Walter Abish, Alphabetical Africa (New York, NY: New Directions, 1974).
Among the many books I've featured in this errata series, Abish's experimental classic Alphabetical Africa seems especially to invite this particular parlor game of checking the author's work. After all, the book is written in a unique formalistic straitjacket. In the fashion of the Oulipo school of constrained writing, Abish sets himself the task of telling a complete narrative according to a set of arbitrary linguistic rules.
Specifically, each of his chapters will only allow words beginning with certain letters of the alphabet. The first chapter allows words beginning with "a," the second with "a" and "b," the third with "a," "b," and "c," and on through the alphabet. Once Abish gets to the "Z" chapters therefore (and there are two of them)—he can use words beginning with any letter. Then he proceeds to work his way backwards—eliminating words starting with each letter in reverse alphabetical order, until he is back to only "a" again.
Does the experiment "work," in a literary sense? I'd say so. Abish's novel is fairly delightful to read, both in the spirit of a game and as a work of fiction. In terms of the content of the story, I suppose the closest parallel would be to something by Ronald Firbank or Evelyn Waugh. The strong elements of camp (see the character of "Queen Quat," for example—who, of course, can only appear by name after "q" has been introduced, and before it is withdrawn in the book's latter half), exoticism, fantasy and comedy all particularly call Firbank to mind.
The formalistic constraints also add an element of interest. Reading the early chapters, one notes that there is a strange immediacy to the prose. Eventually, the reader realizes: oh right, that's because the author is denied the most common helping verbs. Most obviously, he can't say "is" (at least not before the "I" chapter). Then, after "is" is finally introduced, one still notices that sentences appear in the strangely clipped voice of telegrams or journalistic headlines. Eventually, one remembers: oh right, that's because he can't say "the" (at least not until the "T" chapter).
One also starts to observe how characters appear and walk off the stage only when their first letters allow them to be summoned. Some, however, are able to linger on under other monikers. Queen Quat can no longer be mentioned by name after the second "Q" chapter, for instance, but she appears a few more times as "Her Majesty" (until "M" and "H" are eventually withdrawn as well). Similarly, the setting of "Zanzibar" that features prominently in the two "Z" chapters must be referred to more obliquely once we get to the second "Z" chapter; the place is now simply referred to as "the island."
And once one has retrained one's brain to think this way, over the course of the book—one eventually starts keeping one half of one's mind half-trained to spot whether each chapter really is following the rules. And, indeed, there are a few words that appear to violate the constraint. Wikipedia notes this as well. An unsourced claim on the current entry suggests that most readers can spot only four to six errors or constraint-violations in the text. But the entry then asserts that particularly "astute readers" have found 43. Well, then—challenge accepted. Game on! How many did I find?
Unfortunately, I found nowhere near the 43 allegedly identified by the particularly astute. But I did find all 6 of the supposedly more obvious examples. Here—in the spirit of the Errata and Marginalia series—are the ones I was able to identify:
1) p. 15 "in" occurs in the first "G" chapter, before "i" words have been allowed. See phrase "convincing in Africa."
2) p. 38 "As fast as I finish it, I promise her." This "promise" appears in the first "O" chapter, before "p" words have been allowed.
3) p. 88 "a time when her children [....]" This "when" appears in the second "V" chapter, after "w" words have been disallowed.
4) p. 97 "He walks as far as [....]" Similarly, this "walks" appears in the second "t" chapter, after "w" words have been disallowed.
5) p. 99 "a line of trees." This "trees" appears in the second "S" chapter, after "t" words have been disallowed.
6) p. 100 "in the consulate." This "the" also appears in the second "S" chapter, after "t" words have been disallowed.
No comments:
Post a Comment