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The ‘Problem’ of the Everyday and the Banal The ‘Problem’ of the Everyday and the Banal
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A Second take on the Banality of Twitter A Second take on the Banality of Twitter
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The form of Twitter: ‘A World of Impossible Discourses’ The form of Twitter: ‘A World of Impossible Discourses’
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The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon: Precedents of a Formal Method The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon: Precedents of a Formal Method
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The Search for a ‘New Anthropology’ of the Infra-Ordinary The Search for a ‘New Anthropology’ of the Infra-Ordinary
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Notes Notes
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8 ‘Things That Should Be Short’: Perec, Sei Shōnagon, Twitter and the Uses of Banality
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Published:April 2017
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Abstract
This chapter reconsiders Twitter as a ‘machinery that produces banality’ and the criticisms this attracts, by approaching it via the work of Georges Perec, and his enduring interest in the musings of the late tenth century Japanese courtesan, Sei Shōnagon and her The Pillow Book. Perec identified in her work two specific elements that became crucial in his own writing: (1) an attentiveness to the inner workings of the everyday; and, (2) an appreciation of the uses and value of list-making. ‘Sei Shonagon does not sort; she lists and begins again. One theme sets off one list, of things or of anecdotes,’ he writes. In this chapter, we aim to present an account of both these strands of Perec’s work in order to suggest that, through them, we can gain insight into why the banalities of the everyday, as experienced via Twitter in particular, are both engaging and vitally significant.
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