V is for ... VEUILLEZ TROUVER CI-INCLUS

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So today is the 25th of April, which must mean that it's the twenty-second day of the A to Z challenge.  I've decided to share my love of writing through this challenge, and hopefully introduce people to the world of Oulipo.  I first heard about Oulipo when I was at university, and I was fascinated by their approach to writing that I decided to delve deeper into the world of experimental writing.

In a nutshell, this group of writers likes to assign constraints to their work in order to push creative boundaries.  Not only is this fun to do (the process of writing something with a constraint really does open the mind), the results are brilliant.



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V is for ... VEUILLEZ TROUVER CI-INCLUS

"This first section opens with an account of a dog whose owner, while speaking to someone else, noticed the animal unexpectedly sit up as if called.  He realised that he had inadvertently spoken the dog's name: the familiar sound had been formed by the last syllable of one word fusing with the first syllable of the next." 

Oulipo Compendium ed. Harry Matthews & Alastiar Brotchie (London: Atlas Press, 2005) page 87.

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Basically 'veuillez trouver ci-inclus' translates to 'please find enclosed', and it is a method of writing one thing, but hiding other things within the text.

I wrote this poem, and hid the names of five Oulipians (Italo Calvino, Georges Perec, Raymond Queneau, Jacques Roubaud, Harry Mathews) within the text.

Peek-a-boulipo

A piece of your prose poses as literature

yet your poetry, knowingly, doesn’t keep pace

and, tho’ slated, snaps back at back handed

attacks with matter of fact tactics and flat

classics that hang their hats at the feet

of the satirical poet.

A long winded, strong worded, extended

song of comical venosity that ferociously

sickens those who have written pretty gritty

lyrics and jaw gelling villanelles which

whisper eccentricity and eclectically

prosper, possibly.

A classless vast array, mundane refrains

of pain and hate and razor blades, lacking

sanguine nouns and catchy sounds yet

splurge active platitudes on a surge of

shameful clichés; a half-arsed, slap dash,

mish mash of crap.

A blue rant in red and black, alack, alack,

a fanatic lament, anticlimactic in sentiment,

unlike the true bold statements of those in

the know – the Oulipo – who marry method

with madness and make a mathematic mess

with expressive finesse.

A satisfying aftermath using sassy chaps, fancy

tracks, actual tags and the practicality that

originality isn’t criminal.  Fascinate, stimulate,

educate, postulate and experimate until your

brain aches and your inane tastes evacuate

and make page space for me.

**
(and here are the answers if you didn't spot them!)

Peek-a-boulipo

A piece of your prose poses as literature

yet your poetry, knowingly, doesn’t keep pace

and, tho’ slated, snaps back at back handed

attacks with matter of fact tactics and flat

classics that hang their hats at the feet

of the satirical poet.

A long winded, strong worded, extended

song of comical venosity that ferociously

sickens those who have written pretty gritty

lyrics and jaw gelling villanelles which

whisper eccentricity and eclectically

prosper, possibly.

A classless vast array, mundane refrains

of pain and hate and razor blades, lacking

sanguine nouns and catchy sounds yet

splurge active platitudes on a surge of

shameful clichés; a half-arsed, slap dash,

mish mash of crap.

A blue rant in red and black, alack, alack,

a fanatic lament, anticlimactic in sentiment,

unlike the true bold statements of those in

the know – the Oulipo – who marry method

with madness and make a mathematic mess

with expressive finesse.

A satisfying aftermath using sassy chaps, fancy

tracks, actual tags and the practicality that

originality isn’t criminal.  Fascinate, stimulate,

educate, postulate and experimate until your

brain aches and your inane tastes evacuate

and make page space for me.

et a lo cal veno = Italo Calvino

jaw ge per ec = Georges Perec

ray mund guine no = Raymond Queneau

ge ac rue bo = Jacques Roubaud

arry math us = Harry Mathews