Le Train de Nulle Part, A Novel Written Without Verbs

Posted by Alex in Book & Lit, Daily Trivia on May 8, 2008 at 11:20 am


Le Train de Nulle Part (The Train From Nowhere) is a 233-page French novel written by Michel Thaler. It is written without a single verb.

Sample (from Wikipedia):

Quelle aubaine ! Une place de libre, ou presque, dans ce compartiment. Une escale provisoire, pourquoi pas ! Donc, ma nouvelle adresse dans ce train de nulle part : voiture 12, 3ème compartiment dans le sens de la marche. Encore une fois, pourquoi pas ?

Fool’s luck! A vacant seat, almost, in that train. A provisional stop, why not? So, my new address in this nowhere train: car 12, 3rd compartment, forward. Once again, why not?

Thaler said this about verbs: "The verb is like a weed in a field of flowers. You have to get rid of it to allow the flowers to grow and flourish. Take away the verbs and the language speaks for itself." (Source)


Previous post
this post? Please Email this               
Next post

FROM THE NEATORAMA ONLINE STORE - Your purchase helps support the blog!

COMMENT

29 comments to "Le Train de Nulle Part, A Novel Written Without Verbs"

  1. Brian Lutz
    May 8th, 2008 at 11:26 am

    I can think of plenty of adjectives that could be used to describe this whole idea… None of them printable here.

  2. M Ichael
    May 8th, 2008 at 12:03 pm

    Funny, you can’t “take away the verbs” without a verb, can you?

  3. Richard Milward
    May 8th, 2008 at 12:14 pm

    Reminds me of the novel “Gadsby”, which was written without using the letter “e”…

  4. L
    May 8th, 2008 at 12:17 pm

    Now someone needs to write one without nouns…

  5. blumaroo
    May 8th, 2008 at 12:22 pm

    Reminds me of the book “Eunoia” by Christian Bok. Each chapter is written using only one of the vowels. Reads like beat poetry.

  6. Alecks
    May 8th, 2008 at 12:56 pm

    How ridiculous! An entire book without verbs… Such madness… Michel Thaler, you nut.

  7. Rich
    May 8th, 2008 at 1:13 pm

    c’est impossible… mais voilà!

  8. Camille
    May 8th, 2008 at 1:24 pm

    Reminds me of Georges Perec’s book La Disparition, 300 pages written without the letter “e”. Brilliant novel by the way.

  9. Vako
    May 8th, 2008 at 1:35 pm

    Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?

    :-P

  10. Comstock
    May 8th, 2008 at 1:43 pm

    yucko! Seemed cute until I got to the pompous and nonsensical explanation about verbs, flowers, and language.

  11. cuimhne
    May 8th, 2008 at 2:12 pm

    Why is everyone so negative?

  12. sparge
    May 8th, 2008 at 2:32 pm

    Ah, but doesn’t the colon represent the word “is”?

    Besides, shouldn’t a novel be more like a field of wildflowers? If I want a nice, cultivated literary garden, I’ll go read a poem.

  13. sparge
    May 8th, 2008 at 2:36 pm

    OK, reading some of the passages on the link, it seems like much of the time verbs are implied, but not explicitly written.

    Also, though I know little about French, I have a feeling that the writing works better in its native language.

  14. Jacques
    May 8th, 2008 at 2:49 pm

    cuimhne, how about: why so negative, everyone?

  15. Orjan S Morjan
    May 8th, 2008 at 3:28 pm

    MS Word would go haywire on that.

  16. day
    May 8th, 2008 at 3:34 pm

    Read Erich Fromm’s ‘To Be or To Have’.

  17. Sid Morrison
    May 8th, 2008 at 3:56 pm

    Cormac McCarthy’s broken English writing gets fairly close….

  18. Stolia
    May 8th, 2008 at 5:05 pm

    Great! A novelty book! I needed something to put on my coffee table next to my Elvis candy dish and banana phone.

  19. HeartlessMachine
    May 8th, 2008 at 6:20 pm

    “The verb __ like a weed in a field of flowers. You ____ __ ___ ___ __ it to _____ the flowers to ____ and ________. ____ ____ the verbs and the language ______ for itself.”

    This dead field of flowers… More fertilizer, please.

  20. Ashley
    May 9th, 2008 at 12:20 am

    Agree with HeartlessMachine. He refuses to write in verbs, yet speaks in them? I don’t mind a publicity stunt or an exercise in constrained writing, but don’t make it loftier than it is.

  21. ted
    May 9th, 2008 at 1:20 am

    It would be very annoying after two paragraphs.

    If it becomes a book on tape, they could get William Shatner to read it.

  22. Jack B
    May 9th, 2008 at 2:10 am

    Fragment (Consider Revising)

  23. astrodex
    May 9th, 2008 at 6:40 am

    What starts out as a writing class exercise becomes a pretentious published novel.

    Too much fertilizer, not enough weeds.

  24. sparge
    May 9th, 2008 at 7:21 am

    LOL @ Jack B!

  25. Viola
    May 9th, 2008 at 10:52 am

    lol Word

  26. mcintudt
    May 9th, 2008 at 11:40 am

    Hey, no french verb conjugation to struggle through. Sounds easier to read. 14 verbs tenses all ignored for my reading pleasure.

  27. drHoward
    May 11th, 2008 at 12:24 am

    English has lots of nouns and a few verbs. Chompksy on his study of language found that the Navaho language is mostly verbs/adjectives with a few nouns. He said the type of language we use dictates the way we think.

  28. rafflsia
    December 12th, 2008 at 12:24 pm

    I don’t see why everyone’s so depressed about this: haven’t any of you tried to learn french? I’m telling you, no verbs actually sounds sorta nice…

  29. ForestGump
    May 27th, 2009 at 9:44 am

    stupid is stupid does!


PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT

Neatorama Comment Policy
You don't have to register or login to comment, but it's easier if you do so. Comments aren't censored, but those that are abusive or off-topic may be edited or deleted.


Stay updated on the comments with Comment RSS