Stars and Atoms in ‘The Trilogy’

Abstract

In a brief suggestion in his essay on Beckett and mathematics, Ackerley uses Beckett’s reading of Poincaré to explain his use of quantum physics in the cosmology of The Unnameable, as microcosm and macrocosm are deeply linked:

In his Whoroscope Notebook, Beckett took extensive notes from Poincaré’s La Valeur de la science, which outlined a paradox that would enter into the cosmology of the opening pages of The Unnamable, the Leibniz-like contention that ‘Ces astres infinitement petits, ce sont les atomes’ (‘Infinitely small stars, that’s what atoms are’). The opening pages delineate a cosmos both infinitely small, a vanishing point, an atom encircled by electrons; and impossibly large, a world from which the transit of other bodies may be observed (1998, ‘Beckett and Mathematics’, p. 92).

This image of a ‘cosmos both infinitely small… and impossibly large’ reminds us of ‘Ithaca’ and the way Bloom is placed between the microcosmic ‘universe of human serum’ and the macrocosmic universe (1993, 17.1063–4); similarly, the protagonists of ‘The Trilogy’, especially the Unnameable, might be either atoms or stars.¹ This final chapter will develop Ackerley’s suggestion into a full consideration of ‘The Trilogy’, concentrating on the way that through central mystery of light, particularly starlight, Beckett weaves together the ideas of difficulty, time, desire and absurdity to form a self-contained cosmology.