Ποιο παπάκι με νικέλινο τιμόνι στο προαύλιο;

by Georges Perec, Αχιλλέας Κυριακίδης (Translator)

Από καιρού εις καιρόν, καλό είναι ένας Ποιητής, που να μην τον τρομάζει ο αραιός αέρας των βουνοκορφών, να τολμάει να υψωθεί πάνω απ' το κοινότυπο και, χάρη σ' έναν επικό οίστρο, να εξυμνήσει το Σήμερα. Ας μη γελιόμαστε: αυτά τα λεβεντόπαιδα, τα οποία, στην κορύφωση του πολέμου, δοκίμασαν τα πάντα (φευ, εις μάτην!) προκειμένου να βοηθήσουν έναν νεαρό φαντάρο ν' αποφύγει την κόλαση της Αλγερίας, είναι οι πραγματικοί απόγονοι του Αίαντα και του Αχιλλέα, του Ηρακλή και του Τηλέμαχου, των Αργοναυτών, των Τριών Σωματοφυλάκων και (γιατί όχι;) του Πλοιάρχου Νέμο, του Σεντ Εξυπερί, του Τεγιάρ ντε Σαρντέν...

Όσο για τους αναγνώστες που τα έπη τους αφήνουν αδιάφορους, θα βρούνε σε αυτό το βιβλιαράκι αρκετές ολισθήσεις και παρεκβάσεις απ' τις οποίες μπορούν ν' αντλήσουν ευχαρίστηση ιδίως δε, σε σελ. 61, μια συνταγή (ρύζι με ελιές) που θα πρέπει να ικανοποιήσει και τους πιο απαιτητικούς.

Genres: Fiction, France, French Literature, Roman, Classics, Novella, Novels

113 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1966

About the author

Georges Perec was a highly-regarded French novelist, filmmaker, and essayist. He was a member of the Oulipo group. Many of his novels and essays abound with experimental wordplay, lists, and attempts at classification, and they are usually tinged with melancholy.

Born in a working-class district of Paris, Perec was the only son of Icek Judko and Cyrla (Schulewicz) Peretz, Polish Jews who had emigrated to France in the 1920s. He was a distant relative of the Yiddish writer Isaac Leib Peretz.

Perec's first novel, Les Choses (Things: A Story of the Sixties) was awarded the Prix Renaudot in 1965.

In 1978, Perec won the prix Médicis for Life: A User's Manual (French title, La Vie mode d'emploi), possibly his best-known work. The 99 chapters of this 600 page piece move like a knight's tour of a chessboard around the room plan of a Paris apartment building, describing the rooms and stairwell and telling the stories of the inhabitants.

Cantatrix Sopranica L. is a spoof scientific paper detailing experiments on the "yelling reaction" provoked in sopranos by pelting them with rotten tomatoes. All the references in the paper are multi-lingual puns and jokes, e.g. "(Karybb et Scyla, 1973)".

Perec is also noted for his constrained writing: his 300-page novel La disparition (1969) is a lipogram, written without ever using the letter "e". It has been translated into English by Gilbert Adair under the title A Void (1994). The silent disappearance of the letter might be considered a metaphor for the Jewish experience during the Second World War. Since the name 'Georges Perec' is full of 'e's, the disappearance of the letter also ensures the author's own 'disappearance'.

His novella Les revenentes (1972) is a complementary univocalic piece in which the letter "e" is the only vowel used. This constraint affects even the title, which would conventionally be spelt Revenantes. An English translation by Ian Monk was published in 1996 as The Exeter Text: Jewels, Secrets, Sex in the collection Three.

It has been remarked by Jacques Roubaud that these two novels draw words from two disjoint sets of the French language, and that a third novel would be possible, made from the words not used so far (those containing both "e" and a vowel other than "e").

W ou le souvenir d'enfance, (W, or, the Memory of Childhood, 1975) is a semi-autobiographical work which is hard to classify. Two alternating narratives make up the volume: one, a fictional outline of a totalitarian island country called "W", patterned partly on life in a concentration camp; and the second, descriptions of childhood. Both merge towards the end when the common theme of the Holocaust is explained.

Perec was a heavy smoker throughout his life, and was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1981. He died the following year in Ivry-sur-Seine at only forty-five-years old. His ashes are held at the columbarium of the Père Lachaise Cemetery.

David Bellos wrote an extensive biography of Perec: Georges Perec: A Life in Words, which won the Académie Goncourt's bourse for biography in 1994.

