Oulipo

 

I was introduced to the form of Oulipo in a writing class years ago and found it quite intriguing. Ouvroir de Litterature Potentielle or OULIPO was founded by French Mathematician Francois de Lionnais and writer Raymond Queneau in 1960. Basically it is introducing a constraint such as not using a certain letter, and other oddities, while writing a poem, creating a short story, or a lipogram.

A few years back I experimented with creating an OULIPO using Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken which took an interesting turn. I tried the N + 7 route which is to replace the major nouns with another noun which is the 7th one below it in the dictionary. However the first line ending up being

Two Robbers diverged in a Women

Hmmm! Once I quit laughing, I got the bright idea to take book titles and transform them into a story, but got as far as a weird poem.

Figured I’d better stick to reading books by authors who use the technique.

Italo Calvino is one author who liked to experiment with his stories. In “if on a winter’s night a traveler” is written in both second person so the you is the reader, yourself, and an alternative narrator in alternating chapters which makes for an intriguing and creative story.

“if on a winter’s night a traveler is a feat of striking ingenuity and intelligence, exploring how our reading choices can shape and transform our lives. Originally published in 1979, Italo Calvino’s singular novel crafted a postmodern narrative like never seen before—offering not one novel but ten, each with a different plot, style, ambience, and author, and each interrupted at a moment of suspense. Together, the stories form a labyrinth of literature known and unknown, alive and extinct, through which two readers pursue the story lines that intrigue them and try to read each other. Deeply profound and surprisingly romantic, this classic is a beautiful meditation on the transformative power of reading and the ways we make meaning in our lives.”

Once I read “if on a winter’s night,” I had to read “Invisible Cities” and soon will be delving into “The Complete Cosmocomics.”

“Italo Calvino’s beloved cosmicomics cross planets and traverse galaxies, speed up time or slow it down to the particles of an instant. Through the eyes of an ageless guide named Qfwfq, Calvino explores natural phenomena and tells the story of the origins of the universe. Poignant, fantastical, and wise, these thirty-four dazzling stories—collected here in one definitive anthology—relate complex scientific and mathematical concepts to our everyday world. They are an indelible (and unfailingly delightful) literary achievement.”

Hopscotch by Julio Cortázar was another strange one with two ways to read the book – straight forward or in a Hopscotch manner jumping into ‘expendable’ chapters the author had written which are supposed to add to or explain some of what was going on. I hopscotched around, letting the number at the end of each chapter tell me what to read next. But you have to pay close attention if you want to find the end of the story.

I don’t know if Steven Hall’s Raw Shark Text would be classified as an Oulipo but it was one of the most imaginative and unique books I have read in a long time and I loved it. Eric unleashes a ludovician, a conceptual fish that eats memories which is why he doesn’t remember. When he starts receiving letters from himself, he follows the clues and is a lead on a wild journey trying to piece together his memories and find his life, meanwhile never knowing quite who to trust and if he can even trust his former self. The story is one wild, creative ride and will test the depths of your imagination.