What are you currently reading?

[Alrune]

Since we already have threads for film and painting, I thought I should create one for prose and poetry, since it seems like we have some readers here



I am currently reading La Boucle by the oulipian* Jacques Roubaud. This is one of those literary projects that I like reading but find difficult to describe.

I will make an attempt: The book belongs to the larger cycle Le Grand Incendie de Londres. These 'autobiographical' prose works were written in place of a poetic 'Project' that Roubaud failed to write after the deaths of his wife and brother. What remains is written on top of the ruins of this Project.

One of the self-imposed formal constraints is simple: Roubaud writes his 'prose-moments' each morning and evening, in the gathering or fading light, recording his memories without revision. Another is the system of bifurcations. The narrative line advances chronologically, but at certain points it divides. A memory-image opens a new path by association. These paths may lead far from the original sequence, connect distant moments, return to earlier passages, or cast familiar scenes in a different light. The text is very generous in a sense, it gives the reader a lot of freedom to approach it in different ways, almost like a choose your own adventure book.

The most appealing aspect to me is the encounter between this rigorously conceived structure and the disorder imposed by the author's grief. Despite all the ornamentation of the prose, the playfulness of the narrative etc, what keeps me coming back to the book despite its difficulty is the encounter with a 'face' in the text. The face of a person that is struggling to move past the fact of death and the incessant return of their memories. The writing circles these limits without overcoming them, but the search becomes the work.

* Oulipo is a french-speaking writer's collective that use self-imposed formal “constraints” when writing, the most renowned example probably being Perec’s novel La Disparition, written without the use of the letter 'e'. Sometimes Oulipian constraints are geometric, algebraic or numerological, for example the plot of another of Perec’s books, La Vie mode d’emploi is engendered by means of calculations based on a “10×10 magic square.

[Amlux]

Great thread!

* Oulipians are a french-speaking writer's collective that use self-imposed formal “constraints” when writing, the most renowned example probably being Perec’s novel La Disparition, written without the use of the letter 'e'. Sometimes Oulipian constraints are geometric, algebraic or numerological, for example the plot of another of Perec’s books, La Vie mode d’emploi is engendered by means of calculations based on a “10×10 magic square.

What language are you reading this Roubaud book in, if you don't mind me asking?

I read La Disparition many years ago in the English translation by Gilbert Adair, known as A Void. I honestly don't remember much about the plot, because the writing was so obtuse and strange as a result of the constraints that it is almost by necessity hard to understand. For one thing, the English translation writes almost entirely in the present tense, whereas the French uses the past tense... When you think about how many past tense words in English end in "ed," this was probably necessary. But the story is not really the joy of the book, of course. The fact that it was translated from French just adds another layer to the challenge and to the joy, I think. What's the only harder thing to do than writing a novel without using the letter "e?" Translating one! There are some pretty hilarious points actually, only augmenting the originally cheeky and self-aware original:

One example from the very second paragraph:

Plus-tard, on s'attaqua aux Nords-Africains, aux Noirs, aux juifs. On fit un pogrom à Drancy, à Livry-Gargan, à Saint-Paul, à Villacoublay, à Clingancourt.

A basic translation might render this as something like:
Later, they turned against Arabs, blacks, and Jews, carrying out pogroms in Drancy, Livry-Gargan, Saint-Paul, Villacoublay, and Clignancourt.

But how could you translate "juifs" ("Jews") without an "e?" Like this:

Arabs, blacks and, as you might say, non-goyim fall victim to racist attacks, with pogroms forming in such outlying Parisian suburbs as Drancy, Livry-Gargan, Saint-Paul, Villacoublay, and Clignancourt.

One of the moments I remember being most impressive was a section where the book gets meta and a character within delivers a lipogram (constrained writing with a letter missing) of his own! But his is missing the letter "a," meaning that his paragraph has to be missing both "e" AND "a!"

