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Brief Notes on the Art and Manner of Arranging One's Books
A slim volume featuring Georges Perec's writings on the simple task of arranging books and what it can reveal about life
One of the most singular and extravagant imaginations of the twentieth century, the novelist and essayist Georges Perec was a true original who delighted in wordplay, puzzles, taxonomies and seeing the extraordinary in the everyday. In these virtuoso writings about books and language, he discusses different ways of reading, a list of the things he really must do before he dies and the power of words to overcome the chaos of the world.
Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives--and upended them. Now Penguin brings you a new set of the acclaimed Great Ideas, a curated library of selections from the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.
One of the most singular and extravagant imaginations of the twentieth century, the novelist and essayist Georges Perec was a true original who delighted in wordplay, puzzles, taxonomies and seeing the extraordinary in the everyday. In these virtuoso writings about books and language, he discusses different ways of reading, a list of the things he really must do before he dies and the power of words to overcome the chaos of the world.
Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives--and upended them. Now Penguin brings you a new set of the acclaimed Great Ideas, a curated library of selections from the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.
96 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
21 people are currently reading
943 people want to read
About the author
Georges Perec
165 books1,619 followersGeorges 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 80 reviews
December 22, 2022
welcome to: THE PENGUIN GREAT IDEAS PROJECT!
as you all know, i'm:
a) addicted to projects (and my book club, my long classics project, and my genius project are all on pause)
b) mildly behind on my reading challenge (see: months-long reading slump and corresponding existential crisis)
c) very into short books that make me look smart (much like the penguin great ideas collection).
i have acquired a couple dozen penguin great ideas installments, and i will be attempting to read one a day until i get bored, catch up, or reach spiritual fulfillment!
find past books here:
WHAT IS EXISTENTIALISM?
REFLECTIONS ON THE GUILLOTINE
THREE JAPANESE BUDDHIST MONKS
REFLECTIONS ON THE GUILLOTINE
THE DECAY OF LYING
AIN'T I A WOMAN
this is not exactly what its title purports itself to be, which is a problem i've been having with this series, which is also insane because these are so little that that should be a physical and spiritual impossibility, but...
i do love books about books.
as you all know, i'm:
a) addicted to projects (and my book club, my long classics project, and my genius project are all on pause)
b) mildly behind on my reading challenge (see: months-long reading slump and corresponding existential crisis)
c) very into short books that make me look smart (much like the penguin great ideas collection).
i have acquired a couple dozen penguin great ideas installments, and i will be attempting to read one a day until i get bored, catch up, or reach spiritual fulfillment!
find past books here:
WHAT IS EXISTENTIALISM?
REFLECTIONS ON THE GUILLOTINE
THREE JAPANESE BUDDHIST MONKS
REFLECTIONS ON THE GUILLOTINE
THE DECAY OF LYING
AIN'T I A WOMAN
this is not exactly what its title purports itself to be, which is a problem i've been having with this series, which is also insane because these are so little that that should be a physical and spiritual impossibility, but...
i do love books about books.
March 10, 2022
I had hopes for this one and ended up being disappointed. Several of the essays seemed like offhand diary entries - lists of objects on the author's desk, things to do before dying, notes on reading - body positions, places to read, etc.
Perhaps these essays were meant to be clever, witty, whatever, and I'm just too dense or oblivious to pick up on any of that. Reading them, I thought about emails that I exchange with a couple of friends.
Various subjects are discussed - mostly music - but also books, everyday occurrences, remembrances, etc. I doubt that most folks would be interested in what we have to share, but at least we haven't collected them in a book, which is what whoever collected these essays did.
I should mention that there are higher ratings and more positive reviews of this book on Goodreads, so I may be missing something. If so, that's fine. I have no desire to revisit it. Off to the library sale.
Perhaps these essays were meant to be clever, witty, whatever, and I'm just too dense or oblivious to pick up on any of that. Reading them, I thought about emails that I exchange with a couple of friends.
