LOVE AND STRIFE IN WILLIAM GADDIS' "JR"

JR may be broadly characterized as a novel about disorder. Jack Gibbs is the novel's preeminent authority on this subject. By focusing initially on Gibbs, I show how his preoccupation with disorder informs both his writing and his speech. I do this by observing Gibbs' futile effort to resume work on his book and by examining his tendency to quote Empedocles. Gibbs' allusions to Empedocles provide a context within which we can understand the way the human body and human speech are represented in JR. Empedocles' world is ruled alternately by two forces, Love and Strife. The function of Love is to unite, to make one out of many. The function of Strife is to separate, to disperse things without apparent design. In these terms, the disorder that pervades JR may be viewed as a manifestation of the separating power of Strife. In JR, both the human body and human speech exhibit the influence of Strife. Bodies are fragmented, reduced to separate or merely contiguous parts, and physical contact among characters is frequently hazardous. In a similar fashion, language is divided into competing modes of discourse, and signs are often arbitrarily separated from their referents. Examining instances of narrative description in JR, I show how the faction of limbs tends to generate instability and disorder. Analyzing the speech of various characters, as well as their statements about language, I show how the plurality of discourse promotes confusion and misunderstanding. In these respects, JR represents a world that is ruled by Strife.