Noon rings out. A wasp, making an ominous sound, a sound akin to a
klaxon or a tocsin, flits about. Augustus, who has had a bad night, sits
up blinking and purblind. Oh what was that word (is his thought) that
ran through my brain all night, that idiotic word that, hard as I'd try to
pun it down, was always just an inch or two out of my grasp - fowl or
foul or Vow or Voyal? - a word which, by association, brought into play
an incongruous mass and magma of nouns, idioms, slogans and
sayings, a confusing, amorphous outpouring which I sought in vain to
control or turn off but which wound around my mind a whirlwind of a
cord, a whiplash of a cord, a cord that would split again and again,
would knit again and again, of words without communication or any
possibility of combination, words without pronunciation, signification or
transcription but out of which, notwithstanding, was brought forth a
flux, a continuous, compact and lucid flow: an intuition, a vacillating
frisson of illumination as if caught in a flash of lightning or in a mist
abruptly rising to unshroud an obvious sign - but a sign, alas, that
would last an instant only to vanish for good.
Another excerpt:-
Today, by radio, and also on giant hoardings, a rabbi, an admiral
notorious for his links to masonry, a trio of cardinals, a trio, too, of
significant politicians (bought and paid for by a rich an corrupt Anglo-
Canadian banding corporation), inform us all of how our country now
risks dying of starvation. A rumour, that's my initial thought as I
switch off my radio, a rumour or possibly a hoax. Propaganda, I
murmur anxiously as though, just by saying so, I might allay my
doubts typical politician's propaganda. But public opinion gradually
absorbs it as fact. Individuals start strutting around with stout
clubs. 'Food, glorious food!' is a common cry (occasionally sung to
Bart's music), with ordinary hard-working folk harassing officials, both
local and national, and cursing capitalists and captains of industry.
Cops shrink from going out on night shift. In Mâcon a mob storms a
municipal building. In Rocadamour ruffians rob a hangar full of
foodstuffs, pillaging tons of tuna fish, milk and cocoa, as also a vast
quantity of corn all of it, alas, totally unfit for human consumption.
Without fuss or ado, and naturally without any sort of trial, an
indignant crowd hangs 26 solicitors on hastily built scaffold in front of
Nancy's law courts (this Nancy is a town, not a woman) and ransacks a
local journal, a disgusting right-wing rag that is siding against it. Up
and down this land of ours looting has brought docks, shops, and
farms to a virtual standstill.
Originally posted by Acolyte
I really don't know how I'd cope without the letter 'z'!
Heeehee! Nice one 🙂
--
The novel is 85,000 words long and originally written in French by
Georges Perec in 1969, titled "La Disparition".
What leaves me stone cold dumbfounded is that a man by the name
of Gilbert Adair translated the novel into English (titled "Void"😉...and
retained the property of no 'e' in the English translation!!
In French there are two words for "the" - le and la. In English there is
only one - the, so it is even harder.
Try writing just one sentence without the letter 'e'. Not easy! Try writing
two so that the second follows the first and it's very, very hard.
Mark
Originally posted by T1000Hmmm...I see that the name "Georges Perec" has four 'E's in it.
The novel is 85,000 words long and originally written in French by
Georges Perec in 1969, titled "La Disparition"...
...Try writing just one sentence without the letter 'e'. Not easy! Try writing
two so that the second follows the first and it's very, very hard.
Mark[/b]
Originally posted by T1000I assume there was a point to writing a whole novel without using the letter 'e', other that to just show off how clever he was.
[b]Originally posted by Acolyte
The novel is 85,000 words long and originally written in French by
Georges Perec in 1969, titled "La Disparition".
What leaves me stone cold dumbfounded is that a man by the name
of Gilbert Adair translated the novel into English (titled "Void"😉...and
retained the property of no 'e' in the English transla ...[text shortened]... easy! Try writing
two so that the second follows the first and it's very, very hard.
Mark[/b]
Originally posted by royalchickenhe also has no 'et', most infinitives are forbidden and no adverbs ending in '-ment'. Liaison gives him some respite, eg "l'arc", and also the words 'du' and 'au', but not much.
there is a wierd and difficult conundrum here. without the letter "e", perec can have no "le", which means he is basically limited to feminine nouns. however, most adjectives in French in the feminine require an "e" at the end. it's a great book.