(Maurice Blanchot) Lautréamont and Sade (B-Ok - CC) PDF
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Werner Hamacher Editor
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Stanrd Universi Press
Stanrd Calrnia
LAUTREAMON AND SAD
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Stanford University Press Stanford, California English translation © 2004 by the Board ofTrustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved No part of this book book ma be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, includ ing photocopying and recording, or in any information stor age or retrieval system without the prior written permission of Stanford University Press This book as been published with the assistance of the French Ministry of Culture-National Center for the Book Lautre amont and Sad was originally published in French in 1949 under the title Lautamont t Sad © Les ditions de Minuit, 1963.
Printed in the nited States of America on acidfree, archivalquality paper Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data Data Blanchot, Maurice [Lautramont et SadeEnglish] Sade English] Lautramont and Sade I Maurice Blanchot ; translated by Michelle Kendall and Stuart Kendall p. m m- (M (Mer erid idia iann : cr cros ossi sing ng ae aest sthe heti tics cs)) Includes bibliographical references ISBN -8047-4233-2 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN -8047-5035-1 (pbk alk. paper) . Lautramont, comte de, 84687.
Sade, marquis de, 1740 1814. ITitle II Meridian (Stanford, Cali) ITitle 2.
PQ2220.D723Z63 2004 81' 8DC22 200400688
Tpeset by Tim Roberts in 109 l3 Adobe Garamond Original Printing 2004 Last gure below indicates y ear ear of this printing: 13
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Contents
Preece What is the Puose of Criticism Pr
Sade's eason 7 Thee Experi Th Experience ence o Lautramon Lautramontt 43 Notes
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Preface: What s the Purpse of rtcsm?
I cannot cann ot address many many o the the implication impli cationss o this this quest questio ion. n. One On e o them the m deals with the senselessnes sensel essnesss o criticism itsel. itsel. When When we seriously serio usly contemplate contemplate literary criticism, we are under the impres sinn tha si thatt our contemplation concerns nothing no thing serious seri ous.. Journalism and the academy constitute the entirety o its reality. Criticism is a ompromise between these to orms o institution. Everyday kowledge, which is prompt, capricious, eeting, and scholarly kowledge, which is permanent and certain, unite one with the oher and commingle, sometimes successully, sometimes not.
Lterature remains the object o criticism, but criticism does not ani st literature. Criticism is not one o the ways in which lit emy and and academy wh ich h the acad way in whic But i t is a way asserts it itssel But ertu re asserts erture rom the importan portancce rom es its im derives and it deriv ar m ed, and nalism are arm j our ou rnalism ominnc o bo o ese consderabe nsttuton, o tt
te other dynamic, both o them rmly directed and organized. Nturally, we may be able to conclude rom this that criticisms rle is not inconseuential, since it consists in linking literature wth equally important realities. This would make its role a medi atng at ng one, on e, and the the critic an honest broker. In I n other cases cases,, jjournal ournal ism counts or less than other orms o political and ideological oganization criticism, in this case, is composed in oces, in poximity o the highest values that it must represent the inter ediary role is reduced to a minimum the critic is a spokesper
2
Prce
son who applies, sometimes artfully and not without a margin of freedom, general general instructions instructions.. But is it i t not the same sam e in ever everyy sec tor of life? life? We We are ar e talking talking about abou t a mediatio me diationn practiced p racticed by the crit ic in i n our o ur Western Western culture: How does it i t wo work, rk, what what does it mean, what does it require? requi re? A certain level level of o f competency compe tency,, a certain facil ity for for writing, qualities of conformity conformity,, and of o f good will. will . But this is to say little, which is not to say that it is nothing at all. e a te dea tat cticism is lacki almost any substance sub stance of o f its ow own. n. A n idea that is itself b u t a shad shad ow of a larger one. Here we should immediately add that such a pgng ew as ts one does not uster criticism. It openly welcomes itit,, as i on the contrary contrary, this very lack reveal revealed ed its deep de ep est truth. When Heidegger comments on Hlderlins poems, he says (I paraphrase): atever commentary might be, it will always, in regard to the poem, remain superuous, and the last, most difcult step of interpretation is the one that leads it to become transparent before the pure afrmation of the poem. Heidegger Heidegg er also makes makes use o f ths gure: i n the noisy tumult of nonpoet nonp oetic ic llang angua uage, ge, a poem po em is like li ke a bell suspended in mi miai air,r, one
on a light light sn snow ow falling falling woul wo uldd b e enough en ough toofmake it chime, chime , an whch imperceptible crashing nevertheless capable harmoniously upsetting it to the pont of dscord. Peraps Peraps commenta comme ntary ry i just a little snowake making the bell toll. 2 Critical discourse has this peculiar characteristic: the more it exerts, develops, and establishes itself, the more it must obliterate itself; in the end it disintegrates. Not only does it not impose tselfattentive to not taking the place of its object of discus sionit only concludes and fullls its purpose when it drifts into transparency. And this movement toward selfeffacement is not simply si mply done at the discretion disc retion of the servant who who,, after after fullling fullling his role and tidying up the ouse, disappears t i the very meaning of its execution, which has proscribed in its realization that it eclipse itself. ll in all, the dialogue beteen critical and "creative discourses is strange. ere is the unity of these to? Is it a historical unity? Is te critic there to add sometng to te lterary work: to brng
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3
out its latent meaning (present as an absence) and to indicate its development within history, little by little raising it toward truth, where in the end the work may become stagnant? But why might the critic be necessary or this task? hy, beteen the reader and the work, between history and the work, should this mediocre hybrid o reading and writing in inser sertt itsel with the help he lp o this crit ic who oddly specializes in reading and who, nevertheless, only knows how to read through writing, writing only about what he reads, and who must at the the same time give give the impressio impress ion, n, through writing, reading, that he does nothing, no thing, nothing no thing but let the depth depth o the literary work, that which resides therein, always more clearly and more obscurely, speak? egardless o whether one looks at criticism and the critic rom a historical or literary literary perspective, perspective, one grasps grasps them the m only through through their penchant or seleacement, through their existence always on the verge o extinction. On the side o history, insoar as histo ry takes shape within more rigorous r igorous and also more ambitious dis ciplines,, and is present there, not as a comp ciplines completed leted service, but as an open and uid totality, criticism qickly relinquishes itsel o
itsel truly sensin itsel sen singg that that it has has no n o right to sp speak eak in the name o o his tory, that the socalled historical sciences and the science o his torical interpla interp lay yi i it existe existedcan dcan and could c ould uniquely delineate deli neate the literary wors place in history as well as its genesis within it, but might moreover pursue its indenite advent across the widest possible range o the general movement (including the realm that the physical sciences have opened up to us). Thus the mediating roe o o criicism criicism is imi o immi resent, it belons to the passing day and is connected to the anonymous and imper sonal murmur o daily lie, the understanding that runs through the streets o the world and that allows or everyone to always know everything in advance, although every individual person may still know nothing. It mig m ight ht sseem eem that th at criticism criticis m is a task o arduous arduous vulgari vulgariza zation tion.. Perha Per haps ps.. Bu t le t us take take a look at the literary literary side o it all, all, wheth whether er a novel novel or a poem. poe m. Consid Con sider er or or a moment the delicate deli cate image image that that we were conjuring: the snowakes that made the bell toll. This
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empty movement, impalpable and a bit icy, disappears within te heated agitation it instigates. Here, critical discourse, having neitherr lastin the las tingg eect eect no norr reality reality, would wo uld like to dissolve diss olve within creative creative armation: it is never criticism that speaks, when it speaks; it is nothing. This is impressive modesty, and yet, on the other hand, perhaps not so modest. Criticism is nothing, but bu t this this nothingness is precisely that in which the literary work, silent and invisible, e e at it is radiance and discourse, armao and presence, speaking seemingly about itsel without altering, in this void void o great quality that that it is critical critical interventio interventionns mission miss ion to prouce. Critical iscourse s ths space o resonance with which the unspoken, indenite reality reality o the work is momentarimom entarily transormed transormed and circumscrib circums cribed ed into words. And as such, suc h, due to the act act that that it claims modestly m odestly and obst obstinately inately to be b e nothing, no thing, criticism ceases bein distinguishe rom the creative iscourse o which it would be the necessary actualization or, metaphorically
speaking, the epiphany. Neverthelesss we eel Nevertheles eel sure s ure that the the image o snow sn ow isis just j ust an image and that we have yet even urther to go. I criticism is this open space into which the poem moves, i it seeks to isappear in ront o this poem, so that that this poem may m ay tru truly ly appe appear ar,, this is because this space and this movement toward seleacement (which is onee o on o the wa ways in i n which this space maniests maniests itsel) itsel ) may already already belong bel ong to the reality reality o the literary lite rary work an also be at work withwithin it, while it takes shape, only moving outside it when it has achiev ach ieved ed its purpos purposee and to accomplish that that purpos purpose.e. In the same way that the necessity o communicating is not a quality added to the book, with communication, at every turn o the boos creation, catalyzing the very creation process, similarly this sort o sudden distance in which the completed work reects itsel and which the critic is called upon to gauge, is only the last metamorphosis o this opening which is the literary work in its genesis, what one might call its essential noncoincidence with itsel, everything that continuously makes it possibleimpossible. All that criticism critici sm oes then is repre represent sent an ollow ollow outsie what, what, internally, like a shredded armation, like innite anxiousness,
Prece
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lik co connic i ct ( o r ev e ven i n a oth theer o rms) rm s) does does n o t cease ce ase to be p res res
e t as a l iv et ivii ng rese eservo rvoir ir o e mp mptitinn ess es s o space sp ace o o err er r or or be better tter ytt as lit y liter eraature's ture's uniq ni q ue po pow wer to dev evelop elop ititss el whi while le rem remainin ainingg prp tually in deault. deault. He rein lies Herein lies i i you wi you will ll the the ultim ultimat atee conse con seqque uennce (and a (and a singu s ingula larr manni ma ieestation station)) o this movem mov ement ent o o sele eleacem acemeent whic which h is i s o one ne o o te indication in dicationss o crit criticisms presence resence:: through through its dis disappeara appearance nce bore b ore the the lit literar eraryy work work critici criticism sm recovers ecovers itsel itsel again again in in the the work a one on e o its its ess es s ential mo mom m ents. ents. He Here re we we lo loccate a proc process ess tha thatt ou ourr
ea has seen develop in various ways. Criticism is no longer an eternall judgment eterna j udgment placing the literary literary work work in a positio pos itionn o valu valuee ad bestowing its opinion aer the act on this value. It has come t be inseparable inse parable rom rom the internal working o the text belonging belo nging to the moment when it becomes what it is. Criticism is the search
r and the experience o this possibility. However (to avert any isund rstanding) criticism does not have the restrictive meaning tat Val Valry ry gives it when he sees it as part o the intellect: intelle ct: the cre aiv a ivee wors value only be b einconstrued the clrity o a requirement thoughtul that mind.its "Criticism the sensewithin intended hre may evn now be closer (but the similarity remains decep tie) to the Kantian meaning o the word. word. Kant Kantss critical reasoning i experi scie ienntic exper possib ilityy o sc the possibilit condition tionss or the gates th thee condi it errogates iterro poss ibilityy or the possibilit search or onnnected ected to the search st as as criticism criticism is c on ecce ju e just oreticall pur only ly a th theeoretica searchh is not on e but but thi this searc erience iterary rary exp experienc o lite and periennce and experie literary ex tuting the lite constiituting rocesss const the very proces suit i t is the os ossi sii i i i s cons co nsi i ro ro in in n n contestn i i
trough creation creation.. "Searc "S earch h is i s a word that should sho uld not be understood understoo d i an intellectual sense but as an action taken within and in light o cre creati ative ve space. Hlderlin H lderlin to again use him as an example talks talks aou a outt the priests o Diony Dio nysus sus wandering wandering about in i n the sacr sacred ed night. 3 T search or creative criticism is this same errant movement this thee pro pr o ss and and is th darkness the darkne op enss up the cess that tha t open proocess labbor oriious pr sme me la en d le lesss ingg the the end riskss be bein bu t that th at also risk diatii o n but mediat thru russ t o me gessiv ge ssivee th
ailure on ly ailure ctic procurin procuringg only dialectic r uins every every diale thaa t ru r e c o m m n c m n t th nt. sement. no r its appea appeaseme mea sure nor er its its measure therein ein neith neither n ding ther ad nd ad
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Prce
I cannot take this analysis any urther here I would howeer like to make one last point that appears essential We complain about criticism no longer knowing how to judge But why? It is not criticism that lazily reuses to evaluate, it is the novel or th poem that shirks evaluation because it seeks armation outsie every value system And, insoar as criticism belongs more ini mately to the li l iee o o the literary work, it turns tu rns what is not n ot able o b e evaluated into
grasps it work, it grasp rence o te work, e expe experence
as
thee th
depth, depth an d al also so othe th absenc ab sence de which w value hich eludes elu deschall every every s y s t n n llenging enging and cha o value hatp th, is o side side eoo w dep n ethe the , being being o valu, eand value to andss o n it to ge t its hand ke to to get wouuld lilike tha t wo ti on that rmaatio arm e very er y a ancee ev advvanc ad to b to m e to see ems to atures literature icismliter se , cri critt icism is sen se n se, this it I n th valida alidate it sks nt,, ta tasks rtaant b u t impo im port
im po t a cuult, b u t impo dic thee m ost di ith o n e o th iatedd with as asso socciate th e ta t a s k vemee nt nt:: the gue mo movem arily va vague ne cessarily outt i inn a necess played ed ou tim e, play o u r time, vale, e, otionn o val ughtt rom ro m the n otio h o ugh liberating ho ing and an d o liberating preserv pr eserving
cons equently also o consequently o openin ope ningg history histo ry up to what what all these orms value have already released into it and to what is taking shape s an entirely ent irely di dierentstill erentst ill un unoresee ore seeabl ablek ekind ind o o armati armatioo n
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Sade's Reason
In 17 9 7 La Nouvel Nouvelle le justine justin e ou les Malheurs Malheurs de Vrtu suivie sui vie de de listoire dejuliette sa soeur soeur published in in Holland. This This monumental umen tal work workne nearl arlyy our our thous th ousand and pages pag es long, lo ng, which its author wrote in several drats, augmenting its length ever more, almost endlesslyimmediately horried the world. I there is a Hell in libraries,, it is or such libraries s uch a book. One On e can say that no other literature literature o any other time has seen as scandalous a book appear, that no other book so prooundly wounded the sensibilities and convictions o men. Who in this day and age would dare compete with Sades licentiousness? Yes, it can be claimed that here we have the most scandalous work ever written. Is this not enough to warrant its close examination and our preoccupation with it? We have the opportunity to know a work that no other writer, during any r u o. W a, refor, some way, within our grasp, and in the so very relative world o literature,, a veritable literature veri table absolute, absolu te, and yet, incomprehe incom prehensibly nsibly,, have have we not sought to interrogate and examine it? We do not even dream to question it, to ask it why it is so unsurpassable, to ask what is in it that makes it so excessive and eternally too much or man to take? An extraordinary negligence. But perhaps the scandal is so pure simply because o this negligence? hen we take into account all the precautions history has taken to make Sade a prodigious enigma, when we contemplate his twentyseven years 7
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Sade' Reason
in prison, his conned and restricted existence, when sequestr tion acts not only a mans lie, but his aterlieto such an extent that cloaking his work in secrecy seems to condemn him too, to o, even even while whi le still living, to an eternal eter nal prisonw pri sonwee come co me to won der i the censors and the judges who claim to lock Sade up, are not actually in Sades service, and are not ullling the burning desires desir es o o his lib l ibertinage, ertinage, Sade, who has alwa lways longed or or soli s olitude tude i p o eTen eart, orover, the mystery o a suberre reclusive existence times Sade ormulated the idea that
mans greatest excesses called or secrecy and the obscurity o the abyss s, the inviolable solitude aby so litude oo a j ail cell cell Now, strangely enough, eno ugh, it is the guardians o morality who, in condemning him to the seclusionn ound within prison seclusio pri son walls, have made themselves accom acc om plices to intense immorality It is his motherinlaw, the puritani cal Madame de Montreuil, who, by turning his very lie into a prison, makes it a masterpiece o debauchery and inamy Similarly, i ater so many years justin justinee et julie juliee e continues to be thee most scanda th scandalous o books books one can can read read though though reading reading it is nearly impossibleit is because the author and the editors, with the help o o universal Morality Mo rality,, have taken every every measure to t o eens nsure ure that this book remains a secret, a perectly unreadable work, as unreadable or its length, its composition, and its ruminations as or the orce o its descriptions, the indecency o his savagery, whic wh ichh cannot cann ot but bu t hurl hurl it to Hell H ell A scandalous, scandalou s, virtually untouch unto uch able book that no one can render public But the book also illus trates that there is no scandal where there is no respect, and that where the scandal is extraordinary, the respect is extreme is more respected than Sade? How many o us, even today,ho deeply believe that just holding this accursed book in our hands or a moment or two would make ousseaus disdainul allegation come true that any young girl who reads even one page o tis book will be lost? Such respect is certainly a treasure or a litera ture and a civilization civilization Moreover, Moreover, to all his pres p resent ent and uture uture edi tors and commentators, can we not stop ourselves rom discreetly uttering tis avowal in Sae, at least, respect te scanal Fortun For tunately ately,, S ade deend deendss himsel him sel quite quit e well well Not only his his work,
Sade' Reason
9
but also his thought remains impenetrableand this is despite the act that theoretical developments abound therein, and that he repeats them with disconcerting patience, and that his reasoning is crystal clear and suciently logical. A taste and even a passion or systems animates him. He explains, he arms, he proves he returns a hundred times to the same problem (and a hundred times is an understatement), he examines it rom all angles, he
exploresand every objection, he responds to them, even others, responds to them in turn. And since he what he uncovers is saying is generally rather simple, since his language is copious, though specic and consistent, one might think there should be nothing easier than understanding Sades ideology which, in him, him , is insep i nsep arable rom the passions. And yet, what is the basis o Sades thought? What exactly has he said? Where is the order o this sys tem, where does it begin, where does it end? Is there anything more than a shadow o a system in the approach o this thought that is so obsessed with reason? And why do so many very well coordi coo rdinated nated principles not not succeed in i n orming orming the solid so lid whole whole that that they should and that they in act seem to construct? This too remains remai ns unclear. This is Sades primary pri mary and main peculiari pe culiarity: ty: that, at every moment, his theoretical ideas release the irrational orces that are bound up with them. These orces at once animate and rustrate his ideas, doing so with such impetus that his ideas resist these orces, and then yield to them, seeking to master this impe tus, which eectively they do, but only while simultaneously releasing other obscure orces, which will lead, twist, and pervert m n.oT rs id, hich silater is clear sms rting utled e ey omet ometing ingisunsaid, unsa a bit is revealed revea and at is again aga in incorporated inco rporated by the logic, bbut, ut, in i n its turn, it obeys the move move ment o a still hidden orce. In the end, everything is brought to light,, everyt light everything hing comes to be b e said, but this everythin everythingg is also again buried bur ied within the obscurity ob scurity o unre unreectiv ectivee thought thought and un un ormu latable moments. The readers uneasiness when aced with this thought which is only claried by a urther additional thought which, at that moment, cannot itsel be claried, is oten very intense. The read
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Sade' Reason Reason
ers uneasiness increases even more ecause Sades declared priniples,, which we might ples might call his asic philosophy philo sophy,, appear to e si�plicity itsel his philosophy philos ophy is one o selin selinterest, terest, then o o coplete egoism. Each o us must do what pleases us, each o us hs no other law ut our own pleasure. This morality is ounded n
the primary act o asolute solitude. Sade said it and repeated it in sor all its orms: nature creates alone, there is entl, no ,connectin the on the on sequentl her. Con Co n sequ another. anot oe ma oe man n to us g g r so asu r e , give m e pl asur things that tha t give that I avor all things conduct uct is that rule o cond rule migt this is choice choice migt that th conn sequence sequencess that o the co rationn o the houut conside con sideratio wittho wi les s tan m counts less alwa s coun pain alwa greateest pain Their great the other.. Their hold for the other ay r pr icee I mu st pay the pric atter, er, i the ally matt really do e s i t re leaasur su re . What doe p le hi deous eous o hid us a ssortme ssort mennt o outrageo ageous joy is an outr slightestt joy even m slightes even o y y thee eects eects o yet th is i n m e, yet d elights lights m e , it is this j oy de rimes,s, since sin ce this crime crimes do not touch me in the least, they are outside me. These principl pri nciples es are clearly clearly stated. stated . We We nd them develope developedd in a million ways throughout tenty volumes. Sade never tires. ht he most enjoys is holding these principles up against the ideas his contemporaries, their theories that all men are created equl eore nature and eore the law. Thus he proposes some reasoning along these the se lines: lines : Given Given that that all eings are equal equal in the t he eyes eyes Nature, this th is act act allow allowss me m e the right not to sacrice mysel to prpr serve others, whose whose ruin is indispensale in dispensale t my happi happines ness.s. O r etter yet, he drats a sort o Declaration o the ights o Eroticis, with this maxim as its undamental principle, applicable as muc or women or men: Give yoursel overdo to Ialldo,those d si you, take allasthose you desire. "What evil whatwho crime d I commit when, greeting a beautiul creature, I say: Give me te part o your body that can satis me now, and i you like, pleaure yours yoursel el w with ith the the p art o o my my ody ody that th at m ight b e p leasing leasi ng t yours? your s? Such S uch propositi prop ositions ons appea appearr irre irreuta utale le to S to Sad ade. e. Fo Forr pa p ages on on endd h e invokes en inv okes the the equality equ ality o i ndividu nd ividuals, als, the reci reciproc procity ity o f rights, rig hts, wi witho thout ut p e rc rceivi eiving ng that that his re reas asooning, ning , ar ro rom m b i n g streng stre ngthen thened ed y t y thh e s e p prr opo op o s i t ions, ions , isis tra tr ans nsform formed ed into in to c o m pl nonn s e nse no ns e . "N "Nev ever er can can an an act act o po poss s e ssion ssio n b e exe xercise rcisedd o n a re human uman ein eingg , he he writes rite s . But But what concl oncluusions sions does h e draw draw ro m
Sade' Reason
this Not Not that it i s orbie orbienn to co com mmit a vio vi olent act act against
aother human being an to enjoy hurting them, inicting them ith ith pain pain again against st their their will, wi ll, but rath but rather er that that no one no one has has th thee right right to
us e an exclu use exclusive sive relatio relationship nship,, one on e o p ossession os session,, as an excu excuse se to reuse reuse the th emselves mselves to to him. hi m. The equa equality lity o bbeing eingss is the right right to make equa equall use o all o all beings beings;; reedom reedom is the the power power to subject subject each
erson to his own will and wishes. In seeing similar ormulations one ater another, we begin to think that that there is a iscrepancy in Saes Saes thought, something so mething miss ing, a maness. maness . We We sense sen se a proounly proounly eranged thought, bizarrely suspene over the voi. But, suenly, logic assumes control, our bjections vanish an the system gradually takes shape. Justine, ho, we know, represents worlly virtue, an who is tenacious, umble, always oppresse an unhappy, yet who is never con i ince nce o the worls worls wrongs, eclares eclares suenly in a very very reasonable shio shion n You Yourr principles principl es suppose power pow er i my happiness happine ss cons c onsists ists in in never taking into account the interests o others, in occasionally urting them, will not no t one o ne ay arrive arrive when the interests in terests o o others cnsist in hurting e on o n wat grouns will will I bbee able to protest "I "Iss the iniviual who isolates himsel able to struggle against all o umanity? umanit y? This, This, we unerstan, is a classi classicc objection object ion.. The Saean Saean man both bo th implicitly and explicitly respons in numero nu merous us way wayss that myy he says at rst, m se. Yes, Yes, he says universe. heart o his univer lea to the heart rauall ra uallyy lea tially ly ssential anity ity i iss essen eann hum h uman Sa ea , i n act, Sa An, pow er. An that o power. rght is that rght the will men, who had the owerul men, alll-ppower numberr o al small numbe mposee o a small cmpos
toc raise raise themselve them s abov above laws lawsh an an place lace hem selves elves o utsi utsise ture prej prej u re tu viio deviio de ohems he bec bec use to wor urll l e worh url e who wh o eelselves i ic
create in them, an who see satisaction in every way possible. hese extraorinary men generally belong to a privilege class tey are dukes, kings, even the pope himsel is descended rom obility they take advantage o their status, their ortune, the ipunity that that their situation assures them. them . They owe to their birth b irth te privileges o inequality, which they are happy to perect poweru werull the most po potism.. They are the espotism implaccable es through impla through eop le, callll th thee People, cial classs . "I ca oweru erull s o cial clas are par pa rt o a pow hey are b e cause cau se they sys o n e o the sys th em, "that "that vile vi le an an epl ep lorab orable le s ocia ociall cla class ss that ma makes kes
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Sade' Reason
its living only through pain and sweat all who breathe must oin
orces against this abect social class. But there i s n o doubt about it, even even though though these Sovereigns Sovereigns o debauchery oen consolidate within themselves and to their own advantage the ull range o inequality among the classes, this is only the expression o a historical circumstance that Sade is not taking tak ing into in to account acco unt in i n his value j udgments udgments.. He is ully ully awar awaree that, stoca stoca moment mom ent o o hs wrting, power is a socal caegory, that it is inscribed within the organization o society as it existed beore and ater the revolution, but he also believes power (likee solitude) to be nnot (lik ot only a state, state, but a choice and and a conquest a man is powerul when he knows how to become so with his energy. In reality, his heroes are recruited rom to opposite milieux mili eux the highest high est and the lowest lowest,, rom the mos m ostt privileged class class and rom the most disadvantaged class, rom among the worlds great individuals great individuals and rom rom the cessp ce sspool ool o o society soc ietyss dregs dregs . Both Bo th sets o individ individuals uals nd, at the point po int o departure, something so mething extreme extreme promoting them the extreme o misery is as powerul a stimulus as the exaltation o ortune. hen oe is a Dubois or a Durand, one rises up against the laws o the land because one is so restrained and too ar below the laws to be able to conorm to them without perishing. And when one is a SaintFond or the Duke de Blangis, one is too to o a ar above above the law law to be able to subm s ubmitit to it i t without demeanin demea ningg onesel on esel This is i s wh why, in Sades works, works, the or ustication or or crime cr imeis isa an exo pression ion ocertain contradictory contradict principles some, inequality actexpress nature menory areprinciples necessari- ly slav slaves es and victims, they have no rig ri ghts, hts , they are are nothing, no thing, against against them the m everything everything is permiss per missible ible.. Conseque Cons equentl ntlyy, there ther e are the crazed crazed eulogies to tyranny, the political constitutions intended to make the revenge o the weak and the enrichment o the poor orever impossible imposs ible.. "Let it be b e clearly clearly understood, understood, says Verneuil, "that "that it is among amo ng Nature Naturess intent in tentions ions that that there necess nec essarily arily be be a class o indiindi viduals who by their birth and inherent weakness shall remain essentially subect to the other class."The laws are not made or the people peopl e . . . The basic precept o any wise governmen governmentt is to make certain that the people shall not encroach upon the author
Sade' Reason
13
ity ity o the masters. And SaintFond: "The people shal shalll be ke kept pt in a state o slavery that will make it quite impossible or them ever to attempt to dominate d ominate the wealt wealthy hy or debase their th eir properties proper ties and and thatt goes under u nder the name o o crimes o possessions. Or aga again: "ll tha libertinage shall never be punished, save in the slave casts. Here we we are, are, i t seems, i n the presence presence o the the most insane theory theory o the most absolute despotism. Nevertheless, the perspective b rusquely changes changes.. hat hat does does Dub D uboi oiss say? say? "Nature "Nature caused us aallll to be equals born; i ate is pleased to intervene and upset the primary scheme o things, it is up to us to corect its caprices and, through our own skill, skill, to repair the usurpations o the strongest strongest . . . So long as our good aith and patience serve only to doube the weight o our chains, our crimes will be as virtues, and we would be ools indeed to abstain ab stain rom them when they can can lessen le ssen the yoke wherewherewith their cruelty bears us down. And she adds: or the poor, crime alone opens or injustice, just up as doors thet in is lie; the villainy revenge isotheir thecompensation dispossessed. Thereore, this has been early delineated: equality, inequality, reedom to oppress, rebellion against the oppressor are only completely provisional arguments through which the Sadean mans right to power is armed, given the dierence in social strata. Besides, soon the distinction made beteen those who need to commit crimes to live and those who take pleasure in living only when committing crimes, dissolves. Mme. Dubois becomes a baroness. Mme. Durand, the worst kind o poisoner, rises above even princesses on the social ladder, the very princesses that Juliette os no si o scric o r. Cons ecome gag leaders, crooks (as in Felange elange , or even innkeepers to better rob and kill simpletons simpleto ns.. (Though (Though most mos t o the victims victims o o libertina liberti nage ge are ound ound in the aristocrac aristocracy, since they must be o noble nobl e birth. b irth. the Marquis de Bressac declares with marvelous contempt to the countess, his mother: "Your days are mine, and mine are sacred.) Now, what is happening? Some men have become powerul. Some were so by birth, but they also demonstrate that they deserve deser ve this t his power by the way they accrue accrue it i t and enjoy enj oy it. Others have become powerul ater having had recourse to criminal
14
Sade' Reason
behavior, and the sign o their success is that they use this powr to acquire reedom to commit every crime. Such is the world some have ascended to the highest ranks o societyand around them, ad innitum, is a nameless dust, a countless number o individuals who have neither rights nor power. Look at what becomes the rule o absolute egoism. I do what pleases me, says Sades hero, I know only my pleasure and, to guarantee that I get t, I tortre d kll. Yo threaten me with a similar ae the happe ha ppenn to meet someo so meone ne whos whosee pleasure is ound ound in torturing torturi ng and and killing me. But I have acquired this power precisely to rise above this threat. en Sade oers us answers along these lines, we eel like we we are completely c ompletely slipping slip ping toward toward a side o his thought that is held together only by the dark orces hidden within it. at is this power that ears neithe chance nor law, that disdainully exposes to theasterrible risksme o as a rule thus wil hurt youitsel as much I like, hurt much as conceivedI you are ableon the pretext that this rule will always turn in its avor? Now, note that or or the principles to dissolve, onl o nlyy one exception exception is needed ne eded i only once the Powerul nds misortune in the pursuit o his pleasure alone, i j ust on once ce while exerting exerting his tyra tyrann nnyy he becomes be comes a victim, he will be lost, the law o pleasure will appear to be a scam, and men, instead o wanting triumph throgh excess will begin again to live mediocre ives earing the least evil. Sade knows this. "nd i your luck turns sour? Justine asks. He will thereore descend deeper into his system and show that nothing evil will ever happen to the man actively connected to evilil.. This is the essential ev esse ntial theme o o Sades work work to virtue, all mis ortune, ortu ne, to vice, the happiness happines s o constant cons tant prosperit pros perityy. Sometime Some times,s, especially in the rst drats o justine, this armation seems like a simple, contrived thesis that the design o the story, o which the athor is master, illstrates in the gise o proos. It seems that Sade is telling tales and believing them when he places too much store in a black Providence, which will lead those who choose to do the the wors worstt to the best. But, in La Nouvelle justine and i n juliette, everything changes. It is obvious that Sade now has this proound conviction that the man o absolute egoism will
Sade' Reason nver al alll prey to to misortune, misor tune, that that h will will even even be happy happy to the the full s t e x t ent and and he w i ll always always be so, so , withou witho u t exception. excep tion. add ness? Perhaps. a Perhaps. But wit with Sade this tought tought is is connec connectted to r c s o suc s uchh violenc violencee that they they end up maki making, as a ar as he is cncerned, cnc erned, the the ideas ideas that support su pport them them irre irreutable. Actually Actually,, this t eoretical te oretical certa certainty inty does does not easily easily ma make ke its its transiti transition on into in to dococ ti t ine. Sade Sade takes recourse recourse in i n se sevral vral solutions, solu tions, wh which ich he he te tests sts
entlessly, but he nds none to be satisactory. The rst is purel verbal: it consists in rejecting th social contract that, accordig to him, is the theoretical saeguard o the weak, and or the pw rul constitutes a serious theoretical threat. In eect, the Pwe P wer rul ul one knows very well how to make use us e o o the law to con c on-slidate sli date his arbitrary power. power. But then he is only power powerul ul through t law, and it is the law that then, theoretically, incarnates the pw Assovereign, long as anarchy andiwar reign,him the toSoverign is only r.the or even the do lawnothelps crush the eak,, it is nevertheless eak nevertheless through through an authority created in the name o th weak and substituting the alse bond o a contract or the rc o a single individual. "My neighbors passions righten me initely less than t han the injustice inj ustice o the law law, or my neighbors passons are contained by mine, whilst nothing constrains, nothing cecks cec ks the in i nj ustices o the law. law. Not Nothing hing arrests the law law, because be cause always ys above above ore, it is alwa there ereore, law, w, and and th ab ove the the la thing abo tere t ere is i s n o thing e . This is w Thiss ppresses me. Thi it o ppresses aw serve servess me, it even i the law whhy, even is also also why, why, i SSaade wa wass ind in d eed ee d ab abll e to to s e e hi hims msee l aass sh sharin aringg an an tion Revolution as the the Revolu insoar as only insoar Revolutionn , it was only a f n i t y with t he Revolutio st o som tim, wn mo rom on o
lws to another, the possibility o a lawless regime. He expressed ieas along these lines lin es in these thes e peculiar remarks: remarks: "The rul o law law is in ineri erior or to that that o ana anarch rchy: y: the m most ost obvious proo proo o what what I asert is the act that any government is obliged to plunge itsel ito anarchy whenever it aspires to rmake its constitution. In ann ul its ormer ormer laws, it neds to stablish stablis h a revolutionrevolutionod r to annul aend, y regime there isnevertheless no n o law: this this regime gives givesstate birth, in the to newwherein laws, though second is necessarilyy less pure than the rst one since saril s ince it i t is derive derivedd rom rom it. it .
