The Elegant Variation: ENFIN

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November 10, 2010

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Houellebecq wins his Goncourt.

“Michel Houellebecq, at last!” declared Le Monde after the chairman of the Goncourt committee stood before a crush of journalists outside the Restaurant Drouant in Paris to confirm Houellebecq’s triumph for his latest novel.

The publication of a new Houellebecq title is a box-office event in France, and La Carte et Le Territoire , his quietest, least provocative novel, has been glowingly reviewed since it appeared in September.

Previously at TEV: Textually Transmissible.

Posted at 02:38 PM in Prizes, Prizes and More Prizes | Permalink

Comments

I'm so glad he won this. It's richly deserved. He's a visionary writer who has reinvented the French novel. Vive M. Houellebecq.

Posted by: Niall | November 10, 2010 at 04:27 PM

Does anyone know if there is a (perhaps tentative) translation/publication date for this novel in English?

Posted by: Drew | November 10, 2010 at 05:46 PM

Drew: I'm sure it will be translated next year. All of his previous work has been translated and published in English, so there's no reason to think his Goncourt novel won't be.

Posted by: Niall | November 11, 2010 at 07:23 AM

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The Elegant Variation is "Fowler’s (1926, 1965) term for the inept writer’s overstrained efforts at freshness or vividness of expression. Prose guilty of elegant variation calls attention to itself and doesn’t permit its ideas to seem naturally clear. It typically seeks fancy new words for familiar things, and it scrambles for synonyms in order to avoid at all costs repeating a word, even though repetition might be the natural, normal thing to do: The audience had a certain bovine placidity, instead of The audience was as placid as cows. Elegant variation is often the rock, and a stereotype, a cliché, or a tired metaphor the hard place between which inexperienced or foolish writers come to grief. The familiar middle ground in treating these homely topics is almost always the safest. In untrained or unrestrained hands, a thesaurus can be dangerous."

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The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

November 10, 2010

ENFIN

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MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
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SECOND LOOK

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The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog. A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog "Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

November 10, 2010

ENFIN

Comments

MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE: Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism