Definitional Literature

The varying disciplines of the OuLiPians has always interested me. Some of them scientists and mathematicians, some linguists and writers, they were/are a diverse lot. As such, some of them were more focused on "engineering" writing rather than drawing from inspiration, while others sought merely to expand their ability to write, create new and exciting texts, create potential literature.

There seems to be a struggle between aleatoric and constraint procedures within the OuLiPo. The famed "N + 7" method (link gives you the definition and a handy generator!) is fairly aleatoric, whereas the lipogram (A Void) or things like acrostics, anagrams, etc. are all very restrictive. And yet, often various OuLiPians spoke outwardly against aleatory (source needed). Strangely enough, they consider John Cage one of their favorite "anticipatory plagiarists," a man who's recognized for pioneering aleatoric music.

It is my personal opinion that they were not so staunchly judgmental--they were merely attempting to focus their public image, even if they claimed to disregard public opinion.

The focus on constraint was concisely defined by one of the founding members, Raymond Queneau in this statement regarding OuLiPians: "[OuLiPians are] Rats who build the labyrinth from which they will try to escape."

But what about their aleatoric procedures? Were they merely "fun" and "trivial" exercises or were they taken more seriously than the OuLiPo lets on?

One of my favorite OuLiPian procedures is definitional literature. This process exists outside of the realm of aleatory, but also outside of constraint. Definitional literature is defined thusly:

Definitional literature / littérature définitionelle (Comp.. p 133): each meaningful word in a text is replaced by its dictionary definition / chaque mot principal d’un texte est remplacé par sa définition dans un dictionnaire

See / voir :

Trial Impressions V  in A Mid-Season Sky: Poems 1954-1991  (Carcanet, 1992)

Really, because all your doing is replacing a word with its definition, you have very little control over the outcome of the piece, unless you write your own source text to use, of course. But where's the fun in that? (I actually think using both a poem of your own or another persons poems as source texts are fun...)

What's really awesome is when you take the definitional text and replace all the important words with their definitions again; repeat. I'd call this definitional larding (sorry for the sideways text; someone scanned a book!). Try it. It will in the very least expand your vocabulary.

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"To be, or not to be, that is the question..."

1) "To have presence in the realm of perceived reality, or to not have presence in the realm of perceived reality, that is the point at issue..."

2) "To experience the state or fact of being present in the domain within which the recognized, discerned, envisioned or understood state of being real occurs, or not to experience the state or fact of being present in the domain within which the recognized, discerned, envisioned or understood state of being real occurs; that is the essential thing that determines the matter at hand..."

"To err is human; to forgive, divine."

1) "To go astray in thought or belief is a characteristic of the nature of people; to pardon an offense or an offender, characterizes God."

2) "To act as to come into a state of being away from that which is right is a feature of the inherent disposition of human beings as distinguished from animals and other beings; to release (a person) from liability of a transgression describes the individual qualities of the one Supreme Being, creator and ruler of the universe."

"A rose is a rose is a rose."

1) "Any of the wild or cultivated, usually prickly-stemmed, pinnate-leaved, showy-flowered shrubs of the genus Rosa is a wild or cultivated, usually prickly-stemmed, pinnate-leaved, showy-flowered shrub of the genus Rosa, is a wild or cultivated, usually prickly-stemmed, pinnate-leaved, showy-flowered shrub of the genus Rosa."