16
Sade' Reason
In fact, fact, Power Power accommodates itself it self to any regim regime.e. It denies den ies eac one autority and, in a world made unnatural by te law, it cre ates a aven wherein all law is silenced, a closed place wheren legal sovereignty is ignored rater tan combated. In te statutes of te "Society "S ociety of te Friends of Crime, tere is an article wi forbids all political activity. "Te Society respects the governmet under which it lives, and i it places itsel above the law, it is because beca use one on e of its ls scies that man man lacs te ower ower o make laws tat go against the laws of o f nature, but bu t te alwa always ys inte inter r nal disorder of te Societys members must never scandalize te governed or te government. nd if it does appen in Sads writings that Power carries out some political act and mixes wi h the revolutiona revolutionass is i s the case case with Bo Borcha rchamps mps,, who conso con sorts rts wih wih the Loge duthat Nord to overtrow the Swedish monarchyte motivations inspire it have nothing to do with the will o emancipate the law. "at are te reasons that make you so hate Swedish despotism? one of the conspirators is ask d."J alous, ambit am bition, ion, pride, the despair of being dominated, the desire to ty ty annize oters mysel"In your opinion does the appiness f te peopl pe oplee count for someting some ting? ? "I only ave ave my own own a app pp ness in mind. mind. In extreme circumstances, Power can always maintain that it hs noting not ing to fear from from the common com mon man wo wo is weak, weak, and nothig no thig to fear from te law, te legitimacy ofwic ofwic it does nnot ot recognize. Te real problem is te relationsip between Power and power. These extraordinary men, originating rom either high up te social ladder or from societys dregs, necessarily come in contat with ith one one anot another: her: thei theirr similar sim ilar tastes tastes bring bring them them toge together ther the at at that they they are the the excep exception tion,, setting setti ng them ap apart, art, bring b ringss te te toggether. But what to But what co com m mona monality lity can can there there be be bete be teen en excepti exception? on? Tis T is questio questionn ob obviou viously sly pre p reooccupied ccup ied Sade. S ade. As always, lways, h e procee pro ceess from on o n e possib possible le solution so lution to to anot anoter, er, wen n naally, at the th e end 6f 6f han isylo logi giccp,orta e s sum ummo ug nth t hise einigm nigma a the o nly nlet y word wo that s -s any im imp ortanc nce e mons fo r ns tro i troug m. W en e nv nvents ents a secret secr s o crd tha ie iety, ty, reg rteglated by lated by rig ri gorou orouss conv conventio entionn s that that are im i m p ose os e d to tempe emperr exce excess ss tere t erein, in, he as t tee ex excc us usee of follo ollowi winng te te ex exam ampl plee o f society society n
Sade' Reason
7
hi day, or Sade lived in a time when the reemaonry o liberti nage, and reemasonry pure and imple, gave rie, at the heart o a ociety in ruin, to a large number o ecret ocietie and clan detine college, ounded on the complicity o the paion and the mutual repect or dangerous idea. The "Society o the Friends o Crime is an eort along these lines. Its statutes, ana lyzed and tudied extenively, prohibit it member rom giving in to their avage paion among themelve, peciing that thee paion are only able to be atised in two eraglio whoe popu lation are aured aured by the virtuous clae. clae. Among Amon g themelv themelves, es, the members mut "give in to all their antasies and do everything, except that, Sade says, they must not give in to their passion or cruelty crue lty.. We can clearly ee why: it i i a queti que tion on o o p revent reventing ing at all cot the t he encou enc ounter, nter, on the ground gr ound that they would u uer evil, evil, o thoe who only derive pleaure rom evil. The uperior libertine rally together, but do not encounter one another. Such a compromise cannot ati Sade. It i alo neceary to note that, although the heroe o hi book contantly join orce through convention convention that that limit their power and and uperimpose uperimpo se order o rder on their diorder, the posibility o betrayal remain constant: between accomplice, tenion never ceae to grow, to the point that they they,, in the end, en d, eel le connected con nected by the oath o o allegiance that unite them than by the reciprocal need to break thi oath. Thi ituation makes the entire lat ection o juliee very dra matic. She has principles. She ha repect or libertinage and when he encounter an accomplished villain, the perection o the crim cr im s ri ri ss o im ower o destructon des tructon tat e re resent, not only lead her to join orce with him, but, even en this association becomes dangerous or her, lead her to spare his liee i li i he can. can . So, although in danger o being killed by the mon ter, Minki, he reuses to have him killed. "This man is too much o a nuiance to humanity hu manity or or me m e to deprive the univere o him him. . But then the nand there therye, e i another chara character cteracrice who think thinkhim, up lecherou materpiece, in the end he but only
becaue he saw that upon leaving thee bloody orgies he uually went to church to cones and puri hi oul. Thereore, would
8
Sade' eason
te perfect criminal be protected by te passions tat consue him? Would tere remain one o ne last principle pri nciple that stipulates that the libertine can never be te obect or the victim of is own liberti nage? "You "that have told me a do hundred times, saysoter MmedoDeyou Donis to Juliette, libertines not arm eac go against tis maxim? Her response is clear: se contradicts te mxi m xim m Mme de Donis Doni s is sacri sacriced ced and then one by one her most mos t ele el e ccmplices, ccmplices, her most mos t respected compatrio compatriots ts in debauc ery peris as victims eiter eit er ooff teir delity de lity,, or of their perjur perj ury, y, or of teir lassi lassitude, tude, or even of o f te ferv fervor or of teir feelings. Noting can save them, noting exonerates tem. Juliette no sooner as tens er best friends deat tan se sets er sights on new allies and excanges a vow of eternal allegiance with themvows they themselves have mocked, since they are fully aware tat they are puttingg limits on teir puttin t eir excessive beavior beavior on only ly for the seer see r enjoy enj oy ment of breaking breaking tese limits Te following conversation between a few of the masters of crime summarizes te te situation quite well. well. One On e of them, Gernand, says tis about his cousin Bressac: "Well, he will receive an inheri tance from from me and I wager tat my life life does d oesnnt irritate irritat e him: him : I have the same same tastes tast es,, the same same way way of thinking he is i s sure sur e to nd nd a frien friendd in me. Certainly, says Bressac, I will never hurt you in the least. Meanwhile, the same Bressac notes that another of his relatives, dEsterval, wo specializes in gutting passersby, was very close to killing im. "Yes "Yes,, says dEsterval, d Esterval, "b " b ut as as a relative, relative, never as a com com patriot of debauchery. But Bressac remains skeptical, and every one cat help but agree that this cons co nsider ideratio ationn very very nearly nearly faile failedd to restrain Dorothy, dEstervls wife. Now what was Dorothys response? "Your eulogy is in your death sentence. I have this terri ble abit abi t of sacricing te men I am attracted attracted to, which traces your your deat sentence back to my declaration of love. l tis is clear.
But, under underoftese tes e conditions, condition s, wat waof t becomes bec of Sades Sade s teory taeory te pleasures Evil, what becomes thisomes certainty that manofwho as all vices will be continuously appy, wile te man wo as even a single virtue will necessarily be plagued by misfortune? In truth, his h is writings writings are littered littered with with the corpses of libertines liberti nes,, struck
Sade' Reason
down at the height o their glory. It is not uniquely Justine that misortune pursues, but the superb Clairwill, Sades most powerul and tireless heroine, and SaintFond, killed by Noirceuil, and the licentious Borghese, thrown intostrange thenge pitdenouements o a ements volcano,and andunusuhundredss o perect dred per ect criminals. criminals . What stra denou unus u triumphs o these perverted perverte d men! How can can Sades deranged reareasoning be blind to all the glaring contradictions it contains? Neve Ne vert rtheless, heless, these the se contradic contradictions tions are, in act, act, proo and conrmaconrmation o his reasoni reasoning, ng, and this is i s why: why: en we read justine absentmindedly, we let ourselves be taken in by a rather vulgar vulgar piece piec e o o literature. lite rature. We see this young virtuous girl continuously raped, raped, beaten, tortured, the victim o a destiny that is bound to destroy her; and when we we read juliette, we see a young, lecherous girl it rom pleasure to pleasure. Such a plot hardly convinces us. We have, however, not paid close enough attention to its most important aspect: being attentive only to the sadness o the ormer and to the satisaction o the latter, we neglected to notice that at base both stories o the two sisters were identical, that everything that happens to Justine happens to Juliette, Juliet te, and that that both o them endure the same experiences, experien ces, overcome the same diculties diculties.. Juliette is also thrown thrown in prison, pris on, beaten be aten up, promised torture, and tortured endlessly. Hers is also a horribe existence, but here is the dierence: these evils give her pleasure, these tortures enthrall her. "How delicious are these implements o torture, o the crime that we love love . And we we are not even even talking about those unusual tortures that are so terrible or Justine c g r J. cr
episode, which takes place in the corrupt judges chateau, we see the unortunate unortunate Justine subjected s ubjected to truly tr uly abominable abomin able torture; torture ; her he r suering su erin g is unheardo; unheardo; we can only think it a consider con siderable able injusinj ustice. Then what happens? A completely lecherous girl, who is
observing the goingson, becomes enraged by this spectacle, demands that she be made to withstand, withstand, then and there, the same torture. And she derives innite pleasure rom it. It is thereore absolutely true that virtue gives rise to mans misortune, but not because it expose exposess man to un u nortunate ortunate ev events. ents . It is becau b ecause se,, i one
20
Sade' Reason
is stripped of one's virtue, what was previously misfortue becomes an opportunity for pleasure, and what was torme�t becomes voluptuous. For Sade, the sovereign man is inaccessible to evil because o one can ur him. He is he man consumed by every passion, and his passions take pleasure in everything. We occasionally accepte accepte, as the expression of a paradox oo spiriual to be true, Jen lt t ol ism, a o ade's e's sad sadism, nd Sad a, , bei beind o a olsio 's olsi P 's P s this is idea idea s s, that that th theles less, none nethe see, no ed.2 W e see, ar ed.2 hantt appe appear penc nchan posite ite pe oppos op ma goism ism is a ma lete te eego comple o f comp system tem.. The man of Sade's de's sys of Sa thee heart th he art of pugrepuglll re astes, l te into into tastes istaste r m all distas sfor transfo t tran ows ho w t knows whoo kn wh room,, � bedroom the bed pherr of the losophe philoso the phi Like the ns. Like ctions. ce into attr actio nance nan assserts: as erts: "I love love it all, I enj enjoy oy m yse yself lf w ih ih e very thing, thing, I wa wan n t
ds�" kinds�" all kin ple of all people and peo gs, and thinngs, aces, thi endeers, r aces, gethher gend brinng toget bri
acco o-ut acc sets ts abo about m , se ays ofSod ofSod oom Thee I20 I20 D in Th hy Sade, Sade, in is is is w hy nd this A nd th
rating ing e vey nume merat tely ly enu omple plete ormou ouss task of com he en enorm plishin lishingg the
y.3 He mut ossibilit ibilit y.3 human poss tion, n, e ver y hum distractio nomaly maly , e very distrac ano o of nothing. othing. "Y o mercy of to be at the the mercy order to thing in order perience nce e very thing experie ex
will know nothing if you have no known everyting, and, if yo are timid enough to content yourself with nature, it will forever outside your grasp. Weshould understand whycannot the forlorn Justine's objection, nd if yor yca or luck change?, rouble the criminal heart. Luck change and become bad luck, but then it will be a new and di ferent luck, just as desired, as satising as the previous one. Bt you risk going to the scaff scaffold! old! You might perhaps meet your n in one of the most ignominious of deaths!This is indeed y mos cherished desire, the libertine responds. "Oh, Juliete, ss
Borghese, " would like my deviations to guide me as if were te last of all creatures to the fate to which their abandon carries the The gallows would be for me a throne of voluptuousness. Ther, would brave death while delighting in the pleasure of expiringa victim of my horrendous crimes. And again: "The true t rue lib rti lo ves even even the repr ooaches aches he he re receives ceives f or or the uns unspe peakable akable de deeds eds e
has done. Have we not seen some who loved the very torturs human vengeance vengeance w w as as ready ing ing for hem, hem, who who submited submited to t h m
Sade' Reason
2
joyf ully, w ho ho be b eheld the sca scaold old as a th throne rone of glo glory upon upon w hich tey w tey w ould ould be most gr gr ieved ieved not to to per iish sh wit with the the same same cour age te e y had ha d dis di splay ed man in inan the loath loathsome some exe exer r ccise isee of of medit thedita eir aheino h einou us ct ime imes s? The Th ere is the is m at the at the ultim ultimate ate degree degre mtheir ted corcorrptiion." rpt on." A gainst gainst such such a P o wer, wer, w hat hat can the the law do? It It inte inten nds to to pnis pni s suc suc a man, but but it re w ards ards im, an and it trills rills im b y demeani meaning him him. An And d, lik ew ew ise, w ise, w hat hat can th thee liber tine d doo again against hs counterp counterpaart? One One da y he betra y s him and him and sacri acricces him, im, but but tis be betrayal trayal arouse rousess inten intense se plea pleasure f or te one wo wo falls falls victim victim
to it, it, and e sees sees all is is suspic suspicions ions con conrmed rmed terein terein and dies dies i inn te volup voluptuousn tuousneess of te te toug tougt t of of av ing ing been t been te e excus excusee for a a ne w crime crime (not to m to mentio entionn te ote oter titillati titillations ons inv olved). One One of
Sde's most most curi curioous eroin eroines, es, Aml Amlie, ie, lives in in Sweden Sweden;; one day, day, se ges looking looking for Borcamps, Borcamps, te conspirato conspiratorr we mentioned mentioned earliearlie; te one wo, in opes of a mass execution on a monstrous sale, as just delivered all te members of te conspiracy to te rigning sovereign, te king. His betrayal as excited te young oman. "I love your ferocit, ferocit , se tells im. "Promise me tat one dy I too will be your victi victim; m; since te age of fteen, my mind as ben obsessed wit te idea of perising te victim of te cruel pssions of libertinage. Of course, I ddoo not want ttoo die tomorrow;
my eccentricit does not wile go tatexpiring, far; but te I doexcuse only want die in tis manner: becoming, for a tocrime is a idea tat makes my mout water. A strange mind, truly worty of tis response: "I am crazy in love wit your mind, and I tink we will do amazing tings togeter." togeter."Se Se is rotten, putre, r rc c!
Tus, everyting is beginning to crystallize: for te integral man, wo is all men, no evil iiss possible. If e inicts pain on otes, wat exquisite pleasure! If oters inict pain on im, ow dligtful! Virtue deligts im, for it is weak and e cruses it. And vice also pleases, because e derives satisfaction from te disorder it invokes, even toug it is at is expense. If e lives, tere is absolutely no event or occurrence tat e is unable to transform into pure appiness. If e dies, e nds an even greater appiness i deat, te consciousness of is destruction becoming te coro
22
Sade' Reason
nation of a life that alone justies the need for destruction He is therefore inaccessibe to power othersofNo onecontained can undermine him, nothing can take away his being within a body and enjoying himsel himsel Such is the primary meaning of his solitude Even if e, in turn, seemingly becomes a vctim and a slave, the violence of the passions tat e knows how to assuage in any circi rcumstance assures him of his sovereignty, makes him feel that in any crcumstance, crcumstance, n fe an in eath, he shal emain aa ful Despite the similarity of descriptions, it seems right to allow SacherMasoch the paternity of masochism and Sade that of sasm or Saes eroes, te peasure of egradation never taints their supreme selfmastery, and abjection exalts them All these feelings, shame, remorse, a fondness for punishment, remain foreign to them SaintFon SaintFondd declares to Juliette: "M "Myy pride is such that I woud like those who serve me to knee, and never to speak to them except through a spokesperson And she responds (not ironically) with this question: "But do not the caprices of libertinage free you from this haughtiness? "For " For minds assembled like ours, answers Saintond, "tis umiliation caters deiciousy to our pride And Sade adds in a footnote: "Tis is easiy understood; one doesmoral whatlevel, no one are therefore unlike any other On the theredoes; is thewesame proud satisfaction in the feeling of being ostracized ostracized from humanity: humanity: "It is necessary for the world to tremble upon learning of the crimes we wil ave
committed We must force men to bus for belonging to te same species as us I demand that a monument be built commemorating this crime to the universe and that our names be engraved on it by our own hands A Unique Being, unique among men, this is truly a sign of sovereignty, sovereignty, and we will see ju just st how far Sade wants to push this status Everythingg is now beginning to become even clearer, but at this Everythin point we also have the sense that everything is beginning to become extremey obscure Te agie move wit wc te Unique Being eludes te oters grasp is far from transparent rom certain anges, it can be seen as a kind of stoic imperviousness, which seems to suppose mans complete autonomy with
Sade' Reason
23
epec e wld. Ye, a e ame me, e exac ppe: nce e Beng i ndependen f e w can am m, he Unque uddenly ae a elan f neve ablue dmnan ove hem. And e can do i n becaue e ave nng n him excep a dagge, oue, and n becaue ei cheme f debaemen leave im inac, bu becaue he can do anyhing o em, a even e pan ey caue m pvde m w e pleaue f pwe and elp im exe veeign Nw, hi uan ae embaang. Wen "beng he mae f myelf mean "beng he mae f e, wen my ndependence de n n cme fm my aunmy aunmy,, bu fm e dependence f he n me, bvou a I foeve eman cnneced e and a I need em, even f nly bleae bleae em. Suc a difculy a fen been evked in egad o Sade. I i n clea a Sade Sad e even cn cncu cu f , and ne f e nnv nnva an n f h "excepnal ug peap gnae wi pn wen ne n Sade, a cucal pblem, ug whc elan f ecpcal lda beween mae and lave ae enduced; bu wen ne Sade, hee n pblem and i meve mpble ee a pblem n any f . We aeeac ncapable f examnng, e exen ha wuld be neceay, f Sade' numeou ex (eveyng i alway in abundance wen cme o Sade) a make efeence o -
uan. In u, cnadcn abund. On a few ccaon, he fev f f e lbenage eem auned by cnadcn f pleaue. Te lbene knw n geae pleaue an an accng c, r r rc
w le annlang vey cau wle caue. e. "T "Tee pleaue f kllng a wman, ay ne, " " n ve; e n lnge feel anyng wen he dead; e pleaue f makng e uffe dappea alng w e lfe... lfe... Le' band e (w a ed o n), le' mak he ndelbly; w depvan he wll uffe e la mmen f he lfe and u lu, nnely plnged, will heeby becme even me delicu. Smaly, SainFnd, diaied wh mple mehd f ue, deie a kind of pepeual dea f eac being. Thi i why, hough an ncneably ingeniu
Sade' Reson
system, devises to get is ands on Hell, to ave at isresource disposal in oureworld, at is victims victims' ' expense, tis inexaustible for metods of torment We discern erein, assuredly, just wat sort of inextricable alliance oppression created between te oppressedd and te oppressor oppresse oppressor Te Sadean man draw drawss is ex existence istence from te deat tat e inicts and at times wen, desiring eternal life, e dreams about a deat e can continuously impose Ten, onr and te victim, one foreve facn te te, ee one anoter bestowed equally wit wi t te same power, wit te same divine attribute of eternity We would not know ow to argue wit te fact tat suc a contradiction is part of Sade's tougt Yet, even more oen, e passes beyond all tis by means of reasons tat open up for us a more profound view of is world Clairwell scolds SaintFond for wat se calls is unforgivable eccentricities, and setting im anew on te rigt pat se gives im tis word of advice: Get rid of tat voluptuous idea tat warms your loins te idea of indenitely prolonging te torture of te Being you intend to killand replace it wit a greater number of murders Do not drag out te murder of one individual, wic is impossi-
ble, but is, killinmany tem,perfect wic solution is very feasible Te uman greater number fact, of a more To consider beings from te standpoint of quantity kills tem more completely tan does te pysical violence tat anniilates tem Te criminal unites, peraps, in an indissoluble way wit te man e kills But even wile sacricing s victim, te libertine, on te oter and, only experiences te need to sacrice a tousand more He seems strangely free of any connection to is victim In is eyes, is victim does not exist for im or erself, is victim is not a istinct being, but a simple component, indenitely excangeable, witin an enormous erotic equation To read declarations like tis oneNoting is more enjoyable for me, noting excites me like a large number of bei beings ngswe we be better tter understa understand nd wy Sade makes use of te idea of equality as support for so muc of is argumentation ll men are equal: tis means tat no creature is wort more tan anoter, every being is intercangeable, eac one as only te meaning of one unit witin an innite number Before
Sade Reaso
25
t Unque Beng, bengs are equa n wortessness, and ts te Uqu Beng, as ea reduces tem to notng, ony makes ntngn ss manfest. s s wat makes Sades word so strange. Scenes of ferocty suc
d d scenes scenes of
ferocty feroc ty . Te rep repettons ar e endess endess and and fab fabu u-
o1s. In o1s. In a snge snge scene, scene, eac bertne bertne fr equenty tortures and massares four or ve undred vctms; ten t starts over agan te net day; ten, tat evenng, a new ceremony. Te proceedngs va y y sgty, sgty, tngs get eated up agan; and massacr massacree compounds mssacre. But s t not obvous tat tose wo meet ter end n tse outrageous murders, murders, tose wo de, aready ack te sgtes bt of o f reaty reaty,, and f tey dsappear dsappe ar at te ands of ts dersve fat tey were annated beforeand by an act of tota and aboute destructon, tey are tere and tey do de, but ony to b r wtness to ts knd of orgna catacysm, ts destructon tt s not only ter own, but aso everyone eses? Ts s strkng te word n wc te Unque Beng exsts s a desert; te b �ngs e encounters tere are ess tan tngs, ess tan sadows. Ad we tormentng tem and destroyng tem, e does not
smst z upon ternonexstence, fe, but veres notngness. He becomes r of ter andter e draws great peasure from te of te at te te da wn of gs say, at de Bangs does te te Duk e de Ban ten does ts.. Wat ts W at ten four re of te te four peasure re for te te peasu ered d te tere en gat gatere te wom women 120 day ss,, to te and are, and are,, w woo w e are, o you are uaton, on, w o you your ur st stuat xamne xam ne yo lib r tin s? "E outsde be;; you you are no w outsde trembe you trem ts to mak e you tougts tese toug a w tese
forest, rest, abted ted fo unn nab eart art of an un rance ce n te e border rder s of Fran t bo ways hav havee passagew whosee passage mountaii ns whos d pointy pointy mounta and the steep an b e�ond the
en ostructed mmedatey ate aterr you crossed tem; you are sut U wtn an mpenetrab mpenetrabee ctade; woever t s you tnk you are, you are dden from your frends, from your famy; you are Tss worl" T ead t o th thee worl" a lr lr ady d ead
tese en teray: teray: tese must must be tak en
wmen are aready dead, emnated emnated,, ocked up n te absoute were tes and and were penetrates onger nger penetra ce no o er e exsten exstence aste e w er d of a bast vod vo quaty of fest ts ts quaty manfest se tan tan to man oter er purpo purpose serv e no ot t hdr ves serv
nge. e. nterm rmng no w nte ves no terr ves wc te wt wc dy dead" dead" wt area a ready oug g atou hch, at paa w hch, necrop stores res of necro asdee te sto settng asd i are settng
Sade' Reason
numerous in Sade's work, seem rather far from the "normal propensitiess o his heroes. Besides it would be necessary to indicate propensitie that, when his heroes exclaim ' what a beautiful cadaver! ad become excited excited by the imperviousness of death, they have, for tte e most part, begun their careers as murderers, and they are, in fat, striving to extend the effects of this capacity of aggression beyod death. It is undeniable that what characterizes Sade's world is not nnes nnes r r ecomng one with the immobized and ptried existence of a corpse, nor is it the attempt to slip into te pssivityrel of arealty, form representing of any of mencompletely taken from the the sence uncertanty of form, lfe an while incarnating the ultimate unreality unreality.. On the contrary contrary,, the center of Sade's world is the necessity for sovereignty to afrm itslf through an enormous negation. This negation, which is carrid out on a massive scale, which no individual instance is enough to satis, is essentially destined to surpass the plane of human exs-
tence. lthough lthou gh the Sadean man uses his power to impose himslf on others with the intention of destroying them, if he gives the impression independent evenforever when capable displayig the necessityof tobeing annihilate them, ofif them, he seems f doing without them, it is because he has set himself apart, on a level where he no longer has anything in common with them, ad because once and for all he has placed himself on this plane to make the scope of his destructive project into something that etrnally surpasses man and his puny existence. In other words, insofar as the Sadean man appears urprisingly free in relation to is victim, upon whom however his pleasure depends, it is because te violence violen ce is directed direct ed at somethi something ng other than his victims, victi ms, it goes truly beyond them and only assists in veriing frenetically, innitely, with each individual case, the general act of destructin through which he reduces God and the world to nothing. Obviously, with Sade, the spirit of crime is connected to te dream of unlim dream unlimited ited nega negation tion that that weak, practical possibilit ossibilitie iess nev er er cease cease to debase debase and dishon dishonor. or. The The most mag magnicent nicent cr ie ie in this w orld is the the sort of tribulati ribulation on that ma makes the li libertie bertie
blush. bl ush. There There is not not one amo among ng them who, them who, lik e the monk monk Jeroe, Jeroe,
Sade' Reason
oes not ee same at te tougt o te meocrty o s orrenous crmes an seeks a superor crme to any tat man mgt commt n ts wor n unortunately, e says, "I ave not oun one; a tat we o paes n comparson to wat we wou ke to be abe to o "I wou ke, says Carwl, "to n a crime whose continual effects are ongoing, even when I am no longer enactng tem, so tat tere w never be one snge moment n my e wen, even we I seep, I am not creatng some sorer or anoter An ts sorer sou exten to te pontater categorca tat even atoergenera I e tte ecorrupton eects wlorstsuc reverberate reverberate T Toosrupton wc Juette gves ts very proper response, peasing to te author o L a Nouvelle justine justine : "Try commttng a mora crme, one tat can ony e accompse troug wrtng I n s system Sae reuce te t e peasures o te mn aass muc as e possby cou,
e amos amostt competely competely away aw ay w wt t the erotic eroticsm sm o te imagna imagna-ton (ecause s own erotc ream conssts n projectng, onto caracters tat o not ream but nstea act out n reaty, te unrea movement s pleasures: Sade'spart, erotcsm dreamed eroticsm, snce it soreaze, oor the most ony inswords; yet te more ts erotcsm s tat o a ream, te more t emans narraton from wc te ream s banse, weren ebauce ebaucery ry s reaze an ve), Sae as owever eevate, n an exceptona way, te magnary, t s because e compreens wonderuy tat te bass for so many mperect crmes s an mpossbe crme wc te magnaton aone can contempate An ts s v i Br : " , u uiette, iette, ow deici deicious ous are te peasures peasu res o te magnat magnaton! on! Te entre eart beongs to us n tese woneru moments; not one snge creature ressts us, we evastate the word, we repopulate t wt new objects wic we agan sacrice; we ave te capacity o orr a tese crmes, we w e enjoy every bt o t, we mutpy te orror by a unre In a coecton o o essays tat not ony expresses some o te most poweru power u tougts about Sae but aso about a te probems tat Sae's exstence can car, erre Kossowsk expans te very compex caracter o te reatons tat te Saean conscousness
28
Sade' Reason
maintains with God and his neighbor4 He shows that these relations are negative, but that, nsofar as this negation is real, it reintroduces the notions that it abolishes: the notion of God and the notion of the neighbor, Kossowski says, are indispensable to the libertine's consciousness We could discuss this endlessly, because Sade's work is a chaos of early stated ideas in which everything is said, though in which everythng s also hidden ter all, Sade's orgnalty seems to be in the extremely rm assertion of foundng man's sovereignty sovereignty the upon transcending transcen power power that depends in noonway theding objects thatofitnegation, destroys,awhich, in order to destroy them, does not even suppose their existence beforehand, beforeha nd, because when t t destroys them it has always previously considered them as nothng Now, this dialectic uncovers simul-
ly considered them as noth ng Now, this dialectic uncovers simul taneously its best example and, perhaps, its ustication insofar as the Almighty Almighty Sade is afrmed with respect to the di divine vine Almighty Almighty Maurice Heine has celebrated the exceptional resolution of Sade's atheism atheism55 But But,, as Pierre Klossows Klossowski ki frequently frequently observes, observes, this God atheism appears is by innoeven means thedispassionate most tranquilThe of passages, moment the the language name of suddenly begins to burn, the tone rises, the impelling force of hate directs the words, overturns them It is certainly not through the scenes of lust and lechery that Sade's passion is revealed, and each time the Unque Being perceives some vestige of God in his path, it is then that violence, contempt, the fervor of pride, and the anxiety of power and desire immediately ensue In some ways, the idea of God is the inexpiabe fault of man, his original sin, the proof of his emptiness, what usties and authorizes crime, for we cannot be too forceful in our efforts to annihlate a being who is willing to bow down and prostrate himself before God God Sade writes: "The idea of God is the one wrong that I am not able to forgive man man Decisive words and a ke keyy to his system Belief in an almighty God who allows man only the reality of a wisp of straw, of an atom of nothingness, imposes on the complete man the obligation to seize this thi s superhuman power, and to himself exert, in the name of man and on men, the sovereign right that these men have recognized to be God's When he kills, the crimnal is God on
Sade' Reason
Earth, for he realzes between hmself and hs vctm the relatonshp of subordnaton wheren he sees the denton of dvne soveregnty. When a true lbertne dscerns, even n the mnd of the most corrupt debauchee, the slghtest bt of relgous fath, he medately decrees hs death: for ths poor mmoralst has already destroyed hmself, by surrenderng to the hands of God. He cosders hmself to be nothng, so he who klls hm s only regulatng a stuaton that appearances barely vel. The Sadean man negatesofmen, and ths carred out through the ntermedary the noton of negaton God. He smomentarly becomes God, so that, when n hs presence, other men become
nconsequental and then realze exactly to what extent a beng before God s sheer nothngness. "Do you not love men, my prnce? asks Julette" deplore them. There s not one nstant wheren I am not concoctng the mos mostt volent ways to harm them. In fact, there does not exst a more pathetc race ... How base, how vle man s, how dsgustng!" dsgustng!"But But you, Julette nterru nterrupts, pts, "do yu really beleve that you are one of them, that you are a man? Oh, no, no, when you domnate them wth such force, t s mpossle that you are one of them."She s rght, says SantFond, "yes, we are gods. Meanwhle, the dalectcal movement perseveres: the Sadean man assumes the power to rse above other men, ths power stupdly gven to God by these same men. The Sadean man does not forget for one moment that ths power s entrely negatve. Beng God can only mean one thng: crushng men, annhlatng crei. " ik Pr' x SaintFond says, "so that the evl released my heart destroys and that everya bengallndvdually. And from Verneul says ths: "If t each was true God exsted, would we not all be hs rvals destroyng as we do what he has molded? Ths s how an ambguous concepton of the Almghty s gradually conceved, though there can hardly therefore be any doubt about ts mplcatons. Klossowsk emphaszes the theores of SantFond, whose vews we have just ntmated and who, among all of Sade's heroes, presents the sngular trat of belevng n the Supreme Beng only ths God n whom
30
Sade' Reason
he beleves s not very good, but "very vndctve, very barbarc, very mean, very unfar, and very cruel; cruel ; t ss the Supr Supreme eme Beng of meanness, the God of evl acts. Sade has drawn all knds of bllant developments from ths dea. He magnes a Last udgmet whch he descrbes wth all the resources of the ferocous huor or he possesses. We hear God berate these ne men wth the followng words: "When you have seen that everythng on earth s v cous cou s and crmna crmnal, l, wy wy whch ddch you yo uI stray on onto toe ppat aths hs er rtue Has be�n eoof r fse sev rtue? not ?be�n unv loak ak the th clo n dd n wh msery m sery etual ual perpet perp the
that y 6 u nd that sorde rderr and hat I lov e only dso you that nce you conv nce gh to to conv enough enou ish f u ur r nish day f very ry day ot e e ve not id I n hap ppy ? Did to maak e me ha me to m nno y me to a an av e to structee? u not destruct you W y ar e yo on? W destructon? pless of destruct example th exam ou w th y ou
mbecle! Can't you just mtate me!
