I know that most of you have not finished reading "Man in the Dark" yet. So, don’t panick. This is just a post to invite you to start working on the novel, so that we can start discussing about it in class.
The following video (pretty long, don’t get shocked!) shows you Paul Auster reading different excerpts from his latest novel. At the end there are some questions he answers. I would love you to listen to the questions and take notes of the answers. If you have not started reading the novel, it would be nice for you to flick through the pages of the book guided by Paul Auster’s voice. If you have already finished the book, then you can skip the reading of the excerpts and get directly to the interview.
Brill’s protagonist is Owen Brick, a young man who wakes up in a hole in the ground to find himself transported between Americas: "Brill hears machine guns, exploding grenades, and under it all, no doubt miles away, a dull chorus of howling human voices.
Auster employs familiar post-modern techniques to mirror the crazy logic of nightmares. Brick is told by another character in the story that he can stop the war if he finds Brill and kills him: the civil war is only happening because a disgruntled old man is thinking it up.
Brill distracts himself with only partial success. His thoughts keep drifting back to his dead wife and suffering daughter and granddaughter. By day he watches films, one after another, with Katya, who was a film studies student before her bereavement. 
Lying awake, Brill replays their conversations about Tokyo Story and other classics. These interludes are light relief for the reader: Auster on film is diverting and interesting. But then the nightmare returns. "Think dark, then, and go down into it, see it through to the end."
Towards dawn, Katya arrives in her grandfather’s room and they lie next to one another talking frankly about his life.
He wonders if the intimate details are too much to share. She tells him no, "It’s my fault. I’ve turned this into Truth Night at Castle Despair, and now that we’ve started, we might as well go all the way."
What they don’t talk about, can’t talk about, is the internet video of Katya’s husband’s gory execution in
Guarino Ilaria
before making any questions I would like to focus on the video we are ment to watch.First of all i find that the reading of the book made by the author himself has been very deep and involving.The questions posed by the student after the reading were very interesting.In the question about cinema and the kind of approach Auster has with it the writer said that even if the movie was a positive experience for him where he got to know and coolaborare with many people writing remains far higher.Film and cinema are only a “funny buisness”,a wonderful illusion.Film seems to be real but “is the biggest fake in the world.”Film is not flowing as a book.It is only make seens in cuts.Instead of this novel is “uncinematic as any fiction possible”.The book takes you into another dimension where you can see touch feel.In all his books Auster tells us life in a “fantastic” way,he gave us often unrealistic,supernatural aspect. and probabely most of the people who read more than one or two books could maybe think that is a sort of obsession to write about “strange” things.But the solution is very simple.Reality is more bizare than imagination.As Auster reply to this question he declare he is inspired by life that is strange and unpredictable.He tries to embraces bizare things as a reflection of a state of mind.For this reasons lots of his books seems to be quite the same but if we read carefully we will find in each a different meaning or a meaning that,adding to the others,enriches them.Many books tempt or want to restore the reality.But reality is not normal.As a writer Paul Auster and his novel are criticizes.The way that the writer face them is ignore them.A writer does not write fot the critic.Anyway people can say whatever they want nce the book is published!
My personal questions that i wolud like to ask Paul Auster about the novel “man in the Dark”are:
Why he decides to somehow “support” the main character August Brill with the figure of two women?
Does he really think in the possibility of a real civil war in the USA?
What kind of relationship does he has with the character August Brill?is a sort of his litterary tranposition?
Personally i prefer the cover with the pale moon and the “scenery” that is not completely lit.In my opinion represents the state of darkness, mental confusion in which, however, there is still a faint hope(moonlight).
Dear Ilaria,
Thanks for your prompt reply. You have been very thorough and detailed. I can see that you like working on this blog. I can see your enthusiasm and your drive. Well done.
Your teacher of English
“Man in the Dark” is really a cry of pain and protest. This novel can be seen in two ways: as a superb metafictional novel, where narrations are continuously woven -without creating an indistinct tangle- with a mathematical precision, or as a terribly real and disturbing dystopic story.
