14 February 2011

An appeal to sedentariness


Choose, but choose well.
A magnificent illuminated crystal castle with the open, brisk northern sky?
Or a small, warm, enclosed box, where the hostesses have i-Pads?
Whatever; it's your experience.

3 February 2011

Salut!
The Topography holds up briskly under a second reading in the calm of the Pyrénées. I have not succeeded, however, in digesting the term "anecdotée" (Topographie Anecdotée du Hasard). After an extensive examination of the Grand Larousse Encyclopédique in seven volumes I point out for your benefit:
1 — that the orthography anecdoté, ée, which presupposes the verb anecdoter (non-existent) is not listed, and that it is thus necessary to consider it as a neologism of your invention, a rather inharmonious one.
2 — that the word anecdote in its original sense (from the Greek anekdotos) signifies "things unpublished": I forward this observation for your cogitation.
3 — that there exists, on the other hand, the word anecdotomanie, from which one can very properly build anecdotomaniaque, and which means mania for research, for telling anecdotes. It offers, moreover, the advantage of being recognized by the Academy (in the spirit of the "nouveau réaliste").
Pierre Restany
Can Day, Amélie-les-Bains, 30-12-61
in Daniel Spoerri, An Anecdoted Topography of Chance (1995)