The music of chance

The Music of Chance

The absurd mind has less luck.--Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus Nothing was real except chance.--Paul Auster, The New York Trilogy The challenge that Auster lays in front of the reader is to try to establish whether there is some pattern ruling the endless interplay of disparate events: the presentation of something beyond our control, something that destroys the neat ordering of cause and effect: chance. In an aftermath to their lost poker game, Nashe and Pozzi examine the reasons behind their failure. Pozzi as a poker player believes in chance and he is convinced that somewhere, sometimes he will be the chosen recipient of its good fortune. On a metaphysical level he expresses the belief in a world based upon a delicate harmony which must be maintained by care in order to keep its balance. He accuses Nashe of disturbing that balance and committing a sin by 'tempering with the universe' ( The Music of Chance,p138). He broke the rhythm of their winning game by leaving the room at an inappropriate moment. The consequences for the destiny of the two heroes of "The Music of Chance" are catastrophic. Not only did they lose the game, but they were sentenced to hard labour. In order to pay for their gambling debt they had to build the wall. The narrative moves away from freedom and movement, from the world played by music of chance into complete isolation and fixity of place. Nashe's attitude to his fate is fatalistic: he accepts the fact that his freedom is taken away from him as the building of the wall becomes some kind of atonement. He mocks Pozzi's belief in hidden purpose that explains how things work in the world be it luck, God or harmony. Once released from the world of chance with its indefinite possibilities of America's freeways he stoically tolerates his new position. It seems to me that "The Music of Chance" contrasts these two disparate worlds: improbable world of chance and determinate world of law. In the world of chance Nashe's existence comes as 'the fixed point in a whirl of changes'(The Music of Chance, p11). In the world of restriction and order, the body is under strict surveillance and must adhere to the law. The challenge that Pozzi and Nashe must overcome is the building of the wall. This wall, which becomes a postmodern pastiche of its origins as an Irish castle to produce something new, is a way of separation of these two worlds. The closer they get to finishing, the further away they are from their freedom until eventually it becomes a wall of terror they are building around their lives. As if the determinate world of law and order needs the wall in order to protect itself from the improbabilities of freedom and chance.