Auster starts his novel from very plausible assumptions: the life of August Brill is seriously disturbed by the death of his wife, by the separation between her daughter and her husband and, above all, by the horrible death of his granddaughter’s boyfriend, decapitated live on TV by Muslim terrorists while he was in Iraq as a soldier, a fact inspired by a event really happened a few years ago, and that is the first accuse that the author makes to what is strongly criticized in the novel and that is paradoxically the cause of part of it: the Bush administration.
Beside reality there is the story within the story: the civil war after the controversial elections of 2000. Auster takes us into a kind of “what would have happened if …”, in a world where the events that led to Operation Enduring Freedom have never happened, where America has not undertaken a “wrong” war; nothing is happened. The problem is that this scenario is even more distressing, tragic: there is war, and it is fought in the streets; New York, not Kabul, is bombed and there are dead, and there are 80,000 of them. It is a world even more ugly than the real one, the microcosm of America is torn by a bloody conflict that can be compared to operations in Middle East. What happens is reflected in the real world, where so many American boys are dead, and the hands of America are bloodstained by something that could be avoided. And, the author says, the responsability is of only one thing: the arrival of President Bush.
The story of real life is enriched by events that portray the characters talking about classic films (The Bicycle Thief, Auster’s favourite movie); that show a peculiarity in Auster’s fiction, that is to insert in his works always parts of himself. But even in the most relaxed, calm moments, something threatens, something that becomes clear at night, and that is showed as insomnia. And it is insomnia – full of meaning in “Man in the Dark”- that unites August Brill and Paul Auster: the awareness of a life irreparably undermined by pain and suffering, and the awareness of a forever wounded nation, with the hands stained with the blood of many innocent boys, sent to die in a horrible way for a fictitious freedom. And to escape from this world of suffering and darkness (“Man in the Dark”) there is who invents stories, to imagine a different world without terrorism and war. But the situation is even worse, death still lies in ambush and violence is spreading, the world has not changed. Imagination can’t help, and even seeking refuge in culture or in the real and wonderful film’s stories. The only thing to do is to sit down and face reality and its tragedy, face that thick and black darkness from which it seems to be no way out. A darkness where weak and disturbing noises -such as a continuous crying- continue without interruption, where you cannot sleep: you are not allowed. The book is a cry that wants to say “Why all this pain”, but it does not rail against anyone, but is a subtle and intelligent criticism of the tragic absurdity and contradictions of a system, of an era, of a dark page in American history. And part of America -the cover of the American edition explains it very well- is forever dead, and continues to die while Auster writes. But the most important thing is to continue believing, hoping, and not to die intellectually and be swallowed by darkness, and shouting words of a song that clearly show this thought: America, the beautiful.
Raggiotto Francesco
I really appreciate this Paul Auster’s reading of his book “Man in the dark”. It was very involving because he succeeded in creating a particular atmosphere, in fact it seems that I was a part of the book, as if I was August Brill. I found very interesting the questions of the boys, who were there, in particular the first one that concerns his approach with the cinema to which he answers:>.
Then he says that writing novels is a kind of rolling, going underneath 3 dimensions: he tastes things, he smells things, and there aren’t lots of dialogue in his novels. Paul Auster also makes a distinction between films and novels:>. Then he says that he is inspired by life when he writes :>.
Thanks to this video I understand some particular things about Paul Auster’s thoughts. The question about the cinema is interesting because now I know his relationship with films.
I prefer the cover with the moon and the darkness because the title “man in the dark” stands for the unknown and for the confusion of humanity.
Santarossa Barbara
Santarossa Barbara
I really appreciate this Paul Auster’s reading of his book “Man in the dark”. It was very involving because he succeeded in creating a particular atmosphere, in fact it seems that I was a part of the book, as if I was August Brill. I found very interesting the questions of the boys, who were there, in particular the first one that concerns his approach with the cinema to which he answers:>.
Then he says that writing novels is a kind of rolling, going underneath 3 dimensions: he tastes things, he smells things, and there aren’t lots of dialogue in his novels. Paul Auster also makes a distinction between films and novels:>. Then he says that he is inspired by life when he writes :>.
