Jacques the Fatalist by Denis DiderotMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book is structured around the tension between determinism and free will. Jacques the ‘fatalist’ believes everything that will happen is already written in the great scroll on high. He is correct, except that he is a character and his fate is actually written in a book by Diderot. And that book is a deconstruction of the novel – Diderot constantly intervening to speak directly to the reader and reminding them of his authorial power over the narrative. And he insists upon subverting standard expectations of the novel. So what actually happens is chaos – Jacques and his master tell each other stories that keep being interrupted. The fatalist is caught up in a world which is constantly being reconfigured around him, to the point where his fate not only impossible to predict, but a joke.
The result of this dichotomy is never spelled out, but one inference is that if the universe has an author they are a capricious one. The other is that the world is so unpredictable and our motivations so inscrutable that it leaves enough gaps to suggest we can will things freely. Jacques is a servant to a master who is set in his ways, but he is adept at manipulating him to the point where their roles almost reverse. He may be fated to do so by his character (or his author) but is that also not an example of the freedom he has?
The introduction by David Coward points out how the book’s experimentalism and metafictional elements anticipates 20th century deconstructions like Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. Mileage may vary on how amusing you find Diderot’s constant harangues to his reader, and the mischievous insistence on constantly undermining his own storytelling. There’s something juvenile about it for sure, but in its own way it is an authentic expression of Diderot’s own character, who also thinks, and wills, freely.
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