the world living in art museums? And that all
: the people and all the animals disappeared (with
: apparently no corpses)?
:
: I think that she's delusional and has been living
: alone in her house near Springs on the south fork of
: the eastern tip of Long Island since the death of her
: child.
:
: Did anyone else read it? What do you think is
: "really" happening? Trying to figure this
: out from a handful of clues is what reminds me of the
: Robbe-Grillet.
:
