I was a little surprised, last year, to be invited to contribute a piece to the above festschrift from Singapore-based alternative literature publisher
Verbivoracious Press. They appear to specialise principally in the work of British writer
Christine Brooke-Rose (1923-2012), many of whose books they have reprinted. The title of the above compilation, "The Syllabus," though, shows that they also aspire to represent a whole universe of experimental writing - what might be called (in Roger Horrocks' phrase) the
Kingdom of Alt.
The book Mark Nicholls wanted me to write about was
Miss Herbert (2007), by British novelist Adam Thirlwell. The reason this surprised me was that he based the request on the
blogpost I'd written about it, a piece which strikes me (in retrospect) as rather unkind - though I certainly don't subscribe there to any of the more
ad hominem attacks Thirlwell's book received in the more up-themselves reviews.
We quickly rejected the idea of compiling an essay from the blog itself, and instead I decided to take the licence he offered to compose a more "creative" piece taking off from Thirlwell's book (which rejoices in a number of titles in America and Britain, my favourite being the one on the spine of the paperback edition:
Miss Herbert: A book of novels, romances, and their translators, containing ten languages, set on four continents, and accompanied by maps, portraits, squiggles and illustrations ...
Each contributor was limited to 500 words, and it must have been a devil of a job to assemble them all, since it was only last week that I was at last alerted to the appearance of the compilation:
A monument to our insatiable verbivoracity, The Syllabus
is an act of humble genuflection before the authors responsible for
those texts which have transported us to the peak of readerly nirvana
and back. The texts featured, chosen in a rapturous frenzy by editors
and contributors alike, represent a broad sweep of the most important
exploratory fiction written in the last hundred years (and beyond).
Featuring 100 texts from (fewer than) 100 contributors, The Syllabus
is a form of religious creed, and should be read primarily as a holy
manual from which the reader draws inspiration and hope, helping to
shape their intellectual and moral life with greater awareness, and lead
them towards those works that offer deep spiritual succour while
surviving on a merciless and unkind planet. Readers of this festschrift
should expect nothing less than an incontrovertible conversion from
reader to insatiable verbivore in 225 pages.
“The Syllabus, as a third volume of Verbivoracious
Festschrift, is a celebration of reading. It’s a great literary feast
for the true readers, for all the verbivores around the world, a feast
consisting of hundred delicious meals. I am honored to be a part of that
unforgettable menu.” — Dubravka Ugrešić.
And what exactly is in it? Here's a list of the contents, arranged (as you can see) in chronological order:
Introduction or, The Art of Sillybustering
- Jonathan Swift — A Modest Proposal [1729]
- Laurence Sterne — The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy [1759]
- Xiao Hong (萧红) — The Field of Life and Death [1935]
- Louis-Ferdinand Céline — Death on the Installment Plan [1936]
- Rayner Heppenstall — The Blaze of Noon [1939]
- James Joyce — Finnegans Wake [1939]
- Flann O’Brien — At Swim-Two-Birds [1939]
- Raymond Queneau — Exercises in Style [1947]
- Boris Vian — Foam of the Daze [1947]
- Douglas Woolf — The Hypocritic Days [1955]
- Henry Miller — Quiet Days in Clichy [1956]
- Muriel Spark — The Comforters [1957]
- Alexander Trocchi — Cain’s Book [1960]
- Michel Butor — Mobile [1962]
- Robert Pinget — The Inquisitory [1962]
- B.S. Johnson — Omnibus [1964-1971]
- Raymond Queneau — The Blue Flowers [1965]
- Alan Burns — Celebrations [1967]
- Guillermo Cabrera Infante — Three Trapped Tigers [1967]
- Macedonia Fernández — The Museum of Eterna’s Novel [1967]
- Anna Kavan — Ice [1967]
- J.M.G Le Clézio — Terra Amata [1967]
- Flann O’Brien — The Third Policeman [1967]
- Ishmael Reed — The Freelance Pallbearers [1967]
- Christine Brooke-Rose — Between [1968]
- Anthony Earnshaw & Eric Thacker — Musrum [1968]
- Nicholas Mosley — Impossible Object [1968]
- Vladimir Nabokov — Ada or Ardor [1969]
- J.G. Ballard — The Atrocity Exhibition [1970]
- Pierre Guyotat — Eden Eden Eden [1970]
- Raymond Federman — Double or Nothing [1971]
- Hubert Selby Jnr. — The Room [1971]
- Stanley Crawford — Log of the S.S. the Mrs Unguentine [1972]
- Tom Mallin — Erowina [1972]
- Ann Quin — Tripticks [1972]
- Guy Davenport — Taitlin! [1974]
- Lawrence Durrell — The Avignon Quintet [1974-1985]
- Chrisine Brooke-Rose — Thru [1975]
- Georges Perec — An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris [1975]
- Fernando del Paso — Palinuro of Mexico [1976]
Ignacio M. Sánchez Prado
- Coleman Dowell — Island People [1976]
- Raymond Federman — Take It or Leave It [1976]
- Italo Calvino — If on a winter’s night a traveller [1979]
- Gilbert Sorrentino — Mulligan Stew [1979]
- Roald Dahl — The Twits [1980]
- Donald Barthelme — Sixty Stories [1981]
- Alexander Theroux — Darconville’s Cat [1981]
- Camilo José Cela — Mrs. Caldwell Speaks to Her Son [1982]
- D. Keith Mano — Take Five [1982]
- Thomas Bernhard — Woodcutters [1984]
- Christine Brooke-Rose — Amalgamemnon [1984]
- Rikki Ducornet — The Stain [1984]
- Christoph Meckel — The Figure on the Boundary Line [1984]
- Milorad Pavić — Dictionary of the Khazars (Male Edition) [1984]
- Milorad Pavić — Dictionary of the Khazars (Female Edition) [1984]
- Don Delillo — White Noise [1985]
- Gilbert Sorrentino — Pack of Lies Trilogy [1985-1989]
- Ronald Sukenick — In Form: Digressions on the Act of Fiction [1985]
- Marcel Bénabou — Why I Have Not Written Any of My Books [1986]
- Michael Westlake — Imaginary Women [1987]
- Nicholson Baker — The Mezzanine [1988]
- Italo Calvino — Six Memos for the Next Millennium [1988]
- David Markson — Wittgenstein’s Mistress [1988]
- Janice Galloway — The Trick is to Keep Breathing [1989]
- Jacques Roubaud — The Great Fire of London [1989]
- Felipe Alfau — Chromos [1990]
- Robert Alan Jamieson — A Day at the Office [1991]
- Alasdair Gray — Poor Things [1992]
- W.G. Sebald — The Emigrants [1992]
- William Gaddis — A Frolic of His Own [1994]
- Jáchym Topol — City Sister Silver [1994]
- Martin Amis — The Information [1995]
- William H. Gass — The Tunnel [1995]
- Gilbert Sorrentino — Red the Fiend [1995]
- Roberto Bolaño — Nazi Literature in the Americas [1996]
- Geoff Dyer — Out of Sheer Rage [1997]
- Alasdair Brotchie & Harry Mathews (eds.) — Oulipo Compendium [1998]
- Dubravka Ugrešić — The Museum of Unconditional Surrender [1998]
- Percival Everett — Glyph [1999]
- Ali Smith — Other Stories and Other Stories [1999]
- Ignácio de Loloya Brandão — Anonymous Celebrity [2002]
- Curtis White — Requiem [2002]
- Lucy Ellmann — Dot in the Universe [2003]
- Dubravka Ugrešić — Thank You for Not Reading [2003]
- Roberto Bolaño — 2666 [2004]
- Meredith Brosnan — Mr. Dynamite [2004]
- David Mitchell — Cloud Atlas [2004]
- Steve Katz — Antonello’s Lion [2005]
- Graham Rawle — Woman’s World [2005]
- Gilbert Adair — The Evadne Mount Trilogy [2006-2009]
- Nicola Barker — Darkmans [2007]
- Lydia Davis — Varieties of Disturbance [2007]
- Lydie Salvayre — Portrait of the Writer as a Domesticated Animal [2007]
- Adam Thirwell — Miss Herbert [2007]
- Urmuz — Collected Works [2007]
- Marilyn Chin — Revenge of the Mooncake Vixen [2009]
- Gabriel Josipovici — Only Joking [2010]
- Steven Moore — The Novel: An Alternative History [2010-2013]
- Will Self — Walking to Hollywood [2010]
- Charles Newman — In Partial Disgrace [2013]
The Influences of Others
What, no Raymond Roussel, you say? No
this person, no
that? Instead of such carping, let's just celebrate all the weird and wonderful texts they
have managed to include in their roll-call of 100+:
Texts:
