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March 4, 2013 11:38 AM

At this point I usually feel it would be a good idea to say something about this , Exercices de Style, But as it's rather difficult to know where to begin, if I'm not careful I find that my would-be explanation goes rather like this: "Oh yes, you know, it's the story of a chap who gets into a bus and starts a row with another chap who he thinks keeps treading on his toes on purpose, and Queneau repeats the story 99 times in different ways - it's terribly good . . .

A new 65th Anniversary edition of the modernist masterpiece Exercises in Style has been released by New Directions press.

Extracts and [via]

related: OULIPO

posted by Think_Long (9 comments total)

ooh. neat.

Also, I'm officially calling dibs on June 23 for a post about Life: A User's Manual.
posted by juv3nal at 11:50 AM on March 4, 2013 [1 favorite]

This is one of the most delightful books I've ever read. It should be a standard in high-school French classes.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 1:33 PM on March 4, 2013

I just bought this book, though not the 65th Anniversary edition, and some other experimental fiction, like Gilbert Sorrentino. Looking forward to reading it for the first time.
posted by ChuckRamone at 1:38 PM on March 4, 2013

I like it when I find the links of a post already greyed out. I like Queneau. I like this post.
posted by ersatz at 1:39 PM on March 4, 2013

Good to know. That takes care of some of my holiday shopping already!
posted by Sidhedevil at 4:27 PM on March 4, 2013

Queneau is one of my favorite authors. He's written so much, and it's all so varied. It took me a while to pick up this book, and of course I regretted not buying it several years earlier. Such a fun read.

Also, there's tons of Oulipo previously on Mefi.
posted by hopeless romantique at 4:44 PM on March 4, 2013

I compared Exercises in Style to having to write barks for videogame scripts recently: finding a hundred different ways to say the same thing. It's a great exercise for a writer, it stretches your creativity and your awareness of possibilities and the lack of a single right answer.

Also Queneau invented the choose-your-own-adventure story.
posted by Hogshead at 7:01 AM on March 5, 2013

Also Queneau invented the choose-your-own-adventure story.

Is that true? Finally an excuse to shelve my Queneau and my R.L. Stein together!
posted by Think_Long at 4:08 PM on March 5, 2013

Queneau wrote "Un conte à votre façon" in 1967, which seems to have been the first piece of interactive fiction. It used the numbered-paragraph system.
posted by Hogshead at 5:09 AM on March 7, 2013