Comments on: Le Train de Nulle Part, A Novel Written Without Verbs

By: ForestGump

ForestGump — Wed, 27 May 2009 14:44:13 +0000

stupid is stupid does!

By: rafflsia

rafflsia — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 17:24:35 +0000

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…

By: drHoward

drHoward — Sun, 11 May 2008 05:24:13 +0000

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.

By: mcintudt

mcintudt — Fri, 09 May 2008 16:40:54 +0000

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

By: Viola

Viola — Fri, 09 May 2008 15:52:04 +0000

lol Word

By: sparge

sparge — Fri, 09 May 2008 12:21:30 +0000

LOL @ Jack B!

By: astrodex

astrodex — Fri, 09 May 2008 11:40:14 +0000

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

Too much fertilizer, not enough weeds.

By: Jack B

Jack B — Fri, 09 May 2008 07:10:36 +0000

Fragment (Consider Revising)

By: ted

ted — Fri, 09 May 2008 06:20:11 +0000

It would be very annoying after two paragraphs.

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

By: Ashley

Ashley — Fri, 09 May 2008 05:20:04 +0000

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.

By: HeartlessMachine

HeartlessMachine — Thu, 08 May 2008 23:20:39 +0000

“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.

By: Stolia

Stolia — Thu, 08 May 2008 22:05:47 +0000

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

By: Sid Morrison

Sid Morrison — Thu, 08 May 2008 20:56:09 +0000

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

By: day

day — Thu, 08 May 2008 20:34:57 +0000

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

By: Orjan S Morjan

Orjan S Morjan — Thu, 08 May 2008 20:28:09 +0000

MS Word would go haywire on that.

By: Jacques

Jacques — Thu, 08 May 2008 19:49:31 +0000

cuimhne, how about: why so negative, everyone?

By: sparge

sparge — Thu, 08 May 2008 19:36:39 +0000

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.

By: sparge

sparge — Thu, 08 May 2008 19:32:37 +0000

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.

By: cuimhne

cuimhne — Thu, 08 May 2008 19:12:52 +0000

Why is everyone so negative?

By: Comstock

Comstock — Thu, 08 May 2008 18:43:58 +0000

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

By: Vako

Vako — Thu, 08 May 2008 18:35:54 +0000

Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?

By: Camille

Camille — Thu, 08 May 2008 18:24:11 +0000

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

By: Rich

Rich — Thu, 08 May 2008 18:13:02 +0000

c’est impossible… mais voilà!

By: Alecks

Alecks — Thu, 08 May 2008 17:56:53 +0000

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

By: blumaroo

blumaroo — Thu, 08 May 2008 17:22:25 +0000

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

By: L

Thu, 08 May 2008 17:17:25 +0000

Now someone needs to write one without nouns…

By: Richard Milward

Richard Milward — Thu, 08 May 2008 17:14:09 +0000

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

By: M Ichael

M Ichael — Thu, 08 May 2008 17:03:51 +0000

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

By: Brian Lutz

Brian Lutz — Thu, 08 May 2008 16:26:16 +0000

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