Adam Polio, the central character in J. M. G. Le Clézio’s early novel, The Interrogation, offers the following sure-fire method of subduing and destroying a deadly rattlesnake. Pay close attention.
… How to kill rattlesnakes. That’s easy. You need to know three things. Rattlesnakes. Are very vain. Don’t like jazz. And as soon as they see an edelweiss they fall into a cataleptic trance. So. This is what you have to do. You take a clarinet. When you see the snake you pull an ugly face at him. Being vain, they get in a rage and rush at you At that moment you play them Blue Moon or Just a Gigolo. On the clarinet. They don’t like jazz. So they stop short. They hesitate. At that precise instant you take out. You take out of your pocket a real edelweiss, picked in the snow. And they fall into a cataleptic trance. So then. All you have to do is grab them and slip a p onto them somewhere. When they recover from the trance. They see they’ve become merely. That they’ve become merely prattlesnakes. And as they’re so terribly vain, this kills them. They prefer to commit suicide. They hold their breath. For hours. In the end it kills the. They turn quite black.
In association with being awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, the following film was created to explore the author and his work.
… How to kill rattlesnakes. That’s easy. You need to know three things. Rattlesnakes. Are very vain. Don’t like jazz. And as soon as they see an edelweiss they fall into a cataleptic trance. So. This is what you have to do. You take a clarinet. When you see the snake you pull an ugly face at him. Being vain, they get in a rage and rush at you At that moment you play them Blue Moon or Just a Gigolo. On the clarinet. They don’t like jazz. So they stop short. They hesitate. At that precise instant you take out. You take out of your pocket a real edelweiss, picked in the snow. And they fall into a cataleptic trance. So then. All you have to do is grab them and slip a p onto them somewhere. When they recover from the trance. They see they’ve become merely. That they’ve become merely prattlesnakes. And as they’re so terribly vain, this kills them. They prefer to commit suicide. They hold their breath. For hours. In the end it kills the. They turn quite black.
A Celebration of Reading 