Off Centre.

51 One might object that Toby obviously is not regarded as an eccentric by the other characters of the novel. This is true, but due to a very significant aspect of the novel: all its major characters are depicted as eccentric. Thus, we have the very unusual situation – even for eccentric texts – that there is not just one eccentric, but that the eccentric is depicted as the usual mode of existence, though certainly not in a way Plessner would have envisaged. All major characters are driven, like Toby, by their singular hobby-horse, which shapes not only their thinking, but also imposes on the whole outside world the restriction that it must relate to the hobby-horse in question in order to be perceived.

52 Another example is Tristram’s father Walter. His hobby-horse is pseudo-philosophical theories. Tristram tells us of a few, all of which have to do with Tristram’s misfortunes: Walter’s theory that the nose of a man is causally related to a successful life (Tristram’s nose gets crushed during his birth by Dr. Slop’s forceps), and that the first name of a man is equally important (the best name being Tristmegistus; because of the maid’s forgetfulness Walter’s son instead gets baptized with the worst of all names: Tristram). We learn that throughout his life Walter is concerned with composing the Tristrapaedia, which is intended to convey all knowledge important to life – judging from his theories so far, we can imagine how useful the “knowledge” of the Tristrapaedia would prove. Although Walter appears to be an educated and distinguished gentleman, he nevertheless is unable to relate to life or other people without having developed one of his pseudo-philosophical theories. Thus, the same holds true for him as for Toby: they both are eccentric protagonists.

35 That Tristram, the narrator himself, is eccentric, is obvious almost from the beginning of the novel. It does not take much time before we know what his hobby-horse consists in: digressions (Bowman Piper, 31-46). It would go beyond the scope of this paper to examine Tristram’s narrative techniques in detail. What I want to stress now is that Tristram’s hobby-horse exemplifies very distinctly what it means for the eccentric to shape the world according to his subjective viewpoint. Since Tristram is the narrator, we have no choice but to participate in the digressions and in doing so we experience what the world looks like for Tristram. And it is evident that the world he presents to us is a very subjective world which revolves solely around the egocentric subject as defined above, ultimately the eccentric subject in the context of this discussion.

Eccentric text

54 We have seen that Tristram Shandy contains various eccentric characters, as well as an eccentric homodiegetic narrator. I now want to argue that Tristram Shandy is also an eccentric text. Keeping with the list from the last section, an eccentric text has as its only valid point of reference itself, remains indifferent to the outside influences of its time and ultimately resists every interpretation as to what the communicative intent of the text might be; eccentric texts remain indifferent to everything outside themselves, including the reader.

55 It already emerged at the end of the last section that the only valid point of reference in Tristram Shandy is the text itself. This is due to the narrative situation: Tristram is the homodiegetic narrator who tells us about his “life and opinions” – or at least tries to do so. Of course, Tristram employs elements of heterodiegetic narration as well, since the majority of incidents he tells us about happened either before his birth or while he was still an infant. However, this is of no consequence for the question whether there are objective points of reference, since we never get to understand how Tristram knows about these incidents. All events in the novel are filtered through Tristram’s perception, more precisely, through his subjective viewpoint, just like Toby and Walter receive outside information only insofar as it matches with their hobby-horses. There is nothing in the book which we could judge with any other measure; the novel has itself as the only point of reference.[10]Hartley notes a peculiar consequence of this which should be very dissatisfying to critics: “The irony is that the critic who attempts to impose any kind of system on Tristam Shandy immediately assumes the role of Tristram’s father” (498). Thus, much of Tristram Shandy’s eccentricity is due to its peculiar narrative situation.