Thanks to this video I understand some particular things about Paul Auster’s thoughts. The question about the cinema is interesting because now I know his relationship with films.
I prefer the cover with the moon and the darkness because the title “man in the dark” stands for the unknown and for the confusion of humanity.
I really appreciate this Paul Auster’s reading of his book “Man in the dark”. It was very involving because he succeeded in creating a particular atmosphere, in fact it seems that I was a part of the book, as if I was August Brill. I found very interesting the questions of the boys, who were there, in particular the first one that concerns his approach with the cinema to which he answers: “ I love film, when I was 19-20 years old I would like to become a director, then I realized at that time of my life, I was so shy, so unable to talk in front of other people, how can I direct a film if I can’t talk to anybody? So I gave up the idea. Later, after I started publishing novels, film-makers started approaching me and, as you know, I collaborate on 2 films “.
Then he says that writing novels is a kind of rolling, going underneath 3 dimensions: he tastes things, he smells things, and there aren’t lots of dialogue in his novels. Paul Auster also makes a distinction between films and novels: “ film is a kind of puzzle, it is not flowing in the way a novel flows but it is interesting and the fact is that you think film as real but it is the fakest thing in the world and when you write for a film, as in my case, you think about this rectangle, this 2 dimensional flats and try to put all the action in there.
Film and cinema are only funny business. Anyway this experience was good for me because I knew other people, I collaborated and I made friendship “. Then he says that he is inspired by life when he writes : “ life is unpredictable and reality is bizarre, and we all know that bizarre things happen, so I try to embrace this on the works and leave them out “.
Thanks to this video I understand some particular things about Paul Auster’s thoughts. The question about the cinema is interesting because now I know his relationship with films.
I prefer the cover with the moon and the darkness because the title “man in the dark” stands for the unknown and for the confusion of humanity.
Santarossa Barbara
Arnoldi Martina
I’m just finished listening Paul Auster reading some pages of his book,it’s strange..it’s as if he was reading something not write from his hand.I had this sensation,anyway he was involving.He said that write a book is a flowing work,writing for Auster is a necessity and he underlines that he writes by hand and at the end he uses his lovely tipescript.I think he writes with no difficulty,words comes out from his mind and hand in a “flowing” way.he has some difficulties writing scenes for films because he shoul take in consideration many things in order to write something that can be played.
He said he writes real life,real feelings.maybe sometimes we find magic or fantastic element in his novel but if we read in the deep,we will find real feelings.the strange element is the chance.another time life guided by chance.
in the end he repeats that he doesn’t love think about novel that he has already published.books become a cmmercial things and it’s not useful thinking about critics.he prefers go on working for another book.think about future and not about the past.
I would love ask him something about the family element that I find in his novel,I think there is a connection.i haven’t a specific question but i will work on it and maybe I will have the opportunity to ask him during Dedica.
About the book cover,i would like to say that I don’t like the one we have.i don’t like it because it is insignificant for me.i like how Ilaria has interpreted it but I don’t find something that stike me on it.I thing the one with the man’s shape and the italin’s one are better.they have something symbolic for the book.I have an idea in my mind for the graphic competiton,I need help to realise it.I wish prof Ros will help me,I will tell you my idea!
Eugenia
At the beginning I could not understand the ‘European’ cover of the novel, but now that I have almost finished the book, I found it very interesting.
A man, in the dark, telling himself stories with the purpose of falling asleep or at least passing some time.
I can link this image with the European cover of the novel.
A man is drowning in the lake of his stories, he is absorbed by them, and it is difficult for him to emerge again.
3 questions:
• Which are the covers of this novel you like the most?
• For the features of the characters did someone you know inspire you?
• How long did it take you to write this novel?