t hs cous tha thatt ths obvo bvous e, t s s o he for for e, to the ghtt tthhss to brough havn avngg brou But h But
c dalec alecc moment n the d ernal God s only a mom pton on of an nf ernal cept ce
name o f an n the name ng man pudatng an,, afte afterr r eepudat superman ade's superm w heren heren Sade's
the n a q ects hm hm n the rejects then,, n turn n turn,, rej God and and then meets God nally meets God, nally
f
of Nature, only to, n the end, renounce Nature, equatng t w h the sprt of negaton. n the evl God, the negaton, aer havg just extermnated exte rmnated the t he not noton on of man, takes tak es a short breather, so o speak, before turnng ts attenton nward, on tsel In becomg God, SantFond smul smultaneou taneously sly makes God become SantFon. And the Supreme Beng, nto whose hands the weak have delered themselves as examples to compel the strong to abd te themselves as well, no longer reafrms Hmself except as te ggantc pressure of a bronzelke transcendence whch crus s each beng n proporton to hs weakness. Ths Yet, s thehavng hatredj 4f man hypostatzed, rased to ts hghest degree. st attaned absolute exstence, the sprt of negaton, havng as sh become conscous of tself as nnte, now has no other cho than to turn aganst the afrmaton of ths absolute exstence, prhaps now the only object on the same level as nnte negato. Thss hatred of Th hatred of men men was emb emboded oded b y God. God. N Now ow ts hatred ts hatred f f God lbe lbera rates tes hate from God. God. Such aggressve aggressve hate hate seems seems at ev e� y
moment oment to be pro proectng ectng the real realty ty of w at t den denes, es, to to b tter af rm and and just tself. tself. "If "If ths ths exs exstence- tence- God's God's exstenc exstence- e- wee wee
Sade' Reason
31
proven true, I must admit, says Dubois, "the sheer pleasure of perpetually irritating such a being would necessarily become the most precious compensation for the fact that I would nd myself beieving in him. But does such a scalding hate afrm, as lossowski seems to believe, a faith that had forgotten its name and resorted to blasphemy in order to force God to end his silnce? We are not fully convinced that this is the case. Everything Ev erything
indicates the contrary cont rary, his predilection for the erce hatred of, that Godthe wasonly thatreason in Himbehind he found a privileged pretext and aliment. For Sade, God is obviously only the mainstay of his hatred. His hatred is too great to be contained by just one object; since it is innite, since it always goes beyond every limit, it takes pleasure in itself and becomes ecstatic in this innitude to wich it give givess the name God ("Your syst system, em, Clair Clairwill will says to SaintFond, "is based only on the deep horror that you have for God.). But this hatred alone is real and, in the end, it will focus its attention on Nature with as much boldness as it displayed against the nonexistent God it abhors. Indeed, if all things religious, if the very name of God, if priestlike these "Godmakers excite Sade's most tempestuous passions, it is because the words of God and religion embody nearly every form of his hate. In God, he hates the nothingness of manwho created such a master for himselfand the thought of this nothingness so irritates and enrages him that he is left no other choice than to work with God to sanction this nothingness. He furthermore hates God's omnipotence, in which he sees what is rightful i o, inGo te c, atred. Fnally, Godco e ates misery and misfortune of God, the pointlessness of an existence that, for as much as it arms itself as existence and creation, is nothing. For wht is great, what is everything, everything, is tthe he spirit of destruction. destruction. This spirit of destruction, in Sade's system, is identied with Nature. With this point Sade grappled and groped, and in fact he had to renounce the thenpopular atheist philosophies, for which he particularly felt an afnity and wherein his reasoning, thirsty for arguments, found inexhaustible resources. But insofar as he
32
Sade' Reason
was able to go beyond naturalist ideology, ideology, and insofar as he never fell prey to outside analogies, he proves that in him logic was brought to its end without giving way to the t he dark forces and ominous gures that supported it. Nature is one of the words that he writes, like so many writers of his time, the most willfully willfully.. It is in
the name of Nature that he leads the struggle against God and against all thats Godpont represents, morality in particular. We ndde no s any urther, gven that the amount himself wrote on this subject is vertiginous. Nature is rstly, for him, universal life and, for hundreds of pages, his entire philosophy onsists in repeating over over and over tht nly imoral instin instints ts are good, since they are facts of Nature, and the rst and nal athority is that of Nature. In other words, that there is no morality is the reigning fact. But then, irritated by the equal value that he feels obligated to accord virtuous instincts and evil impulses, he attempts to establish a new hierarchy of values with crime at the summit. His principal argument states states that crime iiss more on the side of Nature, because it is movement oor,r, in other words, it is life Nature, which thrives on creation, he says, needs crime, which destroys. All this is established in a very detailed way, at endless length and sometimes with rather striking proofs. However, by continually talking about Nature, nding himsel constantly confronted with this insurmountable and sovereign presence, the Sadean man gradually becomes aggravated. This irritation fuels his anger and crystallizes his feelings for Nature into intense hatred. Nature, now completely unbearable becomesyes, the Ifocus of his anathemas and negations. "Yes,to him, my friend, abhor Nature. This insbordination has two deepseated motivations. On the one hand, he nds it intolerable that the power of incredible destruction, which he represents, has no other purpose than to authorize Nature to create. On the other hand, insofar as he is himself part of Nature, he senses Nature evade his negation, and the more he outrages Nature and the more he serves it, the more he annihilates it and the more he submits to its law. From then on, hatelled screams, a truly mad rebellion. you, blind and mindless force, when I have exterminated allthe creatures that
Sade' Reason
33
cover te eart I w st b e truy far from m y goa snce I woud cover ave served you crue moter and snce I ony aspre to avenge mysef of your neggence and meanness wc you nct on men
we furnsng tem wt te means means to free temseves from te frghtfu penchants that you nspre n them. Wt ths we see the expresson of a prmorda and eementa sentment to outrage naturestronger tmes s man'sthan deepest te necessty; one e asts to rrtate need sGod. n hm "Inaatousand tat we do tere are ony offended dos and creatures but Nature s not one of tem and Nature s te one I reay want to outrage; I woud ke to upset ts pans to fo ts proceedngs to stop the orbt of the stars to dsrupt the panets tat oat n space to destroy a that serves t to protect a tat arms t n a word to nsut te core of Nature; and I am ncapabe of ts. And yet n ts passage Sade takes te berty of ntermngng Nature wt ts great aws wch aows m to dream of a catacysm that coud destroy tese very aws. But s ogc rejects ts compromse and wen esewere e magnes an engneer nventng a machne to puverze te unverse e must confess that nobody ese s more deservng of nature than hm. Sade s y aware that annhatng a thngs s not te same thng as annhatng the word because te word s not ony a unversa afrmaton but unversa destructon as we. In other words te entrety of beng and the entrety of notngness revea t equay. Ts s wy man's strugge wth nature s engendered wthn the hstory of man at a daectca truymnizn su peror togthat superor hsg strugge wt wthh God. s of mi g s stage i Sade s oneWe of te rst to ave seen n te dea of te word te very markngs of transcendence snce wth the dea of nothngness beng part of the word we can ony consder the nothngness of the word wthn a tota totaty ty wch s aways the wor word. d. If crme s the sprt of Nature there can be no crme aganst nature and consequenty no crme s possbe. Sade asserts ths sometmes wt great satsfacton sometmes wth ery rage. Denyng the possbty of crme aows hm to deny moraty God and a uman vaues but te dena of crme aso entas
34
Sade' Reason
relinquishing the spirit of negation, admitting that this spt
ould itself be usurped. He vigorously opposes this onlusion, whih leads him gradually to remove remove all reality from Nature. In the last volumes of L a Nouvelle justine (most notably not ably in V Volumes olumes VIII and IX), Juliette renounes all of her previous oneptions and makes amends in the following way: "What "W hat an imbeile I was, before we parted ways I was still part of Nature, but the new systm I'v dptd sne ten ave reeved me o Natue... Nature, she says, has no more truth, trut h, reality reality,, or meaning than God Go d himself: ! Bith, you are perhaps deeiving me, sine I was deeived so in the past, with the infamous deied hmer to wih, we were were told, you were subjeted; we are not depending on you any more more than on im; the auses have peraps no relation to the effets... effets... Thus Nature disappears, altough the philosopher plaed muh store in it and although Sade found the idea of making formidable mahine out goal. of universal lifeas verypursud agreeable.a Yet nothingness aloneof isdeath not his What he by pushing the spirit of negation to its limit is sovereignty sovereignty.. So tat t at this negation would be felt in te most extensive way, e used alternately men, God, and and Nature. Men, God, and Nature: W When hen negation rosses with eah of these notions, it appears to bestow on them a ertain kind of value, but if we take tis experiment into aount in its entirety these t hese moments no longer ave te lest bit of reality, beause the peuliarity of the experiment onsists anoter. speiallyat in obliterating exatly are these men, moments, if they areannihilating the vast nothingness one after before God? Wat is God, in the presene of Nature? Wat is Nature, wih is fored to disappear by man's need to outrage it? And so the irle loses. Some men, inluding us, return to being men. Only one man in partiular now has a new name: he is alled the Unique, the man who is unique in his speies. Having disovered that in man negation was power, Sade laimed to found man's future on extreme negation. To rea this point of extreme negation, he ame up with a prinipleborrowing from the voabulary of his timewhih, by its very ambiguity, illustrates a very ingenious oie. This priniple is Energy.
Sade' Reason
35
Eer g y s, n fact, n fact, a a hghy eqv oca not noton. on. It It s, at on once, a reserve reserve ad an an exend exendtre of of force, an afrmaton afrmaton that s co comet meteed ony troggh neg tro negaaton, t t s s o w er er tha that s des destrcto trcton. n. t s s both f act act and a w, data data and v ae. It s try strkng strkng that, n n ths n nverse o f rv sc s c n c and and of ass asson, Sad Sade, far fr oom m de dessgnatn gnatngg desr e as
te hghest hghest vae, vae, makes makes t of secondary secondary mortance mortance and and even jgees t ss jg ssect ect Ths Ths s s beca becase se desre desre denes denes sotde sotde aand nd eads to a dangero dangeross arecaton arecaton o the o the wor d d of others others Bt when S intFond intFond decare decares:s: "My assons, assons, when co concentrat ncentrated ed on one one artcar ont, ar e ke ray s of ght ght from a star gathered gathered wthn wthn a agnng gass: they qcky gnte any object they nd n ther ath, we ceary see how destrcton can aear synonymos wth ower, wthot the destroyed object ectng even the sghtes vae from ths oeraton Another advantage of ths rnce: rnc e: t gves man a ftre, wthot mosng on hm an awareness of so sort of greater or hgher beng, wthot any dea noton Ts s one of Sades merts He has camed to knock the mora-
of the Good ot of the heavens, off ts edesta, brngng t
dwnn to earth, bt, de dw deste ste a few rovocatve aarmatons, he took wrtes:: great care not to reace t wth a Gose of Ev When he wrtes "erythng s good when t s excessve, we mght reroach hm fo the ack of recson of hs rnce, bt we cannot fat hm ng wanting fo wanti
vereig nty of man on on the the so vereignty acy of man th suprem supremacy to found found th
Here Here no hmse natee hmse orev er er sbord sbordnat wod f orev hch he he wod tons to w hch ntons n an n yto do do a choos oosee to we can can ch eged: we be r r eged: redd to be re c n duct satconsde con mose ose be to m n dong dong t, w e be abe atters att ers s s that, n what msde tng; t ng; wh rmaafrmahe gre reaatest af ruction and tthe st dest destruction reatest sly the the greate ltaneously siultaneou siu
tn Essentay, ths s try what haens n Sades noves t s nt the amont of vrte or vce that determnes whether bengs ar hay or nhay, bt the energy they exend; becase, as he wrtes, "haness s n keeng wth the energy of rnces: t r wod be none of any of t t for the beng who oats endessy SantFond rooses a an to Jette to devastate two thrds o France throgh starvaton She hestates and s frghtened: medatey, she s threatened Why? Becase she s vng roof Santed, and and Santdmnshed, eng has dmnsh tenor of her beng o w eakness, eakness, the tenor
Sade' Reason
Fond's greater energy is prepared to make her his victim. This is even more clear in the case of Durand. Durand poisons; she is incapable of the slghtest virtue; her corrupton is absolute. But then one day the government government of Vence asks her to spread plage. The project frightens her, not because of ts immorality, ut because she fears the risks that she herself might run. mmediatly mmediatly,, she is condemned. She does not have the energy; she found her ae, ad e aer death. en leang a angerou e, says Sade, what is important is to never "lack the necessary strength to surmount the nal limits. We might say that this strange world is not comprised of indivduals, but of systems of forces, of more or less elevated tenson. Catastrophe is therefre inevitable. Furthermore, it is not necesary to dstngush the ifference between the energy of nature and man's energy: lust is a kind of bolt, since lightning nature'swilllewdness; weak willlightning be the victim of both, and theis trong emerge the triumphant. Justine is truck down, Juliette is not; there is no prvidental arrangement in ths denouement. Justine' weakness seres as an appeal to the same lghtnng whch Julette's energy deects away from her. Simlarly, everything that happens to Justne makes her unhappy, because everything that affects her diminishes her; about her, we are told that her inclinatons were virtuous but base, and th must be taken lterally. To the contrary, everythng that happens to Julette reveals her power, and she takes pleasuree in t as an expansio pleasur expansionn of hersel Ths s why why,, if she were to de, her death would draw her to the lmt of power and exalaton, thus allowing her to experence total destructon as the total expenditure of her mmense energ. Sade completely understood that man's energetic sovereignty, to the extent that man acquires this sovereignty by identing wth the pirit of egaton, a paadoxcal tate. The complete an, completely afrmed, s also completely destroyed. He s the man of all passons and he s unfeelng. He began by destroyng hmsl rst as hethe wasUnque. man, then as God, as Nature, thus insofar he became Now he canand dothen everythng, for and the negaton in hm overthrew everything. To account for ts fora
Sad' Rason
37
tion, Sade resorts to a highly coherent concept which he gives the classical name of "apathy. Apathy is the spirit of negation applied to the man who has chosen to be sovereign. tt is, in a certain wa way, y, the cause and the principle of energ. Sades argument advances approximately in this way: todays individual represents a certain amount of force; most of the time, he disperses his forces, alienat ing them for the benet of these simulacrums which are other peo ple, God, ideals. Through this dispersion, he makes the mistake of exhausting his possibilities, wasting them, but even more of found ing his behavior on weakness, for if he exhausts his energ energ for oth ers, he does so because he believes he needs their support. A fatal mistake: he is weakened by vainly expending his forces because he believes himself to be weak. But the true man knows that he is alone and he accepts this; he renounces everything within himself that existsofonly in relationship to others,pity, to agratitude, tradition of centuries cowardliness; for example, andseventeen love are all feelings he destroys; by destroying them, he amasses together all the strength he would have had to consecrate to these debilitating impulses and, what is even more important, from this destructive work he draws the beginning of a true energ. t is indeed necessary to fully comprehend that apathy does not only consist in ruining "parasitic affections, but also in opposing the spontaneity of any passion whatsoever. The lecherous man who immediately immediately gives in to his vice is but a runt that will be sac riced. Even gifted debauchees, perfectly skilled at becoming monsters, if they are happy giving in to their weaknesses, will be este fo tstoe. Se s e m c s p or pas sion to become energ, it is necessary that t hat it be constricted, that it be mediated by passing through a necessary moment of insensi bility; then it will be the greatest passion possible. n the initial stages of her career, Juliette was continually scolded by Clairwell: he reproaches her for only committing crimes with enthusiasm, since she thereby ignites the ame of crime only from the ame of passion, she places lust, the effervescence of pleasure, above every thing. These are dangerous potentialities. Crime matters more than lust, and the coldblooded crime is valued more than the
Sade' Reason
crime committed in the heat of the moment; but what mattrs more than anything is the dark and secret crime "committed by hardening one's sensitive pars, because it is the act of a soul that, having destroyed everything within itsel accumulated enormous force, which will be identied with the move toward total destruction that it prepares All the great libertines, who live only for pleasure, are great only because they have obliterated within them vry o sure is is wy they resort to frightenng anomalies: otherwise the mediocrity of ordinary voluptuousness would be enough for for them But they have become become unfeeling: they expect to nd pleasure in their insensitivity, in this rejected sensitivit, and they become ferocious Cruelty is only the negation of te sel carried so ar tat it is transormed into a destructive explosion; insensitivityinto makes the entire beingwhich tremble, says metaSade; "the soul transforms a form of apathy is soon morphosed into pleasures a thousand times more divine than the ones that that pander to their their weakne weaknesses sses We understand that, in this world, principes play a major roe The libertine is "thoughtful, selfcontained, incapable of being moved by just anything He is solitary, does not put up with noise or laughter; nothing must distract him; "apathy, indierence, stoicism, the solitude of the self, these are the conditions necessary for him to attain his proper soul Such a transformation, such a selfdestructive work is not accomplished without extreme difcuty juette is a kind of Bildungsroman, an instructional manual that teaches us to recognize the slow formation of an energetic soul Apparently, Juliette is, from the beginning, competely depraved But in reality se has only a few pencants and her head is intact; there still remains an enormous eort for her to make, because, as Balzac Balza c says, a person who desires cannot can not be destroye destr oye Sade points out that there are very dangerous moments in working toward apathy For example, it happens that insensitivity putsvery the debauchee in such an obiterated of of mind sometimes that he could easly, at this moment, return tostate moral living: livin g: he thinks he is hardene hardened, d, that he is only weakness, weakness, a dupe fully primed for remorse; or one lone virtuous impulse, revalidat
Sade' Reason
39
ng the unverse o man and God, s enough to overturn all hs power; as elevated as he mght be, he collapses and, generally, generally, ths all s hs death. On the other hand, n ths prostrated state, wheren he experences only a eelng eelng o bland repugnance oor the orst excesses, he musters up one nal surge o orce n order to agment ths nsensblty by nventng new excesses that repulse hm even more, then he wll sht rom an oblterated state to an omnpotent one, rom hardenng and nsenstvty to the most extreme pleasure and, "moved at the very core o hs beng, he wll soveregnly delght hmsel hmsel beyond bey ond all lmts. One o o the surprsng aspects o Sade and o hs destny s that, athough there s no better symbol o scandal than he, the entrety o the scandalous audactyto o hs thought has that remaned long unknown. It s unnecessary enumerate themes he dscoveed that even the most darng mnds o centures to come wll eploy all ther audacty toward rearmng: we acknowledged them n passng, and yet we restrcted ourselves to the task o layng bare the development o Sade's thought by hghlghtng ts esental ponts. e mght just as easly have chosen hs concepton o the dream, wheren he sees the mnd workng to return to ts nstncts and escapng the moralty o the dayor o all hs toughts that outstrp Freud's, let's take ths one or example: "It s n the mother's womb that organs are made. Ths must necessarly make us susceptble to some antases; the rst objects presented to us, the rst dscussons heard, end n delneatng ts ter g g so, s o, canges nong at all. Tere exsts n Sade a purely tradtonal moralst, and t would be easy to asemble a selecton o hs maxms whch would make those o La cheouca che oucauld uld appea appearr weak and unce uncertan rtan.. W Wee reproach reproa ch hm or rtng badly and he does ndeed oten wrte n haste and wth a prolxty that exhausts our patence. But he s also capable o a bzarre humor, reaches a glacal jovalty, sortVoltare' o colds nnocence wthnhshsstyle excesses, whch we preer to alla o
rony and an d whch s s ound ound n no other French wrter. All these mer ts are exceptonal, but they have been useless. Untl the day when
40
Sade' Reason
Apollinaire, Maurice Heine, and Andr retonwith hi inighful conception of the hidden force of hitoryopened the w toward him, and even later, until the latet writing of Georg t t Bataille, Jean Paulhan, and Pierre oowki, Sademaer of major trend of thought and of the modern enibilitcontinued to radiate like an empty name. y? It i becaue hi hi thougt i the work of madne, becaue it had a it mold a depravity tht ught Sade' e' tho thought nally, lly, Sad Addto dtona ace. Ad reay y to f ace. a not rea oo a
y, t bon on cop y, epr avity, avity, it i it car b depr theory of thi d d a the the theory preented preente ee omplee nomaly into a compl epugnantt anomaly ot r epugnan poe e the m the mot tranpo claim claim to tran ph world rld,, ph thee wo es of th or e the the ey es time,, bef or rst time the rst For the ew . For w orld orld v iiew andd t ,6 an illne,6 roductt of illne the produc ivedd a the conce ceive been n con ha bee ophy hy ha loop lo ytem w h s e ght a ytem ical thou thought ogical ver ally ally log ly afrm afrm a uni ver hame ha letion i ual.l. ividua rr ant ant ind individ an aberr eferencee of an abe i the pr eferenc only on lymele cau caution
ic feature feature.. W teritic ot charac characterit Sade'' mot er one one of Sade another Thi i anoth Thi text writing ting a text ugh wri py thro through therapy hi ow n thera formed hi an ay ay tha thatt he per formed can on and and w h obeion e to hi hi obei ll hi hi referenc reference ne aall which ich he con he conne in wh in
re-
in he earche for the kind of coherence and he kind of logic tht hi obeive remark reveal. Yet, on the other hand, he wa the rt to prove, and to do oo with pride, tha thatt from a certain p roal and even montrou way of behaving he might rightfully gain rather ignicant view of the world, which even great thinker f the day, crambling olely o nd the meaning of the human codition,, were able to do nothing dition nothing more than reafrm in it main p pective and back up it validity validity.. Sade had been brazen enough to afrm that, while courageouly accepting hi peculiar tate an auming them to be the point of departure and the principle r all reaon, he wa giving giv ing philoophy philoophy the rmet rme t foundatio foundationn that he could fahom, and he began to interpret human detiny in i entirety in in a profound profound way . Such a preteni a pretenioon i und undoubtedl oubtedl y y no no longer long er held to frighten to frighten u, u, but but we we are only jut beginnin beginningg to t o take
ikeep t erioul and, who fo forr awere longintereted time, thi thiin preten pretenion wa eenough nough t even yythoe Sade ation a ditance. Firtly , what w a a he? A montr montr ou ou excep exception, completely completely ouide hu humanit y. y. "Sade "Sade'' uniqu uniquen ene, e, Nodier Nodier ai aid, d, "i having c o -
mittedd uch a mitte uch a mon mon rou rou o o ene ene th that at we h we have ave be been unab unable even even to
Sade' Reason
41
caracterze t a ae (Wc, n ome way, wa n act one o Sade' ambton: to be nnocent throug cupabty; to ue exce exc evene vene to mah apart, for good, the norm, the aw aw whch whch coud ave judgedfrgten Anoter of h contemporare, Ptou, wrt wrte e n n a rater fr m gtenng ng way way:: "Jutce ad reegated ree gated hm to a prson corner gvng every prsoner permon to rd the word of t burden en we ten aw n hm the exampe of an anomay ao ound n certan ndvdua, we rued to hut hm up n th unnameabe aberraton, for wch ony th unque name eemed to be utabe Even ater, when we made Sade mert th anomay, wen we aw m a a rater berated man or havng nvented a new knowedge and, n every way, an exceptona man n bot h detny and hs preoccupaton, wen, nay, n adm, we aw omethng poby o nteret to a of humanty, t we contnued to negect tougt, a we ad been ure that tere wa more orgnaty and autentcty n adm than n the way Sade hmef wa abe to nterpret t Now, upon coer npecton, t cear that th thought eenta and that, even urrounded by contradcton, t evove, t brng u, troug te probem utrated by te name Sade, vew more gncant than anythng te mot atute and ucd tougt ha been abe to conceve, even to th day We are not ayng tat th thought vabe va be But t doe doe how ho w u th that at between the nor norma ma man who ock te adtc adt c m man an up n an mpase mpa se and and the adstc adst c man who turn th mpae nto an ecape hatch, the atter the one who nearer near er to te trut trut, , who underta undertand nd te ogc og c o h tuaton, s p inignc ont of ben abe to ep te norma man undertand hmef, by hepng hm mod te oundaton of a percepton
§
The Experence of Lautramont No .. let us lead the haggard matock-and-trench mob no deeper through the exposable mines of this impious canto! -M ld
. the author hopes that the reader infers .
