I wonder what Albert would have thought of this:
http://www.lepoint.fr/livres/canular-li ... 532_37.phpIs Claude Simon really unpublishable? A manuscript of the Nobel Prize for Literature, addressed to about twenty publishing houses, was rejected by the majority of them. Should we be surprised?
Six months ago, Serge Volle amused himself by addressing the first fifty pages of a novel by Claude Simon (Le Palace, Editions de Minuit, 1962): "To see if the reading committees would accept this manuscript today" , he explains, in retrospect. A few weeks later, he received a plethora of letters of refusal. Simon won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1985.
Twelve publishers took the trouble to explain to him why they gave up publishing this book. "The sentences are endless. They completely lose the thread to the reader. The story does not allow the development of a real plot with well-drawn characters, "reads one of his letters. Seven other houses have not yet responded. But after the echo that has been given to this affair, it is doubtful whether they are now manifested.
(...)
Through this example, I see 2 serious facts about the decline of intelligence (human at least) of our society:a) The obvious drop in the level of literature: we want something "simple", "neuneu" ...
b) The fact that these publishers have not already recognized a Nobel Prize (1985 is not so old) and worse they have not even checked the plagiarism (it's not all that early ??) .. .This non verification at the time of 2.0 company is ... uh ... just a joke?
Here I would send them a manuscript "inspired" by Proust to see ... I would sign Christophe Tsourp ... I bet they are so homeless that most would not even see the anagram