Reviews

[Argos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perec’ten edebiyatta “zihni sinir projesi” bir roman daha. Müthiş ince espiriler, keskin mizah ve doruklarda ironi, başta kendisi olmak üzere arkadaşlarını, ünlü insanları özellikle de edebiyatçıları makaraya alan, ancak bunu yaparken ele aldığı kişileri bile güldürecek sözler ve söz oyunları kullanan bir “genius” yazar.

Askerlik karşıtı bu romanda savaş, askerlik mesleği ve genel insan halleri paylarını alıyorlar Perec’ten. Kitap şöyle başlıyor: “Bir delikanlı vardı. Adı Karamanlis’ti. Ya da onun gibi bir şeydi: Karawo ? Karafol? Neyse,....” . Bu kara’lı isim neredeyse yüz farklı biçimde yer alıyor, Karagandi, Karakalla, Karakurum... gibi. Sadece bu kara’lı isimler bile romanı sürüklüyor.

Roman dersek hepi topu 75 sayfa. Kitabın sonunda Perec bir sürpriz daha yapıyor ve kendince romanda saptadığı söz sanatlarına ilişkin bir index: dizin/fihrist veriyor.

Çevirisi çok zor olan bu eseri Türkçe uyarlamasıyla çeviren Cemal Yıldırım’a da kocaman bir alkış.

Perec’i keşfetmek istiyorsanız “Şeyler” ile başlayın, bununla devam edin, severseniz sonra “Paralı Asker” ve diğerlerini sıraya alın diyorum izninizle.

[Sweet Jane]

Θυμίζει την επιστροφή στο πατρικό μετά από καιρό η ανάγνωση ενός βιβλίου του αγαπημένου σου συγγραφέα. Δύο λόγια παραπάνω στο Style Rive Gauche

Αστείος και έξυπνος, διασκεδαστικός και ευφυής, τρολλαδόρος και καυστικός, ο Περέκ στα καλύτερά του.

[Glenn Russell]

Taking a look at Which Moped with Chome-plated Handlebars at the Back of the Yard?, the storyline is as simple as simple can be: One Sergeant Henri Pollak divides his time between sergeantly military life in Vincennes and bohemian civilian life in Montparnasse, living among his books, girlfriend and mates, one of his mates being the narrator of the tale.

When a buck private by the name of Karamanlis or Karawak or Karawash or Karapet (or a dozen other similar names used by the narrator) is called up to go fight in Algeria, he asks Henri Pollak to run over his foot with a truck so as to escape combat. Henri vacillates and, in turn, asks his mates for help. The story moves from there.

But the author gives us much, much more than a simple start to finish story.

Beginning with the novella's first word and not letting up until the last period, Georges Perec bids us join him in his game of linguistic and narrative whimsy, moving from commonly spoken words to more arcane and obscure vocabulary, words such as loxodromic, metaphormose, ventripotent, cavil, saucisson, quincunex, misopaedist and hexastich.

And what applies to words also applies to turns of phrases, sentence structure, syntax and most other forms of language - mix and match, all written with the lightest of touches.

Here is another example of Perec's agile touch: Midway through the novella, the narrator speaks directly to the reader, "Any reader who wishes to take a break here can. We have, my word, come to what the best authors (Jules Sandeau, Victor Margueritte, Henri Lavedan, even Alain Robbe-Grillet in his latest, Lenten Christmas) call a natural turning point."

Fortunately, the reader is having so much fun no break is really needed.

But the story also has a serious undertone. Why pack off to a war in Algeria, a war that is questionable and perhaps absurd?

With the mention of Algeria and a suggestion of absurdity there is a hint of Albert Camus and existentialism. However, this being the case, there isn't a trace of the hard-boiled writing style found in The Stranger or The Plague; rather, the author engages a subject with serious political and philosophic implications with his signature lightness and agility.

This novella doesn't end with the last sentence; rather, to add a tasty icing to the linguistic cake, the author has created an Index with over one-hundred-fifty listings. And for a dash more whimsy, "Index" is the first word in the sentence: "Index of the ornamentations and flowers of rhetric or, to be more precise, of the metabolas and parataxes which the author believes he has identified in the text which you have just read."

As an example of the listings, here are words starting with "L": Lambdacism, Leptology, Litotes, Logodiarrhe and words starting with the letter "O": Onamatopoeia, Oratio obliqua, Otiose epitet, Oxymoron.

Then the index stops at the letter "P" with a simple -- etc, etc, etc - offering the reader an occasion to create one's own list with "Q" to "Z" words.

Thank you, Georges! Please accept this invitation to join GP in the game of language as endless discovery and delight.

