Book Banishing, November 2011

This month I'll be casting out Jean-Philippe Toussaint's Camera, a book from my last literature class during my MFA program, one that fully accomplishes what it sets out to do. I humbly submit, however, that what it sets out to do is not worth doing.

From an interview with Toussaint in the back of the Dalkey Archive Press edition of Camera:

[The first sentence of the book is] a manifesto, a program. I don't know how aware of this I was. But still, it took me over a month to write the first paragraph. I still know it by heart. "It was at about the same time in my life, a calm life in which ordinarily nothing happened, that two events coincided, events that, taken separately, were of hardly any interest, and that, considered together, were unfortunately not connected in any way." It's a very radical opening, and it really is having fun with the readers. Here I am, a thirty-year-old writer saying: "What I'm about to tell you is absolutely irrelevant." In other words: "I'm about to make you feel foolish." It's a very impertinent opening. I'm responding very offhandedly to Kafka's famous aphorism: "In a fight between you and the world, back the world," with "In a fight between you and reality, be discouraging." So yes, it's a manifesto, but it isn't a theoretical essay or piece; it's there, in the book itself, in the opening paragraph of the book, as a theory in action. Underlying my novel is, although it isn't expressed theoretically, an idea of literature focused on the insignificant, on the banal, on the mundane, the "not interesting," the "not edifying," on lulls in time, on marginal events, which are usually excluded from literature and are not dealt with in books.

Insignificant. Banal. Mundane. Not interesting. Not edifying. Yep, five check marks there. But why? This is an example of a creative endeavor that can be, but does not necessarily need to be, done. The idea Toussaint plays with is just as [insignificant, banal, mundane... pick your least favorite] as the reality of reading his book.

I do wonder if, having been exposed to the petabytes of banality that make up internet content (like this post!), not to mention the apex of observational comedy of the insignificant that was Seinfeld, if this is simply a book/idea whose time has passed for me. Perhaps it's an issue of quotes and parentheses....

• "This mundane thing is important," says the internet (which I, in turn, think is funny).

vs.

• "This mundane thing is important," says Jerry/George/Elaine/Kramer (which Larry David & Jerry Seinfield think I'll think is funny).

vs.

•  "This mundane thing is important," says Toussaint's characters (and which Toussaint knows isn't funny or important but he includes anyway out of a desire to make his readers experience in writing those elements that "are usually excluded from literature and not dealt with in books.")

I think perhaps the most appropriate way to get rid of this book from my collection is to simply forget about it. Done.