Les choses: Une histoire des années soixante (Things: A Story of the Sixties)

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Georges Perec

Julliard, Paris, 2010; originally published 1965, French

Fiction

ISBN: 9782266170123

On 2 book lists

Pierre Bernard

On Pierre Bernard’s Book List

Perec’s first novel, written in 1965, is a criticism of the consumer culture as perceived in the 1960s. As one of the founders of the Grapus collective, this is a topic I have wrestled with all my life. For any designer with left-leaning convictions, Things is a pivotal text.

Matali Crasset

On Matali Crasset’s Book List

Perec is an author I always read with relish and this book was the first by the author that I devoured. Beyond the issues it addresses, my fascination with Perec’s work perhaps lies in the echo that I see in my practice as a designer: within the very specific and restrictive rules of writing, you can always find the freedom to invent, similar to the way the product designer creates something inventive within the constraints of industry.

C'est un auteur que je lis toujours avec délectation--ce livre car il fut le premier de Perec que j'ai dévoré. Au delà des sujets qu'il aborde, ma fascination pour l'écriture de Perec est peut-être l'écho que j'y vois dans ma pratique de designer : avec des règles d'écriture très précises et contraignantes, on peut toujours trouver une liberté et inventer, s'inventer, comme le designer avec les contraintes industrielles.

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