[UA] [OT] A Void

[S. Ben Melhuish]

Robin Pfeifer <RobinPfeifer at web.de>:

> On a related note, does anyone know the novel 'The Void'?  This novel
> uses no words containing the letter 'e' (no kidding!) - and it is a
> translation of a French novel which does the same.  I tried to get it
> through amazon but they couldn't deliver.

Yeah, not only that, but it had a self-referential plot as well:  It's a
murder mystery, and (if I recall) a character gets killed when he/she is
about to unavoidably speak a word containing 'e'.

And not only that, but the author wrote a short story afterwards which
contained no vowel *other than* 'e'.

Greg Stolze <holycrow at mindspring.com>:

> I seem to recall hearing of something like that, and I found myself
> wondering how good it could be.  I guess I'm still wary after getting
> burned by "Infinite Jest" and now I have little patience for impressive
> but pointless literature.

I got about halfway through before I stopped, and I never quit a
book.  Not only was it a pain in the ass to read, but it seemed
overwritten, as if the plot could have been fit in about a third of the
space but the author was trying to fluff it up so it would seem more
impressive.

ObUA:  There's probably some weird bibliomancer somewhere searching for an
edition which accidentally contains an 'e' in it somewhere.  What could
you do with that book?  Would it be mystically tied to Alex
"almost-but-not-quite" Abel somehow?

-- Sben

Pile on!
http://pile.org/


_______________________________________________
UA mailing list
UA at lists.uchicago.edu
http://lists.uchicago.edu/mailman/listinfo/ua