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La septième fonction du langage
La septième fonction du langage: roman | Laurent Binet
« A Bologne, il couche avec Bianca dans un amphithéâtre du XVIIe et il échappe à un attentat à la bombe. Ici, il manque de se faire poignarder dans une bibliothèque de nuit par un philosophe du langage et il assiste à une scène de levrette plus ou moins mythologique sur une photocopieuse. Il a rencontré Giscard à l’Elysée, a croisé Foucault dans un sauna gay, a participé à une poursuite en voiture à l’issue de laquelle il a échappé à une tentative d’assassinat, a vu un homme en tuer un autre avec un parapluie empoisonné, a découvert une société secrète où on coupe les doigts des perdants, a traversé l’Atlantique pour récupérer un mystérieux document. Il a vécu en quelques mois plus d’événements extraordinaires qu’il aurait pensé en vivre durant toute sa vie. Simon sait reconnaître du romanesque quand il en rencontre. Il repense aux surnuméraires d’Umberto Eco. Il tire sur le joint. » Le point de départ de ce roman est la mort de Roland Barthes, renversé par une camionnette de blanchisserie le 25 février 1980. L'hypothèse est qu'il s'agit d'un assassinat. Dans les milieux intellectuels et politiques de l'époque, tout le monde est suspect...
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review
squirrelbrain
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Mehso-so

Well, that was an odd one. Based on the real-life death of literary theorist Barthes, who was run over by a laundry van, this novel posits that it was in fact murder.

There‘s a (very violent) secret society, some sex (it is a French novel after all!) and a lot of politics.

It was a rather weird mix of a Pink Panther / Insp. Clouseau movie and a university lecture on linguistic theory.

#bookspin
#jennyis30 #literary
#mandmchallenge2020 #mashup

squirrelbrain @BarbaraBB - it started off OK but I (quite literally!) lost the plot about 3/4 of the way through and started to skim read. You might like it though if you can concentrate better than me - speedreading is a bad habit of mine.... 4y
squirrelbrain Actually Jenny @jenniferw88 - I‘m wondering if this would fit #hardboiledcrime instead? What‘s the definition of that? 4y
BarbaraBB Great review but I think I‘ll skip it for now 😀 4y
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squirrelbrain Yes, I‘d skip it too @BarbaraBB , knowing what I know now! It was a bit intense.... 😘 4y
jenniferw88 @squirrelbrain here's the definition, but I think you'll decide to stick with literary. It's obviously up to you: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardboiled 4y
TheAromaofBooks haha great review - sounds like a complicated book! 4y
squirrelbrain Yeah, @jenniferw88 - it fits some of the themes, but it‘s set in the 80s so wrong era. I‘ll stick with literary for now! 😘 4y
Smrloomis Ugh 😅 that sounds awful to me! 😂 4y
charl08 Nice penguins! 4y
squirrelbrain I have two shelves of them @charl08 â¤ï¸ 🧠4y
BarbaraTheBibliophage Sure does sound like a mash up!! Great job. 📚♥ï¸ðŸ‘ŠðŸ» 4y
72 likes11 comments
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SlytheSly
Pickpick

Un livre très français dans son intelligence et profondeur. If you are not a scholar (like me), use reference materials to fully enjoy the depth of the book. Recommended if you are ready to work a bit.

TheEllieMo I read this for book club last year. I do think Binet is trying to be a bit too clever but nevertheless I enjoyed reading it. 5y
3 likes1 comment
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Violetta
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... and the second part! 📚
#bookhaul #TBR

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Tonton
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Pickpick

I am so excited! I just started this, and you know that feeling when the book exceeds everything you hoped it would be? Fact: Roland Barthes dies, hit by a car, after a meeting with Mitterrand. But what if it was not an accident? Can semiology (study of communication, not linguistics but signs/systems of meaning)actually be a secret weapon? The driver of the car that killed Barthes seems to be a Russian, Paris police, Bulgarians, secret societies!

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morgan_lionheart
Pickpick

I loved this! It's not for everyone - if I hadn't had to read Barthes, Foucault, Eco, and Butler in grad school, the whole book would have been pretty meaningless. This book is both an irreverent satire of and a respectful homage to the great French intellectuals of the late 20th century, and it is utterly delightful.

