Scope and Contents First published in French as "La Disparition," this novel is written without the using the letter "e" in any of the words. The Sackner Archive holds the French edition which is written the same way. Books written by Adair, a British writer, and published by Writers Forum, are also held by the Sackner Archive. The following is a review of this book from Case Western Reserve University English Department in 1997 that was copied from their Internet site in 1999. Anton Vowl is missing. Slain or just put away, nobody knows, but a similar void now looms for his pals as that group frantically hunts A Void's lost protagonist. Anton is missing also a singular ABC, which graphic mark ought to form part of a sound Vowl and a common "Vowl" sound. Arranging for many such omissions in this book is our lurking author, a lipogrammatic artist and assassin who both plots Vowl's doom and plucks his customary signatorial pictograph. The author is the late Georges Perec, who in 1969 took up the...

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From the back cover: "George Perec (1936-1982) became the most celebrated French author of his generation, his novel 'Life A User's Manual" winning the Prix Medicis in 1978. From the start he was fascinated by the possibility of employing non-fictional languages for altogether more mischievous purposes and this book ccollects together various texts in which he uses the expressionless terminology of sociology, entomology and linguistics to achieve effects they are distinctly designed to avoid. Perec was an illustrious member of the Oulipo, a group of writers which is still very much active, and who explore the possibilities of artifiical systems in literature...Not surprisingly, the present book is "experimental", but it is also strange, preposterous, and wrily intertaining." -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

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The book consists of two parts entitled eunoia and oiseau. Bok notes that Eunoia is the shortest word in the English language to contain all five vowels and means 'beautiful thinking.' Eunoia is a univocal lipogram in which each chapter restricts itself to a single vowel and owes a debt to Georges Perec. As Bok notes, all chapters also abide by subsidary rules. Oiseau is a French word that means bird and is the shortest word in the French language with all five vowels. It is an anagrammatic text. This copy is the fourth printing of the book. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

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The book starts with chapter 6 and finishes with chapter 1. Amazon.com review: "In this rueful tale, written under a simple but pervasive formal constraint, Olympic gold medal winner Ken Honochick and his girlfriend take a cross-country road trip to revisit his brief moment of triumph and his subsequent long haul on the promotions circuit. The result is a smart, flirtatious tour-de-force that's as funny as it is inventive. Under all the comic gusto and technical virtuosity, however, there's also some penetrating thought on our country's obsession with private foibles and public image, individual achievement and the pressure to cash in on it. " -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Scope and Contents Oulipo is an acronym for Ouvoir de Litterature Potentielle. The texts, edited and translated by Motte, "have been chosen to provide a sampler of Oulipian poetic theory, from the polemical language of the early manifestos to the more elaborate formulations of a startling literary aesthetic." Raymond Queneau nourished and directed the evolution of the group. His definition of the work is "potential literature that is the search for new forms and structures that may be used by writers in any way they see fit." Queneau's work, "Cent Mille Millards de poems - One hundred thousand billion poems" is regarded as the seminal Oulipian text and "echoes throughout the essays in this collection and permeates the Oulipian enterprise as a whole."The history of Oulipo, that formed in 1960, is provided in an introductory essay. The end of the book provides a Glossary of linguistic terms. The Glossary includes names of Oulipian and pre-Oulipian poetic structures, as well as figures of classical...

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In the prologue of this book, the beginning of Oulipo (Ouvroir de litterature potentielle or Workshop for Potential Literature) is described. While Raymond Queneau was creating his work "100,000,,,000,000,0000 Poems, he asked Francois Le Lionnais for advice with problems he was having. Their discussions led to a wider consideration of the role of mathematics in literature and eventually to the creation of Oulipo in 1960. The book is described as a late 20th century kabala and a labyrinth of literary secrets and survey of an original, provocative and productive literary group. This book includes a translation of Queneau's 100,000,000,000,000 Poems, Jacques Roubaud's account of Oulipian history and practice, full documentation of Oulipian writing techniques, a glossary of Oulipian terms, and an analysis of important Oulipian works, such as Perec' Life A User's Manual. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Scope and Contents Raymond Queneau's poem "100,000,000,000,000 Poems" is reproduced in the prologue. While Queneau was completing the work, he asked Francois Le Lionais for advice with problems he was having. Their discussions led to a wider consideration of the role of mathematics in literature and, eventually, to the creation of Oulipo." Initially the group attempted to learn the possibilities of incorporating mathematical structures in literary works. Later this was expanded to include all writing that was subjected to severly restrictive methods. Also designated Atlas Arkive No.6.The Sackner Archive also holds the ordinary edition of this book.Jacques Roubaud contributes an introduction "The Oulipo and Combinatorial Art (1991)." The alphabetical compendium begins with Abish and ends with Zoopictural classification and includes Oulipo and two associated groups the Oulipopo and the Oupeinpo."Life a User's Manual" by George Perec is described by the author including two diagrams. -- Source of...