Various subjects are discussed - mostly music - but also books, everyday occurrences, remembrances, etc. I doubt that most folks would be interested in what we have to share, but at least we haven't collected them in a book, which is what whoever collected these essays did.
I should mention that there are higher ratings and more positive reviews of this book on Goodreads, so I may be missing something. If so, that's fine. I have no desire to revisit it. Off to the library sale.
October 18, 2021
A selection from the “Species Of Spaces And Other Pieces” collection, all these writings go around the theme of books. I know the title itself attracted me to get this, but the other writings were also interesting and clever. The way he uses the language in these stories, and the way he arranges things in some of them was such fun to read. The writings are of various lengths, so reading them didn’t ever feel too long. If you haven’t read his stuff before, this is not a bad place to start it.
Only the first, “Robert Antelme Or The Truth Of Literature” touches politics a bit, being about post-WWII Holocaust literature and how writers’ and readers’ views of it may be quite different, and how the writer call tell their story (Perec likes how Antelme did it). Other subjects include pondering on how he is as a writer, objects on his work-tables, what happens when we read (both physically and surroundings/situations-wise), on his writing ways – important to not stay still, the title one on arranging one’s books in certain spaces and in certain orders, what he would like to do before he dies (written pretty close to the time he did die – all the smoking he had mentioned so far in other stories… and he gets cancer), and finally: on the ways to classify your books, each way getting its own letter, but not in ABC order, more like random: D-A-N-S-U-R-… (he explains why in the one starting with ‘W’).
A short but very fun, language-fun rich book, with a book theme. The length of each writing was just right. I was a bit surprised at what writings were there – not just a guide to ‘how’ with books – but once I got into it, I was often amused and interested… very good experience.
Only the first, “Robert Antelme Or The Truth Of Literature” touches politics a bit, being about post-WWII Holocaust literature and how writers’ and readers’ views of it may be quite different, and how the writer call tell their story (Perec likes how Antelme did it). Other subjects include pondering on how he is as a writer, objects on his work-tables, what happens when we read (both physically and surroundings/situations-wise), on his writing ways – important to not stay still, the title one on arranging one’s books in certain spaces and in certain orders, what he would like to do before he dies (written pretty close to the time he did die – all the smoking he had mentioned so far in other stories… and he gets cancer), and finally: on the ways to classify your books, each way getting its own letter, but not in ABC order, more like random: D-A-N-S-U-R-… (he explains why in the one starting with ‘W’).
A short but very fun, language-fun rich book, with a book theme. The length of each writing was just right. I was a bit surprised at what writings were there – not just a guide to ‘how’ with books – but once I got into it, I was often amused and interested… very good experience.
December 18, 2021
A window into the inquisitive, playful and, at times, obsessive mind of Georges Perec, the French master of OuLiPo. this is a short collection of essays that appeared in newspapers and magazines. I especially enjoyed, "Some of the Things I Really Must Do Before I Die", and "Think/Classify".
Besides wishing to "arrange my books once and for all" he would also "like to get drunk with Malcolm Lowry" before his time ends. He explores the arbitrary structure of the alphabet, organizing one's library, and the general dearth of verbs to describe discreet actions in various languages:
"The Americans also have a verb that means 'to live in the suburbs and work in the town': to commute. But they don't, any more than we do, have one which would mean: 'drink a glass of white wine with a friend from Burgundy, at the Cafe des Deux-Magots, around six o'clock on a rainy day, while talking about the non-meaningfulness of the world, knowing that you have just met your old chemistry teacher and that next to you a young woman is saying to her neighbour: 'You know, I showed her some in every colour!'
An amusing, easy introduction to a unique writer.