-Psis
The Demand for Sep aration
Can one comment on Maldoo? Undoubtedly Every commentary on an important work w ork is necessarily at fault in relation to that work, but commentary commenta ry is inevitable The feeling feelin g is inevitable that, sooner or later, propels the reader before that which he most admires, to substitute himself for that which he admires, to secretly believe himself a little more erudite than the work, a little more real thanand thedepends author, on duehis to reasons the fact f actfor thatadmiring the workit,completes itself in him reasons which are themselves a product of the times and his own work In the presence of a tree resembling the tree of life, the commentatora particularly suspect characterhastens to pluck its nce nd e avor o hs ngular
thng having mete in his mouth he might be able to nd in its place a knowledge in which he delights even more, as if therein he had a superior kind of fruit, one born of him and capable of giving him the power to recreate, should he so desire, the tree itsel In the state of original sin, the commentator would therefore bring with wit h him a aw; but which one? This is not so clear clear Would it be that of wanting to penetrate the secrets of "life, of asking creation for the power to do it again? Today this temptation has truly faded: we ourselves forget it, but the only arrogant ages are the classical ages, wherein the authors of at poique, poique, perfectly 43
44
The Exper perien ience ce f Lautramnt Lautramn t
clear o te rules a problems of compositio, are very ear to believig of te secret of of creatio Suc arrogace temselves is pai fortobybea masters metoical abasemet te creatie act ut toay we are far from ts pretesio a te commetator, rater ta eplaiig ow oe easily writes great books, feels te ecessity to provoke, arou complete works, all te problems tat make tese works impossible to create After all, a commetator s capabe capabe of um umty ty e ca ope to sapear sapear eh e h wat w at e reveals re veals e woul wo ul lov lovee to be a rea reaer er wo is i s abs abse ett from is reag, a barely visible presece, te most moest a reuce tat it is possible to be, to te pot of becomg, ot the eye of te strager strager tat juges, gauges, ees a oes oes away wit wat e sees, but te tig itself augmete by a gaze Ufortuately, erei lies is error Clearly, oe must cosie reaig as ecessary to te work ut ere a reaer appears wo, iasmuc as e reas, also writes, a, suspeig te iterio movemet movem et troug wic wic e gives meaig, life, a a freeom t a realty compose of wors, substitutes substitutes terei ew writte wri tte relatios, a system of stable epressios estie to forever maitai te movig power of te work from witi a perspective were te workistops, so tat it appears maifest, maifest , more clear, m more ore simple, a repose all too similarmore to eat Naturally, oe migt say tat tis eat is te life of works, tat reaig, to be rea, ees to pass troug te ow of te worl, a tat comme-
tary, writte or oral, is tis survival witout wic reaig woul be oly te vai meetig of a saow saow a a trasparecy trasparecy t is true true A tis s wy, early or late, t s evitable tat commetary come to works as teir glory a te isavowal of tat glory y commet comm et o a book? To make it mor moree reaa reaable ble Te crit critic ic igeiously obeys te iea tat te reaer is somethig very umble, te book sometig rater elevate a tat, i orer to brig tese two etremes closer togeter, a itercessor s ecessary Te commetator plays a "mie role te commetator, te reaer's passio a te autor's overpowerig overpowerig luciity are uite Te commetator as te sovereig passivity of someoe wo reas a te cotrolle freeom of someoe wo writes writ es Te commetator commetator
The Experen per ence ce ofLautramont
45
akes h hmself master of a text text by aba abadog dog hmse hmself to t t (as s rop r r to good good readg adtha haet lberates lberat es hmse hmself lf from t t awhle whle b i g subm submssve ssve readg) to a o)ther to thhe t cr eates A mbgu bguo ous cre crea ture,
comple complete ad t ad too oo complete, complete, uhapp y hermap hermaphrodte hrodte who, who, hs osto sto as co coclator clator , ofte ofte feels code codem med to to solt soltuude (as, (as,
trough a abudace of orgas, to sterlty) As the the reader' reader' s delega delegate, the the crtc suffers suffers th the tempt temptato ato to to �tcpa tcpate te ad ad to to prepar e the meet meetg g of these these o o power s at the
lwest pot; po t; he husbads the dleess of the reader whom he rep rsets; he dulges hs horror of the uexpected, hs taste for ommodtes, hs rght to dverso Ths submsso to gravty s art of hs role, ad he resgs hmself to t, eve f he wats to 9vad t Oe of the scruples that he ds hmself s fact the llowg:: so that the readg s real ad remas what t must be, llowg sovereg passvty, s t ot ecessary that the dstace betee the work ad the reader rema the greatest possble dstace s ommucato true tru e oly sofar as t s doe from a te ds ace, whe, for two begs, t becomes the perspectve of a ds acg that brgs together, the place of a comesurable ake for a commo measure From here certa aalysts, avely, vervalue But what resultsopaque, from ths The trasparet ork that obscurty the commetary reders far from beg co rmed the august realm where, beyod the reach of easy set
thatt t place t-so tha ould lke lke to place good d fath fath w ould crtc goo ets, s, the the crtc �et
d ad ths so profou p rofoud has, by ths red has, see ad adm ad admred better see ght be better ght hat to to that earth, rth, ess falle falle to ea ethel theless ary , o oe etary commet levated comm o elevated o certa cato to s certa mmu muca Com call reaso reaso Co eoretca mo to th to theoret commo r g i o com
l redered ucomfortable because a perfected system of dams d screes has bee substtuted for the wrechg power of the ork. Ad ths system dscomforts the reader all the more because t s o hs level ad because there he ds ether the force or he mometum or the vertgo to fall ad a d leave hms hmself elf behd playg hs role, the crtc, as a approxmato of hs ame ould have tto crtcze s to separate, to dsjos ecessar l a destroyer He ecessarly separates the work He destroys t, ot by seeg t as smaller tha t s, but by rederg t vsble to
The Expeience ofLauamon ofLauamon
tsel by settng t a lttle behnd so that t apperceves organzng a slght vod nn retreat the work a vod that s s momentarly xed meanng n relaton to the tmes to tastes and to deas. Always at fault n relaton to the work the crtc must at least strve to see t n ts most mportant lght to seek the pont where t s s the great greatest est the most true the rchest rchest Ths ttask ask s the sole justcaton for the crtc. The absolute value of a book? We so ar ar are we rom rom recognzng n posterty an e power an nfallble hadamanthys1 capable of unmaskng the false masterpeces and perpetuatng that whch s beautful Posterty begns wth the rst reader and the rst crtc To the extent that ths reader and ts crtc mantan the work tat they read at ts hghest level ths hghest level s momentarly just t consttutes a pont of equlbrum that the course of hstory wll naturally shft but whch wll account for t even n dsmssng Nether a crtc nor a reader are ever entrely wrong about a work when they overestmate tt provded that rather than thr through ough van prase t be through effort even exaggerated effort to recognze theren the work of an mportant trut. Undoubtedly the crtc has theBad rght notdotonot lkeequal many Butthattoone dengrate y? works all books. the faults says of them? them
y? ad wo ks do not equa a the au ts that one says o them nor every fault that offers tself to be sad. Even speakng about t s too much It s true that of the books that he loves best the crtc also prefers not to speak. Because he does not always have the desre to dstance hmself from from them to engage them n ths strange wor through whch he destroys them whle realzng them he dmnshes them whle exaltng them he smples them whle deepenng them he gves them so much meanng that the author s surprsed and annoyed by ths unknown rchness and plantvely protests aganst a generosy tat effaces hm and rduces m to nothng. The crtc because of ths s by nature on the sde of slence knowng better tan oters why e loses what e uncovers and how much the readng of what s most dear to hm wll become dfcult for hm snce t wll be necessary for hm to recover there the sad movement of hs own sentences
e perience ofLautramont ofLautramont
47
y Darkess A tme alway come when even the mot cloed book are opened. For a long tme Maldoror, more admred than com mented upon, known but not explaned, deed urpre, and for a reaon that at the heart of uch a work. ecaue reading it uppoe the exalted conent to a furou lucdty, of whch the envelopng movement, movement, purung telf wthout truce, let telf telf be recognzed only at t end and a the accomplhment of an abolute meanng, ndfferent to all the momentary meanng through whch moreover the reader mut pa o a to attan the repoe of a upreme, total gncaton. An already ngular movement. But readng the book tranger tll. There are many other, of whch the meanng, hdden from the deal clarty of word, only the nal obeve fear, mpreve mpreve and hauntng, of a power n dcord wth all poble meanng In thee work, rup rup ture nearly effected wth dcoure, a manfet rupture, therefor thereforee dangerou, becaue, exaggeratedly vble, t aborb all attenton and become the end rather than the prncple of a new reaon.
ut Maldoror , nnoall development t part, full oofthat f meanng. no pecal phrae that not clear, not There lnked:no effect, no leap; the ame trangene of gure and bzarrene of cene depend on motve that are hown to u. The reader, far from eeng hmelf undone by contnute formed wthout h awarene, whch he ould uffer through wthout undertandng, urrounded by a uperor vglance, alway ready to repond to e a eaon, awa peent i he want to ee it, and whch at the ame tme make hm forget hmelf o completely that the paon of readng appear here to drag hm uncontrol lably toward a radcal change, toward an ext at the end of whch n t beng read wll ubttute the entrely new act of a beng, profoundly foregn to the ambton of undertandng. Readng Maldoror a vertgo. Th vertgo eem to be the effect of an acceleraton acceleraton of movement that, jut lke the encrclng of re, at the center of whch we nd ourelve, provde the mpreon of a amboyant vod or of an nert and omber plen
The E Epe peri rien ence ce ofLautramont ofLautramont
tude Sometimes we see ourselves at the heart of an exceptionaly active, sarcastic consciousness that it is hardly possible to fault Sometimes this omnipresent agility, this whirlwind of lightning bolts, this storm overloaded with meaning, no longer offers the idea of a spirit in any way, but of a lumbering, blind instinct, of a dense thing, of this tenacious heaviness, proper to the body that undoes itself and to substances seized by death dea th These o impressions ar sup rimp osd; ey necessary o together They ve he reader a drunkenness that races to its fall and an inertia docile at his stagnation how couldtohediscern have the desire, and the means,ntothese regainconditions, enough equilibrium where he is falling? He proceeds and he sinks Therein is his commentary One must not therefore misunderstand the remarks that follow They do not constitute a search for the "true meaning of Maldoror nor even an attempt to interrogate what the work says while countering it insidiou insidiously sly with itself We would simply like to prove to what extent one can follow a text and at the same time
lose it, being at once the one who understands and the one who understands him, a world, who speaks about it as f he were outside; outside ; inman, sum, inside to prot from the bizarrenes bizarreness s of a double work and of an author split in two, absolute lucidity and thick darkness, consciousness that knows everything and knows not where it goes, so as to feign the illusion of a commentary entirely conscious of not being able to explain anything and at the same time uniquely preoccupied with making everthing reasonable Roger Caillois puts it well at the beginning of his essay: "Here is a work that contains its own commentary2 And he rightly adds: "It is also very difcult to talk about about But the third third sentence opens a reection "More precisely, the author has already said everything that one can say, and in this same work Perhaps At the same time, if the "lucidity' of Lautramont is so great, if it is "admirabl "admi rable, e, it cannot ignore that this interior commentary that it offers us, present in a way that is visible in many passages and again apparent when it does not appear, in such a way that it seems to pump life into the entire work, like mercury owing by leaps and by capriciousness, like a substance that would be in
Te Experien per ience ce ofLautramont Lautramo nt
49
tely lvely ad yet heaver tha blood, ths commetary that s art of the work caot serve to judge t or to dee t "exactly, because t helps shape t, there modg t, ad sce ths chace, ths progressve trasformato that t provokes, chages s very ow bearg ad strps all ts power to reveal reveal to us the al al character of a work at the heart of whch t s sezed. The "judgmets, the "expressos we d Maldoror caot be "precse ecause eve f oe oly wats to see them as sarcastc streaks esged to ope a vew, whle laceratg what s revealed, oe must s owcompletely take to mod accoutthe these streaks the lacerato eratos value of thethrough mages,whch recogze ths "exacttude, ecessarly false because t caot recogze tsel It s certaly probable that Lautramot's clarvoyace was also the clarvoyace of a crtcal judgmet. We d proof of ths the oies, ot the parts where he codems hs work, but those
where he dees d ees t. t . There we see that ths author autho r has ot gored hat he has doe, or how he dd t. But f hs roy s the lucdty of a wrter capable of dstacg hmself wth respect to what e wrtes mometar mometarly ly settg apart wth a ruse, t do s eve more suread thatofthese dffereces, theset vods, ths absece, ot csttute clarcations of the work wthout a relato to t, but are the work tself ad, by these meas, ute t wth etrely cotrary movemets. What would Lautramot's lucdty be f t had ot bee dscered all these "precse judgmets, corporated crta seteces as smlar phrases verted, a power of dete flscato that falses these judgmets ad elmates from tem every power to thougtfully skm them? I Te Cantos, he tells us, "Everythg s explaed, mportat etals as well as mor oes ( 14) A setece that would be a spreme hoot f the mpresso was that everythg s sad, that "he secret s dscovered (as he aga afrms t), that what would therwse be dssmulated here dvulges tself. Ths mpresso was fact so vvd that oe o e comes to wat to terrogate the text from eery agle for the sole pleasure of hearg t respod. Regardless of ths temptato, the terpreter ca oly defed hmself by vokg Lautramot agast hmsel At the ed of the secod
The Experience ofLauramon ofLauramon
ther eree s a troublng troub lng orsel orse l that the the commentator com mentator can harCano, th ly forget: "No ... , Maldoror says, "let us lead the haggard matockandtrench mob no deeper through the exposable mnes f ths mpous canto! The crocodle wll change not a word of te vomt that gushed from from hs cranum cranum (1 (100 5 ) . hat hat crtc crtc would would nt feel targeted by such a furous echo, such a drect response to te ueston that prevents all others? And at the same tme, how cn gt ze a respons res ponsee l gt recognze warnng?? Here, to recogn ths warnng ac countt o r ths e accoun aldoror or s also to recogn mately ately g gvv en by M by Mldor ldoror or on on M aldor recognze ze that that te te no nce no entrance oree to acc accept entra s theref therefor ate. It s s legtm legtmate. rogaton gaton s nterro nter yeld o to yeld alyss,, and to analyss that s all an avatonn that exccavato s task task of ex pous the "m " mpou laned,, v explaned "everythngg s exp belevee that f n fact "everythn to belev the de desre to c rtc, t h For the crtc, expla ned. Fo be expla mus t not be rythngg must everythn mus t be: eve ths must th
emptato ptatonn hs ts the ttem ho ress ressts and he who nevtab le, and tcome ome ss nevtab outc ou
already succumbed. succumb ed.
Source urce : The Mirage of So
Te Book ofRev Revelelat atoonn
Oen the obscurty of a work s protected by our gnorance f ts sources s ources.. One sees n the work work a meteo me teorr wthout wthout orgn, a trae trae of re wthout wthout any any hearth. hearth. But the "lterary "lte rary source s ourcess of o f the Cants are perfectly known to us, "explaned by Lautramont hms We know ex extremely tremely well where hs book s comng com ng from from:: " ha sung of evl as dd Mckewcz, Byron, Mlton, Southey, A. Musset, Baudelare, etc. H. R. Lnder, n an occasonally suprsng but metculous and attentve work, dscovered a n source: The Book of Revelaion. "Black Revelaton, he says f Lnder dem de monstra onstrates tes that th thee str strangen angeness ess of o f ths characharater te r com co m es, n p art, from from the the ark ark vsons vs ons o f St. John John the Dve ve and from the from the nav nave way he h e ncarn ncarnates var varous apo apocalyptc calyptc appar appar-to t o n s. Maldoror Maldoror s at at once Satan, S atan, the the enemy enemy of God God and and the the Angel of the abyss, who who represents repres ents God's Go d's anger anger, and the the Horsem Horseman of te Apocalyypse, dv Apocal dvne scou sco urge sent sent to punsh pun sh man's man's gulty rebello gulty rebello . Froom th Fr ths s supe su per rm m po post ston on o f c o ntrary ntrary mean me anngs ngs,, L a utrea utream m ot o b tans the the amb am bguo guouus char character acter of hs hs symb sym b olc gure. gure. Ths Th s s s an nte an nterpr rpretat etato onn that that La Lautr utram amont ont au autthor horze zess , sn snce ce e M aldor aldoror. or.
The xperien per ience ce ofLautramont Lautramon t
5
talks about ths subect nearly as much as hs nterpreter does n numerous passages passages,, Maldoror dentes hmself wth wth the Prnce of of arkkness, beng ar ben g of "d "dv vne ne essence, ess ence, nhabtn nhabtngg superor spheres, and beng more powerful than the great Satan hmsel 6 n other cases, he presents hmself as a Horseman of the Apocalypse/ Elsewhere stll, he s more a punshment for the rebellous man than the motvatng force of hs rebellon l of these varous roles need not be ucovered: they are openly afrmed As for the gam game e of o fofechoes, echoes , eachofofknowledge us can gve and ourselves ourselngenuty ves to t endlessly: t stoa matter readng, Accordng Lnder, the stanza of the "pact wth prosttuton, canto , was
directly nspr ns pred ed by the famou famouss passage pas sage n Revelation on the Great ore, the one "who s seated on many waters, "Babylon the great,t, mother grea mother of whores whores and of o f eart earth hss abomnatons abomnatons The battle between the dragon and the eagle evokes the mage of the Beast that receve "power, the throne, prestge from the "Dragon, the name of o f whch s the myste mystero rous, us, human number 666, or, accord ng to to certan certan manuscrpt manuscrpts,s, 616 The louse of canto would only be a modern mod ern varaton of the sco sc o urge of locu lo cust sts,s, called forth forth by the trumpet of the fth angel (Rev 9 : 3 ) . Lets admt t But how can we stop ourselves once on ths path? Who would prevent us from from seeng, se eng, n our o ur turn, turn , the cruel repast of o f the Creator ( 7 57 ) as a recollecton recollec ton of the verse n John where the angel sum mons the brds b rds and says to them: " Come, Com e, gather for for the great sup per of God, to eat the esh of kngs, kngs, the esh of o f captans, captans, the esh of the mghty mghty, the esh of horses hors es and of o f ther rderssh of o f all all , r an sae, sma an great ev 1 9 -19 n Poses, Lautramont refers us more precsely to cruel ndan dvntes, to Moloch, to the "mantous Mancheans, soled wth brans, who rment the blood of ther vctms n the sacred pagodas of the Hndustan, to the "snake, the "toad, the "crocodle, "dvn tes, consdered abnormal, by ancent Egypt, "Vscous Gods vomted by the prmtve prmtve magnat magnaton on of the barbarous peoples peoples Nevetheless Neve theless,, even whl admttng that that L Lautra autramon montt s s nspred nsp red by Revetion and that, for example, hs dragon mght really be a rencarnaton of the Beast, t s stll necessary to notce, n
2
The Ex Experie per iene ne o fLautramont
Maldoror, a constant exchange between the to powers, top and bottom; now t s God who s the Beast, and he does not stop grovelng gro velng.. Maldor Mal doror or s, s , eff effectvely ectvely, rarely a snake sn ake (we ( we are told to ld of o f hs scales a few tmes tmes ) , but b ut God sometmes be becomes comes a drag dragon on,, somes ometmes a snake, and s nally an "eccentrc python, a boa wth a "trangular head who has all the characterstcs of the ancent snake. n ths same stanza, there s a great temptaton to search
or scatterethat, eatures nverted magesdragon, rom eeaon. remembers n St. oJohn, "the great the ancent ne ser-
pent, who s called called the Devl and Satan Satan (Rev (Rev 1 2 : 9 ) , pro proected ected on earth, pursues the Woman, who, wth her son, escapes nto the desert where the Beast plans to devour her (Rev 1 7 =16) But Maldoror says to the python (that s, to God): "You had better retreat before me and go and wash your mmeasurable shame n thee blood th blood of a new newbor bornn chld: chld: such such are your hab habt tss . . . . Cross desert sands tll tl l the end ooff the world swa swallllow owss up the th e stars n nothngness (1 7 2) And, to carry carry the these se con con ectures to ther end, notce agan n n "my young young wfe wfe and my very youn youngg son s on that Maldoror Maldoro r advses adv ses hs h s adversa adversary ry to lve l ve from from the shards of memores memo res drft drftng ng and detached from the same tableau.
Baudelaire Whether or not mages from Reelation bounced around n Lautramonts head may perhaps be mportant, but the mages themselves are less mportant than the reversal that they undergo heren, where the ntended mockery, though mmedately vsble, fals als to account for for them. them . On ths t hs pont, po nt, the crtc sure su rely ly hhas as much mu ch to say. say. But But snce s nce we are are at the source sourc e of these mages, mages , why why does H. H. R. Lnderwho, whle exaggeratng Maldorors Lucferan stature, seems to be at a loss to explan ts orgn, so much so that he returns to Reetion each tme he perceves a demonc shadow on the character n uestonwhy does he not move a bt closer: not only to Mlton (whom Lautramont mentons), to Byron (whom he also mentons), or to Lews, but to Baudelare, who transformed Satan nto such a dynamc poetc gure that any
The Experi perien ence ce ofLauramont Lauramo nt
53
young magnaton at the tme, tm e, f t wanted wanted to return to the myth c, ancent rebellon, could not fal to pass through The Flowers Flowers of Evil ? Do Does es ths need to b e pro p rovven? en ? Anyone who was was twenty twenty years years old n 1 8 6 5 and had hs head n the clouds, dreamng of almghty evl, must necessarly reach for the works of Baudelare, wheren s breathed the most ntense satanc densty n our lterature And, for Lautramont, Lautramont, Baudelare Baudelare s not onl o nlyy a source of o f prncples, prncples , but
a hall ofstanza memores; t. The famous aboutany the attentve ocean s readng hauntedwould by theshow memory of "Homme et la Mer Mer (Man and the Se') Se') . f we consult consult the tex text,t, we nd the mage of the ocean's "dscreton: "You are both dark and dscreet, says Baudelare; "You are modest, says Lautra mont (3 8) Then Maldoro sh to parody begns: "Yes, whch s the deeper, the more mpenetrable of the two: the ocean or the human heart? 40) And Baudelare:
Man, no one one's's eve everr plum plumed ed the depths ooff yo your ur ayss,
sea,oth no preserve one can know your hidden treasury, You your secrets with such jealousy! " detest you, says Lautramont. " hate you, Ocean! says Baudelare ("Obsesson). nswer me, ocean, says Lautramont, "do you want to be b e my brother? brother? Baudelare: Baudelare:
Free man, eside the sea that you'll forever cherish!
you eternal wrestlers, rothers without peace! y, m ar es wou seem to e numerous. n te stanza on prosttuton, Hans Lnder sees a recollecton of "the Great Prosttute. Wth good reason, perhaps. But regardless of whether he s recallng the sonnet Remords posthume" ("Posthumous Remorse), he wll see theren the exact settng of that stanza: the tomb, the beautful woman whose name s Prosttuton ("My lovely, dusky slave, says Baudelare, "awed courtesan), and, nally, the "worm' that appears n both texts as the powerful adversary of beauty and, representng God, man tans moral dscourse (n Remords posthume," the tomb speaks,
54
The Experience ofLautramont ofLautramont
but n Lautramont, the worm n a certan way becomes te tomb: t s "large lke a house, and, f t glows, t s wth "an mmense lght of blood). Naturally, from one text to the othr, the changes are sgncant, but we never hear t proven tht Lautramont, puttng to work hs theory of plagarsm, took the
resources of hs nventon from a precursor. The contrary s moe lkel lkely. y. There Thesreaso where we we te surpr sur prse sengeness hm heness m n othe thfehs agrant delght scece were stra s trang work explode ex plodes,s,ofarelong wthh the unue wt unu e power power of o f hs vson and the sngular workn workngs gs f f hss lucdty h lucdty.. Havng Havng voced ths reservato reservaton, n, f we recall ths passage"One should let ones ngernals grow for a fortnght. O! how sweet swee t to snatch s natch brutally from from h hss bed b ed a boy who who has yet nothno thng upon hs upper upper lp . . . And And all of a sudden, sudden, ust when he leat expects expec ts t, to snk your your long lon g nals nto hs tender tende r breast " ( 3 1 ) how can we not nvoke ths mage from "Bndcton ("Benedcton):
hen I am nally ored with impious mockery, I'll occupy my frail and forceful hand with sport A harpy harpy's's ngernails my ngernails wil willl e To excava excavate te a trough iinn to his hi s ve very ry heart The gallows of "Un oyage Cythre ( Voyage to Cyther, tself taken from Grard de Nerval, can hardly be forgotten when we consder the terrble gallows n canto from whch a man s hung by hs har. Lautramont was unuestonably capable f ndng such an mage on hs h s own ow and an dcorrespondence dev developng elopng t accordng accord nghed o th the e uctua uctuatons tons of hs h s desre. But Bunt the establshed establs by Baudelare, between betwe en te "gos "gostt of the acent ace nt Venus (of (o f womanly love) and te hangg body devoured devoure d by brds, brds , reappears vebatm n the pages pages of Maldoror. We must see t as an ob obse sess sson on sutaned n common. t s mpossble that an magnaton as extremely aware of anmal metamorphoses as Ducasses had nt been spred by suc verses:
A few ferocious irds were perched on their reection And a rage destroyed aorcorpse already Eachinused u sed a lthy eak ffor gougi gouging ng like afoul to tool ol Into each l loody oody cranny of the pputref utrefaction action
The Exerience ofLautramont ofLautramont
The eyes were wo leak holes, and through the ruined skin The ponderous intestines dangled on the thighs His executioners, gorged on their hideous prize, With sn snap appings pi ngs of the eak slowly castrated him
55
Lauamon's hanged man Lauamon's man also also grapple grappless wih he he misfor misforun unee of csrai c sraioo n and he p unishme unish menn o f im impp oence oenc e . And M ald aldoror, oror, for is reched man wh who o ma he sa ves and sympah cares for fory, wih per perfec char cha r eels he he inklings i y fw inklings of myserious mysaves serious sympahy, he same sa mefec sym sympa pa
y ha Baudelaire expresses:
diculous cadaver, your sorrows are my own! Sill more Sill more o n he h e mi mirage rage o f s ourc ources: es: n n he h e ep episod isodee o n G o ds
rpas, we waned o see an allusion o Revelations, hen, accord Lauramon, an allusio allusionn o orienal my myhology hology.. Bu now ig o Lauramon, also discover herein a recolle recollecion cion of he following following san we would also zas from "Reniemen de sain Pierre ("S. Peers Denial):
at does God Go d do ao aout ut the ood ooff oloquy That rises every day around his Seraphim? Like a good tyra tyrant nt gorg gorged ed oonn wine and venison, He fa falls asleep to the sweet sounds of our l lasphemy asphemy The sos of martyrs and the eaten felon's cry Provide intoxicating symphonies, no dout Despite the spate of loo loodd spilled at their sensuous out, The heavens never have eno enough ugh to satis! a to to a m av av a asm r m an annn as sa m rm hat th th sam r a tthat Bt ra
clssic scene in Danes Inrno (and Maldorors imaginaion, we hve acknowledged, loves o see heaven where ohers pu hell), if we remember ha Malraux seized upon he origins of he same viion in a very popular English engraving from 86, The Red D vil- image ha, hrough he same impulse, Ducasse would hve urned precisely on is head, subsiuing God for he D monif we recall hese hings, we will perhaps be emped o o f b egin egin rancee of im poranc andd f fai aih h i inn he impo eferences nces an for rrefere ke he he search search for ke nngs n ngs for aann illusion illusion.. A pruden prud en conc conclusio lusion, n, hou houggh, oo o o , p ossibly ossib ly accep cep image and o ac onee image sources for on cover ver e enn sources disco cepive . To dis decepive.