A Modest Proposal — The Avignon Quintet — The Comforters — Finnegans Wake — In Partial Disgrace — Impossible Object — Wittgenstein’s Mistress — The Freelance Pallbearers — Foam of the Daze — Between — Darconville’s Cat — Thru — Terra Amata — Poor Things — Pack of Lies — Amalgamemnon — Anonymous Celebrity — The Stain — Palinuro of Mexico — Miss Herbert — Tristram Shandy — The Mezzanine — White Noise — Glyph — The Twits — Woodcutters — Erowina — Chromos — A Day at the Office — Darkmans — The Evadne Mount Trilogy — Mobile — An Attempt to Exhaust a Place in Paris — The Trick is to Keep Breathing — The Great Fire of London — Thank You For Not Reading — Exercises in Style — Why I Have Not Written Any of My Books — B.S. Johnson Omnibus — Six Memos for the Next Millennium — Sixty Stories — Requiem — Mrs Caldwell Speaks to Her Son — The Atrocity Exhibition — Walking to Hollywood — At Swim-Two-Birds — The Death of the Author — Dot in the Universe — Eco: On Literature — Dictionary of the Khazars — The Novel: An Alternate History — Varieties of Disturbance — Mr. Dynamite — The Blue Flowers — Portrait of the Artist as a Domesticated Animal — The Tunnel — Oulipo Compendium — In Form: Digressions in the Art of Fiction — Take it or Leave it — If on a winter’s night a traveller — The Information — Double or Nothing — The Hypocritic Days — Berg — 2666 — The Inquisitory — Woman’s World — Museum of Eterna’s Novel — The Blaze of Noon — Musrum — Island People — Take Five — Death on Credit — Three Trapped Tigers — Cain’s Book — Invisible Cities — Out of Sheer Rage — Log of the S.S. Mrs Unguentine — The Room — Revenge of the Moon Vixen — Mulligan Stew — Ice — Red the Fiend — Urmuz: Complete Works — Ada — Taitlin! — Celebrations — The Figure on the Boundary Line — City Silver Sister — Nazi Literature in the Americas — The Emigrants — Other Stories and Other Stories — The Third Policeman — Antonello’s Lion — Cloud Atlas — Imaginary Women — The Museum of Unconditional Surrender — Eden Eden Eden — Quiet Days in Clichy
Contributors:
Scott Beauchamp — Kim Fay — Igo Wodan — Fionnuala McManamon — Eric Lundgren — Shiva Rahbaran — Joseph McGrath — Tosh Berman — Katarzyna Bartoszyńska — David Detrich — Ellen Friedman — Steven Moore — Keith Moser — Rodge Glass — Michelle Ryan-Santour — Jack Ross — Silvia Barlaam — Tom Conoboy — Ignacio M. Sánchez Prado — M.J. Nicholls — Barbara Melville — Nate Dorr — Sam Moss — Kinga Burger — Manny Rayner — John Trefry — Lauren Elkin — Gillian Devine —Ian Monk — Peter Blundell — Ana Stanojevic — Geoff Wilt — Nicolas Tredell — Daniel Levin Becker — Lee Klein — Lance Olsen — Trevor Dodge — Rosalyn Drexler — Rick McGrath — Richard Strachan — Edwin Turner — Ali Millar — Alec Nevala-Lee — Nathan Gaddis — Alberta Rigid — Jarleth L. Prenderghast —Inez Hedges — Juliet Jacques — H.L. Hix — Jason Graff — Tom Willard — Steve Katz — Anthony Vacca — Ammiel Almacay — Lee Rourke — Alex Cox — Michael Leong — Eric Byrd — Steve Penkevich — Kenneth Cox — Gene Hayworth — Paul John Adams — Pablo Medina — Gill Tasker — Kathleen Heil — Georgina Holland — Stephen Sparks — Anonymous — Melanie Ho — Jenny Offill — Kristine Rabberman — Eddie Watkins — Rob Friel — Joseph Andrew Darlington — Alex Zucker — Ben Winch — Alex Johnston — W.C. Bamberger — Stephen Mirabito — Michael Westlake — Peter Bebergal — Jasmina Lukić — Nadine Mainard — G.N. Forester
Here are the publication details:
Release Date:
May 11th, 2015. ISBN: 9789810935931. 237pp.
Pricing Information:
Paperback: GBP9.99 + postage GBP2.00 within UK, US, AU, CAN, EU, ZA, NZ, IN and SG.
Available from:
all booksellers and usual online retailers, or the Verbivoracious website at sales@verbivoraciouspress.org
I've got a good mind to use it precisely as they suggest: as a syllabus for the new course in "Advanced Fiction" I'm planning (to commence at Massey Albany in 2017). Maybe that's a bit cheeky, but it'll certainly be listing it as a recommended text for the students.
Go on, then, test yourself. Just how many of the above books have you actually read? How many have you even
heard of, for that matter? Not even Richard Taylor would score 100% on that one, I suspect. Scott Hamilton, perhaps?