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Simona
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A wild story, which takes part even in Venice on the island of Murano, famous for its #glass

#quotsyMay18

Crazeedi Hmmm, very intriguing. Tbr pile! 6y
Simona @Crazeedi It‘s a very unusual story playing around with genres and with language. 6y
Crazeedi That sounds up my alley!👠6y
78 likes2 stack adds3 comments
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Simona
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My personal shortlist for this year Man Booker International Prize. A varied collage of genres, themes and styles, some are very serious, some less, but all are worth your attention 😘

Leniverse I've been wondering about Frankenstein in Baghdad. The title caught my attention at the library. I'll add it to my list of books to borrow. 6y
Simona @Leniverse The author has certainly chosen a very different way of narrative to tell the story about what was/is wrong in the post-war Iraq. (edited) 6y
BookishMe @Leniverse yes I too am intrigued by the title. Can't recall if it's in the library. But it's been cropping up on my book radar and I am unlikely to forget it 6y
Cinfhen Just took a screenshot 6y
74 likes5 comments
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vivjm
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This was the only book my local Waterstones had from the #MBI longlist. Didn't think it would be my sort of thing, but I'm finding it surprisingly enjoyable

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TheWildCard
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Pickpick

Semiotics and suspense and Foucault...oh my! Binet writes fictional stories (alternate histories?) about real-life historical events. This book turns Roland Barthes‘s death into a suspense novel about semiotics, assassins, and the seventh function of language. All the greats are there, including Chomsky (hitting on a student and smoking a joint at a frat party at Cornell). Recommended!

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Simona
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Pickpick

A story about wild hunt for the 7th function of language is complex,tense,banal, and is based on linguistic theory, on the use/understanding of semiotics. My knowledge of these theories is modest,but with the help of google, I enjoyed in reading. Multilayered story,brilliantly built from the imaginary and real-life intellectuals/academics, sometimes hard to understand it, but-it is a witty story playing around with genres and linguistics. â­ï¸â­ï¸â­ï¸â­ï¸

brendanmleonard Sounds amazing! 6y
BarbaraBB I really want to read this book! I have ordered my copy. Great review! 6y
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Laura317 That is intriguing! Stacked. 6y
Simona @brendanmleonard I think that the story is amazing, especially because of how multilayered it is, which allows readers to read at different levels. 6y
Simona @BarbaraBB Thanks 😘 It was a pleasure to read it, but I have never googled so much as I did with this book. Google was my best friend 🙄 6y
Simona @Laura317 It‘s hard to say anything about content without spoiling it, because in the base is detective/mystery novel. 6y
55 likes3 stack adds7 comments
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Simona
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#LazySunday New day, new story and breakfast in bed ♥ï¸

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TheWildCard
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Next book up. I really enjoyed HHhH, so I‘ve been looking forward to reading this one, too.

BookishMe Belated welcome to Litsy 👋🾠👋ðŸ¾!! 6y
TheWildCard @BookishMe Thank you! 6y
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Emilymdxn
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Excited to be reading my first book from this years Man Booker International list!! And to fit a French book into my last few days in French Canada. This book is so weird and difficult - having to look up a lot of stuff even tho I supposedly covered literary theory in my degree, I‘m finding it rewarding to read though even if it is heavy going #french #booker #bookerinternational

Jess7 I love my paperwhite too! 6y
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mcctrish
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Pickpick

This book was a crazy ride! There is mystery, mayhem, murder and mutilation. There are betrayals and double crossings and serious sex scenes. It is set in the later 70‘s, early 80‘s in France ( translated from French) and crosses the globe like a train wreck in search of a lost manuscript

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mcctrish
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Getting a pedicure and reading a bit, very nice Wednesday afternoon

Gezemice That looks ominous - a hatchet and feet (edited) 6y
mcctrish I thought a hatchet was funny at a pedicure 🤣 6y
27 likes2 comments
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mcctrish
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Matching my beads to my reads and I have a new tea charm 🎉

Book_in_hands I have that same mug!â¤ï¸ 6y
mcctrish @Book_in_hands Heidi I use it a lot, I might need more bookish mugs 😆 6y
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BookishMarginalia
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#CurrentlyListening to this madcap mystery set in the rarified world of 1980 French literary theory. Right up my alley! (I studied lit theory in college and grad school.)