Part of the interesting collection: Penguin Books-Great Ideas
Besides wishing to "arrange my books once and for all" he would also "like to get drunk with Malcolm Lowry" before his time ends. He explores the arbitrary structure of the alphabet, organizing one's library, and the general dearth of verbs to describe discreet actions in various languages:
"The Americans also have a verb that means 'to live in the suburbs and work in the town': to commute. But they don't, any more than we do, have one which would mean: 'drink a glass of white wine with a friend from Burgundy, at the Cafe des Deux-Magots, around six o'clock on a rainy day, while talking about the non-meaningfulness of the world, knowing that you have just met your old chemistry teacher and that next to you a young woman is saying to her neighbour: 'You know, I showed her some in every colour!'
An amusing, easy introduction to a unique writer.
Part of the interesting collection: Penguin Books-Great Ideas
August 20, 2022
Μεικτά συναισθήματα για την πρωτή μου επαφή με τον Πέρεκ, αν και μερικά άρθρα ήταν άκρως ενδιαφέροντα σχετικά με την ταξινόμηση των βιβλίων και τις διαφορετικές κατηγορίες που υπάρχουν. Σίγουρα θα ξαναδώσω μια ευκαιρία στον συγγραφέα, καθώς με ενδιαφέρει πολύ ο τρόπος γραφής του.
January 1, 2024
ja sam zavisnica od fejsbuka. i to je teško priznati. godinama sam imala profil tamo, pa ga gasila, pa palila opet pa gasila i tako stalno u krug. igrom slučaja sam ove godine menjala posao koji prosto zahteva da imam profil na fejsu. jednostavno, tako je. i onda sam vratila profil tamo. a kakve to veze ima sa svim ovim? pa moja omiljena grupa na fejsu je the librarianologist, grupa u kojoj ljudi kače samo fotke svojih biblioteka. i niki i ja jedno drugom stalno šaljemo postove iz te grupe, prelepih biblioteka ima. ispostavi se da ima baš puno ljudi iz srbije aktivnih u toj grupi. a ja je volim više i od kučkari taša, i od kluba ljubitelja biljki mesožderki, a svi znaju koliko volim te dve grupe. i ova knjiga bi baš opisala sve što se tamo dešava - od kako srediti svoju biblioteku, do koje nam knjige stoje na prozoru, koje na stolu, koje na podu. volim pereka, tako je jednostavan za čitanje, i tako iskren - sve što mu padne na pamet. velika preporuka, a i brzo se čita. lepo je početi godinu ovom knjigom, nadam se da će biti još takvih knjiga na mojoj ovogodišnjoj listi (mada se najviše nadam da ću završiti sve započeto, a to uopšte nije mali broj).
(inače sam ovo kupila u stokholmu, prelepo jedno izdanje. pored toga što je preskupo, ali treba imati knjiške suvenire, trudim se da sa svakog putovanja donesem bar jednu knjižicu!)
(inače sam ovo kupila u stokholmu, prelepo jedno izdanje. pored toga što je preskupo, ali treba imati knjiške suvenire, trudim se da sa svakog putovanja donesem bar jednu knjižicu!)
July 11, 2025
essays included:
—Robert Antelme or the Truth of Literature
—The Gnocchi of Autumn
—Approaches to What?
—Notes Concerning the Objects that are on my Work-table
—Reading: A Socio-physiological Outline
—Notes on What I'm Looking For
—Brief Notes on the Art and Manner of Arranging One's Books
—Some of the Things I Really Must Do Before I Die
—Think/Classify
—Robert Antelme or the Truth of Literature
—The Gnocchi of Autumn
—Approaches to What?
—Notes Concerning the Objects that are on my Work-table
—Reading: A Socio-physiological Outline
—Notes on What I'm Looking For
—Brief Notes on the Art and Manner of Arranging One's Books
—Some of the Things I Really Must Do Before I Die
—Think/Classify
August 10, 2021
liels prieks satikties ar Pereku kā akadēmiķi, filosofu un antropologu / domātāju. labu labais viņš
January 17, 2025
Georges Perec predicted what’s in my bag tiktoks back in 1973‽
These were great — he gets me! Several of these essays had me smiling on the bus. I especially enjoyed Approaches to What? and Notes Concerning the Objects.