The Ex Experien per ience ce f Lautra Lautra n t
them all s, n tself, more reasonable than gvng credt to only
one. The delrum of nterpretaton, to whch every nterpreter occasonally falls prey, begns wth the need to restore reason, through one sngle prncple or through a concurrent system of cause cau ses,s, to all the th e detals detals or to tthe he greatest greatest number of o f possble poss ble uctuatons tuat ons,, to words and gures, gures, as f the solemn solem n unty unty of the work dd not no t dstort ths multplcty on the bass of whch we we clam clam to t, or as the precson prec son o the explanaton was was not, no t, accorng to a certan measure (but by what what measure?) measure? ) , guaranteed by ts falure and the reservaton that secretly arranges theren the moment o ts dsavowal. And yet ths last precauton must also seem suspect, because an nterpretaton, capable of explanng everythng, even everythng that cannot be explaned, testes to such an mplacable wll to clar everythng that we must recognze heren here n the powerful powerful systematzaton ooff desre, whch the mnd attempts to understand attempts understand under the name of madness. f we nd ten t en ref reference erencess behnd beh nd the same s ame mage mage n Maldrr, f thesee ten archet thes archetype ypess or models are ar e so many m any masks masks overla overlappng ppng and montorng one another, wthout any one reference appearng as the true mold of he face t recalls or appearng completely alen to t, ths s the sgn that Lautramont was n agreement wth the few rare ponts of the space where the collectve power of the magnaton and the unue power of the book see ther resources combned. He who touches upon these ponts upsets, wthout knowng t, an nnte number of analoges analoges and of related mages mages,, a monumental past of tutelary words toward whch he s drven, unbeknownst unb eknownst to hm, lke a man endorsed by an eternty of fables. ble s. Andd he who knows An knows ths, ths , who s famlar wth wth the th e lterary cha chan n of certan gur gures, es, s, due to the ac actt that that he touches these thes e ponts po nts,, led le d beyond bey ond all al l the certantes of o f hs personal pe rsonal memory m emory and sezed by an mpulse that transforms hm nto the agent for a knowledge that he never never had. Lautamont was undoubtedly a cultvated adolescent. He passonately s onately read all the works that lfe lfe n hs day d ay made great and fasfascnatng. Hs magna magnaton ton s surrounded by books. bo oks. And A nd yet, yet , as fa far as possble from beng booksh, ths magnaton seems to pass
The Experience ofLautramont ofLautramont
57
hrough books ony o reconnec wih he grea conseaions of which whi ch he books b ooks guard guard he inuence, inuen ce, bundes of impersona imag imag inaion ha no singe auhors work can ha or monopoize o his or her advanage. is shocking ha Lauramon, even if he fo ows he rend of his ime, even when when he expresse expresses,s, wih he inso ence en ce ofyouh, of youh, biases and circumsania circumsania passi passions ons,, he goricaion goricaion of evi, a ase for he gruesome, a Luciferian chaenge, he undoubedy does no no beray beray hese sources, sources , bu, b u, a he he same ime, seems o be hauned by a he maserpieces from every cenury, uimaey uimae y app appearin earingg as if he were meande me andering ring in a word of cion c ion wherein vague dreams of forgoen reigions and myhoogies, shaped by everyhing and desined for everyhing, reconnec and are conrmed. when he aks abou Saan, we udge him o be inspired by Revelation raher han by Baudeaire, his error in percepion is us, because oi The reveas ha,ofEvi knowing ierary inven ion uniue Flowers Flowers ofwihou Evi i resurfaced, resurf aced,he across ac ross Baudeaire, B audeaire, hrough he power p ecuiar o his image of o f Saan, in he kingdom of myhs ha ha opens up a he beginning beginning and he end of he sory. sory. And if Maraux perceives, beneah such a scene, no a ierary mode, bu he visua visua inuence inuenc e of a paining, paining, even even if Laura Lauramon mon neverr knew The Red neve R ed Devi Devill and if on he conrary he was subec ed o he counershock of o f a poeica po eica ex, he power of he image never ceases o be a work in him, he power by which words are deached, deached from heir empora origin, from he memo ries ha animae books, and caugh up wihin he movemen of an mmen mm ense se dream memor memo r he asic moher mo her of o f nighmar nighmares es and of cerain painings.
In Search of a Method of Exp oration One migh m igh refu refuse se o descend des cend ino Maldoror due o he fac ha no anaysis of i is possibe. a migh an anaysis aain? A sory? No one wans his, and besides, excep for cano V, here isn any. A subec? Bu he subec, if we isoae i in order o grasp i, if we reduce i o some kind of Manichean srugge, is a
Th Exprnc ofLautramont ofLautramont
smp le theoretcal smple theor etcal reecton that th at dsregards dsregards the entrety of the po found lfe lfe of o f the work. No one o ne s nterested ntere sted n that. So a method cal search for for the cconten ontentt of scenes scene s for the meanng me anng that rumbes theren for the sensblty that comes to lght? We would for nstance brng up a sentence: " set my genus to portray the peasures of cruety (29. Then we woud search anew for all the decaratons that refer back to ths phrase: "nnate cruelty whose on os not wth me"an etreme and nstncte cruelty of whch he hmself s ashamed" was not as cruel as has been recounted among men etc. From ths perspectve one would rst eamne al the epsodes: all the scenes weren schema sch ema manfest manfestng ng cruelty appears (th (thee razor razor that lacerates a fface ace the nals that dg nto a chest the lttle grl thrown aganst a wal or threatened wth such the castaway blown apart by two gun shots etc.) those wheren thethe cruel ntenton s alsoon obv ously ous ly an erotc onescenes (the attack wth bulldog the attack the t he world n the stanza stanza about pederasts) pederasts) the scenes wheren the erot c cruelty dssmulates tself beneath neary transparent forms (all of actve actve or magned volence aganst agans t amable adolescents adolesce nts:: almer almer Elseneur Regnald Mervyn). er ths rst attempt we would le away all the devastatng scenes and arbarc acts ntated by others and condemned by Maldoror: dvne ferocty (Gods cruel repast the stanza about the red lantern and the young man tor mented to death by God) the cold malce of men (the stanza aboutt the omnbus) abou omnb us) the erotc vcousn vcousness ess of o f women (the torture of the hanged man the beetles msfortunes). Then shng from the scenes n general to ther detals from epsodes to mages we would see se e that n addton to the t he pleasure Madoror feels feels when evl evl s ncted on others he nearly always epresses ether moral malase regret shamefu repentance or a strange thrst for for gveness. (For eample at the end of the stanza about the nger nals know tat our orgeness was as mmense as the un verse; after the evocaton of volent acts aganst the young grl: "The unknown to keep forces faded after af ter tth he att attack owas n amer: anot mer:able "How benevo benets volen lent t h hsand voce voce s . . awa; . . Has he therefore forgven me? etc.) Moreover t seems that f
The Eperience o Lautramont
59
Maldoror inicts harm he h e immed imme d iately feels feels the the need to to harm his hi seelf: h e had ad bar ba rel elyy nishe ni shedd ri rippi pping ng a ch child ild apa apart rt whe henn h e d eamt of o f being being torn apart ap art by that t hat child chil d himsel himsel For For you wil will re re d me incessantl in cessantlyy with both b oth teeth teeth and na nails . . . ; and to together gether we shall shall suer you you through through tearin tearing me apart ap art thr through being being torn torn aart . o. w " ound ( 3 2-3s3.) .TH as m that uc uch ht the th one e rth whoreminds is w wou ounnhim de dedd as the oaa ertwho wh ounds hee is blood lood tha spiellson spills orth o remi nds o the h his is on b lo looo d the the tears tears that that h e ma makes kes fall taste taste like his own. own. o is t e victim? victim ? Wo the execu execution tioner? er? The Th e ambigu mbiguity ity is perfec pe rfect.t.
Smetimes the pleasure of atonement is concealed but for even ore shocking research: here Maldoror watches a shipwreck the sceams the moaning from this immense misfortune thrill him. e seems to be at the height of pleasure; but what does he do? ve very ry uarte uarterr of o f an hour hou r or so so whenev whenever er a gust gus t ofwin of wind d stronger tan the rest keening its dismal dirge amid the cries of startled ptrels struck and cracked the ships length and increased the mans of those about to be offered up to deathbyholocaust would ab a sharp iron point into my cheek secretly thinking: 'h y suer still more! Thus at least had grounds for comparisn (9 6. An admirable digression The same perspective could acommodate the various various epis e pisodes odes wherein wherein we see Maldoror hurtig himself while struggling s truggling with another as when when striking down down whe n in himsel as whe within himsel Ho pe within strikes down Hope ragon h e strikes te D ragon te venes nes hhee for interve eception inter irror's d eception where in the mirror's rall scenes scen es where seera see gts to recog to recognnize himself himself in the in the re reected image and con continues tinues with thaat tand i n g that at th nderss tandi gh a m i s u nder through usati ons throu ac c usati hs acc actts are des violent ac and viole remarks and rcastic astic remar sarc evealss that h is sa om o m ent reveal
tied for none other than Maldoror himself. Continuing this inuiry we would uncover the scenes the iages wherein cruelty is initially inicted upon others (then reprimandedd in others) rimande others) but is i s observed o bserved within within them wi with th an at once complicit and indignant complacency before (or simultaneously
imsel aldororr h imsel by Maldoro st Mald Maldooror by against is turned tu rned again this cr cruuelty is as) this
eiher to punish himsel or to make himself feel good or to make make uggest the th e or nally to suggest hi mself or p uniishing him goodd in pun h mse hm sell f feel goo ot her perso personn is ne cauuse th thee other beca ensibilitybe lies o f the the s ensibility continua cont inuall lies
6
The Experience ofLautramont ofLautramont
ess arlyy mes essarl mes volen, sunnng sun nng cruely cr uely falls falls back b ack no a dsmal sufferng, becomes an ndene snkng, wou pleasure or oragee . Of s suf rag su fferng, e monumenal mon umenal mage s a of Maldorr, suck wn e mmobly of a ree, permng mself o e slowly devoured by monsers "ssued fromJob's e kngdom of powr, vsco y. Te gure evokes Job, bu replaces demandng s frenec rene c fa fa n e ef e ffecveness ecvenes s of msf ms foru or une, ne, w an uns u nsppken ws for nera and dea. And ye, wn s mmene capable ss, remans rema ns capable persss, cvee consen consen pers e am a me o f an acv passsvy pa svy,, e s sufferng suffe rng r o u me com comee s , all s enn e e m rnng, g, we o f overu overurnn
seee e yo u se nk . . . Even as you an yo u nk nge an ange o : " Hae s s a o eadd n ngg : a eave venn , ea wall allss of ea very w e very ays o o e orays mak ke for ll ma can s ll ow I I can now s p o s ure aannd m e d&s resumee o resum reurn o and reur ssassn assns,s, and le legon gon o f aass mage age of �n engeance" ( 1 43 ) . Te m plaa n s of vengea lofy pl anew u p o n lofy ae ae anew energec ener gec p a ann also also reman re mans,s, lke lke e e remnd re mnder er of a srug s ruggle gle so s o o rd a a a cudged swo sword doub leedged of a a doublee e mage of recomme menn ce: e o recom
nng adversary mpales vercally up Maldoror's back, along s spnal column. (Mrage of sources: Kaka descrbed precsely e same suaon n a sor sory, "Te Sword kng's gre and ancesral sword was embedded up e leng of my back o e l, bu, wou avng been able o undersand e reaso for , , e blade was slpped slp ped n be be ween e skn and es wo wo creang crea ng any wound. woun d. Tere wasn' wasn' any more lef lef on o n my neck a e pon were w eroccurs e ad ad pene raed eddarkness, . . . ) naMaldoror as n operaon n penera a srange momenary lossKaka, of memory: " ddn' ddn' see anyng anyng,, for a sor momen momen . . . Bu so soon on erafer, e power awakens, a uake a sakes bo ear and sk: "Ts sarp wnyard bured self o e l beween e soulderblades of e esa es a bull, bull , wose wos e frame frame suddered lke a remo ( 1 43 ) . Wa ere erefore fore s s s mage mage,, as as e e noble no ble beas beas o f co co n-
ba, fals o evoke voke e e b ull of e e oloc olocau auss, ee b ull wo wose se sa4 sa4 r rc cee s ee mmo m molao laonn o f e e suprem supr emee pow ower, er, so s o a, a, sn s nce e bull ere s Mald bull Ma ldoror oror,, one m us s uspec uspec a deeply deeply ambg mbguuous rel�ons onsp p b e ween ween Mal alddoro or or and nd e e powers ow ers abov abovee , as well ell s s b ewe eweeen e e el h ha one one pro pro okes and he evl evl o whch on o n e sum ss . Te s s a nz nzaa a abo bouu " " e e no norm rmou ouss suc su c on oncc up upss , abou ab ou oo e
The Experien per ience ce ofLautramont
6
ten years of night thro through ugh the course co urse of which "the old spider of the great species keeps the sleeping one under his immobile power marks an improvement a completion of this inert suffering. In the case of the tree there is still consent secret will and deviation fromd hatred but here believes himself by to have authorized authorize the nightmare in the vaindreamer the permis per missio sion n granted the dream is no more than an illusion denounced in the end To these two scenes where Maldoror seems to be no more than a suffering passivity or more precisely a force ordered paralyzed by suering we should add the sketches of these scenes (some of them essential esse ntial)) where where struggling struggling with his hi s sleep he appears appears behind b ehind this sleep that immobilizes him and some grim scenes wherein rather than dead he appears appe ars behind his death death his "cad "cadav averesue eresue existence held by an unusual force euidistant from the possibilities of life and death (but we will encounter these possibilities again later) later).. at is the value of such analysis? First it demands that one pursue it to the end. With regard to these digressions on the subect of cruelty it would be necessary to delineate the course of completely different feelings. Maldoror who nds his cruelty "delightful "delightf ul is in fact a character overow overowing ing with good deeds. deeds . He corrupts young souls but he also comes to their defense. He smashes the heads of o f castawa castaways ys but he saves those t hose who are drowning andforgotten after resuscitating them recognizes be precious beings friends: a signicant rewardthem for iftoMaldoror carries a moral of bitter pessimism we could see the fatalism of ingratitude and resentment behind these good deeds. Maldoror is instictivvely on the insticti t he side si de of human kindness t the he stanza abou ab outt te omnibus) omnib us) on the side of o f the w wea eakk ag agains ainstt the strong. f he sees a wretched man hanging from the gallows and abandoned to every reprisal of feminine desire though he possibly draws some exuisite pleasure from this remarkable spectacle in the end he comes to the aid of o f this unfortunate unfortunate man treats him with a nearly matermaternal gentleness his concern is extremely serious. serious. Strange hero of evil! Evil is far from his original passion. He often says in a curi-
ouss w ou way ay:: Meanne Me anness ss arises arise s in him at the same time as pity the sight
The Experience ofLautramont ofLautramont
of ijustic ispis isp is ht i him, d this htd htd p ushs him hi m to tibl xtms, of which o by o God, m, d himslf th isufcit victims. Sig God occupid with his ppllig ciblistic h xpics imms ththis flig of pi tht wok, gds pity fo gt ijustic";pi, With flig of pi is joid its fuy gist this mtlly cul tigss, whos hdd cubs kow oly how to cus d to iict i i.. " Th ol xcus h ds fo fo ths cimil cts is th sm tsfc, th sm motiol xtms: I ws ot s cul s m lt ltd; but somtims thi wickdss wks its nduing vgs fo ys o d. So my fuy kw o limit; I ws sizd with ccss c css of cult cult d stuck stuc k w w i yo yo (of my ow c) who wh o might migh t hpp to mt my hgg hggd d ys" ys" ( 9 7 Somtims, it is tuly piful fo him to ld th w gist his ow popl: po pl: Two Two fids fids stubbo st ubbol lyy tyig to dstoy o othot h, wht dm! dm!"" (1 3 3 ) . But th combt is ivitbl. His sympthy fo m m who upst his hi s ss s sib ibilit ility, y, th gtw gtwyy to xtm violc, lc , mbiguous violcs which, i light of th htd thy thy ppst,t, j ustid by ctios s ctios o uivsl uivsl guilt, but which so so hv soft hv soft pssiot pssio t sid tht codms him him to mos, mos, makig him fl fl th iit iit vlu of o f m d th ijustic of th vil do do to thm. I sum, h is focious bcus td, d pitilss fom t oLt much popityyh. . . Ou us stop us stpit h Ou lysis lysis hs bought bo ught us us to th poi po itt wh citicism bcom b comss sy sy.. Udoubtdly, such plimiy wok of clssictio d compiso c t lst o us cti id of th ssibility of Maldor. Ev wh illgitimt, such lytic pocdus mi vlubl, if w itd to itogt wok ccodig to th mj mj o commo co mmoplcs plcs o o which lif lif d d tditiol kowldg kowldg tu. Fo xmpl xmpl,, th qustio of Lutmot's Lutmot's sdism sdism might b isd, it might b b hstily sttld, with th hlp of typicl typicl phs
o with o sig sc i mid. Aysi Aysiss tcks tcks ths cusoy j udgmts. It vls vls tht tht th thotic ittio tht is g dcltio of o f w, uivsl uivsl pomis po mis of violc, is ot i kpig with wit h th pticul movmts ooff wok. wo k. Th cti
Thee Experi Th pe rien ence ce oLaut Lautra ramon montt
ly are excessively brutal acts, but soon thereaer they are compensated with remorse, with a vigorous afrmation of human generosity and, on a level of the deepest sensibility, with a bizarre transfo transf o rmation rmatio n that procee pexaltationto roceeds ds from suff suf feringresearched tasted with voluptuous a dark and paralyzingand oppression si on.. It is fairly airly obvious that tha t Maldoror is incapable of sticking with with evil, that, once he commits an evil act (which is, in fact, rather rare), he pulls away from it with an uncontrollable movement, a movement that is like the reux of evil onto him and which he experiences in the double form of repentance and the pleasure of selflace self lacerat ratio ion. n. From the poin po intt of o f view view of intention intention,, Lautramo Lautramont nt is very far from Sade. In Laut§amont, there is a natural rebellion against inustice, a natural tendency toward goodness, a power elation that is, from the start, characterized by neither perversion nor evi. In this, undoubtedly, he is even extremely far from Baudelaire.2 Baude laire.2 And An d yet, yet, it is true that that something so mething myster mysterious ious must be be happening in Lautramont: in the moment of struggle, he suddenly throws throws hhimse imself lf utterly into the evil evi l that he forceful orcefully ly rre eects ects,, the evil for which he lacks even the religious soul's consideration as sin, thereby surpassing in excess all the excesses that he condemns. I am here to defend man," he says. But the outcome of thee ghting negates the th th e reason for ghting: the th e struggle struggle for for ma man' n'ss freedom makes man unbearable to him and, becoming his executioner, he crushes man while liberating him.