Original French:

Ottavio Ottaviani, sjustant son lorgnon, raclant son pharynx, s'adoucit la voix, prit son inspiration, puis lut, sur un ton plutôt froid:
Ondoyons un poupon, dit Orgon, fils d'Ubu. Bouffons choux, bijoux, poux, puis du mou, du confit; buvons, non point un grog: un punch. Il but du vin itou, du rhum, du whisky, du coco, puis il dormit sur un roc. L'infini bruit du ru couvrit son son. Nous irons sous un pont où nous pourrons promouvoir un dodo, dodo du poupon du fils d'Orgon fils d'Ubu.
Un condor prit son vol. Un lion riquiqui sortit pour voir un dingo. Un loup fuit. Un opossum court. Où vont-ils? L'ours rompit son cou. Il souffrit. Un lis croît sur un mur: voici qu'il couvrit orillons ou goulots du cruchon ou du pOt pour stuc
Ubu pond son poids d'or.
--Hum, dit Savorgnan, cachant mal son imbitation.
--Quoi! scandalisa Aloysius, n'as-tu pas vu qu'il y avait ici un l'on sait quoi tout à fait fascinant?
--Ma foi non, avoua Savorgnan.
--Mais voyons, Savorgnan, il n'y a pas un <a> dans tout ça!

English translation:

Adjusting his lorgnon, coughing, swallowing, gargling, Ottaviani gulps and, with a slightly pompous intonation, starts:
"I'm going to rock this child in his cot, sighs Orgon, son of Ubu. "I'm going to wolf down mutton, broccoli, dumplings, rich plum pudding. I'm going to drink, not grog, but punch." Orgon drinks hock, too, rum, Scotch, plus two hot brimming mugs of Bovril to finish up with, which soon prompts him to nod off. Running brooks drown out his snoring. I stroll to rocks on which I too will nod off, with Orgon's dozing son, with Orgon, son of Ubu.
Condors swoop down on us. Poor scrofulous lions slink out, scrutinising dingos with scornful looks. Chipmunks run wild. Opossums run, too, without stopping. North or south? I wouldn't know. Plunging off clifftops, bison split lambs in two. It hurts. Ivy grows on brick, rising up from stucco pots to shroud windows or roofs.
From Ubu's bottom drops his own bulk in gold.
"Hmm," says Savorgnan, having difficulty in disguising his confusion.
"What!" says Swann, as if furious at Savorgnan's stupidity, "isn't it obvious what's so fascinating about it?"
"Frankly, no."
"Look at it, Savorgnan--it hasn't got a solitary 'a'!"

I've meant to read Perec's Life: A User's Manual for some time after, but I have trouble imagining just how you could top a book this clever and fun to read.

[Alrune]

What language are you reading this Roubaud book in, if you don't mind me asking?

I am reading it in the original french. I am not french but I lived in France for a time and if I have a dictionary handy I can make steady progress.

I read La Disparition many years ago in the English translation by Gilbert Adair, known as A Void.

I actually have a small collection of La Disparition(s) in different translations precisely because I find it fascinating how it becomes entangled when it encounters another language. The translator really has to work to melt it down and reshape it to lend it another form of intelligibility because of the conceit of not using the most common letter of their alphabet.

Häviäminen (the Finnish translation) for example lacks the letter a instead of e.

Also, In the french original and the English translation there is no fifth chapter, because the letter e is the fifth letter of their alphabets. But in the Turkish translation Kayboluş (I cannot read Turkish, alas) the sixth chapter is missing, because Ç makes e take the sixth position. Similarly, Finnish does not have a first chapter.

I've meant to read Perec's Life: A User's Manual for some time after, but I have trouble imagining just how you could top a book this clever and fun to read.

You really should read it at some point
It is quite different from La Disparition and the formal constraints takes a little longer to take effect but in my opinion it is the best Perec.

I know there is a Japanese translation (of La Disparition) as well. Do you know how that would work?