MayJasper Enjoy ☺ 6y
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Well-ReadNeck
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#LibraryHaul

🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗

Reggie Please read The Answers first. Because I‘m selfish and I want to hear what another person has to say about that book. Lol 6y
Well-ReadNeck @Reggie Sold! Will pick it up first!!! 6y
110 likes2 comments
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merelybookish
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Pickpick

So, much to my surprise, I ended up liking this book. I do enjoy when a book goes meta and this one proved a sort of playful intellectual puzzle, putting a bunch of theories about language and the novel into action.
I know a teeny bit of 20th-century French literary theory. I expect the more you know, the better you enjoy the book. (I'm sure I missed a lot.) But you get the gist as you read.
This is a picture of the author. He's kind of cute. 😉

vivastory Did you read HHHH? 7y
merelybookish @vivastory No. Did you? 7y
vivastory Not yet. I want to do so soon though 7y
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ErickaS_Flyleafunfurled That look on his face: "Hey gurl, come check out my book" Dont mind if I do, gorgeous! ? 7y
Suet624 He is kind of cute. ðŸ‘🼠7y
mcctrish Yes he is, I‘m reading this now and wondering if I am smart enough ( but enjoying it none the less) 6y
59 likes1 stack add6 comments
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Palimpsest
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Well, I was going to try to read a bit more of this book tonight, but she looks so comfortable!

Balibee146 What a cutie 7y
23 likes2 comments
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merelybookish
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"And there is always that procession of boys and girls wearing live lobsters on their heads or walking them on leashes, the lobster being, for reasons unknown, the fashionable animal in Paris, 1980."

This book imagines what would happen if French philosopher Roland Barthes had been murdered. I want to be smart enough to get it. But I also think it might be a bunch of pretentious hooey. ?

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merelybookish
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At the DMV. 😲

Lmstraubie Meaning lots of reading time! 7y
AmyG Godspeed! ;) 7y
merelybookish @Lmstraubie @AmyG I did get some reading done but it wasn't too, too bad. 7y
67 likes3 comments
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merelybookish
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62 likes1 stack add
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MrBook
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#TBRtemptation post 6! A comedic look at French intellectual tradition. Part Name of the Rose", part Da Vinci Code. Paris, 1980, literary critic Roland Barthes dies by laundry van. Accident or murder? Detective Jacque Bayard's on the case. He finds a linguist's lost manuscript and The Logos Club, a secret society dating to Ancient Rome. You'll see Umberto Ecco, Foucault, Derrida, and others in a new, interesting light. #blameLitsy #blameMrBook ?

62 likes5 stack adds
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charl08
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Pickpick

Original and fun: recommended for anyone who has ever thought theorists took themselves too seriously.

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charl08
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Original methodological error... Confusing life with literature... It's not the same thing...

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charl08
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So enjoying this mash up of crime thriller and French lit theory!

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charl08
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My copy has a red seven along the edge of the pages, reproduced (kind of) for your viewing pleasure... I love the mocking of elite French scholars (Althusser here, who Binet creates as worried he hasn't quite read his shelves!)

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charl08
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The ridiculousness of this...

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Eyejaybee
Mehso-so

I really did not enjoy this book. It may well have been very clever but I found something irritatingly self-satisfied about the whole thing. Read my goodreads review at: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31348246-the-7th-function-of-language

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Tonton

Now this should be intriguing! https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/may/07/the-7th-function-of-language-laure... number 1 on my TNT list.

Tonton That's TBR list😎 7y
batsy I've had my eye on this one! Saw Jessa Crispin (formerly of Bookslut) recommend it in an interview... It sounds good. 7y
Tonton It does, it does. I loved Barthes' Empire of Signs too. 7y
7 likes1 stack add3 comments