The Perp etual Mov Movemen ementt of Ana Analyi lyi Now, we understand that commentators have had the choice of searching for the true meaning of Maldoror as a ppoetry oetry ooff aggresaggressive intoxication, which would be its own end, all narrative ustications,, given aer the fact, cations fact, o such elation becoming negligible, negligibl e,
or, on the contrary contrar y, adhering strictly strictly tochose the manifest manif est conten con tentt ofand the poetry. Gaston Bachelard forcefully the rst approach, what he wrote on this subect certainly has tremendous general value, but the focus focus of his persp p erspecti ective ve ed him hi m to overestimate overestimate the brutal impulsions in Lautramont's work and blinded him to the
Te Experience ofLauamon ofLauamon
suberre life o he obsessio wih sleep o his sympy lled wih horror for he kigdom of viscosiy h plys o less le impor impo role roHe le i heesex. Thus Thh us heudergoes could wri wrie: e: Mldoor 24 whers is ssbove suffr suff erig. cuses cus rher i our nlysis hs jus show us Mldoror prciclly ever idues suffferig wihou suf wihou receivig i soo so o herefer herefer d very ofe he is he oly oe who edures sufferig wih silless o unlike biee . 2 5 As i he h e -hey bi iges -he no iges sse's e's e eings o no "Duc ucss deth. "D he sucio of he mmese sucio hhe immese ror w h of Maldoror wss o h world i Maldo world p.26 er slee sleep.26 Hee is ev ever io. H iorr bsorp bso rpio. ierio opuses uses o f ier ocop gripp of oc gri bu if sl eepi ep igg ; bu oee is sle h o wre h uw egg u ep i s be sl eep beei igg sle i b Yes i hee b o o m o f s upoo r h diy y if i is he sup l uciidi igg luc o i hee c o leep ep is h sle ldororr s sleepp if i slee i is he re rem how c c o e o s e e M a ldoro ul l reprepforcefull orkk h h forcef slee p s wor eed wih sleep reg emely ely imp i mpreg suprem supr e her of e sruggle ggle he her zed sru he prly prlyzed rged ed o f he es he rg re resses pshigg is sim s impp ly ps aldoror ror o hi h gi gi : I M aldo his is w is wh iggh? Ad i Ad his
sve ... nohng is wed.27 This s o neglec he chrcer of enless wng h s lws progressvely mosng self from sz o sz n h rnsforms he rs ve cos io obsessive shufig bck d forh before lwys impedig d iccessible iccessible resoluio resoluio. . Hs Rudolf welcomed hewheren hesis ofe Lurmon whoLinder kowscourgeously wh he sys of work sruggle gis God is ruly sruggle gins God gigic srugglee o d he secre sruggl se cre of beig d lly lly o expose expo se he reso for sovereign evil while devoig himsel him selff o evil while forc forcig ig evil wih kid of o f sympheic sorcery s orcery.. n opin op inio io h he comco mmenor eloquely defes someimes persusively hough e
pushes i so fr h i he ed we see Lurmo s blsphey chnge io gloricio of heven his isole ghing ino serch for for God. 28 These wo commeries udoubely go beyod he movmes me s of our lysis. lysis. Bu precsely p recsely hs nl nlsis sis lhough mgh oly hve bee roughly skeched ou d empy shell hs quickly progressed beyod is prescrip d demosred propesi o rehik he work s whole from isoled moif
The Experience ofLautramont ofLautramont
wiin i. T work as in som was n rviwd wi is m ii fc fcom om its j udgi udginn mind. Around Aro und i, our anal analsis sis ateempted to at to recom recompp ose te work, pr prfral in a in a cor core manmannr,, so nr s o t ta t pr p r oof mig migt compltd compltd mas mas of a ru ru cn-
t and not a ariraril cosn dail. A dangrous deviation, ut u t on ta is al o correc islf is on impus on impus.. Onl mat matic ic analsis analsis of cru crul l lads us us o p oiin in wr wr tat tat anal analsis sis is no log logrr enoug noug. . W av av oucd oucd u�on t t nigm nigmaic aic mom momn n wr Ma Maldoror, ldoror, s sim imulan ulanous ousl l crul crul an� nd ndr, r, rls rls agains gains vil vil and is is rilld rilld o d o so. H H is dissadissai s d if do es vil, u u fro from m is dissais dissaisffac acio ionn ddligt ligt is xtracd udirected aggressivit ad unwillful passivi taking asolut-
l o plasur in causing vil or in nduring vil, no mor so an sms to xprinc, poinlssl olding on to t rasons for at dos, wil narl alwa alwas s losing sig of m. m . ar told a nigma is sorlivd, tat t analsis nds i an arra of conradicions caus i aks vring ino ac¢ount, excp for te sarcastic conradictio prsn i ever m?mn of work. T sriousnss of te analsis, avig all wd wd asnc of sriousnss of iron o scap, is rul surprisd o discovr is cs wiin is accumulaion of co coradicor io i oraso. wic Iron i now no wis,lo looks oks in i n vain,a afr afdradful r a avvin radicor nglcd tougts, is principal assurdl, adrsar for analsis, wic ss t rig o consider ac m�mn sparatl and o d is con vanis ito in air. Eumration is oo longer lo nger possil poss ilee if manig of ac dail dail is i mking innin i n n s sss i i (is is
¢ as of o f difculis) difculis) , u opns op ns i up in an amiguous amiguo us wa o an unded oscillation of improale manings. Now, wr w se rmors w av possil forgotn to s a codmnation of rmors, and tr tr wr wree w s rmors com c om a mockr mockr of itslf w do not se te artreak at resalises, at ar of sarcasm, powr concald con cald remors. And so o for ververng else, edlssl. T powerful marvl of iron: a admiral d nse agains pculiariis of discours disco urs and agains invsi atio ationn of a oo simpl raion rai onali ali.. But a power tat tat is, ow owv vr,r,
66
The Experience ofLautramont ofLautramont
vulnrabl, bcaus it cannot show somthing trur than itsl mor lastingly ral than all its innitly divrs rsourcs; it was only this ngativ constancy that in th nd rfrrd us back to crulty and movs us toward a nw xamination of this thm Analysis is a machin that is not asily stoppd. Th dicultis that impd it bcom for it i t a nw path that it travrss travrss to th nd with th crtainty cr tainty of its undtrrd gait. Anal Analysi ysiss ncountrs irony, irony, limm f dat invntd spcicall to disup m nisms nis ms lik its own. own . But far from ltting lt ting itslf itsl f b disturb dis turbd d by ths obstacls, analysis curiously mbracs thm, counts thm, classi s thm, th m, and, at th nd of o f this thi s nw procss pro css,, conf confronts ronts th rsults of this xamination with th prvious conclusions, wisly sc tiond of during this work, btwn parnthss. Lt's assum ths rsults hav bn clarly stablishd. Admitting that thy mthodically show us what th brifst rad ing prmits us to undrstand: that irony is not vnly sprad throughou throug houtt th work, work, that at tims it is crtainly crtainly nonxistnt or o r at work mor mo r than vr vr,, but that it also has its mom m omnts nts of wakn waknss ss,, that at crtain crtain tims it bcoms so tnuous tnuou s that, that, lik l ik a wa wakk dos of poison, poi son, it conrms con rms maning ma ning rathr than tha n wakni wakning ng it. W will also softn thatan iron iro xorbitant ny, rarly a way simpl simpof l critical powr, is on o n th contrary mosts arming, an xcss whr sri ousnss is undoubtdly displacd, but only in ordr to rgain itsl in this sphr of ruptur, in th form of vrtigo and of th j joyo oyous us cris of o f nothingnss nothingnss.. " It is crtain crtainly ly not asy to rconqur
th logical lmnts of an afrmativ word within such a dispr sal; analysis rcognizs this, but, without ntring into th dtails o f what rightf rightfully rmains of o f it, analysis maintains, maintains , in an anyy cas, th gnral possibility of apprciating th contnts of th work, of sarching sarch ing for for its maning mani ng from from th maning ma ning manif ma nifst stdd by crtain phrass and by crtain stanzas or, if on rjcts as valulss th work's immdiat maningwhich, w might add, was also muti latd by th clashs of a pculiar compositionof sarching for this maning as it tem tem om the th e coniten coniten ofmot ofmot om an obe ion wit device om the tal rern ofword ofword and ima image ge wic wichh i to a of ofrm rm
The Experience ofLauramont ofLauramont
The entatrs therere n theseves ae with tw principal paths establishe r the by analysis. Se the like H. R. Linder will think that that a wrk wherei the hero speds st f his tie struggling with G has soething t o with G and that sine this wrk in the opinion of thse that enter into it has a usettlig power ad reality we he the right to want t grasp the highest pssibility ealing with the st tragially iprtant questins or the huan onitin that is penly at stake in this this wrk. But others will estiate that the distressdistressing pwer this bk learly at s with the gals the isurse that has n are r rer unity r lgial peranene a bo ok that is a ule senes book sene s wors an iages the ef efetiveetiveness whih ertainly extraorinary is peretly iniferent to the apparent eaning that suh a pwer will be lst i ne ntinues t pae pa e it i t at the eve the great questins an the great thughts that this bk has let behin questions that it perhaps use as a suning bar but regarding whih it presents a furius prigius leap a saring int the vi. If analysis wants t o soething useful it ust not lok to what Laut§ant said but t what was expresse behin b ehin his wrs with the help f this new language ae up chie iages the privilege aassing wors an the llusin f ertain thees. O this level irony itsel eases t b e friabl friable:e: we an nsier elaratins n evil
n G as ubius We an als regar as perfetly reign t Malrr the atins that are attribute t hi as well as the preilectins that he osters: r exaple I o nt like wen! Nr vn rmris! rmris! I v s kn n inms nc t pae yungsters in shs an the sicky ihiren!" ( 174) . But i i in rer rer to ipleent ip leent the inlinatin in linatin o his ckery ckery he ust always appeal t ertain gures i behin his violene which nstantly sashes aration against aration sene against scee he has n choice but b ut to allw another worl to take take shape a world shaped by his preferene fr such iages by the bsessive attratin that they exert n hi this is pr that his kery is pwerless against ertain niptent nipt ent ores ores those that that are afre thrugh wrs that woul like to prevent all afra
68
The Experience ofLauramont ofLauramont
io d, behid heir logicl deh, brehe life io imgiry vlues d moivios. As such we c judge his sruggle wh God, pprely uderke uderke o o help me, s meigless meigless,, sruggle h leds leds eqully o coiul co iul evocio of o f God s oo coiul explos explosio io gis gis me. Bu wh he becomes meigl is h, hroughou his ble, he work llows isef o e ivded icremely by obscure cofusio of memorphosed bing, it giv y mrshy phoms, pe of ocopss, o ods, of crbs, crbs, spiders spiders h hum, leeches leeches h suck blood, blood , cou couless skes. skes . urmo's p oery revel revelss perhps o ohig hig o someoe who ively quesios bo od d bo evl, b revels iself hrugh is edecy o be ble o spek bou God oly o ly by mes of fsicl sicl iml gures guresd d o o o lk o us us bou i, o forge o lk o us bou i, while beig codesed roud r oud hick hick ivig subsces, which whic h re oce o ce over overbud budly cive d of iermible ieri. i eri. We should sho uld sy h er ll ll is sid s id d doe do e here is o much mu ch of diff differece bewee be wee hese o r rjec jecories ories of ly lysis sis (lhough hey seem o oppose oe her) d more precisely h hese diereces exis oce we sop ryig o exchge he logicl oios cese h urmo proposes i more or less mockig
wy for he immediely percepible meigs. Bu, if we see i heir coscy hemes h mus i fc revel somehig, he meigg of which, mei which, behid he ppre meig, mei g, mus mu s be pu o he es, hrough kid of experime, hrough he scees where hese hemes re preseed, i is o he useess o w o kow, oce gi, why urmo, i his gh, chooses God s his dversry, God rsformed io pyho or drgo, d o direcly he drgo, he pyho, or he rhioceros. We co houghlessly dismiss he ogicl forms of he book, eve if he gol of he book is o move o fr superior discursive level. We re ble o dismiss hese forms, becuse, i sured work, here re o preexs, everyhig is of equl imporce d, i y cse, we co kw kw hed of o f ime if hese lo logicl gicl forms forms do o lso represe illogicl vlues wih exrordirily poeic efciecy.2 We sw i our lysis resolue mchie, mech
The Experien per ience ce ofLauramo Lauramon n
nim completely condent about the future of its motion, only making aking up for fo r what what is is illegi illegiti tim mate in its in its m met ethod hod (w (which separate sep aratess ou the ense ou ensemble mble of of the text) text) through through its excesse excesses and the the indenie prolon prolongat gation ion of its of its operation operation Begin Beginnning from fro m one poin pointt of viw, analysis must must shu shu e throug through the en entire work work to to test test it out en it i t s insuc insuciency bec be c omes ap apparen, i mus o ne by on one
examine all the examine t he possibl po ssiblee perspect p erspectiv ives es through through which which the book bo ok will, will, eah time, be entirely and indenitely interrogated and set back in mtion This is clear, the perpetual movemen alone usties the anl an lysis; ysis; once it stops, all all of o f its dangling conclusions, conclusions , its expected expected exlications, take on a denitive value, and the work, violently searated from itself, breaks apart to make room for a rudimentary nfrastructure, clumsily reconstructed from without
Aalyi and the Future of the Wor nd yet, the most serious part remains At fault because of its aritrary divisions, but making up for these divisions" by multipling" them, analysis sinks to is essential defect If it wants to
compensate for through its limits,the it needs to eve expand, in every butt in o rder to pass work work in every ry sense, sen se, i has sense, to neglect neglec wat makes makes it a creative creative progressio pro gression, n, the irreversible movement movement of ithin the the matioo n within an afrmati er it be an afr pmeent wheth whether developm a order o rder o f develo nott wanwancourse urse of of action, no tes,s, or th the open co emanate slowly emana b ok tha thatt slowly en d an end tow ardd an spiring towar butt aspiring mad nesss bu garies ies o f madnes th e va vagar ng like like the deing dei
th-elf and and for oth itself it for its unveils it for hetheer it un light, wheth gs to to light, brings th t it brin tht er, mig ony be understood" in relation to the ow of time Tisis is precisely what T what analysis analysis must necessarily disregard, disregard, especialespe cially f it wants to be as exact as possible, which is to say exhaustive, beause, be ause, wanting wanting to grasp grasp the boo b ookk in every possib po ssible le wa way, analysis analysis
that like a thing thi ng that zone,, like ous, immobile immobile zone hom mogen ogenous, eat i i as a a ho mst tr treat eaningg tly of the the meanin ependen endently indep ng, sou sougght ind itss meani meaning, xisted , it alayss existed, alay
wh ich movemen ementt by which ular he he mov articular ting in partic ntion, n, neglec neglecting its intentio o its inte kindss leads ads to to abuses o f all kind ifculty,, that le maorr difculty it is made A mao o f cruthe m e of sis of of the them analysis t h e analy underr took th w e unde emindss us we W i c h r emind gainst elty against cruelty category cru by catego el ima images by cruel iing the cru classiing ely by class
The Experience ofLautramont ofLautramont
others, gist oesel cruelty cruelty of erotic ture. But But sig ct omissiothis ttetio to order completely eglected he order of the book, d the evets, tke rdomly, hve be rrged rr ged together ccordig to their ture, s if this ture by o mes depeded o their chroologicl situtio i the wok. Similrly, Bchelrd lys out utrmots remrkble bes iy, but this bestiry puts forwrd its kow fcts i the timeless hev e of lysis, d ech imge, ssessed d weghed dvduy, with pistkig cre d limitess ttetio, is tke from y hodil prt of the book, o which it sheds light differr e ce diffe perfecct i me perfe ithi through o thers d withi ll the ot with ll mpriso with comp
uiq e itio i t i thhis uiq ompo poss itio ppeers i the c om htt it i t pp met t th the mo mome for the re ct th erefore we therefo off lysi lysis,s, we rictors tors o oror. A fb ric clled ed Mald oror. otlity cll tot
s if, if, workig i world upset ups et by ctclys ctclysm, m, iitt we were re ecess ec essry ry o o r us, i order to piece it bck together, to rely o the oly objectve chrcteristics of these frgmets, the true order of which hd othig to do with the disorder bor of the rdomess of thir
dispersio. It is true t rue tht Maldoror mkes us thik precisely bout gure egedered by the cpriciousess of prodigious c s rope: without y ppre pprett uity uity, iitt seems seem s to f frm perpe pe rpetul tul ruptu rupture, re, to which we would oly kow how to respod by surrederig ourselves to fudmetl lietio This, i fct, is obvios. But this is lso why it is very importt, for those who wt to tti the meig" of such book, to etrust oeself to te ufoldig of evets, i its temporl meig." A work is md with time: this certit t lest, edures. 0 We my or my ot see se e
Mald oror oror s
ms m stterpiece erpiece o f utom utomtic tic writi writig, g, b ut i ei er er
cs e, we re cse, re cod codeet tht tht t certi certi m moo m et ii tie utr ut rmot mot beg be g to to write, rite, tht tht t other other mome opp d omett he s opp writi ritig, g, d d th t h t the the dur durti tioo o f his work work,, this this progr rogress essive ive bri b rig g ig to to light light of of wor wo rds, ds , i pr p rtt coic coicided ided with the the i imp mpul ulse ete,, se to c r ete
i other ot her words ords,, with with the progre pr ogress sio o f tra trasform sformatio atioss hroug hroughh whic hichh the the wor workk, wh whiile beig made ade,, wa wass dire direccted towa oward rd o n e meai eaig m o re th thaa ao aother ther,, so tha that this th is me m eai aigg" here he reafte afterr as as p art o f th thee me meaai igg" o f the the wor ork k ad a d co co stitu stituttes p erh rhaaps t tee
The Experie per ience nce ofLautramont Lautramo nt
71
cearest p art of its signication. signicatio n. Ther Theree iiss in Maldoror an enormous continuity contin uity an enormous disconti d iscontinuity nuity;; everyone senses sense s this. this . Each stanza is profoundy connected to such an etent that we easiy view it as having een written y a singe hand that never stops. And yet etwee etweenn stanzas stanzas as etwee etweenn cantos cantos the white white of o f the page that separates them introduces an insurmountabe distance and the mind m ind jumps j umps from one on e to the net net with with the aniety of a wa wakker that truy knows he is forging ahead who knows that time is passing" ut knows nothing more.
The Central Exp erience of Maldoror For some years years critics critics ike Rmy Rmy de Go Gourmont urmont seeming seemi ngyy est informe inf ormedd on what might mig ht ee the function function of ucidity ucidity in the work work acknowedged a compete asence of ucidity in Ducasse Today
writers ike Roger Caiois no ess informed on the characteristics of a ucid mind rst admire his cairvoyance" his insight" his unique strength as an author to not ony know what he is saying ut whie saying to consider comment on and itcorrect himse2 Others whieitsharing this admiration justi with competey opposed reasons. Juien Gracq for eampe sees in Maldoror the vengeance of o f the irrationa the dazzing dazzing afrmation afrmation of dark forces the vocanic eposion of suterranean incandescent ayers. Perhaps one must e amazed y a work wherein a ucid reader recognizes at once a contemptie and an admirae asence asen ce of o f ucidity uci dity and a creatio creationn that is admiray conscious cons cious and mib in cnscsnss
The signs of conscious writing aound in Maldoror. There is nt one on e singe sentence as ong and as as intricate as as it might e that does not direct a visie reasonae meaning There is not one stanza wherein the inkage of sentences is not justied ogicay. The reader in search of straightforward rationaity nds everything that is necessary to foow a tet one that corresponds with a of its meticuous syntactica agreements with a thought that is perffecty assured of its cours per c oursee . Additiona Addition ay y it is to e eieved eiev ed that if the mocking tone competey infused an unfoding discord into
72
The Experience ofLautramont ofLautramont
the discerig" level of the laguage, this iroy would, however, iclude, eve whe it becomes a truly fabulous power, a guara tee of lucidity: mockery that crosses out ad reouces the se tece i progress progress,, is theref therefore ore coscious cosc ious of the setece, assesse a ssessess all of its uaces, ua ces, sice it corrects themad if this correctio, co rrectio, while picki pi ckig g apart the the iitial thought, tho ught, brigs b rigs with with it a dagerous dagerous imbal i mbal ace, iroy, highly coscious of such a divergece, seizes upo s grssos, grsso s, as them, i a prof pro foud ou d way, ad a d retroducs them itois astoishigly the esemble solid as itetioally seseless surprises.reader Yes, reaso" i autramot, o ratioal ca doubt this. But this reaso is, ustly, so powerful, it is so overarchig that it also seems to embrace every foolish impulse ad to be able to
understand the stragest aberrat forces forces,, the subterraea subte rraea costel latios by which it is guided ad which which it oetheless oetheless carries with with it without losig itself or them. If we see autramot autramot as a writer writer blided or elighteed elighteed by dark dark forces aloe, we must the attribute the ability to write as much to these ukow forces as to the most thoughtful art. Not oly does he who advaces i readig Maoror always d, i order to draw o a meaigful itetio, the movemet leadig ad coordiat ed by a meaig meaig that, that, if it is ot yet yet apparet, is promised, p romised, but h meets, midst the rubble of traditioal ruls, the precautios, the coscietious predictios of a laguage that udoubtedly kows where it is goig, eve if it is always sayig what it is doig, if it always actualizes what it aouces, i£ perfectly scorful of dis cocertig the reader too easily, it ever leaves a uexplaied
eigma. compositio of Maldoror is ofte shrouded i iter mys tery tery.. It is The ot ucommo uco mmo that such developmet be abruptly abruptly ruptedthough without iterruptig th cotiuity of the dis coursegivig way to aothr scee, deprived of ay connction with this developmet. O the theme, I was lookig for a soul that resembled my ow ad I was uable to d oe" (93), oe staza egages a log, methodical search, which it suddely aba dos i order to udertake a story of shipwreck, shipwreck, of oc ocea, ea, of storm, storm , ad this story s tory,, havig havig othig o thig to do with the rst part of the stan
The Experience ofLautramont ofLautramont
73
z, leds leds us so s o fr d for for so s o lo l ogg tht we we hve log lo g for forgotte gotte from whece whe ce we cme whe, i th thee l lilie es,s, the t he writ writer, er, retyi retyig g the th e ed to the th e begiig, permits the com commo mo thred thred,, which he hs h s ev ever er give wy, to ppe p per r:: t lst I hd fou foud d someo som eoe e who who resembl rese mbled ed me" (99). My stzs, behid their disorderly surfce, hve the sme vigilt vigilt composi com positio tio.. We We do ot kow where we re goig, we lose ourselves i pitiful mzes, but the lbyrith tht leds us stry is reveled to hve bee costructed precisely to led us stry, to led us stry further still, so s to llow us to thik we hved foud ourselves gi. I my of these cses, cse s, Lutrmot visibly trsports devices of mystery uique to populr po pulr ctio d m mystery ystery ovels ovels ito i to his style.
It is his ow lguge tht becomes mysterious plot, ctio sequece mrvelously uited with detective ovel, where the most powerful obscurities re the uforesee momets, where the coups de thtre re replced with imges, uusul murders by violet cts of srcsm, d where the guilty prty merges with the reder, who is lwys tke to tsk. These itetios explode i the sixth book, whe Lutrmot sys, er Nervl, his rosry of beutiful beutif ul hermetic phrses, phrs es, which he clries oe t time, time, though with bizrre disiterest tht seems to wt to permit doubt to hover over over the ture of o f these prctices, prc tices, sice sice he oly ol y ever ever grsps eetig stility, the ture of whic does ot elog to him.
he Ho p e of Mind t goes goe s wto wtout ut syg tt tt we do ot o t ted te d to expl ll o o th mysteries of the compo mysteries com posit sitio io of myster mysteries ies of the mos m ostt disturbig kidsolely by mes of the forethought of the uthor, lwys more kowledgeble th the reder, more cpble of foreseeig outcome of which the reder is igort, d wherei he freely uses this igorce s the pth ledig to the outcome. But this, t lest, seems certi: which would be difcult to prise s the work of mid bset from itselfssumes itself ssumes withi it, t the th e highest level, ll l l the th e qulities tht Lutrmot justly proclims for the self: cold" ttetio,
74
The Th e Ex Experien per ience ce ofLauramont ofLauramont
implcbl logic" rltlss cutio" rvishig clrity" (whih multiplis migs whil complictig th lbyrith of its iu c); ll th qulitis h dcrs h mstrd through commc with mthmtic sits" who wr iitilly forig" to hi. Th solmity Th sol mity with with which which h vrts vrts us from rso rso is i fct fct thr to tch us tht rso is somthig forig to him d tht tis rtiolit for Lutrmot s for vryo but for him mor o thn fortru othr, oy(8 3rprsts log trgc d obs towrd rso ff.).
Th mor w multiply th istcs ofLutrmot ofLutrmot s powrl lucidity luci dity th mor mo r th obs o bscurity curity o f this wor th dr forc forc f which is xtrm is bl to m us obscur; if w must xpl this drss through th gm of rvishig clrity clrity " if through it it lo th imprssio imprss io coms to us tht ightmr hs t ho1d of th p" this crity wil i th d oly dp th mysty. Rgrdlss of whthr Lutrmot dlibrtly md Maldoro stupig boo it is ot ot bcus b cus h ssurs us tht tht w must must doubt dou bt it. H sys so thrfor it is tru.4 But if h ts us this it is bcus it is ot xct xctyy tru; moro mo rovr vr from th momt mom t tht h shmlssly ms clr his ittio to surpris us this surprs cot b softd by our owldg of it. It is o th cotrry id to our xpcttios to its dmoitio l th mor ffc tiv sic sic hittig us i th ight of dy ot uxpctdl uxpctdly it strip stripss us of ll hop ho p of vr shidig oursvs from from it. I th l stz of th boo b oo t momt wh Lutrmot Lutrmot him imssl hvi hv igg rch rchdd th th d d xp xpric rics s i his i his wy w y th th flig fli g
or f somo sdr omo who o ds his pth h4) . ou oucs cs m toot i i s rdr tht tht h h w wo td t dlogr to crtiis cr tiis"his " h im ( 21h I Lutr Lutrm rt thr hr th t h th th brut rutit ityy of impu im pudd c c th th fct fct tht th t thr thr is s siil s o mt thhig i g vs vsiv iv mbig mbiguuous d tig tig i suc uchh powr ow r l blowss is bi blow bizarr zarr . To st stu u th th ra r adr? Prha rhapp s b u t how how? Stu St upidi pidiyy h sa s ays ys is o o t o ugh ugh or is is xha xhauustio stio;; o must als als o hav av mgnttic powr, n wr, on must ust do dom m inat inat th th dra ram m tha that n ndds not not in stpi pidd ity, b ut i n stu stupp o r, r, that that is, within within th th pass passiivity vity of a a co conn sc scio iouu s nss t hat ss vry vrytthin hingg and and can can do n oth othin ing. g. 35 35 W a r r mi minn d d d t h at hypn ypnoo tism tism wa wass vr v r y much in in vog vo g u at th th ti tim m . B ut t
Te perience ofLautramont ofLautramont
75
im p otan imp otantt thing hing i iss not tha thatt Laut Lautamo amont nt migh mightt have ha hadd the the idea id ea to tansfo tansfo m langua language and liliteatue teatue into a po poweful entepis en tepisee o f mgneti gneticc numbin numbingthe gthe i d ea of associatin sociatingg poety a nd magn magnetisis is pesen pese nt in Bau Baudelaie an and Poethough Poethough it shows, shows , within it its d sign , a b oldn oldnes esss that that w will ill not no t be sup supassed assed even ev en by Sue Sueali alism, sm, dnk b dnk byy the ma magnetic s u n. In th th is afma afmation wheein wheein the the eade discov discoves es himse him sellf suddenly suddenly unde unde the powe the powe o f a gaze, gaze, the the m lucid luc idity ity of wh which is go going to ob o b scue his his own, the thee is something som ething
m e asto astoni nisshing, mo m o e toublin toublingg than than an allusi an allusion on to a new new litel ite-
a esouce. We see ouselves in it soon enough: the situation in wich he claims to push his eade is the same situation as that in wich Maldoo is engaged. The eade of Maldoror ecognizes, as onee of on o f its pevasive pevasive themes, th emes, the fea fea,, the theat of sleep sleep:: a stang stangee slep, which Maldoo efuses, against which he ghts with a eakable fevo," but which is incessantly able to cay him off bcause within the efusal to sleep, sleep aleady exists; in insomni, it tiumphs. The motif of I am not sleeping, am neve sleping," if it plagues the whole of the book, specically makes itself head in the stanza about sleep and in the last stanza of Cnto V the stanza about the spide and the immense sucking).6 Aoss these pages one sees how Maldoo, fallen into a kind of mgnetic mgne tic tap, is in the th e gip, gip, not of any any old nightma nightmae, e, but of the against inst stuggling gling aga idity stug that ofluc o flucidity and night, ni ght, that o f day and cetal cet al taged tagedyy of
itelf, against becoming something else. Lucid Maldoo shows lucidityy andd to b e o f a lucidit an y price, price, an to be at an y h e wants wants to at he is, that that he that th ity is lu cidity pow efull lucid this is too powefu et imes th ut s o m etimes ecants; ts; b ut h nev neve e ecan bnsupised bcms b cmsby sleep sometimes inss inss by spss ties, o death oni even sommadnss), it continues, an eye that neve shuts," at the heat of the dcompo dco mpositi sition on of o f etenity, etenity, at the depth of an empty head, behind behi nd econnes, it it is eco pesevees, ea son" it peseve eous eason" the cadav cadaveous in the a ead m ead mii nd, in
it awa away. p ushe sh ed it ncee t tha hatt pu absenc i n the abse pesentt in ays newly newly pesen s u e d, alw always ionn , we iptio desccipt ationn of this des exaain inatio to an ex eingg in into en tein Without ithout ent
ionn to e solutio a med esolut cessanttly a incessan Fist, an in stak e. Fist s e w h at is at stake
eeling,, petomented feeling cloudyy, tome the cloud heeaftte the aly; theeaf clealy; always see cle always luciditt this lucidi o f this the b ase of that is at the by the tap th ecogniized by ciely ecogn
The Experience ofLautramont ofLautramont
bcus through th cotiul distcig of slp it wlcoms mor trgic slp it bcoms tht slp prisor of th codi tioig tioi g t th hrt of which it rsids. rsids . Lutr Lutrmo mott thiks tht clirvoyc triumphs i th d but h kows d h discovrs th strg struggl this victory oucs d through whos
trsformtios lucidity must sk trsformtios s k itslf itslf si s ic c th th chtmt tht prlyzes lucidity t prcisly th possibility which it ds o o yig wit witho hot t yigw yigwhc hchh rvls t to b prs pr stt i th most mos t sombr momts of o f th ight From ths sigulr pgs w oly d for th momt to p this i mid tht btw lucidity d obscurity th xpric of Mldoror ll kids of rltioships xist disturbig d v trgic rltioships hostilitybsd hrmoy hostil complicity; victory tht is filur. Ad t th sm tim ths pgs corm tht v i this octurl dsity whr dy sms to b lost light Lutrmot cotiuig his prsistt strugg l vr md pct with drkss: struggl drkss: h hs oe o e solitry s olitry co cr ot to succumb to gt out of this bd mor difcult problm th o might thi (169). I recllig such situ tio w will judg it lss strg tht Maldoror, prcisly whr this situtio pprs might simultously tsti to its uthors powerful cosciousess d to sik depr d dpr ito drk rgios where poitlss pssio prvils throgh wild istict. Lucidity prvds vry prt of th book it drivs it composs it. But th worklu workluci cidd pr xcl xcllc lc i th th ss tht t ht lucidity lucidity is ts ts pric pricipl rcours rcours s wll wll s big b ig tht throughout which which is t stk s tkbcus bcus of thisipllcidity ovrows with clrity frms it sks it loss l oss it th ds ds it d lly lly doucs it. Prhpss this Prhp th is is ot vry my mystrious strio us W r r ow usd to th t h fct fct tht words lik lucidity cosciousss d rso do ot corre spod to o simpl usg tht lucidity c b prst d bst tht it somtims dispprs whil cotiuig to wtch ovr th work tht it looks out from bhid distrctio tht it cts pssivly lik Lycus who kps wtch ot from th top of towr but whil t work i subtrr dpths Ad w r ow usd to th fct tht th most coscious writr isofr s th
The Experience ofLauramon ofLauramon
77
bo ok that he comp book c omposes oses brings a profound profound part pa rt of o f him into i nto play play, by no means dismisses the powers of his mind, but, on the contrary tra ry,, summons summ ons them into association assoc iation with this book bo ok and asks the book to help and deepen these powers. Between his work and his
lucidity, he establishes an impulse to compose and to develop, mutually, an extremely dicult task, important and complex, a task that we call experience at the end of which the book will not only use the mind m ind but b ut will wil l hav havee been be en used by it, in such suc h a way that the book can be said to be absolutely lucid, if i is he work of ucidi and if ucidi is is work. We will not hesitate to say that Maoror appears to be the most remark rem arkabl ablee example example of this type type of o f work, work, a model m odel of this kind k ind of of literature that does not entail a model, more striking, because of it itss scope and an d it itss developments developments (because ( because duration duration is essential in this enterprise), than Rmbaud's Iuminaions powerful, in a certain way, for the mind, the Iuminaions leave the mind with nothing but the memory of a dazzling experienceand A Season in He which, rather than being an experience, is the ri of an experience This is why it seems so important to read Madoror as a progressive creation, created in time and with time, a work in progress" which Lautramont undoubtedly drives where he wants, but which also drives him into the unknown, about which he says Let's follow the current that drags us along" not because he lets himself be dragged along, drifti drifting ng with with ferociou ferociouss and blind bl ind forces, orc es, but because the s sweeping" weeping" force of the work is its way way of being ahead of itself, of preceding itsel the future even of its anomaon omaon.. ii in o an at did Lautramont have on his mind the night that he scribble scri bbledd the the rst rst word words:s: May May it please please the the hea heave venn that . . . " ( 27 ) ? It i s not enough en ough to say that, that, i n this this initial moment, Lautramo Lautramont nt had not completely formed the memory of the six cantos that he was going to write. We have to say more: not only were the six cantos not in his mind, but this mind did not exist yet; the only goal that he could co uld have was that distant mind, that hope of o f a mind that, at the moment mome nt when would be b e written, would lend len d him all the strength he would need to write it.
