There are one or two people out there who will appreciate this... :)

[darcydodo]

Last night, part of my homework was to read a handout we were given entitled Les écrivains jouent avec le langage. It consisted of an extract from a novel by Georges Perec, entitled La Disparition. I read it, assumed it mostly to be (for us) an exercise in the passé simple, and wondered to myself how precisely it was "playing with language," as it seemed to be written in a fairly normal narrative style.

In class, after we discussed its use of less-than-common words, our teacher pointed us to the title and told us the novel was written without a letter, and which one was it. At which point I really did understand the concept of a light going off in one's head, because I swear the inside of my mind flashed a brilliant white. "E!" I said, because I realized I'd heard of this novel. livredor had mentioned it to me before. This caused me to feel exceedingly bouncy and rather pleased with myself.

I shall now go find some dinner. Or else fool around online for ages and then realize I haven't yet had dinner. Flip a coin? Nah...

Comments

[liv]

Oh boy. I don't even remember telling you about Perec, so it's kind of impressive that you remember. Anyway, if people are amused by these things, here be lots and lots of lipograms (in English, but anyway).

[darcydodo]

Dang that's impressive. But I think there must inevitably be more circumlocution in an English version than a French version; not that I'm entirely certain why I think this.

I have no idea if you mentioned Perec's name, but you definitely told me about his work! :) (Context? Search me!)