[ccloverclub]

(there are some spoilers in this review.) i just finished "things fall apart" by chinua achebe. it's about a pre-colonial society in nigeria and its downfall by the hands of british colonialism. it reminds me of this meme. the main reason why the ibo people abandon their old religion for christianity is because religious murder is common. newborn twins for example, are considered evil and are abandoned to die. but the main belief of christianity is that there are evil people in the world that deserve to suffer for eternity. both religions belive that they are equally as evil and deserve suffering, but the ibo religion is barbaric because they kill (seemingly to others) innocent babies rather than non-believers. you're supposed to see bits of your own society/religion in the ibo people and even the christians.

it was a good and important read, but it had the entertainment value of watching paint dry i give it a 4/10.

[Thricegreat]

This is my favourite death poem written by Hakuin Ekaku. I read this again today.

若い衆や死ぬがいやなら今死にやれ
一たび死ねばもう死なぬぞや

Wakaishu ya
shinu ga iya nara
ima shiniyare
hito-tabi shineba
mō shinanu zo ya

Oh young folk –
if you fear death,
die now!
Having died once
you won't die again.

[Hans Sepp]

I started rereading The Man Without Qualities yesterday.






It's both the longest and the last major work of German literature.

[AsaFromNasa]

I started rereading The Man Without Qualities yesterday.






It's both the longest and the last major work of German literature.

Oh no my high school German is still better than my Japanese

I'm reading Journey to The End of The Night by Celine right now and plan on either rereading the Iliad with the Fagles translation or As I Lay Dying by Faulkner next. Is The Man Without Qualities good? I feel like everyone knows its an important classic but not many people actually read or talk about it.

[Hans Sepp]

Is The Man Without Qualities good?

Great book.

I feel like everyone knows its an important classic but not many people actually read or talk about it.

It ranks in the highest tiers of German literature, perhaps only surpassed by Goethe - but I don't think many people finished it, mostly because of its very fragmentary nature.

[AsaFromNasa]

I started rereading The Man Without Qualities yesterday.






It's both the longest and the last major work of German literature.

Oh no my high school German is still better than my Japanese

I'm reading Journey to The End of The Night by Celine right now and plan on either rereading the Iliad with the Fagles translation or As I Lay Dying by Faulkner next. Is The Man Without Qualities good? I feel like everyone knows its an important classic but not many people actually read or talk about it.

I finished Journey to The End of The Night and it was incredible. I don't know if i have very much intelligent to say about it, so I'll at least leave a quote that I saved from the first few chapters before I realized that saving all the incredible passages in this 400 page book would leave me with a 400 page book:

"You can be a virgin in horror the same as in sex. How, when I left the Place Clichy, could I have imagined such horror? Who could have suspected, before getting really into the war, all the ingredients that go to make up the rotten, heroic, good-for-nothing soul of man? And there I was, caught up in a mass flight into collective murder, into the fiery furnace… Something had come up from the depths, and this is what happened."

Needless to say it's a nihilistic work, written exclusively from the perspective of the protagonist, Bardamu, as he tells his misadventures around the world. It almost reads like a sit-com or slice of life anime with reoccurring characters that are mostly unchanging (at least unchanging from Barmadus biased perspective). There is a plot but it is mostly driven from the outside as things happen to the main character. He simply floats along and clinically notes what he thinks about his circumstances and the people around him, all while admiring women's legs. Its the perfect nihilistic work that foregoes philosophy and objectivity and simply tries to show the world as it is to Bardamu. It starts out boring but gets much better as it goes. It's also very funny sometimes. I've never read anything quite like it. Probably 9-10/10.

I also started reading Light in August by William Faulkner. It hit me in the first few pages that the man was an absolute genius and wrote prose that was maybe even better than Celine's. I read a lot of translated work, and the work i do read in English is mostly non-fiction, but Faulkner's prose is making me second guess how much of a work can really be translated. Something just feels different about it. It's making me want to go through the English canon more and learn other languages. I will probably still reread the Iliad or read the Oresteia for the first time after Light in August.