I love constrained writing and I'm so glad I found this post!
I know of a few more you don't cover here:
-Doug Nufer's Metamorphosis (includes five univocalic versions of the opening of Kafka's wonderful story, alongside longer anagram-based retellings and other variations)
And thank you so much for your comment—I love hearing about more examples. I know other work of Doug Nufer (Negativeland, Never Again), so I look forward to his Metamorphosis—at a glance it looks like it bears a certain resemblance to Quineau's Exercises in Style (which also, come to think of it, includes a lipogram among its other 98 variations). And the Shakespeare univocalics look impressive, too.
When I found the reddit thread r/AVoid5—devoted solely to posts which are lipograms in e—I had to post a link to this essay. I received the following comment from redditor
alapanamo (https://www.reddit.com/user/alapanamo/), who offered the following comment, which I liked enough to want to repost it here, with they gracefully permitted. All the rest of this comment is by alapanamo:
Thanks for sharing your fascinating tour and analysis of lipograms with us.
Solidifying Roubaud's "dictum," much if not most discussion on this glyph-shunning sub spins in constant orbit around said glyph - a tidal lock on a gimmick. It's fun in a way that doing a sudoku is fun, satisfying in a way akin to pulling off a difficult stunt (and I admit my satisfaction grows in proportion to my post's word count, as I strain to maintain an air of fluidity).
But what artistic quality can a symbol's omission impart on a work, minus a fixation on its own omission? I find that univocalic writing, if said aloud, may boast a particular sonorous quality similar to rhyming (just look to C.C. Bombaugh's "No cool monsoons blow soft on Oxford dons..."); not so our poor uni-glyph lipogram. If a work has intrinsic artistic worth, oh and also it's a lipogram but that part's not important, why add that constraint to start with? Showing off can only do so much. So far, any lipogrammatic work approaching "valid art form" status has, I think, unavoidably bound its topic to its constraint. Hard to say if or how this condition can shift. But as you point out, constraint is a boon to imagination so who knows.
And now as I sit gazing raptly into my umbilicus, all I spy is lint gazing back. :/
I got another for you!
"A World Without... The Letter A": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Urfqbx8VUU
The Spanish original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1c1drCwiDI
I love constrained writing and I'm so glad I found this post!
I know of a few more you don't cover here:
-Doug Nufer's Metamorphosis (includes five univocalic versions of the opening of Kafka's wonderful story, alongside longer anagram-based retellings and other variations)
-Ho'oponopono by Satisfire: https://opensea.io/collection/ioueay-oiseaux
Apparently meant to be one of a five-part series, but I'm not sure they have posted any others?
-Six Shakespeare Univocalics: https://www.shakespeareteacher.com/blog/archives/category/lipogram
Measure for Measure is "Just, But Unjust" and Tempest is "Nymph Myth."
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed the post.
And thank you so much for your comment—I love hearing about more examples. I know other work of Doug Nufer (Negativeland, Never Again), so I look forward to his Metamorphosis—at a glance it looks like it bears a certain resemblance to Quineau's Exercises in Style (which also, come to think of it, includes a lipogram among its other 98 variations). And the Shakespeare univocalics look impressive, too.
When I found the reddit thread r/AVoid5—devoted solely to posts which are lipograms in e—I had to post a link to this essay. I received the following comment from redditor
alapanamo (https://www.reddit.com/user/alapanamo/), who offered the following comment, which I liked enough to want to repost it here, with they gracefully permitted. All the rest of this comment is by alapanamo:
Thanks for sharing your fascinating tour and analysis of lipograms with us.
Solidifying Roubaud's "dictum," much if not most discussion on this glyph-shunning sub spins in constant orbit around said glyph - a tidal lock on a gimmick. It's fun in a way that doing a sudoku is fun, satisfying in a way akin to pulling off a difficult stunt (and I admit my satisfaction grows in proportion to my post's word count, as I strain to maintain an air of fluidity).
But what artistic quality can a symbol's omission impart on a work, minus a fixation on its own omission? I find that univocalic writing, if said aloud, may boast a particular sonorous quality similar to rhyming (just look to C.C. Bombaugh's "No cool monsoons blow soft on Oxford dons..."); not so our poor uni-glyph lipogram. If a work has intrinsic artistic worth, oh and also it's a lipogram but that part's not important, why add that constraint to start with? Showing off can only do so much. So far, any lipogrammatic work approaching "valid art form" status has, I think, unavoidably bound its topic to its constraint. Hard to say if or how this condition can shift. But as you point out, constraint is a boon to imagination so who knows.
And now as I sit gazing raptly into my umbilicus, all I spy is lint gazing back. :/
I built a stack of cards up high
and shakily it stood
I did not think too hard on why;
'twas only that I could
And proud was I in such a task,
in such a joyous strain
But, having built it, now I ask:
Why should I build again?