{"id":79143,"date":"2014-11-05T15:42:29","date_gmt":"2014-11-05T20:42:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=79143"},"modified":"2014-11-05T15:42:29","modified_gmt":"2014-11-05T20:42:29","slug":"deconstructing-edouard-leve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/05\/deconstructing-edouard-leve\/","title":{"rendered":"Deconstructing \u00c9douard Lev\u00e9"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"71-unIK-skL\"<\/a>

From the cover of the English-language edition of Autoportrait<\/i>.<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

I find myself ugly more often than handsome. I like my voice after a night out or when I have a cold. I am unacquainted with hunger. I was never in the army. I have never pulled a knife on anyone. I have never used a machine gun. I have fired a revolver. I have fired a rifle. I have shot an arrow. I have netted butterflies. I have observed rabbits. I have eaten pheasants. I recognize the scent of a tiger. I have touched the dry head of a tortoise and an elephant\u2019s hard skin. I have caught sight of a herd of wild boar in a forest in Normandy. I ride. I do not explain. I do not excuse. I do not classify. I go fast.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u00c9douard Lev\u00e9\u2019s \u201cWhen I Look at a Strawberry, I Think of a Tongue<\/a>\u201d appeared in our Spring 2011 issue<\/a>, and it\u2019s been a staff favorite ever since\u2014a beguiling and sui generis self-portrait. It\u2019s taken from the pages of Autoportrait<\/em>, which Lev\u00e9 wrote in 2002 while he was traveling across America, taking the photographs that became \u201cS\u00e9rie Am\u00e9rique.\u201d He\u2019s still best known as a photographer, but his four works of prose\u2014Oeuvres<\/em>, Journal<\/em>, Autoportrait<\/em>, and Suicide<\/em>\u2014have begun to find the wider readership they deserve. Lev\u00e9 delivered Suicide<\/em> to his publisher eight days before he took his own life, in 2007, at the age of forty-two.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re in San Francisco, join our editor, Lorin Stein, in conversation with Jan Steyn for \u201cDeconstructing \u00c9douard Lev\u00e9<\/a>,\u201d tonight at The Lab. (Lorin and Jan have both translated Lev\u00e9.) Two Lines Press\u2019s Scott Esposito, a certified Lev\u00e9-ian and the coauthor of The End of Oulipo?<\/em>, will moderate the discussion:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will immerse ourselves in the artistry and ideas behind his books\u2014and we will also invite the audience to participate in creating some Lev\u00e9-ian artworks and texts of our own. No prior knowledge of Lev\u00e9 or experimental prose necessary!\u201d<\/p>\n

Entry is free, and the event begins at seven this evening<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I find myself ugly more often than handsome. I like my voice after a night out or when I have a cold. I am unacquainted with hunger. I was never in the army. I have never pulled a knife on anyone. I have never used a machine gun. I have fired a revolver. I have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2559],"tags":[14740,1605,15942,1835,15940,456,93,15941],"class_list":["post-79143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bulletin","tag-edouard-leve","tag-events-2","tag-french-literature","tag-issue-196","tag-jan-steyn","tag-lorin-stein","tag-san-francisco","tag-two-lines-press"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDeconstructing \u00c9douard Lev\u00e9<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Tonight at The Lab in San Francisco, join Two Lines Press and editor Lorin Stein to celebrate the work of French writer \u00c9douard Lev\u00e9.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/05\/deconstructing-edouard-leve\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Deconstructing \u00c9douard Lev\u00e9 by Dan Piepenbring\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"November 5, 2014 \u2013 I find myself ugly more often than handsome. 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