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from Exercises in Style

 

Daniel Rhode's 101 stories of 101 words each, compiled in Anthropology, is reminiscent of the French (mostly spelled i-n-t-e-l-l-e-c-t-u-a-l, and also, c.h.i.c.) writer Raymond Queneau's Exercises in Style,  a book that describes one young man who rode a bus and started a fight with another passenger who keeps stepping on his toe purposely. Not a very complicated tale, except that Queneau repeats the same story 101 times, in different narrative, uhm, styles. Here are four of them:

Precision

In a bus of the S-line, 10 meters long, 3 wide, 6 high, at 3 km. 600m. from its starting point, loaded with 48 people, at 12.17 pm., a person off the masculine sex aged 27 years 3 months and 8 days, 1 m. 72 cm. tall and weighing 65 kg. and wearing a hat 35 cm. in height round the crown of which was a ribbon 60 cm. long, interpellated a man aged 48 years 4 months and 3 days, 1. m. 68 cm tall and weighing 77 kg., by means of 14 words whose enunciation lasted 5 seconds and which alluded to some involuntary displacement of from 15 to 20 mm. Then he went and sat down about 1 m. 10 cm. away.

57 minutes later he was 10 meters away from the suburban entrance to the gare Saint-Lazare and was walking up and down over a distance of 30 m. with a friend aged 28, 1 m. 70 cm tall and weighing  71 kg. who advised him in 15 words to move by 5 cm. in the direction of the zenith a button which was 3 cm. in diameter.

Litotes

Some of us were traveling together. A young man, who didn't look very intelligent, spoke to the man next to him for a few moments, then he went and sat down. Two hours later I met him again; he was with a friend and was talking about clothes.

Interjections

Psst! h'm! ah! oh! hem! ah! ha! hey! well!oh! pooh! poof! ow! oo! ouch! hey! eh! h'm! pffft!

Well! hey! pooh! oh! h'm! right!

Retrograde

You ought to put another button on your overcoat, his friend told him.  I met him in the middle of the Cour de Rome, after having left him rushing avidly towards a seat. He had just protested against being pushed by another passenger who, he said, was jostling him every time anyone got off. This scraggy young man was wearing a ridiculous hat. This took place on the platform of an S bus which was full that particular midday.

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(The illustrations are by Stefan Themerson from the same book as  published by New Directions)