Welcome to Litsy!

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

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.

... and the second part! 📚
#bookhaul #TBR

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!

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.

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

#quotsyMay18

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 😘

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

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!

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. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

#LazySunday New day, new story and breakfast in bed ♥️

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

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

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

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

Matching my beads to my reads and I have a new tea charm 🎉

#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.)

#LibraryHaul

🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗

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. 😉

Well, I was going to try to read a bit more of this book tonight, but she looks so comfortable!

"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. ?

At the DMV. 😲

#firstlinefromcurrentread #anditsaugust @RealLifeReading

#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 ?

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

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

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

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!)

The ridiculousness of this...

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

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.