Echoes of Sophocles's Antigone in Auster's Invisible

In her article "Echoes of Sophocles's Antigone in Auster's Invisible" Kathleen Waller discusses Paul Auster's Invisible, a novel that explores Deleuze's and Guattari's ontological idea of becoming in a virtual world versus merely living in the actual, physical world. Sexual and immortal desires in the protagonist's virtual world show a near achieved nothingness, or "a space which is unlimited" and filled with the being's energy, and a being who is becoming, a "univocal being" as a "free spirit" of energy. However, because these desires are only realized through a repression, Auster asks us not to go as far as Deleuze's and Guatarri's "Anti-Oedipus" argument that negates a being dependent on experience: instead of merely dealing with the actual world to reach a state of "nomadic ... distribution" of the energy particles that create a "univocal ... Being," we should become only as participating members of families and relationships in which love is truly realized in both the virtual and actual. The novel is in essence a retelling of Antigone, which exposes the desires for immortality and incest as a connection to a preservation of the family or its uniqueness. Auster retells the story through a more explicit ontological approach that asks us to consider not only the definition of being but also the impact of bio-political acts on society. Kathleen Waller, "Echoes of Sophocles's Antigone in Paul Auster's Invisible" page 2 of 8 CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 13.1 (2011):