re: Literature of Potential

Ian Feldman ([email protected])
Tue, 11 Jan 94 09:32:01 +0100


Jerome Boue <[email protected]> mentions the existence of two
non-standard books by the members of Ouvroir de Litterature
Potentielle:

* _Cent mille milliards de poemes_ by Raymond Queneau;
a random-order verse rearrangable 10^14 ways.

* _La disparition_ by Georges Perec; an ordinary-length
novel written entirely without the letter "e", the most
frequent letter in many European languages.

I've heard of another French book that must've come from the
same quarters: a pulpy-kind of novel printed on unbound pages
that could be shuffled like a deck of cards and, presumably,
still remain coherent. Author and title unknown.

Another non-linear book that I've actually read was the
_Hopscotch_ by the Argentinian author Julio Cortazar, written
so it could be read in either the usual or a non-sequential
order (indicated by a pointer at the end of each chapter).
I don't remember if the book gained anything by being read in
this fashion, but know that I came away mightily impressed by
the possibilities.

Does anyone have other examples of such non-standard literary
works... I suspect that a lot of knowledge could be gained by
studying them in the context of electronic fiction. Jerome?

__Ian