{"product_id":"many-subtle-channels-in-praise-of-potential-literature-9780674065772","title":"Many Subtle Channels: In Praise of Potential Literature","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhat sort of society could bind together Jacques Roubaud  Italo Calvino  Marcel Duchamp  and Raymond Queneauand Daniel Levin Becker  a young American obsessed with language play? Only the Oulipo  the Paris-based experimental collective founded in 1960 and fated to become one of literatures quirkiest movements.  An international organization of writers  artists  and scientists who embrace formal and procedural constraints to achieve literatures possibilities  the Oulipo (the French acronym stands for workshop for potential literature) is perhaps best known as the cradle of Georges Perecs novel A Void  which does not contain the letter e. Drawn to the Oulipos mystique  Levin Becker secured a Fulbright grant to study the organization and traveled to Paris. He was eventually offered membership  becoming only the second American to be admitted to the group. From the perspective of a young initiate  the Oulipians and their projects are at once bizarre and utterly compelling. Levin Beckers love for games  puzzles  and language play is infectious  calling to mind Elif Batumans delight in Russian literature in The Possessed.  In recent years  the Oulipo has inspired the creation of numerous other collectives: the OuMuPo (a collective of DJs)  the OuMaPo (marionette players)  the OuBaPo (comic strip artists)  the OuFlarfPo (poets who generate poetry with the aid of search engines)  and a menagerie of other Ou-X-Pos (workshops for potential something). Levin Becker discusses these and other intriguing developments in this history and personal appreciation of an iconicand iconoclasticgroup.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45665816444981,"sku":"ByrdShop_0674065778","price":37.16,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780674065772.jpg?v=1782408347","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/many-subtle-channels-in-praise-of-potential-literature-9780674065772","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}