Geometry in the Dust

by Pierre Senges, Patrice Killoffer (Illustrator), Jacob Siefring (Translator)

"The trade in rhinoceros-horn powder or whale’s penises being a negotiation between hoodlums of insalubrious districts and people of the world, it is in the eyes of the sovereign an inestimable social cement — to borrow a few terms already in use (but you have long known, my prince, that social harmony is a daughter to the underground economy)."

Genres: France

115 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2004

About the author

Pierre Senges (born 1968, Romans-sur-Isère) is a French writer. His work includes fifteen books, often collaborations with illustrators, and over twenty-five plays for radio.
His books are sometimes noted for having a baroque style. They frequently combine erudition and invention Fragments of Lichtenberg or play with the relation between the true and untrue Veuves au maquillage and La réfutation majeure.
Senges' radio plays (fictions radiophoniques) have been produced by France Culture and France Inter. His many prizes include the Prix Wepler, the Prix SACD Nouveau Talent Radio in 2007, the Grand prix de la fiction radiophonique de la SGDL in 2008, the Prix du deuxième roman, the Prix Rhône-Alpes, and the Prix meilleure page 111.

Reviews

[Joseph Schreiber]

Delicious anachronistic tale presented as a report to a desert-bound prince who desires to construct a city in his kingdom of sand, from his loyal subject sent on a mission to learn about the reality of cities and advise his ruler on what will need to be considered. In the spirit of the travels of Ibn Battuta, our narrator is observing the modern metropolis, but not always connecting the dots completely. The result a strangely insightful and original meditation on the nature of the urban landscape.

A joint review of this and Senges' Falstaff:Apotheosis can be found here: https://roughghosts.com/2020/01/09/th...

[Brian]

Then, to spice up the lives of your people, those incorrigible auditors of fables, you will see you it that an alligator of the White Nile resides in the conduits of our main sewer (under Avicebron Avenue) — and if you do not capture an alligator, you can just spread its legend, in that same place. [47]

Occasionally, to give ourselves the appearance of working, we will again take out the plans for our city, and the numerous ink sketches I brought back from that city; we will be like Nero and Harun al-Rashid, who disguised themselves as bread-men to slip unbeknownst into the girls’ quarters; by night we will go off to verify our documentation, and we will be very careful to reestablish small details, those that ring truest to life — (up and down every street: as clever as urchins ringing doorbells). [113]

[Joe Milazzo]

Equal parts Calvino and Queneau, not quite satire (it's too gentle) but too mordant to be a caprice. Is this truly how we organize ourselves? It isn't, and it is.