Erica……
well…I must say that also the american cover is interesting….but I think my favourite would be always the english one….but I think my preference is due to the fact I simply liked the photo…it is very suggestive…and also romantic…
the italian cover of his book I really dodn’t like…first of all because they don’t cover all the space available…sorry for this digression on italian covers…however the question I would ask Mr P.A. first of all, as I’ve already said, if he write a book in which he will conclude all the stories he left open in the stories within the stories of his books;
then,I wish he wrote a story set in Italy…I’ve thought now, he has nothing more to criticize about america…maybe he could denounce some other realities in his novels…
my third question is…’you wore the shoes of a dog…why don’t you invent a female character telling her story with the speaking I?’
Dear Francesco,
thanks for your brilliant comments. Even the language you use is just great. I think somebody is somehow helping you, since the register is not the one you generally use, however, if the blog implies being helped and thus learning from someone else, well I am totally in favour of this. The novel is certainly an attack to the Bush administration and to the former President’s foreign affairs decisions. This novel wouldn’t exist if it had not been for President Bush. So Auster is evidence of the important role lots of intellectuals play in objecting to the system (as we are seeing with Orwell), in questioning certain political choices. If it were not for their writing, their art, our world would have little hope for change.
First of all I noticed that the european cover conveys all the attention to the title and to the name of the author, whereas in the american version they have a secondary role, it is the image that has to catch the attention of the reader, for this reason it is much more interesting and enigmatic (even though I don’t like it, too dark and sad). This cover makes you reflect, it is meant for a qualified public, you will never find it at the supermarket, I suppose.
The novel is really interesting by now, this parallel history is involving, probably I need to find a sparkle of reality in the book I read, otherwise I’m completely lost and can’t go on reading!
I agree with Mr Auster words in the video. He says that prose flows more easily than a movie: I found it difficult watching his films, too intellectual perhaps to be trasposed into a series of images; movies based on novels are like a cage, where our imagination lose its freedom to fly. So I’d like to ask him:
– are you working on a movie version of this novel?
– will you stop writing dystopic novels, since the new american
president is the one you wished?
– in “man in the dark”, the storyteller as got a huge power: do you think literature has really such a strong influence on the public opinion?
fede zille
Dear Federica,
Good observations as to the book cover. The American one appeals to a sense of nation tramped on by a huge monster (the system?), the European one highlights the name of the author (this reveals how famous he is in Europe). I love your questions, do remember to add them to the ones you are jotting down for the interview with Paul Auster.
:)))
I like the most the European cover of the book. It represents better the book. I mean: “man in the dark” implies something mysterious, difficult to disclose and a cover represented the night suit better to the book than a cover on which is represented a man with the American flag in the hand.
Of the european cover I like also the colours and the layout. Very very nice.
The tranquillity represented by the cover doesn’t reveal the sad stories that the reader find in the book…it seemes an illusion…
I’m sorry, but now the only question that I would like to ask him is: why are you so interested in investigating human psychology?
I’m very sorry for have written only a question…the other will come early…
Giulia Canzi
Paul Auster’s last novel “Man in the dark” can be considered as well as “Travels in the scriptorium” a metaphysical novel. They discuss about dissimilar things, the plots are entirely different but both novels deal with imagination, both try to give their own meaning to the reality and to create it as its own. In “Man in the dark” we can see it very well…here August Brill, the main character, probably associated with the same Paul Auster, makes up a story in which he goes beyond the boundaries of reality to create a parallel world more terrible than his own. He tells us the story of a civil war that starts with the 2000 presidential elections.
In this novel Paul Auster expresses more than ever his subjectivity…in fact the pretext arise from his personal frusration due to the result of the elections.
Paul Auster said that the imagination is a cerebral organism that can bring you elsewhere in a minute and he award this meaning to his character August Bril…in fact he wants to take shelter in the imagination to avoid and to escape from all his pains.
I found really interesting the reading of the book by Paul Auster…it was involving and i think, no i am sure that only the autor can and manages to give the right beat and to create the right atmosphere in the reading of his own masterpiece. It is a wanderful way to convey his own feelings to the readers (listener).
Between the two book’s covers, i prefer that of the darkness with the moon. It suits better the title of the book and its meaning…it shows the darkness that stands for the confusion of the humanity , as Paul Auster said, and the moonlight which represents the hope …maybe in a better future!
