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of their combination), says Okopenko'< and where better can he do this than in an
encyclopaedia, where seemingly self-contained elements contain in the reading process
always a trace ofthe elements read before - where one comes from is always contained in
where one is. Reading and interpreting any text is, of course, always a cumulative
process; the difference here is that the orderin which the elements are read is countless
and governed by choice as well as serendipity rather than any order given in the text.
Okopenko creates a new form ofnovel, a potential novel that is tightly structured while at
the same time open to aleatory processes.
Readers can start anywhere they want and browse through the book at random, or read it
following the cross-references. Whichever way is chosen, the readers themselves will
have to piece the various elements together to create their version of the journey. The
only place from which readers are not encouraged to start is the first entry on the first
page; under A theywill find:
Sie sind es gewohnt, ein Buch - unter Umgehung des Vorwortes - von vom nach
hinten zu lesen. Sehr praktisch. Aber diesmal schlagen Sie, bitte, zur
Gebrauchsanweisung zuriick, denn ohne die werden Sie das Buch nicht zum Roman
machen. Ja: dieses Buch miissen erst Sie zum Roman machen. 1m neuen Theater
spielt das Publikum auch mit. Warum nicht auch im neuen Roman. (P.9)
This small extract, which could be supported with others from the book, already
summarises the points Okopenko is interested in: reader involvement, the conventions
oftraditional narrative and its "linear" beginning-to-end construction, thatdoes not seem
to be an equivalent of modern day chaotic life, which is represented much more
accurately in the juxtaposition ofheterogeneous elements and the mixture ofchance and
logic ofthe lexicon.
The choice of the lexicon format is, however, not only a formal language experiment. In
contrast to the experiments of concrete poetry (a movement with a strong base in
Vienna at around the same time he started work on his LEXIKON), Okopenko is not
interested in achieving a pure form oflanguage that excludes any trace ofsubjectivity but
believes in the expressive potential of language. He chooses the encyclopaedia as a
114 (in an interview with Ronald Pohl about the electronic lexicon-project) Ronald Pohl, "Des
Dichters Flu6fahrt - eine Reise mit der Maus", at: http://www.ping.at/users/essl/bibliogr/elex.
html (4.8.1996), no page numbers.
Chapter 2 - page 71