The Tensor recently wrote about Georges Perec’s 1969 lipogrammatic novel, A Void. It’s not the easiest book to read, and it’s full of hilariously improbable plot twists (“OMG! You mean that all along you were the person I was searching for? Impossible!”).
Plus, this is Georges Perec. Check him out:
But I don’t know what’s cooler: that Perec wrote the original novel in French without using a single letter e, or that the English translation by Gilbert Adair preserves that. (Well, personally, I stopped keeping track around page 5.)
It’s a bit of a challenging read, plot-wise, but if might be worth your while if you really feel like getting your word nerd on.
I wrote this sentence without using the letter x.
Damn! Avoiding letters is hard.
Comment by Frank Drone — April 7, 2008 @ 2:17 pm |
Frank, I count one letter “x” in your sentence–sorry to have to point it out, but you failed.
However, I wrote this one without a letter em.
Comment by TootsNYC — April 7, 2008 @ 5:41 pm |
oops, no I didn’t.
I wrote this one without the letter that begins another word for
chimpanzeemarmosetsimianlemurprimatemandrilltamarinmacaquegibbonorangutanapeoh, the heck with it!
Comment by TootsNYC — April 7, 2008 @ 5:52 pm |
See? Not as easy at it looks! Now try doing it in French.
Comment by mightyredpen — April 7, 2008 @ 7:05 pm |
(you did notice that gibbon, orangutan and ape don’t have m’s–but they’re not monkeys!
It’s easier if you can make it up as you go along.
Comment by TootsNYC — April 8, 2008 @ 11:19 am |