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A Review of Norman Lock's |
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There are the fictional fictions in Calvino's If on a Winter's Night a Traveler. There is the fictional encyclopedia, which refers to the fictional Uqbar, in Borge's wonderful story with the funny names in the title. And now, in that great tradition, there is the fictional non-fiction of Marco Knauff. The book in question is Notes To 'The Book of Supplemental Diagrams' for Marco Knauff's Universe, Vol. 1: Principle Features (from Ravenna Press). The book purports to be translated from the Dutch by Norman Lock, and while Dutch does exist, the translation, as such, doesn't. Lock made it up, the suggestion that it was originally in Dutch and that this is the English translation.
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1996 © 2005 |
Lock also made up Marco Knauff, his Universe, and the notes to The Book of Supplemental Diagrams. Volume 1 is a nonfiction within the fiction (and so are Volumes 2-6). There is a fictional "Translator's Foreword," a fictional biography and photograph of Marco Knauff, a fictional original title page, a fictional "Inventory of Diagrams." What I am trying to say is that the fiction is elaborate and that we should be thankful for the fiction, for the elaborateness of it, and for Norman Lock for creating it. The only problem is that Ravenna Press has only printed one hundred of these handsome little books, which will undoubtedly lead to difficulty in acquiring a copy, which will undoubtedly lead to the question of whether the book that this review is purporting to review does truly exist or is a fiction itself. [