exercise in style

rewrite the same little scene about a gangly young man in a badly fitting overcoat and an odd hat, in different styles, ninety-nine times! After number twenty however, the various word play games are no longer quite as funny. After number forty, you’re pretty sceptical about Queneau's mental health. By number sixty, you’re seriously worried about your own. By number eighty, you’re seeing that gangly young man everywhere you go. You skip to ninety-nine in a desperate attempt to save your sanity but no, it is not to be, the last line is more maddening than anything that went before: you are left wondering who Theodore is and why Albert didn’t recognise him when Theodore was advising the gangly young man in the odd hat how to alter his badly fitting overcoat in front of the Gare St Lazare? But wait, is that little overcoat scene the primary, the ultimate ‘exercise de style’? That would be a fine play on words indeed!