Although I focused on this engaging tale in my review of Three by Perec, I wanted to post my review here also.

[Emilio Gonzalez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Esta novela es una pequeña joya que sirve como muestra del enorme talento de George Perec como escritor, porque no solo es un relato muy ameno y divertido, sino que también es ingenioso, agudo, está lleno de juegos de palabras, y como es una novela en la que Perec juega mucho, también se da el gusto de meter todas las figuras retóricas existentes para luego enumerarlas en un índice al final del libro.
La historia trata sobre un soldado francés que está a punto de ser enviado a la guerra, y para evitarlo le pide a un compañero del cuartel que “de manera accidental” le pase el Jepp por arriba de un pie. Pero al compañero le parece algo arriesgado y pide consejo a sus amigos del barrio, quienes no solo lo aconsejan sino que también se suman a la empresa de provocarle un “accidente” al compañero, solo que en lugar de atropellarlo, modifican el plan porque creen que lo mejor va a ser romperle un brazo.

A los que ya les gusta George Perec creo que esta novela les va a encantar y no deberían perdersela, pero si aún no leyeron nada del autor, este no parece el mejor libro para comenzar.

[Arzu · Rating 4 out of 5]

ey Perec,
sen ne fena birisin.. hem ironik, çokça kronik..
dilin, zihnin ezberlerini ne güzel bozuyorsun, şakacı şey seni!

[Vio · Rating 3 out of 5]

LE After reading the German translation as well, which is also quite nice, I still can't seem to find all the reasons why I fell in love with this book in 1999. But I *had* my reasons, this much I'm sure of!

Unless I discover some possibility of *revisiting* 1999 *for real*, I will have to make my peace that this is a book I like, but not love anymore. Ay, this hurts! #eternallove

Anyways, it was a pleasant read.

May 2020

***

I discovered Georges Perec during a revolutionary course I took in 1999 in Freiburg i.Br. with Prof. Orlich (it was revolutionary because it was entitled Literature and computer (or something in that area)), where I remember reading sonnets generated by a computer, in French, the model being a famous one by Rimbaud. It was fascinating.

Prof. Orlich made me super curious about Georges Perec, he knew everything about this writer and soon enough I started to love him too. This love remains intact until today.

I remembered liking this particular book more than I liked it now :), but it was still a fun read and after another 21 years I will probably be inclined to give it another go. Or earlier, why not.

Either my French was better back then or I was just more enthusiastic (for ”discovering” this truly wonderful author) or I didn't get a lot of puns this time. I am even considering reading a German translation, oy vey.

January 2020

[Liedzeit Liedzeit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Es passiert nicht oft, dass ich mir wünschte, französische Bücher im Original lesen zu können. Aber hier. Wenn schon die deutsche Übersetzung so genial ist, wie muss dann erst das Original sein?

Erzählt wird die Geschichte einer Gruppe von Freunden, die verhindern wollen (verhindern will?), dass ihr Kumpel Karadingsbums (der Name scheint weder klar, noch wichtig zu sein, „jedenfalls ein ausgefallener Name, der sich ganz von selbst einprägt”) nach Algerien in den Krieg geschickt wird. Denn der möchte lieber mit dem Mädchen, an dem ihm gelegen ist, sein und den lieben Gott einen guten Mann sein lassen. Verständlich. Und der Hauptplan ist, ihm einen Arm zu brechen.

Das alles ist zwar sicher wichtig und vermutlich ein Protest gegen den Krieg und das Militär insgesamt, aber vor allem ist es ein Kunstwerk, in dem beinahe jeder einzelne Satz eine 5-Sterne-Wertung verlangt. Karaproton, um nur ein Beispiel zu nennen, hatte begrenzte mimische Ausdrucksmöglichkeiten. „Er hatte das intelligente Aussehen jenes Eingeborenen, an den sich Arthur Bougainville am 11. September 1908 bei seiner Ankunft auf dem Lyoner Hauptbahnhof wandte, um ihn nach dem Weg zu fragen.”

Mittendrin fordert der Autor den Leser (also mich in diesem Fall) auf, die ganze Geschichte noch einmal von vorne zu lesen. Was ich sicherlich in nicht so ferner Zukunft tun werde.

[Ümit Mutlu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joseph Heller'ın ünlü "Madde-22"sine gönderme ayarında yazılmış bir kitap sanırım, zira temel fikri ve ilerleyişi tamamen oldukça aynı. Elbette onun kadar ironik -ve cüsseli- değil ama, onun kadar eğlenceli, komik.