The Expei pe ien ence ce oLa Laut utam amon ontt
It is o doubt dmirbl tht, s compltd work, Maldoo prsts itslf s totlit without crcks, lik th bsltic block
o which Mldoror sdl rcogizs th solidit of his ow xistc, drw from from ll dissolutio dissol utios s.. Is thr othr work lik this o, o th o d compltl t th mrc of tim, ivtig or discovrig its mig whi it is big writt, writt, ccomplic ccomplic closl likd to its durtio, tht rmis mwhil mss i inning or d, timlss substc, smutit of words, whri vr trc, bfor d ftr, sms to hv b rsd, d forvr forgott? Thri lis o of th grt surpriss of this book, but o tht w must, for th momt, try to voi void. d. Rthr, Rthr, tht w might might glimps glimp s Lutrmot Lutrmo t hims himslf lf,, prp rhps w should look for him t th momt wh, with o o thr, o th h oor i mpty room, lit b sigl cdl ickig o th whit pg, o hd, crtil o vr butiful itslfiirspos solitud to to ths writ, v M it pls hv tht ...hd, ," dforms to writ words.8
The Firt Canto: Dazet Lutrmot pcd ctgoricl brk btw th rst v ctos d th sixth. Th diffrc bw ths two rts is, i fct, strikig. W lso kow tt th circumstcs of uictio lso plcd brk btw th rst cto d th othr v, th rst th cto hvigm b ttchd), publishd lo (i th August d s without uthors whrs tir1868 work, w kow it, pprd udr th m of th Comt d Lutrmot th followig r (bfor Octobr 8 69 , though, thks to th polic po lic,, it w ws s vr off offrd ffor or s s l . Ths Th s circumstcs m sm s m uimportt, uimp ortt, d i fct th hrdl hrdl r, but th th sm to imprt i mprt sig to us. First, w c coclud from this iitil publictio tht, t th tim it ws rrgd, oly th rst cto of Maldo hd b writt. This is t lst vr probbl. Th rst cto dos ot form mor of totlit th thos tht follow it. Sic Ducss th sms so curious to b pubishd, h might just s wl hv hd th rst wo ctos pr togthr, or mor, if h
Th Expinc ofLautamont ofLautamont
79
hd writ written ten more more . But he h he had ad as of of yet only w only written ritten th this one. The The hnd that scribbled sc ribbled May it please please heav heaven that . . . " has therefore herefore sribbledd only th sribble the ftyt ftyto pages pages that wo would be set on th the B lilitout tout ppri rinnter's plate plate then mysteriou my steriously sly the hand hand stoppe stopped. d. Why? Fr how how long? o coul could say? When When it on o nce again again began to wrie to wrie tere t ere is reason reaso n to believe believe that the the rst canto canto was bein beingg readie readiedd fo r prin even that prin that it had had already ap appeared peared already dried dr ied iint ntoo sil si l ence this this because because beginni beginninn g canto canto II what what does this this hand
rite? Precisely those words that evoke the uncertainties of an uncertain publication: at became of Maldorors rst canto since his mouth lled with leaves of belladonna let it slip in a moment of meditation across the kingdoms of wrath? What happned to that canto? ... We do not precisely know" ( 5 9 . In fact tis can only be either an allusion or a prophecy. We also know that beteen the rst edition of the rst canto ad theformal text of changes this cantoappeared. as it wasSome revealed the textcorrections.4 as a whole0 sveral werein minor th the exception however of one: so impressive it is in a sense so unexpected that that without exaggeratin exaggeratingg its revelato revelatory ry impact impact ad since it distracts our eyes from from a spectacle spe ctacle that we do not have p oint linger on this point rs not no t to linger ally prefe p refers eeone one gener generally right to ssee te right te wh ere in in passagess where in all the t he passage lowin g: in all ange is is the th e fo llowing: T he ch change tooo long. to lon g. The
into gures res com comee into an imal gu the animal strangest of the edition ion the strangest itive edit te den denitive in the p ressence in through their pre ons or or through invocations throug h invocati play eithe play eitherr through out hosee sn snout lophu phu s w hos hino no lo nce, the the hi gnce, oft he silken silkeng the he octop u s oft t ort tor is top is top d bbyy a hor a hor ss ho-sh ho-sh a ap p d d crst , th nrabl bl lou lou s ,, the ad in thee vnra the t ooad ab in s ab ha aus ao t ha au u u ao lly,, the the nd,, fna fnally tanza, nza, aand f nal ssta tee fnal t
te last sentencete text o te previous version interects in tese places the name Dazet (Georges Dazet was a fellow student a the Ly Lyce de Tarbes Tarbes with Ducasse; Ducasse ; his name also appears a ppears in the ddications ddicat ions of the the Posis; he died we are told in 1 9 1 9 . This Dazet is a surprise. It is like like a slice o f re reali ality ty introduced introduced ito the most mos t unreal book bo ok that we possess poss ess;; a little fragment fragment of the but they o thers but they ed there there are others orated visibly incorp in corporat al Ducass Ducassee visibly hsstoric h torical
can can o nly be suu spected) specte into the the myth myth o fLautra mont. hen hen h e ldoo r of o. 4f1 M a ldoo inggramont autho author the emerg e ofLaut mergin see ee that that canto tod) into we s we s the rst thebe s rst can bgins bgin
8
The Experience of ofLautramont Lautramont
still kows th m of Dzt tht h wts ot oly to ssocit it with his work but bu t to hv it pl ply y rthr rthr micbl rol ro l tht of fridship tht hs lrdy wthrd storms d is urly vr mbiguous. I othr words th unchanged m d fc o f Dzt ptrt ptrt it itoo th th idl mid of Lutr Lutrmot. mot. It sms tht som critics wr privtly bothrd ot by tis mmory but by th dltio bhid th xtrordiry utrsltld ich rv rvld nglance, wh which silkeenglanc tpuss of the silk tpu imaae able im �l.. ho�l lssmt fro m s c ho idd clssm t?? A ki wht g dd wh t hig r ws ws s o m thi thr th w�s h d w ublilim m hd th s ub d t thh t th cl udd ly c o clud rtbly com mfo rtb cs uco h criti cr itics Th as thorr who as an autho andd b an au l han bnl n o h er bn lke n en lke drven er ll drv er igss o r othig ty oth pretty es to pret ames tty am pretty ow give pre appyy to we kow happ th is th � ht th higss . Wht ry thig diry ordi ms to t h m o s t or trgg m str th� g b h i d th lgu gug igg l rv rvi u lyy b h i d l l this u ivl di ittiv gge ? ld ch ld ch sc c tsisths h s ggur g urs whr whri hi hik k i sth thlgu wuorg fo llos? fo llos? lg ich sthi th wh w id wfro frotm mi mid o i s th goi goig W Dztt. littl Dz mor th littl thig mor o thig S dly o b h f ol b wouu ld ol ffdd u s . W wo do s ot ot o ff sily. y. But this do Posssil Po ts�i-ddl cm to us to ts�i ogg go go s uddl from l lo so mo m o from surprisd surp risd if so rus s rhus'' c crus Rhiolop olophus foo r? Rhi r you yo u lookig lookig f wht r : B ut th th wht ros' (which (which is rhiocros' schoo l; rhioc s from school; t ickm ickms sig ict coppt' i sigic co m t t s ick ickm istis cto V) , is Mr. Histi kow w i i c s w ko God s God
profssor of rhtoric." This would ot b of y grtr itrt v lss i fct th th rfrcs to Revelations or o ulgore Budlir. As fr s words go th rhiolophus d th fulg ltr holdr crtily hd to com from somwhr if thy cm from from turl turl history histo ry b ook from octurl rumintio ruminti o r from dolsct jok j ok it hrdly hrdly mttrs mttrs th importt imp ortt thig thig is ot kowig th fortuitous origi of th words d imgs us d by Isidor Isido r Ducss D ucss b ut gr grspi spig g how how ths rdom word wordss bc th rst words d foud w d primr origi i th s ll oxistt Lutrmot to whom thy simultously gi birth. Fr from rcogizig th word octopus" usd i plc Dzt grt os to wit litrry w s pro tht th t Ms a ldororws ldoro rws ot work work without hout rtic coss quc co qucs s fthri h rf, or its a upro tht it rvld vld umb umbrr of of thigs thigs to to him tht tht it it chg chgdd h i ,
Te Experience ofLurmont ofLurmont
1
ransforedd hi, and ha, hrough his experiene, ransfore experien e, Daze hhaving aving eased eas ed being Da D aze, in his sead, sead, beneah ben eah his appearane, eerged, fro he dephs, dephs , te octopu octopuss of te silkengnc silkengnce.e. The uni of he Canosa leas of he rs ve of he seems ver srong, o suh an exen ha fro beginning o end we soeies so eies have have he feeling feeling of an imob im obile ile verigo verigo,, as if i f noh ing was ever going o hange. Therein, however, lies onl one aspe of he ruh. Wih a lile indfulness, we noie, o he onrar, hrough he ourse of he book, while i progresses, an undeeable bu onsan and deep ransformaion. Even he aosphere beoes soehing oher, even he language, even he iron. I is onl in ano IV ha he long, isleading dis ourses begin, he runon senenes, he innie wiss and urns ha,, in searh ha sear h of o f heir own divergene, suddenl s uddenl freeze reeze iinn a blak iensi; reaining sraighforward beoe unbeliev unbelieva able;42 blehe ;42 he iron ha unil hen wasiages saisedhen o ski he h e surfae of he work, hrough a ounereaning, he eaning of a word, skis over iself, exals in he whirlwind of negaing g ures hrough whih he os glorious afraions slip. Te air ha we breahe is no longer he same: i is an air of suh an exree anial densiy ha he eaorphoses, whih were so rare and, in he beginning, ore skehed han realized, are aoplished in he open whil whilee exposi exposing ng he he deph, impossible impossib le o see, of heir subsane. If we read onl he rs ano, and as i rs appeareda legi iae reading, sine Duasse hoped for iwe us sa ha, hil h li mnin of hes s emains exreml ow eru,, and ahough so eru s oee of o f he faous faous eleens eleens of he ook o ok are found herein, we do no e see he ransforaive power in aion, he power ha, a a erain oen, will hange hese adirable words, hese burlesque senes, and hese supein g iages ino a world before he world, fabulous darkness, insribed ino language, an iense exisene reurned o is origins. The rs anofrom is no wouldha naurall ipossible iagine, hisquie ex,his. he I proje Duassebehas in ind, oif he has one. Bu we an oen on i. Firs, a his oen in
The Experience ofLauramont ofLauramont
th wo th stoy of Maldoo th vampi is mo cla ad mo stabl tha i ay oth sctio. This Maldoo visibly follows vy id of accusd chaact that macab litatu placd withi th gasp of th imagiatio. H plays his Byoic ol with covictio issd foaccodig th most litay. uls Th tmptatio tmpta tioa sc whil wh il that composd compo accod ig topat th taquil of at at is oly a sigula vsio of Goth Go th's's Elig" (44-49).3 Hamlt havig bcom a Th gravdiggrs s is odd bcaus Hamlt vampi a witig o sulls also wats to slp i th gavs 9-54). Th mystious Lucifia dialogu btw Maldoo (49-54). (4 fall ahal ad th toad that implos him to mmb hs oigi is i th st vsio a staightfowad dialogu btw too fom t fom classmats; th toad at this paticula paticula momt mom t is oly o ly Dazt ad Dazt mo tha th pstativ of God appas to b a sic wllittiod fid who dos ot sha i his compaio's idas scolds him fo his bad bhavio is fightd by th stagss of his sic mid ad who also would li to b lovd lovd mo. Mawhil Mawhil th dialogu ad th cato d d with ths toublig wods fom Dazt: Fawll th do't hop to d Dazt agai o you jouy. H is goig to di with th owl o wld dg g that you you did ot ot lov him. him . y y am I coutd cout d amog xistcs if Maldoo dos ot thi about m! You will s a pocssio pass by this oad that o o accompais; you say: It's him!' You hav b th caus of my dath." Th tuth is that at this momt Dazt ffctivly dis ad dis so compltly that th had that that pushd him ito othigss othigss will lat tu tu to th past to as vy tac of his xistc.
Between Ducasse and Lautramont It is udiabl that that this this st st cato cato is clos tha th th oths oths to th litatu of its a mo submissiv to litay iucs that Baudlai appas thiMacl as do Ja Datadad Byo ad Goth advisibly Su ad Shaspa. pad Mzi who hav both sought to costuct Lautamot's pojct" thi that i this st boo wh th patal lif of ma ad of
The Eperience ofLautramont ofLautramont
te world would e sketed out, Duasse as intentionally inspet ins peted ed te masterpiees masterpi ees of umanity uman ity,, wi e as depos dep osited ited in ea stanza like a gurative transposition. For example, say tese ritis, stanza stanza VIII II I (pgs. 3 4-3 7 , wrein dogs owl and gt a testanza grip of o fonsome of o f, israge, i s te stanza IXtis (pgs.is t e sort te oean oe an, teis ss!lia e.5 Naturally, 3oter 7-43 in, te possile, ut we are not onvined, rst eause su a plan, astrat, mtodial, autorial, seems from te outset intolerale, in advane, to reative fore. We are sure that the phantom of Lautramon Lautra montt would av avee redued Isidore Is idore Duasse to silene, si lene, if e had expeted to impose suh a plan on im; or, in other words, Lautramont would ave remained eternally on te oter side of tee wite t wite page, tis seet of p aper taked taked to te wall, silently uttring in te eat of the andle, su tat, troug te quiet rustling, Duasse, te young man wo yearns for glory," ould still ear te unorn names Maldoror and Lautramont. If allusions allusions to masterwo masterwork rkss are ar e visile in te t e rst anto, it is sims imply tat tat tis anto anto is te t e rst, rst , that that the work has yet to do its work, work, su tat te young man tat yearns for glory' is still very lose to te glory of oters. oters.6 6 He only has has a sligt inkling of wat wat e must eome, at te eart of a reation reation tat ta t will reate im so s o that that e an reate it. It is terefore remarkale tat tis rst text, wen i appeared, appeared witout a name: eind it, no one, no autor; eause Lautramont still does not exist, and Duasse, already,, is dying (like already (li ke Dazet) ..77 Everyone Everyone who writes will wi ll reognize reog nize te agonizing strangeness of tis solemn momentnot anguish bfor th or to don but efore th being to beome, the eing tat one would know ow to e only y mans of a long, persevering, and exalting exalting movement in the void, during whih whih this eing tat jumped will no longer e someone, ut e the jump. Our impression is tat Duasse jumped o from a rater simple projet, proj et, inspired insp ired y te literary literary onerns of o f is day, y a theoretially y vague reverie on o n Evil the asurd a surd viissitudes ofwork Existene Existene, aall rever reverie ie that, in order o rder to e and e sustained, s ustained, hooses hoos es a frame framework withwith-, in the grasp of every young imaginationut dangerously unde-
nedtat of te Aursed One, alternately a vampire, a fallen
The Experience ofLautramont ofLautramont
ngel blck mn cut ngel c ut of o ff from ro m the commu co mmuni nity ty in every wy wy mbiguous power tht torments others becuse of the torment t withstnds Now if we return the isrst nd ifwe were inspect to kno wht is lredy there towht notbook yet there led toitdifferent considertions consider tions Compred to the cntos cntos of mtur mturity ity " it undoub edly stnds out due to its literry seriousness Long sections for rdere deredd nd studied compositions tht tht resemble prose poems p oems e e know tht Gaspard de la Nuit ws found t Montevideo in Ducsses fthers librry; Budelires Petit pomes en prose begn to pper in ; Paroles dun Croyant in 48) The stnz o the dogs in the moonlight mo onlight visibly spires to poetic po etic eff effect Even te gret serious nd cold" stnz on the ocen is spurred on by idel of lyricl eloquence by concern for beutiful" lngue tht irony does not lter This preoccuption will not dispper with the rst cnto n cnto the nrrtives re no less writerly nor the literry mbitions less present nd such concern persiss throughout the entire work certin linguistic premedittion resources of blnced composition musicl rrngements e found throughout; the meticulously clculted refrins conr them Sometimes Lutrmont delibertely constructs disordr with order s in the lmer stnz in which following the proces Budelire used in Harmonie du Soir (Evening Hrmony) te lnguge unrvels nd comes together gin in movement sim lr to the t he cycle cycle of the eternl return return ( ( )) ll this conrms te skill of Ducsses writing Except tht it ppers s i t the begi ning the literry literry precutions do not im towrd towrd much mo more re th the cretion of beutiful work; lter nd proportiontely s te world opens up these precutions re going to tke the mind ther thn it knows how to go these precutions will help it thn to the certinty certinty of concerted lnguge lnguge to persever pe rseveree in i n the void to lose los e itself i tself nd to seize itself itsel f new new
"Toward the Unnown ssuredly in this rst cnto we my be struck by the lck f ironyy by the bsence of metmorphose iron metmorph osess by the vvery ery wek wek hints o f
The Experience ofLautramont ofLautramont
imal life life and altenative altenativel l b the alms almstt t seius sei us aunt f te mal stangeness f the wld an aunt that in this gene g ene f m will nt be ep epeated aga again49 But Bu t if we an fget fget the aldoror
fstikes what fllws think eigning tue t ue what what us i s theand i n and in andnl the abut the s undte unhead unh ead flite this this
in this hash ld utting f the wds exatl like a az sss a fae fae this utting ut ting deisi dei sinn that alead alead afms afms itself itsel f and if s i i ha hass nt et et invete invetedd languag la nguage e tuns tuns it int int a a blade blade s shap shap tthhat what whateve eve side side ne gasps gasps i t it uts u ts iitt leaves leaves 5° What 5° What stikes stikes us
lead b means f mpaisn alleg is the appah f nimal ealities The shak is thee fm the send stanza like te shak in the dak ne ai" (28. And fm the st the whil ind f f anes that will will late impse imp se the law f its mvement n the entie enti e wk is feshadwed feshadwed in i n the staig staight ht ight ff the hill anes Fm the eighth Mald Mald meets his st female female shak shak"" stange meeting beause in the fllwing ant he is ging t ate with this female thugh atuall he wuld like t beme he sn If it had been up t Id fa athe have been the sn female shak whse hunge is the fiend fiend f f tempests tempests and f ¥ a female te tige whse uelt is wellknwn I wuld nt be s wiked" (6. A banal metaph? Tue but ustiabl s; at this mment hen we ae in fat within the alm mpnent f the metaphial intelligene a me seius phenmenn is p dued The metaph expldes and withut withut an the piming as si gns ff st signs u asse the st zed b b Iside Iside D uasse the n sei seized ethingg was wa s then i i sm s methin him while that at peti peties him hange th a hange ap pea in i n him a hange appea bizae hange � bizae sn th th et sn N hs et na dths dths N tna h m wth wth s b t lk l k hm ing fm fm m ptuding the b n es ptud d; n n the b fehead; ss ues n m fehea e en ssues ee t the the sh s m e huge sh s piky ns f sm akin t t the spiky ae featue featuess akin sae s
akin t"s pe dubt the akin the seashe seashe"" ( 3 6). N dubt ve the ks that ve et bkee n es ae nt n t et bk ties a easn; eas n; the ti dina nntat with with din eve the the seve
dwnn hed dw u uhed Mald pesent Mald ead a t pesent ntinuee t ead Bu t lets But lets ntinu ause se ides es be beau ee he hid (whee avenn (wh bttm ttm f a ave st anding nding at the b hen sta ght m i ight slwl fm ea d sl ed as tun tuniing his head desib ibed glin esss ) is des f his uglines
stange h this stange nd" (3 7) . h n end" f hu hus n e ight f t ight m m left t lef left f el at at this peisel fe peis me t the fe wh des itit m And wh havi ? And & ehavi the feelin g the sivit feeling ge pa pass sivit is stan stange this ppah th ent? IIff we t t appah ment? m
The Experience ofLautramont ofLautramont
extent to which time is slowed by it, perhps we will sense wht kind ki nd of prof pro found oun d inerti is beginning beginn ing to immo i mmobilize bilize Mldoror, Mld oror, t theng? hert spce wherein ctions comein prt. he goi going? We Weofdonot no t kno know. w. But Bu t ifhis such chnge time"ere might ishve something to do with the seed of the dngerous chnges in the metphor kin to," this is wht we foresee: the imge opened up brech in Mldoror's humn life spn; something begged to hpp n sy, the experience concudes nd te voent blow tht th t strikes strikes him on the th e hed throw throwss him hi m bck into the world world.. ht is, t this moment, so impressive for the reder who knows wht is going to hppen, is tht Ducsse is in dnger nd he does not see it. He is surrounded by bnl gures of rhetoric, he summons dogs, the glowworm, the rven, the immortl peli cn, the viper, the tod, the whle, the hmmer, the deformed sh, nd everythi everything ng is there under the ressuring pretext of o f morl nl o. 52 e however ppers not to know tht they only cme so quickly becuse summo s ummoned ned by force force stronger strong er thn he is; i s; the theyy re tempttion, tempttio n, the fer fer of possibi poss ibility lity,, not yet yet identied identi ed nd lost in the depths of still impenetrble pst. From the beginning, it is this impulse tht severl stnzs would let us glimpse, more thn nything else, the gret prise of the ocen. No doubt similr hymn, returning to thethisinnitude of the domintes the entire cnto. glory Through celebrtion, thewters, book frms its ccord with the underwter depths, proclims their sovereignty over it nd its sovereignty over these depths; it knows tht its pth will pss by this kingdom of viscosity' nd tht this byss will be its byss. The mythic riches of the ocen being inexhustible, every imge cn nd its origin therein. Mrcel Jen nd Arpd Mezei tell us tht the the ocen o cen is the unconsc unc onscious ious nd tht the hymn hymn
is to its glory. Very well. H. R Linder tells us tht the ocen is the imge of lost identity identi ty,, of prdisil p rdisil Unity Unity for for which the lcer tions of this world, the cruel struggle of good nd evil, mke Lutrmont nostlgc. y not? Lutrmont does not mke mystery of it: Old ocen, you re the symbol of the identity: lwys equl unto yourself"(3). And this unity, this elementry" geometry, pleses him like wht he found metphoriclly stis
The Experience ofautramont ofautramont
in in the demands of a reason thirsty for exatitude. It is true, too, that the oeanthe wave wavess of whih are rystalline rystalline,, while the depths impenetrablethe represents uniquee are uniqu luidity lui dity, , if his luidity l uidity isoean suh s uh truly that larity addedMaldorors to larity produes therein, and spreads, the blakest shadows. But what is the importane of these little bursts of meanin? Lautramont arefu ar efully lly informs us us her here,e, there are no n o limits lim its,, A fformi ormidable dable ma maw. w. It must be vast toward the bottom, in the diretion of the unknown!" 41) It is therefore this diretion that it desinates for us and, and, at preisely this this moment mo ment,, he h e himself enters therein. Up to this point, in this stana, the pararaphs follow one another in an orderly fashion and with a ontrolled almness. But the unknown suddenly passes into Maldorors voie and a name, like the revelation of the primordial oean, reveals to Duasse what he had not yet seen see n the old old oean, o ean, reat reat elibate" elibate" breaks breaks wit withh all the pre p reededin lassi ures. l of a sudden, for the rst time, appears the dark mystery of o f a taiturn virili vi rility ty,, o f an almihty solit so litude ude that tha t would searh in vain for the onsolation of the ouple, a kind of solitary Father that he ompares to the veneane of God,"5 but whih is no more the imae of God than God is the imae of the father, if in these ures we expet to introdue distint and preatebeause ateories ories.. The important imp ortant not innottheand meanin ohave f suha aise power, obviously thisthin poweris does annotof xed and lear meanin. What matters is the movement that arries Lautramont toward it and pushes him to propose an alliane withh it nswer me, Oean, wit Oean , do d o you you want want to be my brother? bro ther?"" 42) sp An immi s i cins ratrny an, sp-
ially, with purely eroti impulses), he will happen upon the possibili sib ility ty that the perspetive perspetive of suh a union unio n opens up; a tremblin, a furor, and a transformative violene respond, in suh a way that the oean beom b eomes es the aner of the oean, o ean, the imae of unleashed enerry, of this madness ene madne ss in i n the ourse our se of o f whih, fo r Maldoror, feelins hane sins, love beomes hate, hate friendship, remorse already beins, and the symptoms of a possible metamorphosis appear. appe ar. For, we see, see , it is initiall initiallyy only a question of one sinle sinle ure the laws of the oean. What ould be more lassi?54 But
The Experience ofLauramon ofLauramon
ths clws tk d d shp, d th dgo of stz II II (77 f) isoigi ( ldy ldyd sktchd, h civig civigtu th gut omomt, f his hi s lmty of his mgict" At this of Ducsss lwys mgictly gultd stc stuctu is, i lity, py to th most cotdictoy movmts: th oc s hidous," this ugliss" tht, w kow full wll, is Mldoos pticulity d obsssio Howv, th oc, with its fomidl s t th ht of which mos c b h, thows Lutmot ito dmitio d lov Thd lmost s sooi compltly coty stimt, bcus such mjsty, big mibl, voks so cly, i cotst, th bsss of m:: I cot lov m lov you, I loth lo th you 42) But ht i tu is too gt; it, too, immditly bcoms fidship, d v mo: codtil pssi p ssio, o, dsi ds i,, thist fo fo itim iti mccy Y You ou sct s ct dsti tiy y I kow kow o ot:t: l lll th thtt coc cocs s you it it st stss m So tl m Tll m vythig Tll m (m lo) 42) All ths movmts my pp to lysis s t oc highly xplicbl d of mdioc mig, which th ifomlity of ioy would dimiish oc gi Ad, i fct, h it is hdly qustio of psychology psychology o otolo ot ology gy;; th commttos comm ttos hv hv b
busy t,yig showlthough tht, gh i itthis d, Mldoo oc,tyi oc it g is bcus, bto cus, lthou Uity Uityif, uity u ity itslf its lfdos b igjct oly o ly th th oppo op posit sit of o f divsity divsity, it is ldy ldy ccou c cout tdd fo fo withi th dilctic of th multipl d would ot b bl to stis his dsi fo uio (h w s which xgsis w might follow) But who fls
tht th th itst lis lswh? o ss th tsio tsio tht violc plcs o his lgug d o his big, violc so powful tht it dos ot mit y spit i th xcssivss of o sigl ssio d tht this istbility, which focs it to go byod th fom of fligs, is bl to big it byod vy fom? Who lso hs th pmoitio of th kid of vtigo though which Mldoo ts ito cotct with this idtmit pow tht is th oc, th pimodil ct of mtmophoss, oigilly pu lmt, oigilly vgu, difsd substc, fomlss d dy to tk o y fom, xistc s compct s ock, but livig, llss lwys o d lwys oth, d
The Experience ofLautramont ofLautramont
herein he who enters ecomes an other In this stanza there is i fact an imme imm e nse transference transference from Ma Maldoror to the oc ocean eteenn ot etee othh gur gures es an inde indecision cision and we we do not no t no now w an an m o re re thann confus tha c onfusedl edl to who whom m this this h ideou ideousn sness ess elo e lonngs-t gs-too w who hom m the the a n ger, to to whom who m the remo remorserse-as as if Lautr Lautramon amontt to maint maintain ain his his euilir u iliriu ium m had ha d to ulo u load ad ont ntoo anoth another er his his violen iolentt exces excesse sess so that the th e ocean o cean sketc sketches hes the th e eginnin eginnings gs of erso er sonn icatio ication n while at at thee same th sa me time time Maldo Maldoro rorr sees him h imsself lose los e his his erson erso n which which he is
tring to gras withi innit ersonied
he Gravitation ofThemes, the Pulverization of Images We have imagined that Ducasse set out from a rather simle design What is alwas outside the oint of dearture lets itself e rcognized in i n various variou s was: wa s: throug th roughh the nearl astract form form within which the theme of evil is still resent; through the role laed the Maldoror vamire storline; through the inuence exerted oular literar wors of the da which act if not as models at ast as stimulants That from the eginning this design is someting other than literar literar and that ehind the masteriece aout a out to e writtena traditional adolescent dreamDucasse senses an oligation a dut an exerience to suffer through this is ovious
aldoror is not no t ust ust an Accurs Accursed ed One One he is the Montevideen, and i is recisel in these ages that the connection etween the to eole is exlicitl conrmed It does not follow that the hero of renouncess ever ever mthcal mthcal exstence: sometmes so metmes Mad aoror renounce i siml siml a human I I " as close as as ossile oss ile to Ducasse's ersonal erso nal hishisr (as we might susect it to e); sometimes he is trul a mthial character this cases shift to doesisnot distance his author and inBut man themth oosite true We seehim in from this new dimensio dime nsionn and in this accessio accessionn into mthic mthic time one of o f the forms forms fLautramont's exerience: either through distancing himself he i forced to see himself in the strangest light or through this ias he shift maes earale the disclosure of a realit that would othrwise rwi se exose him hi m to too great dangers
90
The Experience ofLautramont ofLautramont
