More of the awesome (if you're into floral badassery).

Painted Roses













Thank you Sergio Lopez for the pastoral loveliness. Not bad for a debut exhibition, not bad at all.

Oh, you want more from him? Well okay then http://themainloop.com/

Verbs do it.

So I've always believed that to fuck with language, you must first know the rules before you can break 'em.

This belief also fostered my interest in Stream of Consciousness writing and the feminist perspective that language is seen as a male dominated space, so to enter into it as a woman you must fuck with the structure and grammar in order to rebel against the patriarchal, structured, rational rule of the 'father'.

I however shave my armpits and would cry if someone burnt my bra (that shit's expensive)! So gingerly tip-toeing away from 'feminist' literature for now (I still love you Kristeva and Woolf), I came across this... Another French academic pushing language boundaries. But a MAN nonetheless.

Michel Thaler, pen name for Michel Dansel has written a 233 page novel WITHOUT ANY VERBS. I'm dying to know how this reads and am currently searching for an English translation, if there even is one (and alas, if there is one that is true to the original). So until I get my hands on a copy, I can only wonder what a verbless novel is like. Verbs are doing words (my Grade 4 teacher's voice still rings true). 'Action' words make sentences, well, fluid. Alive.

So are we talking about dead sentences? Shrivelled sentences with the pulp sucked out of them? Zombie sentences? The dead undead? 

I read Thaler-Dansel had an actual funeral for the Verb in Paris, with black-clothed mourners and everything. Will it walk again and eat his brains at a later stage?

I'm a fan of verbs. I like to play with unsuspecting nouns and force them into verbs. Holidaying, Fridaying, Sandtoning. Adding 'ing' to nouns is quite thrilling if you’re a dork like me. So yeah, a verbless novel gets my attention.

How does one construct a story without any ‘action’? It's kind of mind-blowing that he pulled it off (at least I think he did). Boundary-pushing awesomeness aside, could it be just another pompous French intellectual being *gasp* 'controversial'? Oooh.

Or he's bored.

Or he's bitter.

The man really hates verbs. Like really really. Like a verb molested him as a child then stole his lunch money (molest/stole: doing words). He says about the verb: "invader, dictator, usurper of our literature" and "The verb is like a weed in a field of flowers. You have to get rid of it to allow the flowers to grow and flourish. Take away the verbs and the language speaks for itself".

Constrained Writing at its best I guess.

Anyway, if you care, if you dare, check it out:



English translation: The Train from Nowhere

It might be foreshadowing with the subtext: "I told you so, sucker!"
Or it could change your life, literary.

Or if verbs are your thing, Thaler has horribly offended you and you HATE that damn letter 'e', pompous little schmuck, try these:

       

Hell hath no fury like a letter scorned.

If you in fact find all of this interesting, and you want to find out more about this type of language movement (or lack thereof), why not rely on our favourite, friendly neighbourhood non-academic source. It has a bit to say on 'Oulipo' - for people who get off on Constrained Writing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oulipo

Blog, over.
[see what I did there?]