Georges Perec. Cantatrix Sopranica L.: Scientific Papers.(Book review)

Georges Perec. Cantatrix Sopranica L.: Scientific Papers. Trans. Antony Melville, Ian Monk, and John Sturrock. Intro. Marcel Benabou. Atlas Press, 2008. 100 pp. Paper: 12.00 [pounds sterling].

The neurological cause for a soprano yelling at her audience when pelted with tomatoes is, apparently, a laughing matter. According to biographer David Bellos, when Georges Perec's "Experimental Demonstration of the Tomatotopic Organization in the Soprano" found its way into a presentation at the biochemistry commission of the National Centre for Scientific Research, the chairman reading "scanned the first page, began to redden, then spluttered and had to hold on to the sides of his seat" Perec's article, the opening piece for a new collection of his "scientific writings," is a parody of the language of neurophysiology that one might read as sincere until the Histology section, when "Sopranos were perfused with olive oil and 10% Glennfiddish, and incubated at 42 I[degrees]C in 15% orange juice." A pervasive giggle underlies all of Perec's writing, and these scientific papers will delight his devotees. They are also a testament to a literary genius still under-read in the United States, despite Perec's ranking by many as among the most innovative ...