Stories and Remarks

by Raymond Queneau, Marc Lowenthal (Translator), Michel Leiris (Preface)

Stories and Remarks collects the best of Raymond Queneau's shorter prose. The works span his career and include short stories, an uncompleted novel, melancholic and absurd essays, occasionally baffling "Texticles," a pastiche of Alice in Wonderland, and his only play. Talking dogs, boozing horses, and suicides come head to head with ruminations on the effects of aerodynamics on addition, rhetorical dreams, and a pioneering example of permutational fiction influenced by computer language. Also included is Michel Leiris's preface from the French edition, an introduction by the translator, and endnotes addressing each piece individually. Raymond Queneau—polyglot, novelist, philosopher, poet, mathematician, screenwriter, and translator—was one of the most significant figures in twentieth-century French letters. His work touches on many of the major literary movements of his lifetime, from surrealism to the experimental school of the nouveau roman. He also founded the Oulipo, a collection of writers and mathematicians dedicated to the search for artificial inspiration via the application of constraint.

Destiny --
When the mind ... --
A bit of glory --
Panic --
A young Frenchman by the name of so-and-so, I, II --
Dino --
At the forest's edge --
In passing --
Alice in France --
The Cafe de la France --
Green with fright --
The Trojan horse --
Preface to Émile Bauwens's Book of cocktails --
(On the proper use of tranquilizers), I, II --
Some brief remarks relative to the aerodynamic properties of addition --
Conversations in greater Paris --
Manners of speaking --
Texticles --
A story of your own --
On some imaginary animal languages and on the dog language in Sylvie and Bruno in particular --
Dream accounts aplenty.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, France, French Literature

188 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1981

About the author

Novelist, poet, and critic Raymond Queneau, was born in Le Havre in 1903, and went to Paris when he was 17. For some time he joined André Breton's Surrealist group, but after only a brief stint he dissociated himself. Now, seeing Queneau's work in retrospect, it seems inevitable. The Surrealists tried to achieve a sort of pure expression from the unconscious, without mediation of the author's self-aware "persona." Queneau's texts, on the contrary, are quite deliberate products of the author's conscious mind, of his memory, and his intentionality.

Although Queneau's novels give an impression of enormous spontaneity, they were in fact painstakingly conceived in every small detail. He even once remarked that he simply could not leave to hazard the task of determining the number of chapters of a book. Talking about his first novel, Le Chiendent (usually translated as The Bark Tree), he pointed out that it had 91 sections, because 91 was the sum of the first 13 numbers, and also the product of two numbers he was particularly fond of: 7 and 13.

Reviews

[Laurent De Maertelaer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hilarische wiskunde.
Zie ook: http://www.ina.fr/video/I14126611

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dostojevski’s ondergrondse mens is niet veraf..

[Karim Rhayem · Rating 4 out of 5]

[4/5] : Dans cet ouvrage, Queneau m’a transporté dans son propre univers, intime et mystérieux, mais surtout absurde : c’est le mot le plus descriptif de « Contes et Propos ».
Ainsi, cet ensemble de plusieurs nouvelles, essais, textes, voire un dialogue de théâtre ; relève d’un absurde sans précédent, mais avec un fond sûr et intéressant. Les éléments de fantastique de certaines nouvelles – des animaux qui parlent, qui disparaissent, des chiffres à l’envers – et l’absurdité d’autres – des analogies sans fond ni forme – apportent à l’œuvre un élément d’ironie, de rire, et m’ont beaucoup amusés.
Le style de Queneau est intéressant, fluide, son vocabulaire riche mais précis, et sa syntaxe tantôt triviale, tantôt impressionnante. En somme, ce livre est une satire de la littérature, une moquerie de la société, un ensemble qui fera rire son lecteur tout en le faisant réfléchir.

[Marie-Lynn Issa · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5
Je ne sais vraiment pas quoi dire. C'était trop bizarre à lire, même pour moi. Dans ce recueil, j'ai lu des proses, nouvelles et essais extrêmement étranges. Certains d'entre eux étaient intelligents (d'une manière surréaliste), d'autres étaient amusants (étant -je pense- leur seul but de faire rigoler) mais d'autres étaient terribles, une vrai perte de temps... Peut être que je n'ai pas l'oeil assez perceptif, que quelques métaphores et symboles se sont échappés hors de ma vue, mais bon... il n'est pas tellement catastrophique, ce recueil.

[Brent Woo · Rating 4 out of 5]

"baffling, ... unclassifiable absurdities". It's like a beer flight, offering head-scratching tastings of surrealism and the beginnings of oulipo (the few "texticles" are more language games like in Exercises in Style, those were my favorite). There's a hilarious Choose Your Own Adventure about bean plants. The whole thing is full of giggles:

A young Frenchman by the name of So-and-so was glumly walking down Boulevard

In all the endeavors made up to the present day to demonstrate that 2+2=4, the wind’s velocity has never been taken into account.

I train my eye to take not of all that (not to write on this subject, that only came after, but to see how fucking awful the scenery is).

I didn't like what I guess were "proper Surrealist" stories, with talking horses and dogs. I like absurd, but not that kind. More interesting was the people behaving in weird ways and the language games.

Intro and Notes are some of the best I've ever seen: the intro is very interesting an informative about Queneau's life and the purpose of his work; the notes include a small analysis of each story, speculative notes ("Q . probably meant this story to show..."), and even comparisons to previous translations (!!!). One of the best notes (tbh I usually ignored them) was here:

The dog inspected the legs of two or three tables or chairs, sniffing, turned two or three times in a circle¹, then, in a discrete manner, approached the newcomer

wait why is there a note there

it somehow turned out to be a reference to Dostoevsky, the dog's name, and also the structure of the story. What! I love books!

[Tosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Raymond Queneau is the phantom figure of 20th Century literature. He was there, he was here, and he's everywhere. He was part of so many literary groups - one can just study his work as a foundation of Avant-Garde' European literature. Amazing author/poet.

This book is a collection of short pieces - which are both fascinating and essential. A must for the Queneau lover or collector. And I am both!

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since I made peace with the idea that I will never find Queneau's work particularly moving (well maybe Exercises in Style, sort of, and the final scene from The Bark Tree AKA Witch Grass) I've just appreciated his writing more and more. I renewed this collection twice after I finished reading it, just because I enjoyed having it around.

[Adriano Pugno · Rating 2 out of 5]

Queneau che gioca a fare Queneau. Troppo, persino per lui. Il cane Dino sembra la versione letteraria della barzelletta della yellow pecora.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

"D'altronde questa storia è assolutamente noiosa. Fortuna che è finita , che vi piaccia o no , io me ne fotto."
Bellissimo

[Vittorio Ducoli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fulminanti

Come sempre, Queneau sorprende e diverte.Quasi tutti i racconti brevi di questo piccolo libro sono semplicemente meravigliosi. I due che hanno come protagonista Untale, in particolare, sono fulminanti.
Un solo piccolo appunto: nel libro non c'è traccia del cavallo troiano citato in quarta di copertina.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm really loving this collection of short pieces. For some reason I never got around to buying it till a few days back and I've been blazing through these pages all weekend.

[Joel · Rating 3 out of 5]

some fun reading, but not his most essential.

[Abeka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quelques perles, notamment les fabuleux faux récits de rêve, et les jouissifs texticules.

[Marc DUPUY · Rating 4 out of 5]

La verve et l’esprit foisonnant de Queneau donnent une petite merveille !

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of interest to Queneau completists, for the most part.