These were great — he gets me! Several of these essays had me smiling on the bus. I especially enjoyed Approaches to What? and Notes Concerning the Objects.
June 5, 2021
Memorable! Makes me want to read Perec's longer works. He comments wonderfully on Foucault's popularisation of Borges' now-famous list of animals, pointing out both that Foucault probably should have made clear that Borges probably just made that up, and also that such lists are to be found everywhere (particularly but not exclusively in legislation). I also love this line about the OuLiPo constraints: "Hardly any of my books is altogether free from certain traces of the autobiographical (for example, the insertion into the chapter I'm writing of an allusion to an incident that has occurred that same day). Hardly any of them has been composed either without my having recourse to one or other OuLiPian constraint or structure, albeit only symbolically, without the said structure or constraint having constrained me in any way at all" (58).
June 18, 2021
A pleasant and quick read with a very unique perspective. These essays have piqued my interest—I plan on reading more by Perec!
3.5/5
3.5/5
August 5, 2022
Reflections and lessons learned:
“It is thought crude to move the lips when reading. We were taught to read by being made to read out loud; then we had to unlearn what we were told was a bad habit, no doubt because it smacks overmuch of application and of effort”
Bonkers and rambling in places, but some spot on analysis of the strange things in life around reading, information, books and order. Do I need to reread this at some point to properly understand it more, as these are some of my most favourite topics?
“It is thought crude to move the lips when reading. We were taught to read by being made to read out loud; then we had to unlearn what we were told was a bad habit, no doubt because it smacks overmuch of application and of effort”
Bonkers and rambling in places, but some spot on analysis of the strange things in life around reading, information, books and order. Do I need to reread this at some point to properly understand it more, as these are some of my most favourite topics?
February 22, 2018
Iniziare l'anno con piacevolezza perecchiana (e con un proposito di riordino che difficilmente si concretizzerà).
September 20, 2020
It's the season of essays for me
Love Perec!
Love Perec!
December 31, 2023
I picked this book up in a small Indy bookstore in NYC. It is a collection of short essays… about the mundaneness of life and living.
The first essay really made me think about our perception of the Holocaust and how authors have made us believe we know and understand it… and how even survivors have whitewashed their memories because the horrors are so great they have told themselves no one would believe.
The second essay was about the author and his calling to be an author… it was interesting but not a favorite.
“Approaches to what” was probably my favorite… it started with how news sensationalizes everything and we become numb to the mundane.
The next three were good but not favorites.
The following one birthed the title of the book… and was perfect.
“Things to do before I die” made me think…
And then the final “Think/Classify” was long and a weak ending to the book.
I will definitely return to this book and would like to read some of the other titles in the Great Ideas collection.
The first essay really made me think about our perception of the Holocaust and how authors have made us believe we know and understand it… and how even survivors have whitewashed their memories because the horrors are so great they have told themselves no one would believe.
The second essay was about the author and his calling to be an author… it was interesting but not a favorite.
“Approaches to what” was probably my favorite… it started with how news sensationalizes everything and we become numb to the mundane.
The next three were good but not favorites.
The following one birthed the title of the book… and was perfect.
“Things to do before I die” made me think…
And then the final “Think/Classify” was long and a weak ending to the book.
I will definitely return to this book and would like to read some of the other titles in the Great Ideas collection.
October 26, 2021
I panicked a bit with the first essay, struggling to get my head round some of the ideas, but either it's the most challenging one on offer, or it takes a short while to get into step with Perec.
In any event, what transpires that this is a thought-provoking and entertaining set of essays, with an undercurrent of wry humour. Interestingly, the more mundane the subject matter, the more enjoyable the essay. I have a thing for writing on subjects such as ' the objects on my work table' or 'arranging one's books'. Often it's these that reveal the most of the character of the writer.
In any event, another fabulous offering from Penguin's Great Ideas range.
In any event, what transpires that this is a thought-provoking and entertaining set of essays, with an undercurrent of wry humour. Interestingly, the more mundane the subject matter, the more enjoyable the essay. I have a thing for writing on subjects such as ' the objects on my work table' or 'arranging one's books'. Often it's these that reveal the most of the character of the writer.
In any event, another fabulous offering from Penguin's Great Ideas range.
July 12, 2021
Well this was alright. I'm giving it 2 stars cuz it was kinda boring. Some of the essays have a bit of charm, others have Perec's committed style to them, but the rest are a bit tedious even being as short as they are, a bit inane if you will. I understand that part of that is the point-a real examination and even glorification of the mundane.
I enjoyed Perec's A Void, but that was a work unto itself. These essays, being nonfiction, are nice for giving some insight into the man and his thoughts, but ultimately they aren't terrible elucidating to that end.
Clever, but generally hardly more than idle musings.
I enjoyed Perec's A Void, but that was a work unto itself. These essays, being nonfiction, are nice for giving some insight into the man and his thoughts, but ultimately they aren't terrible elucidating to that end.
Clever, but generally hardly more than idle musings.
March 14, 2021
"What's really going on, what we're experiencing, the rest, all the rest, where is it? How should we take account of, describe what happens every day and recurs every day: the banal, the quotidian, the obvious, the common, the ordinary, the infraordinary, the background noise, the habitual?"
October 11, 2021
I enjoyed so much about this collection of essays. I read the first one and I was immediately daunted and then I read the next and the next and so on and realised that this was an easily read collection with a few more confusing pieces scattered throughout. I read Perec's chapter on The Street a couple years ago for uni and this just reminded me how much I liked his writing. I am just obsessed with these sorts of meditations on daily life and the minute moments that make up what it is to be human. Stunning.
March 8, 2021
gotta big lady boner for perec
July 12, 2021
I enjoyed a couple essays very much.
I struggled with several.
Hence, 3-stars.
I struggled with several.
Hence, 3-stars.
January 3, 2022
only six pages were about the art and manner of arranging ones books smh
February 22, 2022
a book written by a fellow obsessive bookshelf organizer & calvino lover about organizing books? count me in
March 21, 2022
wonderful stuff georges simply such fun i am obsessed it’s like reading my own stream of consciousness but not
June 13, 2024
A little weird, but in a very nice way. Also don't be deterred by the first essay. The rest are significantly lighter to read.
February 28, 2025
Eindeloos genoten hiervan, zo'n fijne manier om naar de wereld te kijken
August 7, 2022
A collection of essays that were hit or miss for me. Two big hits, the rest were okay.
February 9, 2023
This guy is a hero. (Turns out my mom loves him too; and I have to wonder how many more authors we share that I simply haven't discovered yet.)
Let the washroom forevermore be known as the bog.
Also, please take care to place at least one book and one plant on a library ladder in your living space -- you do want to be chic, don't you? (Sorry wait, you don't even have a library ladder? smh)
"At another table there was dining a philosopher who was already justly renowned. He was eating alone, while reading a cyclostyled text that was most likely a thesis. He read between courses and often even between mouthfuls, and my companions and I wondered ourselves what the effects of this double activity might be, what the mixture was like, what the words tasted of and what meaning the cheese had: one mouthful, one concept, one mouthful one concept. How do you masticate a concept, or ingurgitate it, or digest it?" (pg. 51)
"Throughout these pages, I have not concerned myself with what was being read, whether book or newspaper or leaflet. Simply with the fact that it was being read, in different places and at different times. What becomes of the text, what does it leave behind? How do we perceive a novel that is extended between Montgallet and Jacques-Bonsergent? How is this chopping-up of the text effected, when our taking charge of it is interfered with by our own bodies, by other people, by the time, by the din of the crowd?" (pg. 55)
"[...] that old rhetorical figure known as the excuse whereby, instead of confronting the problem needing to be resolved, one is content to reply to questions by asking other questions, taking refuge each time behind a more or less feigned incompetence." (pg. 76)
Let the washroom forevermore be known as the bog.
