420
PARTISAN REVIEW
as I am now," he admits, " I tri ed to deceive my own sense of ig norance
and inexperience by di ssecting the few activiti es within my reach as
though spea king of momento us undertakings." In
The Goa lie's
An xiety,
Bloch di sengages himself in a reversa l of the same technique
when hi s sentences drift off into no thingnes . When the subj ects and
o bj ects o f each sentence are compl etely effaced, Bl och di sappea rs.
Th e Goalie's Anxiety
becomes an elabo ra te game pl ayed within
the structure of language. When Bl och feels like he is los ing grip , he
uses the technique of the na rra to r in
Short L ett er:
" He described the
events to himself like a radi o anno uncer
to
the publ ic, as if thi s was the
onl y way he could see them for himse lf. After a whil e it helped ." La te
in the novel, Bloch for a moment transcends language. " He saw and
heard everythin g with to ta l immedi acy, without first having to trans–
la te it into wo rds, as befo re, o r comprehending it onl y in terms of
words o r word games. H e was in a sta te where everything seemed
na tural to him ." But all else rem ains a pa thology of perceptio n; for a
whil e he dea ls directIy with sign-pi ctures, and then returns to words
themselves - " 'Suds' 'poured' 'over' 'the doo rsteps.' 'Fea therbeds' 'were
lying' ' behind ' 'the windowpanes.''' Except for the murder he
commits- and tha t act is perfo rmed in a manner so detached as to be
a lmost gra tui tous-Bl och has dea lt with onl y the surface of the world.
He penetra tes no thing, and no thing penetrates him . As Ha ndke
observes, " He was so tired tha t he saw each thing by itself, es pecia ll y
the contours, as though there was no thing to the thin gs but their
contours."
In America, we have no ted, Handke find s hi s perfect land o f
surfaces . Throughout the nove l hi s narra tor interprets the country
thro ugh mov ies-usua ll y hi stori cal po rtraya ls such as J ohn Fo rd's
The
fr an H orse
and
Y oung Mr. L inco ln .
On his way across the country, the
narra tor visits with an arti st who pa ints hi sto ri ca ll y-based pi ctures,
often for exhibition with corres pondin g mov ie producti o ns. Aga in , the
effect is o f pure surface. At the end of hi s journey, cl os ing the novel, the
narra tor meets director John Fo rd himself. Fo rd confirms the to ta lity o f
surface, th e lack of imaginative depth to his work : "' No thing is made
up,' he sa id . 'It a ll rea ll y happen ed.' '' It is in terms such as these tha t
Handke's na rra tor understands the United Sta tes. In
S hort L ett er,
the
action is pano rami c, but of zero penetra ti on: things merely
happen,
events simpl y pass the narra tor by as if on a moving stage. The
experi ence is ana lagous to wa tching a film with a lmos t no emo ti ona l
participa tion . It is on thi s same leve l, o r lac k of level, tha t J oseph Bl och
li ves hi s life, for whi ch the style of
The Goalie's Anxiety
p rov ides the