The questions that i would like to ask Paul Auster are:
“Man in the dark” is a novel that critics the Bush’s administration…What kind of feelings have you felt in writing it? Anger or a sense of release as a sort of outlet?
How will be your next novel?Have you already an idea of the subject?
Since you are also a film director have you already thought to make a new movie?
Marson Chiara
Giulia, the question you asked is really interesting, so do remember to record it in your exercise book.
Chiara, I like your questions too. Just like you, I love listening to the voice of the writer reading out some excerpts of his work. It adds meaning to the words, doesn’t it?
The answer Paul Auster gave to the first question was very interesting in order to understand the main purpose literature has in his opinion: differently from cinema, which is “the biggest fake of the world” and a “funny business”, literature gives the author the possibility of a never fixed work, which can be interpret by the reader in many different ways .The characters on the stage play a fixed role that cannot be changed by the viewers. Auster declared also his shyness which is perceivable by looking his eyes always orientated to the floor. The second theme is imagination: the author starts his story from realistic assumptions which are enriched with the power of chance ,typical of life, which is not conceived by the most fixed logic. Chance is not a product of imagination, it is a natural product of life(think at the indetermination principle of Heisenberg).
August Brill can be identify with Paul Auster with his problems, his difficult relationships, and the passion for inventing, but in some ways the character does things that Paul Auster did not , he is infact more present to his son and nephew than Auster with his sons. Is August Brill representative of you and of your ideal conception of father? Do you think that so a perfect chance has an implicit order? Are Miriam ,Sonia and Katya and representative of your relatives?
The two covers exalt different sides of the book, the first is referred to Brill, who will always live with is fears, and so he becomes more similar to the author and will be always jailed in his sense of gulit. The second suits better the character of Katya, who is maybe one of his sons , and the the possibility of redemption ,which Is symbolized by the moon.
Perin Marco
1) What is the meaning of Brill’s imaginary world? Can we look at it as the representation of Brill’s inner sorrow or even the representation of psychological status of American people during the war in Iraq?
2) In cancelling his own imaginary world, Brill seems to remove and thus escape from his unsolved past, full of fears and nightmare. Is It really like that? Is this psychological removal the only possible solution as he can’t face his life’s problems?
3) Do you think that the civil war is the only possible solution, in an America without a war in Iraq? If you wrote your book now, I mean after the Obama’election, do you think August Brill would think more positive? Would his imagination project a different world?
Between these two covers of the book, I prefer the one with the white man’s shape in the front, because I find it more representative that the other. It evokes the idea of a dead man, surrounded by ruins. It’s a negative image that reflects the topic of the book related to a country involved in war, and also represents the main character’s sad story, giving the reader a feeling of stillness, sadness and heaviness. The other cover instead evokes a more positive story that doesn’t really match with the title and the plot. The picture is a landscape with a dark wood in the background taken by night, but the moon rays illuminates everything giving a too much positive feeling.
Nicola Truant
Well… we already know SO much about Paul Auster that is hard to imagine really interesting questions. Anyway I come up with three main themes in which find a question:
• Solitude. A theme developed both in Man in the Dark and Travels in the Scriptorium, as the condition of the writer and one of the feelings that his characters feel.
• Imagination. It’s used in order to create new worlds in which we can find refuge from a reality we can’t and want accept.
• Darkness. Meaning: humanity groping in a tough reality.
Regarding the covers I find the American one really interesting because explains very well the meaning of the book. A scrap of US flag symbolizes the war and the divisions recounted in the story and the sing of a body remember us how ephemeral life is (a theme faced in the novel).
Francesca Cazorzi
I prefer the European book’s cover because it seems like the view August Brill has every night through the window. I have always thought that Nature make you feel part of the whole universe and make you think about your troubles. Moreover the night hides things and let your imagination work. The moon is symbolic of the light that guide you along your way. So, the story takes place in one only night and the whole book is like a block concentrated of Brill’s thoughts, memories, lived experiences.
