this post was submitted on 17 Apr 2024
182 points (96.4% liked)

Mildly Interesting

17477 readers
71 users here now

This is for strictly mildly interesting material. If it's too interesting, it doesn't belong. If it's not interesting, it doesn't belong.

This is obviously an objective criteria, so the mods are always right. Or maybe mildly right? Ahh.. what do we know?

Just post some stuff and don't spam.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

I do not support just calling that wiki "wiki" without including a crucial part of it.

all 39 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] steal_your_face@lemmy.ml 52 points 7 months ago (1 children)

TLDR The whole book doesn’t have the letter e so the plot in the wiki doesn’t either

[–] cbarrick@lemmy.world 18 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I see what you did there 😉

[–] gbzm@lemmy.world 10 points 7 months ago

May I submit a formulation akin to "I got what you did thusly"?

[–] voracitude@lemmy.world 9 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

You don't say? But you said it. Why, you don't find it - approaching mortality for saying it, as in A Void - intimidating? I admit though, not using it is limiting. A book writ without that symbol... Wow. But I must stop now, I can't think of any words without it.

[–] ShaunaTheDead@fedia.io 15 points 7 months ago

A Void's plot follows a group of individuals looking for a missing companion, Anton Vowl. It is in part a parody of noir and horror fiction, with many stylistic tricks, gags, plot twists, and a grim conclusion. On many occasions it implicitly talks about its own lipogrammatic limitation, highlighting its unusual syntax. A Void's protagonists finally work out which symbol is missing, but find it a hazardous topic to discuss, as any who try to bypass this story's constraint risk fatal injury. Philip Howard, writing a lipogrammatic appraisal of A Void in his column Lost Words, said "This is a story chock-full of plots and sub-plots, of loops within loops, of trails in pursuit of trails, all of which allow its author an opportunity to display his customary virtuosity as an avant-gardist magician, acrobat and clown."

I also find it funny that this paragraph from OP's link also avoids using an individual symbol. I'm also trying to do it in my post, but it's hard to form any thought without it. I don't think that I could draft a full book using this constraint, and notably a book that's so cognizant of it's own imposing limitation and of it's protagonists habit of fourth wall smashing.

[–] gbzm@lemmy.world 14 points 7 months ago

How surprising! I thought that symbol most popular in "La disparition"'s original localism, but this wiki says this translation's vocabulary has a similar proportion and thus - probably - a similar difficulty.

[–] angrystego@lemmy.world 12 points 7 months ago (1 children)

My mood was spoilt by looking up this author and what folk call him. Oh, I wouldn't want to construct a book of this kind. It hurts.

[–] Aatube@kbin.melroy.org 1 points 7 months ago

andin basnoda?

[–] theOneTrueSpoon 10 points 7 months ago (1 children)

An individual should start an avoid5 community

[–] jxk@sh.itjust.works 2 points 7 months ago (2 children)
[–] Aatube@kbin.melroy.org 1 points 7 months ago

I was planning to start-again 195 for this thing but sure!

[–] Aatube@kbin.melroy.org 1 points 7 months ago (2 children)
[–] jxk@sh.itjust.works 2 points 7 months ago
[–] jxk@sh.itjust.works 1 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Apparently I can only make you mod if you comment in the community, so please make a post there with a comment in it, and I'll add you Cheers

[–] Aatube@kbin.melroy.org 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Could you add "Always post prior to your parting", a 195-ish policy, to the words about the purpose of the community? And probably that "Posts and subposts may contain The"? don't think I may modify anything from non-mbin hosts.

[–] Aatube@kbin.melroy.org 1 points 7 months ago
[–] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Fascinating! I may find looking at this book in my todo list.

(This is hard!)

[–] gbzm@lemmy.world 6 points 7 months ago

Oulipo is chock full of amazing linguistic training propositions isn't it?

[–] PoolloverNathan@programming.dev 6 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Why do most subposts in this post look kinda off?

[–] subignition@fedia.io 4 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

It's a running gag that avoids using a glyph (fifth), which a plurality of us want to copy. But, you could possibly know this.

[–] Aatube@kbin.melroy.org 3 points 7 months ago
[–] setsneedtofeed@lemmy.world 6 points 7 months ago
[–] SharkEatingBreakfast@sopuli.xyz 5 points 7 months ago

Don't know why, but I find this absolutely eerie.

[–] gbzm@lemmy.world 5 points 7 months ago

How about "most famous and trustworthy virtual information vault"? Or is that too much?

[–] johsny@lemmy.world 4 points 7 months ago

Thanks! Fascinating, I will look it up!

[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

~~Lovecraft~~ Howard Philip called the author a clown. I don't know if that's an insult or a compliment, given the time period that would have had to be in. Clowns were cool at some point, right?

[–] Aatube@kbin.melroy.org 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

That's an intriguing way to look at it. I can't find an origin for that quotation, though. Would you kindly link it?

[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

It was literally in the wiki you linked to lol. Though I was mistaken, it wasn't Howard Philip Lovecraft, but "Philip Howard."

Philip Howard, writing a lipogrammatic appraisal of A Void in his column Lost Words, said "This is a story chock-full of plots and sub-plots, of loops within loops, of trails in pursuit of trails, all of which allow its author an opportunity to display his customary virtuosity as an avant-gardist magician, acrobat and clown."