Abstract
Through a reading of Paul Auster’s 2002 novel The Book of Illusions, this article explores the archival impulse in the context of queer theorist Lee Edelman’s schematization of “reproductive futurism.” I argue that The Book of Illusions positions the archive, rather than the child, as the object of futurity and suggest that Auster explores what I term “archival futurism” through two competing visions of the archive: David Zimmer, the protagonist of The Book of Illusions, seeks to extend human life through the archive, exhibiting a pathological archive mania following the death of his family; Hector Mann, in contrast, exemplifies a queered vision of the traditional archive, rejecting futurity by destroying the archive of films he has been making for sixty-odd years. Mann ultimately overcomes the archive while Zimmer remains feverishly devoted to it.
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