Editing Life: A User's Manual (section)

=== Lists ===
[[File:GraecoLatinSquare-Order3.svg|thumb|An example of a bi-square. Perec used 21 larger (10x10) grids to distribute the elements of his 42 lists]]
The content of Perec's novel was partly generated by 42 lists, each containing 10 elements (e.g. the "Fabrics" list contains ten different fabrics). Perec used [[Graeco-Latin square]]s or "bi-squares" to distribute these elements across the 99 chapters of the book. A bi-square is similar to a [[sudoku]] puzzle, though more complicated, as ''two'' lists of elements must be distributed across the grid. In the pictured example, these two lists are the first three letters of the Greek and Latin alphabets; each cell contains a Greek and a Latin character, and, as in a sudoku, each row and column of the grid also contains each character exactly once. Using the same principle, Perec created 21 bi-squares, each distributing two lists of 10 elements. This allowed Perec to distribute all 42 of his 10-element lists across the 99 chapters. Any given cell on the 10x10 map of the apartment block could be cross-referenced with the equivalent cell on each of the 21 bi-squares, so for each chapter a different list of 42 elements to mention could be produced.

The elements in Lists 39 and 40 ("Gap" and "Wrong") are nothing more than the numbers 1 to 10; if Perec consulted the "Wrong" bi-square and found, for example, a "6" in a given cell, he would ensure that the chapter corresponding to that cell would do something "wrong" when including the particular fabric, colour, accessory or jewel the bi-squares for the lists in group 6 had assigned to the cell/chapter in question.

Perec also sub-divided 40 of these lists into 10 groups of four (the sixth sub-group, for example, contains the lists "Fabrics", "Colours", "Accessories" and "Jewels",<ref name=Bellos600>Bellos, David (2010). ''Georges Perec: A Life in Words'', pp. 600–602. Harvill Press, London. {{ISBN|1846554209}}.</ref>) which gave the story-generating machine an additional layer of complexity. 

Another variation comes from the presence of Lists 39 and 40 in the 10th sub-group; Lists 39 and 40 would sometimes number their own sub-group as the one to be tampered with in a given chapter. According to Perec's biographer, David Bellos, this self-reflexive aspect of Lists 39 and 40 "allowed him to apply 'gap' in such cases by ''not'' missing out any other constraint in the group ('gapping the gap') or by missing out a constraint in a group ''not'' determined by the bi-square number ('wronging the wrong') or by ''not'' getting anything wrong at all ('gapping the wrong')".<ref name=Bellos600 /> The 41st and 42nd lists collectively form ten "couples" (such as "Pride & Prejudice" and "Laurel & Hardy") which are exempt from the disruptions of the "Gap" and "Wrong" lists that affect the first forty lists.<ref>Bellos, David (2010). ''Georges Perec: A Life in Words'', p. 601. Harvill Press, London. {{ISBN|1846554209}}.</ref> It is important to note that Perec acknowledged the lists were often mere prompts; certain chapters include far fewer than 42 of their prescribed elements.