“Space ails us moderns:  we are sick with space.” – Robert Frost.  Modern artists have a tendency to use the space of the empty canvas, or the blank page, to their advantage.  Unlike other writers, as Frost points out, moderns are very aware of the space in front of them, and see this space as a kind of freedom from the constraints of society.  It is through this realization of space, that Experimental literature was born; a genre of literature that manipulates the space on the page in order to change the shape of poetry and the novel.   Interestingly, some of the most influential Experimentalists have been exiles.  A connection then must be made between this genre of literature and the exiled writer.  In order to make this connection, one must imagine a lonely world, a world of empty space.  For the exile, this world is an everyday reality.  The exile may be surrounded by a busy city, and even have many friends, but no one shares his heritage. Because of this, he is still set apart from society.  This creates a loneliness, in which the writer may become even more aware of space, the space that separates him from the outside world.   Through this awareness the exile creates a breed of Experimental literature that is, free, limitless and musical.  When reading the experimental work of an exile, one becomes very aware of every movement, every sound and every little detail that the work brings forth.  Therefore, one can almost feel the empty space that is being filled up by seemingly incoherent words and phrases.  By changing and shaping the empty space on the page, the experimental exile presents a visual image of his life to his audience.  A parallel can easily be seen between the way the exile fills up the empty pages of his work with Experimental literature, and the way he is free to fill up the lonely space of his life.  This parallel becomes obvious by looking at the free flowing and musical works of Brecht, Beckett and Joyce.

            Experimental writers often point to a vast space.  In some way, the writer draws attention to the vastness of the universe.  By examining Beckett’s Worstward Ho, one can easily see that Beckett constantly comments on the space that surrounds the narrator of his work, which he refers to as the “dim void”.  This “dim void” presents itself all over the novel.  One mention of this void reads, “Unchanged.  Stare clamped to all.  In the dim void.” (Beckett 102).  In this quote, Beckett refers to what it is like inside this void.  The void seems to be in a constant state, since Beckett uses the words “unchanged” and “stare” when referring to it.  Through the mention of this “dim void,” Beckett points to an eternal absence, possibly in his own life.  One can clearly see that this work presents the idea of an eternal absence that cannot be filled.  Another passage reads, “Beyondless.  Thenceless there.  Thitherless there.  Thenceless thitherless their.” (Beckett 92).  This also seems to be alluding to a boundless space of some kind.  The word “there” is repeated several times, which gives a sense that whatever Beckett is referring to, has no boundaries, but is always there.  This is just like the space that surrounds the exile everyday.  Thus, when reading Beckett’s work, one cannot help but begin to feel the vastness of a limitless space.  The “dim void” that Beckett creates in Worstward Ho, may be inspired by the world the exile is thrust into when coming to a new society.  This world is best described by Brodsky in his essay, “The Condition We Call Exile”, who describes the world of an exile using a metaphor saying, “To be an exile writer is like being a dog or a man hurtled into outer space in a capsule (more like a dog, of course, than a man, because they will never retrieve you).  And your capsule is your language.  To finish the metaphor off, it must be added that before long the capsule’s passenger discovers that it gravitates not earthward but outward.”(Brodsky 32).  Brodsky’s quote shows the possible inspiration behind this “dim void”.  Forced into solitude by his language, and the other aspects of his previous culture, the exile floats outward into the empty space of the universe.  He now has the freedom to experiment in this eternal “void” of existence.