Greetings!
In today’s newsletter we have:
Inside Freedman Towers.
The deeper meaning of A Void.
Some relaxing music by Thomas Tallis.
But enough of this persiflage! On with the newsletter.
Terry
Inside Freedman Towers
These feline layabouts, they get everywhere.
Mind you, they do work. We don’t have any mice, despite living near a field. We don’t have any money either, because they eat so much, but that’s another matter.
Lady Freedman went to a friend’s son’s wedding recently. We had this conversation:
Elaine: I can’t wear the dress I wanted to because I’m not tall enough.
Me: You need to take note of the wise words of one of the foremost thinkers of our times.
Elaine: 🤔
Me: Sugar Pi Desanto.
Elaine: 🙂
Me: When you know how to use what you got, it doesn’t matter ‘bout your size.
Elaine: 😁
And here is a cartoon depicting a typical afternoon at Freedman Towers, when I am writing.
The deeper meaning of A Void
In around ten days’ time I will be teaching my creative writing course about the Oulipo, a French writing movement that centres on using constraints in order to produce writing. One of the co-founders of the movement, Raymond Queneau, characterised Oulipians as rats who build the labyrinth from which they they then try to escape.
My course is aimed at writers, but the Oulipo has much to offer readers too. One of the most famous works of Oulipo is A Void, by George Perec.
This has been written without the letter ‘e’. It’s a detective story in which the ‘e’ is missing, but which it is also forbidden to mention. This may sound like just an elaborate technique (writing without a particular letter is kinown as a lipogram), but a somewhat deeper significance has been suggested.
Perec’s father died in action in 1940. His mothern was murdered in Auschwitz in 1943. So does the missing ‘e’ represent his missing parents? Because you can’t use the words mere (mother) or pere (father) without the letter ‘e’. Some people have wondered if the missing ‘e’ is meant to represent the missing European Jews. In fact, Perec couldn’t even write his own name without using the letter ‘e’, and there is speculation that Perec’s preoccupation with place was to do with his constant search for a safe place such as the one he enjoyed in his early childhood.
This is one of the characteristics of Oulipian writing that I enjoy: the stuff that lies beneath the surface in several works.
Incidentally, if you’re interested perhaps in taking one of my courses, you can grab a flyer about my next three. Believe it or not, I have even planned the outline and structure of the course I’m running from next January to March. Here’s the flyer:
If you are interested in how I created the flyer, using AI to help me, you can read all about it here:
And now something relaxing
I hope you enjoyed reading this newsletter.
"Sugar Pi{e} Desanto." A very underrated R&B singer. Probably best known for her popular duets with Etta James: "In The Basement" and "Do I Make Myself Clear?".
One of the questions I will try to remember to ask you in person is how exactly "Oulipo" is pronounced.
I noticed that the Amazon preview for A Void was written almost entirely without the letter "e" , broken only at the very end.
Loved the flyer for your courses. Very well done, Terry.