The first chapter of this novel, a detailed description of a richly furnished flat written entirely in the conditional mood, opens by noting that “your eye, first of all, would glide over the grey fitted carpet….” For 10 points each:
[10h] Name this novel that “is a piece of advertising copy” “in places,” per its author. This novel centers on Sylvie and Jerome, who spend a year teaching in Sfax before returning to Paris and becoming marketing executives.
ANSWER: Things: A Story of the Sixties [or Les Choses, une histoire des années soixante]
[10e] Georges Perec published Things two years before joining this movement founded by Raymond Queneau. While part of this movement, Perec wrote Life: A User’s Manual, whose last chapter uses only the periphrastic future.
ANSWER: OuLiPo [or Ouvroir de littérature potentielle or Workshop of Potential Literature] (Perec’s other Oulipo-period works include Espèces d’espaces, a section of which consists entirely of verbs in the infinitive.)
[10m] Perec’s frequent use of the conditional and simple future in Things counters this non-French collection’s claim that “the publicity image… uses only the future tense.” This collection of essays in art criticism was based on a BBC show.
ANSWER: Ways of Seeing (by John Berger)
<Arya Karthik, European Literature>