The Bookworms of RVA discussion

Meeting will be on Sunday, October 9th! (NOT the first weekend of the month, but the second) 6 PM at Lamplighter Roasting Co.

Introduction instantly reminded me of Louis-Ferdinand Celine, one of my favorite authors.

still in the mail...

the problem of 'e'
1 - La Disparition actually translates to disappearance, act of disappearing

2 - Jews are referred to as non-goyim on the first page lol

still on page1

The great Malcolm Lowry is recalled on page 17th I believe ...

Aginon had 25 cousins ...

HEY! Anyone have a copy I can borrow this week? I'll even pay to "rent" it! Mine still hasn't arrived. I know I dropped the ball on ordering it early enough, but it's been a hellish month and I thought it'd be at the bookstore as my saving grace. Anyway, anyone? I'm desperate to read this!

Sarah wrote: "HEY! Anyone have a copy I can borrow this week? I'll even pay to "rent" it! Mine still hasn't arrived. I know I dropped the ball on ordering it early enough, but it's been a hellish month and I tho..."
Sarah, I'm only half way through, but I gave Nabeel your number. He's finished and said he would lend you the book. Hope to see you this Sunday!

You guys are the best!

I'm going to start posting today some discussion topics for the meeting tonight.

First up is the number six.

"six-month stint" (128)
"six major points" (115)
"six 'holy' books" (129)
"six grains" (130)
"an agony of six days" (133)
"six thick faggots" (134)(sorry to repeat that word here but it DOES mean wood in this instance)
"not surfacing from it for six days" (134)
"about six occasions" (143)
"six days for it to split up" (144)
"flat six, rond-point" (145)
"six months go by" (145)
"six stairs" (147)
"a child of six" (149)

Okay, so maybe I'm just being dense, but I'm having trouble concretely drawing the connection with six. I understand loosely the connection between six and twenty-six (26 being the alphabet). This might be a stretch, but I think I can see an example of six being used as part of that twenty-six over the span of the two chapters about which I am writing when Perec mentions "twenty springs" and, later, "six springs" (125, 131).

But what about the number six on its own? A, E, I, O, U and sometimes Y: this most likely accounts for the repeated instances of "5 or 6." I think five is the critical number here because we typically think of 5 vowels, and, also, if we are going to think of all potential six, then the absence of E would make it 5.

This leads me to think, though, that 4 would be the number that keeps cropping up. If we're dealing with a void, wouldn't Perec want to keep using 4 to remind us we don't have the typical 5 vowels? Or "4 or 5" instead of "5 or 6" because that math accounts for the voids in either possible number of vowels. These instances of 6 seem just to be used for fun, so I don't know what harm it would do to say 4 instead of 6. Or am I just totally missing what he's doing?

"managing to distinguish four words out of six" (136)

How do you feel about the constant literary and cultural references? Do they work well? Are they distracting? Frustrating? If you don't recognize the, do they disrupt your reading or interest you?

Perec draws a great deal on Poe in A Void. This is certainly to do with the fact that he is parodying the genre that the literary world credits Poe with inventing—detective fiction. For this reason, I really enjoyed the brief appearance made by Dupin, a recurring detective in Poe's works. I also thought that Perec's adaptation of "The Raven" was fantastic. Did this work for you or was it too much?

Wikipedia lists the major theme of A Void to be loss. Do you agree with this?

A key passage that speaks to loss is on p.112.

What do you make of a Zahir? How would you define it?

Key passage = p. 123

The sphinx is a fixture in the novel (95, 112, 156-57, etc). Do you know the story of the sphinx? Do you think this story merits such a prominent place for the Sphinx in the novel?

There are passages where it is clear that Perec is avoiding the letter E.

Ex.

"Can't we stay good chums?" instead of "good friends"

"Hang on a mo" (a character is cut-off, most likely because you can't substitute anything here without using an E) (133).

"unzip a banana" instead of "peel a banana" (113).

Do you think these are fun and minor substitutions or do they weaken the writing?

What do you make of the Moby Dick chapter (Chapter 8)?

these are some excellent points ... i'll look 'em up.

I'd like to check out the story of the Sphinx which I had no idea what's its about.

I thought skipping letter e in sometimes not so oblique a fashion actually added some entertainment (since I was able to pick'em up). Another example of which is replacing years with springs as in 20 springs ago etc.