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In the prologue of this book, the beginning of Oulipo (Ouvroir de litterature potentielle or Workshop for Potential Literature) is described. While Raymond Queneau was creating his work "100,000,,,000,000,0000 Poems, he asked Francois Le Lionnais for advice with problems he was having. Their discussions led to a wider consideration of the role of mathematics in literature and eventually to the creation of Oulipo in 1960. The book is described as a late 20th century kabala and a labyrinth of literary secrets and survey of an original, provocative and productive literary group.This book includes a translation of Queneau's 100,000,000,000,000 Poems, Jacques Roubaud's account of Oulipian history and practice, full documentation of Oulipian writing techniques, a glossary of Oulipian terms, and an analysis of important Oulipian works, such as Perec' Life A User's Manual. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Scope and Contents Back cover blurb:"Pataphysics, the pseudoscience imagined by Alfred Jarry, has so far, because of its academic frivolity and hermetic perversity, attracted very little scholarly or critical inquiry, and yet it has inspired a century of experimentation. Tracing the place of 'pataphysics in the tangled history of the relationship between science and poetry, Christian Bok demonstrates that 'pataphysics is fundamental to the nature of the postmodern. Bok considers the work of Jarry, 'pataphysician, both by itself and as it influenced work by later generations. Discussing 'pataphysics in general and Jarry's work in particular as a ludic counterpart of Nietzschean philosophy, Bok examines the relationship of rule and chance, of science and poetry, of the rational and the surrational. His work draws on a wide range of reading in poetry and theory to establish a firm historical ground for understanding the influence of 'pataphysics, making a variety of seemingly difficult or obscure...

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Wilde reviews the English translation by David Bellos of Perec's major work first published in France in 1978. The article contains a photographic portrait of Perec with his cat. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Scope and Contents Raymond Queneau - polyglot, novelist, poet, mathematician, screenwriter and translator - was one of the most significant figures in twentieth-century French letters. His work touches on many of the major literary movements of his lifetime, from surrealism to the experimental school of the nouveau roman. He also founded the Oulipo, a collection of writers and mathematicians dedicated to the search for artificial inspiration via the application of constraint. Michael Leiris contributed a preface.This book was reviewed by mjespuiva from Seattle, WA. This person states the following. "These pieces are followed by Notes - a section I rarely like in literature but here it is appropriate, necessary and well done. These pieces often require knowledge of the world play in French or the ability to catch allusions that are unlikely to be known by an English-language reader. A sampling of the texts included:"Dino" is the story of an invisible dog accompanying its master...

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All the articles included in this book were reprinted from Typographics New Series 1960-1967. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Scope and Contents This is a first edition of the revised novel that was published by Starcherone Books in 2007. This revision omits the lengthy Introduction and Appendix present in the latter and substituted a brief preface. Both versions of this book are held by the Sackner Archive.From Publishers Weekly: Mason's fantastic first novel, a deft reimagining of Homer's Odyssey, begins with the story as we know it before altering the perspective or fate of the characters in subsequent short story--like chapters. Legendary moments of myth are played differently throughout, as when Odysseus forgoes the Trojan horse, or when the Cyclops"”here a gentle farmer"”is blinded by Odysseus while he burgles the Cyclops's cave. Mason's other life"”as a computer scientist"”informs some chapters, such as The Long Way Back in which Daedalus's labyrinth ensnares Theseus in a much different way. Part of what makes this so enjoyable is the firm grasp Mason has on the source material; the footnotes double as humorous...

Scope and Contents Zachary Mason is a computer scientist specializing in artificial intelligence. He was a finalist for the 2008 New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award. The label for the latter is pasted on one of the copies of this book.This is a first edition and only edition of this novel. It was later revised in an edition published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux that omitted the lengthy Introduction and the Appendix present in the first version and substituted a brief preface. This first version depicts three abstract images that have deleted from the revised version. Both versions of this book are held by the Sackner Archive.From Publishers Weekly: Mason's fantastic first novel, a deft reimagining of Homer's Odyssey, begins with the story as we know it before altering the perspective or fate of the characters in subsequent short story--like chapters. Legendary moments of myth are played differently throughout, as when Odysseus forgoes the Trojan horse, or when the Cyclops"”here a...

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Three short stories were published in one volume as suggested by Georg Perec to his publisher shortly before his death in in 1982 at the age of 46. The stories are titled, "The Exeter Text: Jewels, Secrets, Sex," "Which Moped with Chrome-Plated Handlebars at the Back of the Yard ?" and "A Gallery Portrait." The Exeter Text is the opposite of the lipogram, "A Void" in that it is written using only the vowel 'e.' -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

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Three short stories were published in one volume as suggested by Georg Perec to his publisher shortly before his death in in 1982 at the age of 46. The stories are titled, "The Exeter Text: Jewels, Secrets, Sex," "Which Moped with Chrome-Plated Handlebars at the Back of the Yard ?" and "A Gallery Portrait." The Exeter Text is the opposite of the lipogram, "A Void" in that it is written using only the vowel 'e.' -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

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Ian Monk has been a translator of Georg Perec's books. Monk contributes a chapter of analysis of Gilbert Adair's translation of Perec's "A Void. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.