Jordan Stump had often contemplated the relationship between a translation and the book itself,” ruminating on the intriguing inherent sameness and difference between the two. In The
Other Book, Stump examines the other” forms of a book and the ways in which they both mirror and depart from the original. Grounding his witty and original study in an exploration of
four forms of Raymond Queneau’s Le chiendenta copy, the manuscript, a translation, and a critical editionStump poses questions designed to help readers reconsider the nature of
fiction and reading.
Each form of Le chiendent both is and is not what we mean when we say Le chiendent, yet the friction between their ways of being and that of the book itself” proves
unexpectedly productive, raising troublesome questions about the nature of textuality, reading, language, and knowledge. It also positions us to assess several answers proposed in response to
such questions and to wonder about their usefulness. And as we consider those questions, we will have Queneau’s novel beside us, further confounding our attempts to answerfor our inability
to answer those questions is precisely the point of The Other Book, as it is of Le chiendent.
