Unwritten Books
Anyone who is minded to write the index to an unwritten book is welcome to contribute it via index@rereviewed.com. which the Rogue Semiotician has set up as a clearing house for the purpose. Come all ye.
Meanwhile, for conoisseurs of the fictitious, here is a deeply worrying passage for all users or future users of the Bibliotheque Nationale, from Colette’s Mes Apprentissages:
‘On one occasion I remember Paul Masson turning up the braided collar of his coat and stitting himself down on a stool of purple granite…He drew from his pocket a small writing-case, a pen that had a cap on it, and a little bundle of cardboard dockets on each of which he proceeded to write a few words in a round, copperplate hand.
‘What are you doing, Paul?’
‘I am working. I am working at my job. I am on the staff of the Library Catalogue. I am writing out titles.’
‘Oh! And can you do that from memory!’
He pointed his little clock-maker’s beard at me. ‘From memory? What would be the good of that? I am doing something much more useful. I have observed that the Library is singularly lacking in Latin and Italian works of the fifteenth century. Also in German manuscripts. Also in the private correspondence of royalty. And there are many other small lacunae, No doubt luck or scholarship will soom remedy the shortage, but until that occurs, I propose to provide the titles of these extremely interesting works … they should, they ought, to have been written. In that way I shall at least save the honour of the Catalogue …’
‘But why?’ I objected naively. ‘if the books don’t exist?’
He waved an airy hand. ‘Ah!’ said he. ‘I can’t do everything …’
Actually, when I have found myself in the Rue Richelieu grappling with BN Manuscripts, they’ve been fairly sensible — even though my concerns have included Latin and Italian works of the fifteenth century. Though one does begin to wonder whether some of the works in question spontaneously generated to fill the space Paul Masson made for them. The biblioteca nacional in Madrid, on the other hand, is clearly at an earlier stage of this process.