The title of the anthology where this piece appears is a reminder that experimental prose, like its traditional counterpart, follows the never-confuse-fact-with-fiction rule. Georges Perec, who never took reality for granted, offered this beau present to Peter Stämpfli on the occasion of the Swiss artist’s exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in 1980. You could call it a poem or a short story; the author would not have minded either way. The opening part uses only the letters in the recipient’s name; then other letters appear and disappear in succession. The translation by a fellow Oulipian, Ian Monk, loses none of the original constraints. “As a still, I trap real life’s stiff seams,” the piece begins. “Realities gestate images; as images, realities,” we read in the fifth stanza (the letter “g” having just been introduced). The author plays with us for a while, before returning to “real life” to tell us, “I affirm its verities.”
Originally published in French as ‘Alphabet pour Stämpfli’, 1981. Included in All That Is Evident Is Suspect: Readings from the Oulipo, 1963—2018, McSweeney’s, 2018
A Personal Anthology 