"Ey edebiyat! Senin o kutsalların kutsalı süreklilik aşkın yüzünden ne ezalar, ne cefalar çekiyoruz!.."

[Ορφέας Μαραγκός · Rating 5 out of 5]

Με λίγη ψυχραιμία θα πω: Αριστούργημα!

Η γραφή του Περέκ, ή την ερωτεύεσαι ή σε κουράζει. Εγώ στην πρώτη επιλογή φυσικά.

Εδώ έχουμε ένα ευρηματικό αριστούργημα, ένα αντιμιλιταριστικο κείμενο όπου η λέξεις από αφηγηματικό εργαλείο γίνονται παιχνίδι και μέσα από τον εκάστοτε καραπωστονειπαμε έχουμε έναν αφορισμό που ίσως και να αποδίδεται στον καραπαυτονανε.

5/5 και στα αγαπημένα

[Marc Lamot · Rating 1 out of 5]

This little book clearly is a "spielerei", although it concerns a very serious issue, namely the opposition to the French involvement in Algeria and the war that was raging there in the sixties. Very funny, a bit bizarre and even childish, but I was left with the question: "et alors?".

[Tomáš Valenta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rozpustilá, jazykově barvitá a neskutečně zábavná knížka. Budu muset přečíst ještě parkrat a doufat, že aspoň procento výraziva vstřebám do systému.

[Marian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Munter liten sak, gøye formuleringer og forfatterens tilstedeværelse i historien med utbrudd som «O litteratur, hvilke pinsler påfører du oss vel ikke med din ukrenkelige forkjærlighet for fremdrift!»

[Mak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heilt bananas. Perec går amok på sidene på den mest franske måten, j'mapelle digge da.

Stort sett veldig lystig og køddete, litt irriterande og litt ekte morsom.

[Kurtlu · Rating 4 out of 5]

sakin, mutsuz ve umutsuz bir kitabın ardından cansuyu gibi geldi perec. savaşa gitmek istemeyen bir erin, tuzu kuru çavuşundan "beni yamultun" ricasını anlatan eğlenceli bir novella. argosu yerinde. imdat çağrısı yapan yunan kökenli askerin kara... adının, her cümlede yeniden şekillenmesi, göndermeler, espriler ne kadar başarılı bir çeviri yapıldığını gösteriyor. perec yazmış ama cemal yardımcı da şahane çevirmiş, metin tadından, nüktedanlığından hiçbir şey kaybetmemiş.
dayanamayıp bir alıntı paylaşacağım:
"...Dördüncü öneri, Karapşu'nun hastalanmasını, mümkünse ağır bir hastalığa yakalanmasını uygun görüyor ve kemik veremi, sarılık, şark çıbanı ya da ileri derecede raşitizmi seçenek olarak sunuyordu. Bu öneri aramızdan dörtte birinin takdirini topladı.
Nihayet beşinci öneri, Karakiri'nin tamamen kafayı yemesini teklif ediyordu. Bu yaklaşıma sıcak bakanlarımızın oranı %37 oldu.
Bizim alicenap yol göstericiliğimiz dahilinde militan psikopatolojinin en güncel verilerinden hareketle elde edilmiş harika yöntemlerden yararlanarak Karalelli'nin kendi kendini intihar etme numarası yapmasına ve zır şizofreni ya da basit paranoya tedavisi koparmasına işte böyle karar verildi..."

[Nathan Havart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intéressant de voir comment la langue peut être utilisée autrement que pour communiquer. Dans ce bouquin, ce n'est pas spécialement l'histoire - bien qu'elle ne manque pas d'originalité- qui nous intéresse mais bien la façon dont la langue peut être modelée. Ainsi, l'auteur de ce roman joue avec les mots tel un peintre manie son pinceau. Il en ressort un tableau un peu brouillon, mais sublime. L'auteur dresse une liste des figures de style (non exhaustive) présentes dans ce livre.

[Elif]

ilk başlarda ben kitabı okurken Perec bey beni izliyor ve kıs kıs gülüyor gibi gelmişti. resmen dalga geçiyor bizimle diye düşündüm ama bu çok eğlenceli geldi bana. muhteşem çeviri karşısında da saygıyla eğiliyorum. 'karalelkenar' en sevdiklerimden oldu. kitabın daha uzun olmasını isterdim tadı damakta kaldı.