After having read the book, I accrued some questions:
• In the scene in which Owen Brick died, he was at Virginia Blaine’s house in Wellington, in the world in which there wasn’t the civil war. The moment the Federal troops arrived, was he still in the that world or he had been transported in the one in which there was the war? Because I thought that in a place in which there is not a conflict , such a military action couldn’t be possible.
• What was the starting purpose of the novel from which Paul Auster was encouraged to go ahead with the writing of the book? What did he want to express to people who read his book?
• War was one of the most important recurring theme in the book. Except the contemporary war in Iraq, are there any other reasons why Auster decide to deals with this kind of issue?
Carolina Braghin
Well, I must admit I really liked this book.. It’s really interesting and various… And Paul Auster explained a lot of things in it, so that the reader can “follow his thoughts”…
This is a really creative book, I mean, and there’s a sentence I’d like to write here, because it really impressed me: “They spend their lives forgiving others, but they can’t forgive themselves”. (pg.77)
I don’t know why, but I believe this sentence is referred to Paul Auster himself… So, I would ask him if the presence of movies/books/various stories in his productions, are a way to talk about about himself, as in this case. Perhaps it’s simpler expressing anguish and fears through another’s voice. Then, I’d like to ask him the importance of solitude for him… In the novels I read, but also in his movies, there are always lonely people, who meet somebody else, but feel abandoned or devastated…
Not a source of complete joy, but always existential problems… That’s why I consider him to be more a philosopher, than a simple writer.
The third question is so simple and complicate… I’d ask him if he is happy now, because most artists feel the need to produce when they’re not satisfied with their lives. But Auster’s life seems quite quiet now, isn’t like that?
He’s married, his daughter is wonderful and works in theatres, his son has some problems but it’s over now… No?
I definitely prefer the European book cover, because I think is more “powerful”: personally,I wouldn’t buy a book with the first book cover, especially If I didn’t know the author (and Auster is not famous as Moccia in Italy, you know), even with such an intriguing title. But the second cover catches your eyes in a bookshop, because really mysterious… I like it!
After heving read the novel, I find the title really significant.. It can be considered true both for August Brill and Owen Brick.
Giulia Marcassa
I think this book seems like a very detailed diary: there are frequent interruptions and a some parts that are input in different moments. However the book it is as realistic that seems autobiographical. It is difficult to think to that book and to imagine that those actions never happen. The non-reality described in the book is only a different reality that could have been started with the elections of Bush in 2000. A “dystrophic reality” where you would not even be free to dream, but someone would have chosen for you.
I found very interesting the thoughts of Owen Brick, the link he made among the death of August Brill and his suicide. Killing himself was only a way to end the war. However, even if the possibility not to let other American die depends on one single person, we see how difficult is to sacrifice our own life. At the end the suicide of Owen Brick is not a direct choice, but the reader knows that Owen Brick understands that staying with Virginia will not change his destiny.
Concerning the book cover I prefer the former instead of the latter because it gives me the idea of darkness, indecision and indeterminacy that I found in the novel. On the other hand the latter suits a situation of peace and calmness that I recognize only in the latest pages.
Referring the video, we understand the similarities between the life of August Brill and Paul Auster: both like films but have a predilection for books and we see this aspect also in the description of the movie among August Brill and her nephew.
Well, these are my three questions:
– Now the president of the USA is Obama, symbolic of the democratic side. You wrote “Man in the dark” after the election of Bush. In an interview on “Che tempo che fa” you declared your support to Obama. So now, you should not have the motivations to write a book as “Man in the dark”, isn’t it?
– In your books, like “Man in the dark” and “Travels in the scriptorium”, a recurrent theme is that of isolation. In the former situation August Brill images a parallel world to escape from his pain, in the latter Mr. Blank is in a isolated room. Well, is that theme an expression of your mood? I mean, do you feel isolated?
– Do you think that a book can change the way of thinking? You don’t close your books, like “travels in the scriptorium”; so do you believe that a book can be a starting point for a thought on human beings?
As regards the book covers, I like the first: the second conveys all the attention on the title; the fist instead, concentrates the attention on the man, and like his books, we can reading this cover in many different way. This cover explains better the mood of the protagonist, his fear and his worry.
Monica Santi