Sunday, July 25, 2010

A literary proposal

In 1969, French author Georges Perec published his book La Disparition (in English "The Disappearance", though an English translation would later be published under the title The Void) which entirely omitted the letter E, which is the most common letter in both French and English.

In 2001, Canadian poet Christian Bök published his book Eunoia containing five chapters, one for each of the five vowels.  Each chapter used no vowels other than the single one the chapter was named for.  Thus, the A chapter contained no vowels other than A.

Now it is 2010 and a new literary power has arrived - me.  I have contrived to write an entire book using only the letter E.  It is a horror story and will chill your heart just as surely as it amazes your mind.  To generate publicity and find a publisher, may I present a short extract which I think conveys the flavour of the whole:
"Eeeeeee! EEEEEEE!!!  Eeeeeeeeee!  Eeeeeeeee!  EeeeeEEEEEE!!!!  EEEEEEEEEE!  Eeeeee!  Eeeeeeeeeee!  Eeeeeee!!!!  Eeeeeeeee!!!  EEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!"
For trade enquiries please contact my agent.

8 comments:

Richard Arnold said...

And of course you can't forget the seminal hit, Gadsby. It was such a hit in the 1930's a great deal of older readers voided their vowels upon completion:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gadsby:_Champion_of_Youth

PTR said...

Egad!

Anonymous said...

Ask me about David Bourland's children.

PTR said...

What can you tell me about David Bourland's children?

Anonymous said...

PTR,

While your novella has undoubted literary merit and I'm really enjoying it, forgive me, but in these cynical times of media manipulation, I have to ask - was it ghost-written by a bat?

Anonymous said...

What's the book's title?

To conform with your rule, will you have to change your name?

Anonymous said...

Eeeee. Eeee, eeee ee!

PTR said...

To answer the plethora of anonymous questions:

1. No, it wasn't ghost-written by a bat. But I did get some help with proof-reading it from a dolphin.

2. The book is called Prone to Revere E. My name won't have to be changed though - George Perec has E in his name and Christian Bok uses various vowels, so I reckon I'm fine.

3. Eeeeeee!