Help!

[malignd at aol.com]

Don't know, but suggest that he might begin by looking into writers from Oulipo -- Georges Perec Raymond Queneau, Harry Mathews, et al.



-----Original Message-----
From: Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com>
To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Thu, 12 Jun 2008 7:06 pm
Subject: Help!








>From a friend:

Got a call from a patron today looking for a story that he read about
20 years ago. However, he said the story was not a new one of that
time, just that's when he
read it. He cannot remember the title or author but gave this description.

It's an essay or short story. It starts in English and progresses to
tell how a language might be changed by substituting a letter or
symbol for a letter we have
in English. As the story goes on the author is subtly changing the
letters to the symbols or new letters he has discussed so that by the
end of the story you (the
reader) are actually reading this "new" language that has morphed from
English. He strongly thinks the "new" language is German or is similar
to German. He also
has a vague notion that it might have been written by Samuel Clemens
but says that is very vague and could be totally wrong.

At first I thought he was describing Ella Minnow Pea but as he went on
I realized that story does not meet his description. Also, it wasn't
written too long ago.
Does anyone have any idea what he is talking about?



 





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