Also, please take care to place at least one book and one plant on a library ladder in your living space -- you do want to be chic, don't you? (Sorry wait, you don't even have a library ladder? smh)
"At another table there was dining a philosopher who was already justly renowned. He was eating alone, while reading a cyclostyled text that was most likely a thesis. He read between courses and often even between mouthfuls, and my companions and I wondered ourselves what the effects of this double activity might be, what the mixture was like, what the words tasted of and what meaning the cheese had: one mouthful, one concept, one mouthful one concept. How do you masticate a concept, or ingurgitate it, or digest it?" (pg. 51)
"Throughout these pages, I have not concerned myself with what was being read, whether book or newspaper or leaflet. Simply with the fact that it was being read, in different places and at different times. What becomes of the text, what does it leave behind? How do we perceive a novel that is extended between Montgallet and Jacques-Bonsergent? How is this chopping-up of the text effected, when our taking charge of it is interfered with by our own bodies, by other people, by the time, by the din of the crowd?" (pg. 55)
"[...] that old rhetorical figure known as the excuse whereby, instead of confronting the problem needing to be resolved, one is content to reply to questions by asking other questions, taking refuge each time behind a more or less feigned incompetence." (pg. 76)
Read
May 6, 2018"Come i bibliotecari borgesiani di Babele che cercano il libro che fornirà loro la chiave di tutti gli altri, oscilliamo tra l'illusione della compiutezza e la vertigine dell'inafferrabile. In nome della compiutezza vogliamo credere che esista un ordine unico, in grado di farci accedere al sapere d'émblée; in nome dell'inafferrabile, vogliamo pensare che ordine e disordine siano due vocaboli identici usati per designare il caso."
December 22, 2022
Many years ago I read and enjoyed a number of Georges Perec’s novels. They have remained on a shelf with my favourite books ever since, but I have yet to re-read them. The novel A Void is written entirely without containing the letter e. The translator into English had to perform the same thing all over again. The irony for me was always that the title page and the cover have the writer’s name – which contains four e’s. This little book from the Penguin Great Ideas series, is a great way back into Perec and his unusual ways of thinking.
There are actually nine short essays in this book of only 96 pages. The title is taken from one of the nine but could mislead you into thinking that is what the whole collection is about. The reality is much wider. We begin with some thoughts on writing about the Nazi concentration camps. The piece dates from 1962 and we must remember that Perec’s own mother died in such a camp. The essay talks about one book in particular L’Espece humane by Robert Antelme, the husband of Marguerite Duras. Antelme says:
One concept that I did find fascinating was the realisation that the camps were not there to kill people but to make them increasingly hate their lives. Perec summarises it like this:
One essay is all about reading and the different ways of reading. Body postures, surroundings, while travelling, while waiting, or even while sitting on the toilet.
In the essay about arranging books, Perec considers the possibility of just owning 361 books, but we soon get to the idea that books by the same author constitute just one volume, so we soon have 361 authors, before moving on to 361 topics. To cut a long story short, 361 is not enough. We begin to encounter several lists – from rooms in which books can be kept to ways of arranging them. Here are some suggestions:
Over four pages Perec offers us a 37 point bucket list. Number five is to stop smoking, which ironically was the cause of his early death aged 46. Also included are trips in hot air balloons and submarines. I liked number 35, plant a tree and watch it get bigger. There are plenty of reading and writing goals in there too. Sadly many were never completed.
The final essay is called Think/Classify. The many sections are assigned a letter, but these are not in any sort of order I recognise. The section entitled The Alphabet asks the question about the logic applied to the distribution of the six vowels and twenty consonants of our alphabet. ‘Objectively speaking, A is no better than B, the ABC is not a sign of excellence but only of a beginning.’ ‘Thus the B-movie will be thought of as ‘less good than another film which, as it happens, no one has yet thought of calling an ‘A-movie’.