[Gala · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lo leí en un viaje en colectivo. Había leído otros de Perec para una materia de la facultad, Las cosas y El arte y... (nunca me acuerdo bien el título pero tiene que ver con pedirle un aumento a tu jefe de sector). Este me pareció divertido, exagerado y con algunas cosas clásicas del humor, repeticiones y equívocos. Hay un personaje al que le cambia el nombre todo el tiempo porque nadie sabe bien cómo se llama. Para decir hilaridad dice jijilaridad.

[korpetta · Rating 4 out of 5]

może i nie zrozumiałam prawie żadnego odniesienia kulturowego, może i się pogubiłam, ale i tak mi się podobało. mistrzowska zabawa humorem i językiem, chylę czoła przed tłumaczami - niesamowita robota.

[Jan Pielat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Muszę przyznać że trochę nie ogarniam tej opowieści ale muszę też przyznać że mi się podobała. Z innych rzeczy które muszę przyznać to to że osoba która postanowiła, żeby przypisy, z których większość trzeba przeczytać jeśli się chce zrozumieć treść, umieścić na końcu książki, powinna się zastanowić nad swoim życiem. Biorąc pod uwagę fakt, że przypisów jest znacznie więcej niż stron faktycznej treści, czytanie odbywa się na zasadzie skakania między treścią a ostatnimi stronami, na których zostały umieszczone przypisy. Bardzo nie fajny zabieg

[Bookygirls Magda]

Jako powieść sama w sobie ok, szalu nie ma. Jako doswiadczenie naciągane 2/5. Wiem za mało o francuskiej awangardzie, więc doceniam dzieło, a tym bardziej pracę tłumaczy.

[Lukáš Palán · Rating 4 out of 5]

Příjemná jednohubka a stylistický cvičení v jednom, tentokrát na téma "když se hodně francouzáků nudí, tak kromě baget zlámou i ruce." A to proto, aby jeden z jejich "kámošů" nemusel do války. Válku jsem viděl v televizi, takže vím, že je to hrozný (internet nejde, obchody jsou zavřený atd atd) a chápu, jak moc se tam někomu nechce. Mě se třeba nechce kolikrát ani za rodičema, protože to jsou tři hodiny autobusem a jet až do Alžírska, to by mě nedonutil už vůbec nikdo.

Kniha se čte dobře a svižně, nabízí i přestávku ve čtení (konečně jsem si mohl dojít do kuchyně pro cigarety) a celkově velmi příjemně uteče. Kdo má náladu na hravé čtení, ten bude spokojen.

[Anatole Bg]

Zinzin

[Renaud Houde · Rating 3 out of 5]

Une courte histoire avec des personnages bien drôles. Le livre est plus un excessive d'écriture de l'auteur qu'autre chose. Intéressant comme projet, mais une chance que le livre n'est pas trop long ! J'ai beaucoup aimé l'ouverture :

"C'était un mec, il s'appelait Karamanlis, ou quelque chose comme ça : Karawo?
Karawasch? Karacouvé? Enfin bref, Karatruc. En tout cas, un nom peu banal, un nom qui vous disait quelque chose, qu'on n'oubliait pas facilement."

"Et qu'il (cette fois-ci c'est bel et bien
Pollak Henri soi-même, notre pote) avait dit que — minute papillon - il (? quid est de çui-là?) fallait pas faire des bêtises et qu'il (le maréchal des logis de Montparnasse, notre copain Pollak Henri quoi) allait en parler à des potes à lui (c'était nous les potes à lui) et leur demander ce qu'ils (c'est-à-dire nous les potes à Henri Pollak) en pensaient."

[Pino Sabatelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delizioso divertissement.

[Malou Legrand · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un monsieur qui lit sur la plage, est-il sur la plage pour lire, ou lit-il parce qu'il est sur la plage?

[belisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

perec olmasa okunmazdı

[Alex Navarro]

Agradable para los yogurtófagos

[Alicja · Rating 5 out of 5]

„Tak czy inaczej zgódźmy się, że uroczy to drobiażdżek.”

[Susana Escobar · Rating 4 out of 5]

All honnør til oversetteren, dette kan ikke ha vært lett og det var utrolig elegant utført.

[Pečivo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Perec byl švihlej Francouz, kterej psal švihlý knihy. A pár jich nedavno vydalo Rubato. Doufám, že jsem jeho tvorbu vzal ze špatného konce, protože tohle byla docela nuda.

Voják se snaží s pomocí přátel vyhnout válce v Alžíru. Toťˇ vše. Na 80 stran by člověk ani víc příběhu nemusel potřebovat. Tady ale má styl bejt víc než obsah a mě se zrovna jeho repetitivní funky vyprávění moc nezamlouvá. 5/10