Create Constraints And Unlock Creativity

Tips From Two Foremost Writers In The Oulipo Group

Meeting of Oulipo in Boulogne

Have you heard of the Oulipo Group?

I first learned about the Oulipo Group in December 2017 when I attended a seminar at the University of London led by Dennis Duncan, a British writer, translator, and lecturer.

The Group was formed in Paris during the early 19th century and was considered to be aligned to the Surrealist art movement. Instead of paint these artists used words; they played with them, used mathematical formulas and other organising systems; they created new work from old; and, they created work using constraints.

Raymond Queneau (1903 - 1976)

The book that initiated the founding of the Oulipo, ‘A Hundred Thousand Billion Poems’ or ‘One hundred million million poems’, its original French title being ‘Cent mille milliards de poèmes’, was written by French novelist Raymond Queneau and published in 1961.

It contains a set of ten sonnets, each with 14 lines, printed on card that is sliced so each line appears on a separate strip.

As all ten sonnets have not only the same rhyme scheme but also the same rhyme sounds, they can be taken apart and rearranged. Lines from one sonnet can be combined with any of the others allowing for a multitude of new poems to be created. The mathematical result is 10 to the power of 14, and this means 100,000,000,000,000 potential different poems—too many to read in one lifetime!

Georges Perec (1936 - 1982)

While Queneau was a wit and a polymath, compatriot Georges Perec was a genius with language. Perec triggered ideas and inspiration using constraints. His book, ‘Life: A User’s Manual’ (1978) centres on a block of flats in Paris. It details the lives of the inhabitants, describes the furniture in their rooms, and ruminates on what they do all day. This is a novel of interconnectedness and disconnectedness, and to write it Perec employed the concept of a story-making machine, a system of complex writing constraints used by the Oulipo.

In Perec’s other famous novel, ‘A Void’ (1969), its original French title being ‘La Disparition’ or ‘The Disappearance’, the letter ‘e’ is missing. Across three hundred pages the most essential letter in the French alphabet is not used—it’s a book-length lipogram (a composition from which the author omits a certain letter). I have utmost admiration for the translator because not only did they have to translate the book and allow it to make sense, they also had to omit the letter ‘e’ which is also the most essential letter in the English language as it happens.

Style Experiment

I wanted to try writing a lipogram, the format is intriguing, so I played the Oulipo way, with words and a missing letter; I wrote a short piece without using ‘e’. It’s very difficult but I had fun and I’m happy to share my experiment with you below. I found that I assembled sentences in an unusual way, with words that would not normally sit together; the result is something new and different and rather strange.

On My Sofa

A cryptic crossword, mystifying in its ups and downs and its matrix of blacks against a grid of crossways blocks. Can I work my words to fit?

An hour a day to study difficult vocabulary should do it. I must group in rows to form a courtyard of valid facts. Particular words drawn from history and cosmology, from classical books and data computations, and politics—split apart, down and across.

My loyal animals sit torpidly on an old wool rug—Rufus, a brown hairy dog and Cilla, a cat with no tail—not grasping my conundrum at all. I furnish living things with adoration, I’m uniformly fond of both—brushing hair, rubbing chins, putting food in bowls, combing out fur balls—naturally, it’s not a romantic kind of association.

But back to my labour of solving a crossword. No formula. I must apply a firm hand, drill down to work it out, story build, fact-find. I follow signs and oh, brilliant, I find an anagram at six down! Outstanding! Got it right away. I’m good at anagrams. A tip, if you want it—lay down its parts to form a ring on your pad. Look diagonally. Look across and around. Back and forth. It’s not so difficult. It works.

I pack it up for lunch, put it away, and vacuum my flat daily so it’s straight and tidy, spick and span. No animal hair to stick to curtains or clothing, and no amount of annoying dust. I push and pull my handy sucking apparatus which has a small band, a loop, that I fix to my wrist. Occasionally, it rubs away at my fair hairs and my hand and arm itch from toil. It’s an indication, a strong hint, a signal, that I should stop moving for now and put my fluffy socks on and lay on my couch with that difficult crossword again.

My substantial dictionary sits on a chunky chair arm, standing by with clarification and, thankfully, it has a way of sorting out confusion. Rufus and Cilla catnap. My body’s downy hair grows back around my wrist, no stopping it, and I’m tranquil as I watch a lazy spring sun in a bluish sky cast shadows, its rays squint through my window.

Two across. Difficult. It asks for facts and information I don’t know. I rod my brain, bump about, prod for its wisdom, occasionally it’s gloomy high up in my skull, my attic is vacant, blank, without thought. A warming cup of chai will put it right, with sugar and milk and a touch of cinnamon. Possibly toast with plum jam too?

Ah, got it! Just thinking of food and finally my upstairs works.

Your Challenge

Maybe you’d like to try it? Nothing too time-consuming. Perhaps just a few sentences in the comments… ? Without an ‘e’!

Poll

I’m considering including more writing prompts like this in future posts and would love to know if this is something you’d like. Perhaps you could answer these two Poll questions and expand on your thoughts in the comments section. Thanks!

Links and Credits

• Top image credit: Oulipo archives, deposited at the Arsenal Library in Paris.

• Image of book taken by Thomas Guest, reproduced here under terms cc-by-2.0. Images of Raymond Queneau and Georges Perec, no known attribution.

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As always, I look forward to chatting in the comments!

And thank you for responding to my Poll.