This is an altogether lovely book with thoughts and ideas that spark a whole range of emotions in the reader. Most of all what shines through is the undercurrent of genius.
There are actually nine short essays in this book of only 96 pages. The title is taken from one of the nine but could mislead you into thinking that is what the whole collection is about. The reality is much wider. We begin with some thoughts on writing about the Nazi concentration camps. The piece dates from 1962 and we must remember that Perec’s own mother died in such a camp. The essay talks about one book in particular L’Espece humane by Robert Antelme, the husband of Marguerite Duras. Antelme says:
For the returning deportee, to speak, to write, is a need as strong and immediate as his need for calcium, for sugar, sunlight, meat, sleep and silence. It’s not the case that he can remain silent and forget. He has first of all to remember. He has to explain, to tell, to dominate that world whose victim he was.
One concept that I did find fascinating was the realisation that the camps were not there to kill people but to make them increasingly hate their lives. Perec summarises it like this:
The world of the camps is defined less by an immediate, massive extermination, by ‘cullings’, than by days, months, years of hunger, cold and terror.This is really the only bleak part of the collection. Elsewhere Perec is more playful and experimental in his thinking. He loves to play with a list.
I don’t know what, fifteen years ago when I was beginning to write, I expected from writing. But I fancy I’m beginning to understand, at the same time, the fascination that writing exercised – and continues to exercise – over me, and the fissure which that fascination both discloses and conceals.
Writing protects me. I advance beneath the rampart of my words, my sentences, my skilfully linked paragraphs, my astutely programmed chapters. I don’t lack ingenuity.
One essay is all about reading and the different ways of reading. Body postures, surroundings, while travelling, while waiting, or even while sitting on the toilet.
…it cannot exist on its own. It has to be inserted into some other necessity. Another activity has to support it. Reading is associated with the idea of having time to fill, of a lull we must take advantage of in order to read. Perhaps this supporting activity is only the pretext for reading, but how can we tell? Is a gentleman reading on the beach on the beach in order to read, or is he reading because he is on the beach? Does the fragility of Tristram Shandy really matter more to him than the sunburn he is busy getting on the backs of his legs?
In the essay about arranging books, Perec considers the possibility of just owning 361 books, but we soon get to the idea that books by the same author constitute just one volume, so we soon have 361 authors, before moving on to 361 topics. To cut a long story short, 361 is not enough. We begin to encounter several lists – from rooms in which books can be kept to ways of arranging them. Here are some suggestions:
Ways of arranging books
Ordered alphabetically
Ordered by continent or country
Ordered by colour
Ordered by date of acquisition
Ordered by date of publication
Ordered by format
Ordered by genre
Ordered by major periods of literary history
Ordered by language
Ordered by priority of future reading
Ordered by binding
Ordered by series
None of these classifications is satisfactory by itself. In practice, every library is ordered starting from a combination of these modes of classification, whose relative weighting, resistance to change, obsolescence and persistence give every library a unique personality.
Over four pages Perec offers us a 37 point bucket list. Number five is to stop smoking, which ironically was the cause of his early death aged 46. Also included are trips in hot air balloons and submarines. I liked number 35, plant a tree and watch it get bigger. There are plenty of reading and writing goals in there too. Sadly many were never completed.
The final essay is called Think/Classify. The many sections are assigned a letter, but these are not in any sort of order I recognise. The section entitled The Alphabet asks the question about the logic applied to the distribution of the six vowels and twenty consonants of our alphabet. ‘Objectively speaking, A is no better than B, the ABC is not a sign of excellence but only of a beginning.’ ‘Thus the B-movie will be thought of as ‘less good than another film which, as it happens, no one has yet thought of calling an ‘A-movie’.
This is an altogether lovely book with thoughts and ideas that spark a whole range of emotions in the reader. Most of all what shines through is the undercurrent of genius.
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