VoidGeorges Perec, Gilbert Adair
Void
by Georges Perec, Gilbert Adair · first published 2008
12mentions
1recommended by
10HN commenters
2017–2026first – last mentioned
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Also noteworthy, from Georges Perec: A Void (La Disparition), which was written entirely without using the letter "e" (and which the translation reproduces brilliantly well).
on “Ask HN: What are some great books that are relatively unknown in the US?” ↗…sometimes makes music based on song challenges from his fans. Years ago, I asked him to write a rap song in which none of the lyrics contain the letter "e." Like the person in the article, I had read "A Void" by Georges Perec, so that's where the idea came from. And about a day later, he posted this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8-WtH4ujps
on “Like Tweeting, but You Can't Use the Letter E” ↗…महीपतिः…” by Bhoja, and “…शान्त्यै मनो दीयताम्” by Kṣemendra) Not another poem on that theme, but something cool I remembered related to Ozymandias: Gilbert Adair, somewhere in his amazing translation (A Void) of Georges Perec's work La Disparition — written entirely without a single instance of the letter 'e' — has this rewrite of Ozymandias that maintains the lipogram constraint (and rhyme): Ozymandias…
on “Ozymandias” ↗…something similar. My book reviews also have quotes from the book which I tag for cross reference to other books ‘[r]’ and words I didn’t know ‘[t]’ So I found this syntax very interesting: %T A Void %A Perec, Georges %M French %F Adair, Gilbert %I Harvill Press %D 1994 [1969] %O paperback %G ISBN 1860460984
on “Danny Yee’s Book Reviews” ↗Seems completely feasible. Somewhat related: In the 30s Gilbert Adair wrote a novel in French without using the letter e. It was translated under the same constraint into English, in which it's called A Void. He was part of a group of artists who reveled in putting strange constraints on their work. They have a name but I can't remember what.
on “The Vowel Space” ↗Amazing. A friend of mine gave me the book "A Void" [1] by Georges Perec a few years ago that follows the same constraint. A little research and it turns out to be because he was a member of that community [2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Void…
on “Ask HN: What are some niche communities you enjoy?” ↗I didn't see a mention but it is almost certainly inspired by the famous (in some circles) book by Georges Perec, A Void. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Void The entire book, a murder-mystery, is written without using the letter 'e'.
on “How to run a small social network site for your friends” ↗…the translator -- the one that comes to mind is La disparition by Georges Perec[1] -- a novel famously written without appearance of the letter e. It was translated into English by Gilbert Adair as A Void -- also lacking that most common of glyphs. Other unpublished e-less translations exist, as well. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Void
on “Fernando Pessoa’s Disappearing Act (2017)” ↗…whose members did work with constrained language. The work from this group you've most likely heard of (if you've heard of them at all) is George Perec's book "La Disparation", translated to English as "A Void", which does not (in either language) contain any word with the letter "E" in either case in it (so those of us who know at least a little French realize that means no "le" or "les"... wow...). Anyway,…
on “The most impressive linguistic feat I’ve ever seen” ↗Or: > [The novel] "A Void", translated from the original French La Disparition (lit. "The Disappearance"), is a 300-page French lipogrammatic novel, written in 1969 by Georges Perec, entirely without using the letter e, following…
on “Thousand Character Classic” ↗LLM channeling Georges Perec and his novel A Void https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Void
on “Fine-tuned Qwen on my 16gb GPU to respond without the letter e” ↗…something like it produced in daily speech (in English or any language), and when it is done (see Oulipo and similar), it is with much effort (and the resulting language—e.g. the “Pilish” of Mike Keith, or “A Void” by Adair—can sound slightly stilted, which is the case with several of Māgha's poems too). In Sanskrit, no one produced such stuff in the centuries when it was a language of daily speech. 2. Even in…
on “Bhūribhirbhāribhirbhīrābhūbhārairabhirebhire” ↗