Critical Analysis on Paul Auster's the New York Trilogy

Space or Afterlife: An Analysis of Paul Auster's The New York Trilogy In Steven E. Alford's analytical piece, "Spaced-out: Signification and Space in Paul Auster's 'The New York Trilogy'" principally focuses on ideas of how space is portrayed and the detachment of main characters in Paul Auster's The New York Trilogy. Alford points out: Spaces are also the apparent scene of signification, but only through a misapprehension of the missing human elements in mapped representations of space. Ultimately we will discover that the space of signification is what we have traditionally called utopia, which is not a "nowhere" but a "neither-here-nor-there" (613).
Alford's arguments are correct. The main characters in the novel are often trapped in an unknown and lost space that keeps them off a set path. The space that they find themselves in exhibits significance because the heroes embark on their journey within it. It is a space that is not connected to the world that they have been inhabiting. Alford describes a utopia as a "neither-here-nor-there". This is true, however, he fails to understand one key point that Auster attempts to illustrate. The space that Alford explains is more than just a "neither-here-nor-there" rather it should be associated as more of a purgatory state. It makes sense to refer to it as Alford does because a "purgatory" fits the description of "neither-here-nor-there", however there is more of a spiritual connotation to the word. The benefits of occupying such a space is that one can alternate between reality and the afterlife. The empty space that Alford claims the protagonists occupy can actually be connected to transcendental or sanctified states. Alford's description of the utopian "space" is flawed in that he believes the protagonists enter singularly when they are actually called upon by other forces to enter a utopian purgatory and must overcome an obstacle to enter the afterlife. This is first seen in City of Glass, when the