The romtic theme of evil is certily literry theme, d perhps Ducsse believes he chose it for this reso loe. But f he is deceived o this poit, or if he is mistke, eve more iv ly, i imgiig tht, through his book, he is goig to dvc thee problem th pro blem of evil," evil, " 5 5 how would would he ot t the sme time ko tht evil" is for him ot simply bstrct ctegory, but tht thi word must lso hide more mo re persol perso l truth, hypot hypotizi izigg myster myster srouded i is pst, towrd which he is crried he desir wht i fct, wht light? I fct, erythig ig ito ito the light? drw w ev everyth re, to to dr it itself self obscu o bscure, remrkble remr kble from from the very ver y beg begi iig ig of o f Maldoror is the th e moveme, moveme,
t o ce obs ob s tite tite d i i itel itely cuti cutious, ous, tht th t c cccompli omplishes, st� st � g coveri ig of ; ucover och, the u pproch, et, th the ppr ggemet, eggem tz,, the e z by s by stz es the b o o ht giv gives emet et ttht movem thigs igs,, mov i dde th er of of hhidde u mber cer ti umb certi w tht i i cto Wee ko kow sitio. W blee compo comp o sitio. dmirbl ge ge d d dmir its str str
escc ribig ribig h edd" exctly, exctly, by des expli xplie ty h hss e ot's t's lucidi lucidity Lu trmo Lutrm ight of the strligs, the oddities of this compositio (1 5 960, how it respods to the complex formul of whirlwids, tht fol low two proclivities t oce: tedecy to retr to the ceter i other words, to be cocetrted roud the poit where th
pssge the most sweepig movemet stteof restdisi boutt tofrom bou tke plced projecti proj ective ve tedecy, tedecyto, result oof f the
plc emett from plceme from the ceter by the sme forces forces tht seek, tht desir this ceter, d yet, lmos lmostt t the limit, rej rej ect it d iitum Thi descriptio hs l descriptio lw wys ys ispired the dmirtio o f experts experts:: o f psy choly cho lysts, sts, who see there therei i gure of o f cyclic obsessio obse ssio; ; of Mrce Je d Arpd Mezei, who discover herei geerl priciple o explictio,, tht explictio tht of cover coverge gecediv cediverg ergece, ece, d d poit out out its its sci sci etic eti c vvlue 5 6 It is, i fct, fct, hrd hrd ot ot to to be m m zed, whe whe oe see see this d dolesce olescett offer the the most st s tisig elucidti lucidtioo from th the m o s t o bscure si side of his his work (o (obscure, bscure, becuse it it eludes t he clrity clrity o trditio r ditio ll forms forms d l so bec becuse use the th e most most s ombe omberr eleme eleme ts o himself himse lf re t t work wo rk here hereii), whe where re purely purely poet poetic ic lucidi lucidity ty is is ui uiee with wi th purel purelyy rtio rtio l lucidi lucidit t It is i fct fct t this m this mome omett tht t ht o� o � feels b o ud to to lik re reso so d d m mdd ess, clr clrity ity d d opc opcity ity,, with� i hi him m We shou should ld ot ot,, howev owever er,, forget forget tt tt t the he img imgee of of th thee str str liligs oly app appears ears i ca cato V at the mom mo met et whe whe exp exper eriec iec
The Eperience ofLautramont ofLautramont
91
itslf shis so visibly fom fom th ct tht it is ough fo fo D uc ucss ss to simply obs obs v v th volutio volutio of his wok to dciph its m ig d, thks to th lucidity of his thought, to gt this m ig th idl pcisio pci sio of fomul fomul If ch stz is dvlop dvlopd d ccodig to od od whi t is occsiolly occsio lly visibl, th smbl of th stzs stzs dos ot follow ppt od ut istd pptly follows iclitio towd disod d discotiuity It is cl, fom th stt, tht Ducss mt to cut his book, to divid it up ito fgmts tht w to b sptd by isumoutbl itvls y this gu ltd bkig, this v w poit of dptu, which h sms to wt to impos o himslf ch tim? Fo th shock vlu (s h sys i cto VI)? A quimt imposd by th vy divisio of th txt ito stzs stzs i i od to iv iv t sis of th shot pos poms? Possibly But th gmt ito stzs dos ot pvt him fom costuctig, wh h so chooss (i th lst cto),, shot cto) sho t txt simultously sim ultously f f d poss p ossss ssdd of o f vy vy suf suf cit, logicl cohc, xctly th sm kid of compositio tht pps i th itio ogiz ogiztio tio of ch stz As fo su
pisig th d, this poccuptio did, i fct, pls Ducss, but it plsd him fo so which h soo sw th d is him d wht wht h must mus t supis is i s th tomtd tomt d ct ooff himslf, himslf, i ight towd th ukow To mk Lutmot Lutmo t sy mo mo th h sys, to giv xps sio to ou mod of wht h hs himslf put ito wods, is p hps ot ttig ttig mthod But th tmpt tmpttio tio is stog Bcus, eg M oe ee ery obcre ge om wtout to to withi, lttio iddld with ppitios d dispp cs, with impulss of o f bo both th ttctio ttctio d pulsi pulsio o,, such com co m plx systm of clipsig d bightig sts tht o d is bl, t y pticul momt, to sist th dsi to hst such lucidtio, o to gt his imptit hds o th lity tht hs yt to mg Hc, so my of th itpttios, which w ouslvs mkig, but itmdiis, upsugs of mig, dstid to dict us towd th sol tm tht w might dm of ttiig, bcus it dos ot xist fo us
92
The Experience ofLautramont ofLautramont
There is undoubtedly no book wherein, so obstintely, the situtions, the scenes, the thees, the iges, re ll repeted, everything lwys returning to the surfce, then going bck into the depths, then eerging once ore, nd once gin pulling wy. One thinks of kind o f plnetry plnetr y grv grvittion ittion tht, through extreely coplex rules, would ipose, t precisely clculted periodic oents, the return of ll these corpuscles before our , o t ot ntnt when they coe togete o visible enseble, before breking prt in order to coplete the nocturnl prtteof whirlwnds, their trjectory. But this gure is still lessspekexct tan tat o which is itsel£ denitively ing, hrdly exct. Becuse these corpuscles, if they do repper with potentilly clculble regulrity, repper otherwise thn they were: they hve often gone through rdicl trnsfortion, it is like they exploded en route or borrowed fro their pssing ssocitions with other new possibilities of chrcter nd gure. We sid tht everything repets itsel£ but neither is nything
repeted, nd the thees, the situtions undergo, through the oveent tht ssures their return, a chnge tht prevents their return: wht returns is nother sitution nd nother thee tht we do not recognize. It would, certinly, hrdly be exct to copre these phenoen to the clculted enchntents of usicl coposition: rst, becuse, s both literture nd poetry re not usic, u sic, these nlogies re lw lwys ys iproper ipr oper nd generlly generlly stite us with n illusion illusi on;; oreover, oreover, if it so hppens tht we we re ble to isolte is olte within lnguge its pure usicl essence essenc e nd to igine, fro this essence, prticulr cobintions tht cn be sid to be proper to usic, nothing like this tkes plce in Maldoror, wherein the returns, repetitions, nd trnsfored identities follow entirely dierent necessities nd iply n ever ore intense tension between the lighty lucidity of the outside nd the trecherous lucidity of within, which, prisoner of itself, is lso n ccopli c coplice ce of its prison. p rison. As uc s the repetitions of lngugethe I hil you, Old Oce''nd Oce'' nd of for pper concerted to us, the repetitions o otifss nd otif nd of o f iges iges see se e to elude every every deliberte deliberte decision decisi on nd nd to
Te Experience ofLautramont ofLautramont
93
rie again from a much more obcure zone, from thi trick of concioune that at once ee and doe not ee, know and doe not know. A good example of thi i found in the tanza that follow the hymn to the ocean. Thi tanza i looely attached to the preceding one through thee word: I want to die, cradled on the wave of the tormy " 43 ) But thi I wnt to die" i rathr unique. In a certain way it tear apart time, o that, through thi tear, Maldoror ee himelf lready in hi funeral chamber and actuallyy laid out on hi deathbed, nding thereby actuall thereby the poibility po ibility of exitence o n thethat on other ide of dath dat h andthi of xtracting xtracti a preent lif lifee from the event denitively render life pat.ngThi ituation i natural enough here becaue it correpond to tht of the vampire (who i a dead man in whom death live), and thi precie ituation once again launche u into the tory of Maldoror a vampire, a progreion that carrie u through to two entence from the end. There, everything change. Maldoror, awoken by the
rhinolophuDazet in the rt verioneeing himelf till alive, hould conclude that all thi wa nothing but a dream, yet the irony, through a rctic concern for coherence or for a more eriou reaon reaon,, only ubtitute ubtitute the idea ooff a paing illne" for death, and the tanz conclude with an enigmatic detail that reconcile preciely the the ida ooff dream with that of ickne ickne:: it i that the rhinolophu nolop hu ha take takenn advant advantage age of lep in order to uck hi bloo b lood d Thii i alread Th alreadyy telling epiode, epio de, ince in ce,, howeve howeverr peculiar a vampire vampire Maldoror may be, he ha hi own blood ucked, eemingly to hi great atifaction atifaction (why i thi hy hypo pothei thei not reality!" reality!" [ []] ) . to t o t bi b innin nnin o f cnto II I I tnz tnz we e n aten to a quite different cene. Ducae ha begun working again. break, Yet he aibolt unable to write:come hi pen remain torm of lightning to cut in two,inert" in the61) face,A Mldoror, who in thi very moment ubtitute himelf for Ducae abruptly vaporized. A wonderful wound. Blood guhe forth; a dog lap up thi blo b lood od that i getting getting all all over over the carpet; carpet;"" the dog diplay even more zeal: Enough, you greedy dog, e n o ugh ! . . . your belly full" 62) A for Maldoror, who ha lot a lot of blood, hi forehead reting againt the ground, what i
94
The Experience ofLauramont ofLauramont
bcomig of him? H is compltly hald: his woud is much mor mo r tha a scar, scar, a dish scar that bcoms a distat allusi sio o to to a a torm torm tt al alrrad ady lost lost . . . i th ight of bygo tim" 62) His frid Lma, whos prsc w still prciv, is ivtd to tidy up, whil Ducass bgis writig i blood, his frag�l woud suddnly ro ig ig.. Th aalogy of th to scs sc s is iidt. I both, bo th, troubld tim assurs assurs Maldoror Maldo ror of th possibility f liv i t h p hm, m, o livi scapii g th d o f scap iuai uai o n s ad in o i ing ing ino n n (bcau t muom om t as if pr st w as th p rp rpig tually tuall bhid bhi d him him s"), f s "), f ti tim m bygo by go ht yof ight isis th stak ak was is pr at at st wif hat ha tthis btdly bt dly dou udo th m o if ovr,, th haald. M o r ovr add h sick,, a dad, sick ouusly dad, ultao sim multa ig si big r r with a ma irctt ma lly dirc bru tally i a bruta tch d i sk tchd rizati atioo , sk piriz v ampi o f t h vam th ly i i th siv sivly xt pdd m o r xt vlop is dvlo ato I, is i cato words i fw words
th b l o o, riks ks th dogg dri cal al it: th do co c that co to urss that ugh dtour ,, thro through sc sc aly whichh is raly bloodd , whic ut t h bloo suckss i t, b ut ophus hus suck hio oll op ustt as as t h rhi j us dos 0t whichh dos himwhic to him forig to bcom for lrady bcom oror'ss , has alrady Malldoror' Ma a d, rabl a d sii rabl how w as as b o th ds b ig g ssho roccdur dur fro m bi prvt rvt th p ro hss rhiolop ioloph t hatt th rh ful.l. It is is c lar tha paifu straglyy pai log g ru, ru, stragl th lo th
(which Dazt (which Dazt was wa s bh bhid id arli arlir) r) has has ow b ow b split split i t i too ad a d ss prptuatd i both th dog ad Lma, this frid who woud fuctio qually qua lly wll as a housk ho uskpr pr ad a wif. wif. Latr, a similr s imilr splittig i two will tra traspi spir, r, i such suc h a way way that th rotic maig will b rcly paradd about: i th cours of th scn whri w s Maldoror aidd, i a rap, by a agry" bulldg ( 4-1 5 . All ths vry strag dtails d nd o sothig ls, to which thy ar likd ad that is still mor otworthy: t impossibilit imposs ibilityy of o f writig, which striks Ducass D ucass ad which dom-
at ats tir t ir sc sc .cato, . A maig ma ful al aralysi aralysis s that rappar rapVpar i mays th forms i ach upigf to th sc of will Cato wh it is doucd: a paralysis that is itslf th paralysis of a chatmt, chat mt, " of itrio it riorr lucidity, lucidity, likd by what it kows kows a rfuss to say. Obviously, Ducass is alludig to a vritabl rs to spak, th powr of which h xprics withi himsl a rfusal that is th igitig forc of his book, th pricipl of hs work, w ork,"" which h ca oly o ly ovrco through tricks tricks ad y appartly givig i to this passivity. How dos h ovrcom this impo
The Experien per ience ce ofLautramont Lautramo nt
95
e er ere? n a re rearka arkalle wa ariu ariuing e reoni eoni ili r i exie exiene ne o o an exern exernal al ore ore,, a divine divine o o ande a nden n,, o i i i er i era a a aoo iae iaed, d, u wi wi o o aure auredl dl o er e avanag avan agee o aking i i ruggle ruggle oil oilee or i. i . One a an rug ge w ge wi i Go God, r roong a e a e.5 e. 5 8 Ti Ti i w w even even ee lig lig l i n g a ul ulveriz verize e Du Du a ae e and nd e e w ou ounn d a annii an niila lae Maldo aldoro rorr rer rere eeen, in i n reali eali,, a or or o reu reue, e, and i alread lread a a ;oover, e ; e aue, ro roug ug hi hi evil" r rojeed o uide o o i, e ul egin o enerae i own evil and o ake e ronier o adne and oe renzied oug a kill lowl reede reiel deried deri ed a u in e ae anza. 5 Fear i one o e rare enien in Maldoror Te wo do
ian dio ian di oi iion ion are an exreel ore oreul ul ur ur and an exreel ltargi aivi; onrar oveen a, owever, do no ooe one anoer ur iliae e deire or oa and e will o lierae oneel i deire i ur urio iou u;; " in ooer er word word , i i no onl a ruggle again evil or adne," u alo evil and adne heelve eoming ean, aion or uggle. And lilikewie, kewie, aivi and learg do no rereen ure and ile aandonen aandon en o agneizing ower; ower; e are ill a ilen wa o ruggling, a aien rue, an uliae oiiliy or reellion ad airvoane. Tee nuane u e reen in our ind i we ion alulaion ion or e e i o alula inenion ae e e role rol e o inen areiae an o arei
e and rea rea arane e diae diaearan roug roug e ae, d, in in D uae, revealed, ha i reveale ure ixure oi . Te ix rizaion aion o oi e ulve ulveriz and e ee and arane o ee earane roug rualli roug aor rua revelaor andd revel auionn an reauio inalle re iner ina o iner o ound ropi pinn aound enddle ro w an en he ho how omen en he ve m om hich hic h eve
eing a aodoe no aear, direio direion n rou roake u iwi wi e emeing o wn aenuae rue in order o eer ur rie (and e oenaiou doei violaion, e auoriaive vie a e aue in order o ell ere ing a eaven, iending o rovoke), are wo unning ae o e ae ruggle r e ligh. And, wen e ee o ave aid everhin, a in and i and i orro orrorr adoleen een ae o r adol werein ein i i ae ion wer ooe voiera voieraion
vi oun a a vi i an an alo oun ineri exe o iner u an exe o wo o wo en a, u l e id id are no n o le ing are ee drea dreadded ing eau auee laion, e r o dii diiuulaion,
The xperience ofLauamont ofLauamont
de whe afrmed exaggeratedly tha whe deied O the cotraryy, i cee wherei the errace of laguage trar laguage appear appe ar to cree hi lucidity, lucidity, it i the perhap cloet c loet to what it i eekig, becaue, becaue , beeath thi tragee of image ad of word, it ee itelf become other ad prepare for it metamorphoi I a geeral way, it i the prudece, the rue of Lautramot thatt are particu tha particularl larlyy hock ho ckig ig Althou Although gh he may ma y be tempte te mptedd by the t, e ae the feelig that, i momet of ett bl made, wherei eerythig lead to the fear that a premature reel re elatio atio,, prooked prooked by thee ery idicretio of laguage, for-
eer ilece him, eer him , he alway alway kow kow ot oly o ly what what hould hou ld be b e aid, aid , but what he till mut igore The diiio ito apparetly dicoected taza, i i thi repect, i a great reource reource Feigig to al alw way ay pick pi ck up up agai at the begiig, beg iig, he i ot obligated o bligated to agai take up hi deeloped theme, or to do o i the form i which the tory t ory ha already dealt with them, a form form that, if it wa wa orgaized logically, i a maer that wa too literary, might rather quiclyy be corrupted ad o lo quicl loger ger hae hae the leat bit of o f magetmagetizig" alue But ut a he ca alway abruptly abado the themeif it rik, at a time whe the other elemet hae ot reached ufciet maturity, beig maifeted too excluiely ad too opelythe retur to it, alway i a differet rm, o that the literary" accomplice might be reduced to a miimum, e d it agai at it true eolutioary poit, without alibi ad without fale ligt
The Theme Theme of Childh Childhoo oodd Near the begiig of the book, i the third taza, Ducae write: I hall et dow i a few lie how upright Maldoror wa durig hi early year, whe he lied happy There: doe" (9) The doe,e,"" a iroic, bitig do biti g break, idicate that the the pat actually doe ot wat to hae it ay The theme of childhood, i fact, diappear from cato I Not completely, howeer It i maifeted, i a diguied maer, i the form of memorie or recollectio: By moolight ear the ea, i iolated coutry place, oe ee (whe
The Experience ofLauramont ofLauramont
9
unk in bitter b itter reection) reection) all thing thing aume yellow yellowih ih hape hape,, imprecie and fant fantatic atic. . . . In day day gone go ne by by, borne bo rne on the wing of youth, thi made me dream, dream, eemed trang trangee to me . . . " (3 (3) ).. One dday ay my mother, glay glayey eyed, ed, aid aid to me: m e: enever you ar aree in bed and hear the dog' howling in the eld, hide under the cover, don't deride what they do they thirt inatiably for the innite, like you, like me . . . " (3) (3 ).. Not long ago ago I aw the ea again and trod trod the the dec deck k of hip h ip,, and my memorie mem orie are a green a if I'd left left the ea only ye-
terday'(3). And of coure nothing prove that thee recollection are authentic, but, but , ditort d itorted ed or not, no t, they t hey nonethele no nethele reveal reveal the fear fear of thee day gone by a well a the need to recall it. An inidiou, maked need that i not openly welcomed in the text, but make itelf felt only parenthetically parenthetica lly or demand a guarantee from from literary model. In thi way it become apparent in the family portrait of tanza X ( ( 9) 9),, which clearly clearly imitate imitate Goethe. Goethe . Thi emulation i like a trap into which the author let himelf fall, becaue it i directed toward convincing him that literature" alone i in quetionand nothing ele. It i in thi cene that Maldoror, conformconforming to hi role, throw himelf into thi, rt to educe a young child.. But if Maldoror, child Maldo ror, lo looking oking to carry c arry the young Edw Edwar ardd aw awaay, i the Lautramont of tomorrow returning to the Ducae of earlier day, i the Ducae of today tormenting hi own memory, we gue that in realit it i the child and childhood that are temptation the tempter, excited by the innocence of the eductive image he put forth and that encourage in him, in the guie of Mrchen, the notalgic nota lgic regret regret for for an a n idealized ide alized pa p at.t. 60 the canto progree i cms of m mhappy ic ps done" i siino s memorie then earlier day. The longer enough to drive them away. We can eaily imagine our childhood a dead, but uch a death alw alway ay manage manage to be b e hrouded in doub d oubt.t. Ha the young Edward, trangled by the educer with a cry of boundle bo undle irony," irony," expired? If I f the power power the infe infern rnal al demon demo n have have granted him (or rather that he ummon from within himelf) i effective, then before the night lip by thi child hould be no more"" (9). more (9) . I Iff the the power ... . . ii eff effecti ective ve. . . . " Th Thu u the ironic ironic cr cryy reache, before any other, the one who hurl it.
The Experience ofLautaont ofLautaont
And so pprss if indvrtntly, in n numrtion tht, bhind rigorous pprnc, uthorizs dngrous instinctiv impulsth llusion to th violnt incidnt tht puts n nd to childhood:
hen h en a o oarder arder at a is rruled uled ffor or yea years rs (whic (whichh are centur centuries) ies) , ffrom rom
morning till night and night till ti ll morning, y an outcast ooff civil civilizat ization ion whose eyes are constantly uponheavy him, fumes he feelsto tumultuous torrents of an undying hatred mount like his head, which seems aout to urst From the moment he was hurled into prison, until that time near to hand when he will leave it, a high fever yellows his face, knits hhisis rows, and hollows his eyes At night he muses, mu ses, ecause he does not want to sleep By day his thoughts vault over the walls of the aode of degradation, toward the moment when he escapes this perpetual cloister or they expel him from it like one stricken y plague (0) This is nithr divrgnc nor prtxt. Th rsntmnt of Ducss, who wh o is rj rj ctd by his fmily nd lock lo ckdd up in th th prison of th collg, collg , is xprssd xprssd in th m most ost dirct dir ct wy wy:: w will kn know ow,, now, whn h throws into his fbls th img of prison, which is on of his mnings, on of his sourcs; w s how prison, onc th fmily is lost, is vryhr, bcus it not only upsts th bord bo rdrr t c to s himslf lockd up in th prptul prptul cloistr," it upsts him no lss to lv it, bing vrhr outsid himsl From this w know both sids of his rsntmnt: undying ht," his hd tht sms bout to burst," but lso th innit witing, th stupfction, th ptinc of to slow through th cours of which thnd dlibrt intntion s fvr, clrly pprs for th rst tim, th implcbl rfusl of slpt night h muss, bcus h dos not want to slp" ). t is rmrkbl in this conding is its spct s n nclv within txt whrin it hs no plc.62 Somthing ws sid tht should not hv bn sid. Thus, in cnto II, whn th th of childhood chil dhood bcoms th th principl principl thm thm,, if th th sm rs rsntm ntmnt nt is frmd, it is bnth disguis tht chngs its chrctr. Th scn bout bou t th omnibu omn ibus,s, burlsqu fnt fntsy sy,, is jjustid ustid ssolly olly by by this nd to tlk, which is lso nd to concl: th child who
The Experien per ience ce ofLautamont Lautamo nt
99
prsues the BastilleMadeleine" is the child rejected from the failial ailial boso bo som m (M ( My parents parents have have abandoned me" [ []] ) , the adoadolesent seeking in vain to return to the past, (I've made up my mnd to return home" []). The obsession is therefore always
raher strong. But it is no longer possible to return, and the farcical omnibus, wherein egoism and indifference transform the travelrs into turtles and dead sh, is like a dream invented to deect oto humanity in general the responsibilit for his abandonment an simultaneously to delineate the irreducible distance from chldhood, because, even as he runs, the child is already no more thn a formless mass." ucasse's complicity with childhood, sometimes openly acnow ac nowledged, ledged, is som s ometimes etimes seen se en lurking behind behin d his repulsion repu lsion for for wat grows up. If the ten year old girl" who, in the new stanza, p rsues Maldoror Maldoror with tenacity tenacity (a ( a pursuit in every way similar to th pursuit of the omnibus), is really only ten years old, her appearance is thereby friendly, she charm" is slim, her engaging an inquisitive," she has childish ().eyes But are if this nave fae is but a mask, if, by chance, she were twenty years old Horrible! Horrible!" answers Maldoror. Hence, we see under wich mask appears the idea ide a that that childho childhood od is lost, that time passli tthee liteightt years years o ld, th the omni om nibb us is eigh child ild oonn the g: the the ch e s , is lurkin lu rking: ld , years ars o ld, eighteen teen ye sh e is eigh bruptly ptly she then en abru an d th yeears old old,, and girll ten ten y tl gir tl
distic hate, es a sa sadistic becomes sympathy becom Maldoroor's sympathy twenty,, and Maldor mybe twenty theeme th e th isi bly,, the ncee . Visibly pre senc adu lt prese atee this th is adult ihilat an nihil ea ger to ann dlyy eager wilildl of ind of he kind more re:: the veall mo revea ginss to re oess he. H e b egin tures,, " as d oe aatures
s s h ma manat naton on to assocassocgure. Wen gendered dered gure. ely gen som me strang st rangely olescenc scencee with so at aole the h o rrirceives ives in her the alreaddy ppeerce gi rl, h e alrea sees a little li ttle gir ldooror sees Mld M
risk wnupp girl. The risk grownu ompleetely gro a c ompl form o f a angeroous form b l l " and danger ul fo rm rm dreadful es the the dreadf assumes nt on, assum that mome mo ment up , fro m that o f growin rowingg up,
oa truly other existence. urity maturity this idea idea of mat ly turn turn this autious iously is go goii ng to caut casse is Now D u casse folloows, iiff it is thaat foll mptat ptatiion th tem scene of te new scene the new d, so that th ar6und, ar6un
ferent.. dffferent turninng, is also d returni canto re the rst ca fro m the scen e from s iply the scen Tee child has T child has le l e ft the the famil familyy, he is is outd outdoo ors ("H (" How nice hhee is, th thii s
The Experience ofLautraont ofLautraont
child std o bch i th Tuilris Grds!" [9]) Thr is o logr y qustio of killig him, but rthr of xpdig
him with impss im pssiod iod frzy rzy tht, t worst, worst , will lst thr ds Mldoror's dvic is itdd lss to corrupt him th to mk him strogr, to rm him gist th ijustic of growups, to prpr him to mk your ow justic" (7 0). From th prspc tiv of experience, w c cosidr ths thorticl dvlopm s
u tht tht th th D ucs tru tu r, d d it is tr rd tur, crd lg m o r c s sg sglg boook o " wr it bo io to to writ th itt i ttio of cto cto II is ot fr of th lalyy to s c lal dsir to tht th ds tru tht but it is lso tru roblm of vvil" but roblm til l or rti tho succh th grr su o l o g ich is o bl m , which robl this is p ro ts ts th prrm p h p ths,s, p h hpp ppyy dpth uh i th th u oott i ig roo tkig com om s, tk butt b c ig i gm, bu syigg ithoutt syi it gos withou Morovr, it gos iwrdd Mor utsid iwr th outsid fro m th o l l dig from ir to s dsir ric, ic,"" th ds xpr th trms trms xp mploy ploy th tht wh wh w m mkigg us f ios,, w r mki xprssios othrr xprss som m o f o u r oth rly," ," d so clrly cl
words thtbout r tfr toomot? ctgoricl, lthough hrdly t w kow bou Lutrmot? Lutr Oly this this tht h is xd writig bok book d tht through this ook somthig i him is ig xprssd tht slowly rcivs gur, shiftig shiftig from from o form to othr, such wy tht this spch bcoms cotiuously mor mp, mor profoud, d mor coscious of its powrful origis W cot igor tht lrg prt of cto II grvitts roud t thm of childhood child jctd from childhood y his o fmily, by th ftlity of g childhood tht discovrs th cruly of m, th crulty of God (i th stz bout God's crul rpst) childhood slippig wy from itsl rout to dols cc, s if suspdd btw msculi d fmii tus d, bcus of this, codmd to solitud (i th stz bo th hrmphrodit) hrmphrodit) childhoo childhoodd withi which th h h ppiss of iitil udrstdig is rvld d for which kowldg rp sts th th rst vlul vlul ms m s to towrd wrd lvi lvig g th sl towr sl towrdd growig up, but shltrd by th world, bcus this kowldg is i slf
sp sp rt d d cold wo world (i th stz stz out out mthm mthmtics D urig urig my chi hilldhoo dhoodd , you you pp pprd rd to m , o o moo moolilitt My My ig ht . " [ 4]); igh 4]); cildh cildhoo o d tt t t,, i tth h d d,, rcogi cogizs zs th th o p p rssio o f sup sio su prior rior p owr owrss , God, Go d, grow grow ups, up s, r rm mors, ors, d d,, wit ithh
The Expeience ofLautramont ofLautramont
th li of pryr, is tught to form duplicitous soul, in pushing th rlity rlity of o f vil outsid o utsid th sl s l th intimcy of which up to now n ow hppinss ssurd (in th stnz bout pryrHr, mnkind, th thoughts of my childhood, whn I usd to wk ... " [9]). This ntir logic" logic" n o doubt hlps th progrssion progrssion o f th stnz stnzs, s, but it is not th logic tht is rlly importnt, or it css to hv ny importnc whn it is rducd in this wy to n orgniztion l pln. I on th contr contrrry, rnouncing our considrtion considrtion of this lo logic gic s n bstrc b strctt id of uniction, uniction , w truly wnt to rcogniz it s th work of powr tht, through vritions on common thm, prprs othr vn strngr ids, tsts gurs, ugmnts th crystllizing violnc of lngug, intnsis words, mks thm mor chrgd with mning nd mor unstbl, nd chngs thm into constlltions, th diffusd rdition of which is lik light mittd from from blow b low th horizon, horizon , w will will bttr b ttr com prhnd this thm prticulr dos follow contin th dvlop mnt of tht crtin thtstnz on o n might fnot ollow nd discovr gin ltr in th book, bcus this thm, which ostnsibly rrs its hd (nd which w so sily dciphr bcus w isoltd nd lbld it) , is lso ls o th movmnt movm nt nd th ffutur utur of th ntir work.
Provokin g Metamorp hosis Th notio Th not ionn of o f thms is dngrous whn whn it xtrcts xtrcts from from txt only thbout shn of,itsblight, surfc. It is nd of littl intrstoftoyouth not tht pisod pi sod bou t lic, lic curss, th worry ttk kssth its pc n ts sm contnuum on i r vn tt it irni clly turnd into th cnniblistic img of th Crtor (bcus th innitly smll, which, lik th innitly lrg, lrg, dvours dvours bings, bi ngs, is, lik him, thir sovrign ldr). Poticlly, it is lrdy mor importnt to rcogniz, btwn th chrming nd discrt pris of th hrmphrodit nd th pris of mthmtics, curiously similr light, nd, in both worldsslowly rising, in such wy tht th young bing doubles (in whom both prcding imgs hv mldd, th img of th child from th omnibus nd th img of th littl littl tnyrold girl), girl) , who is dscribd ds cribd to us t onc
02
The E Eperie per ience nce o fLautramont
as cazy cazy ad ichd ich d by all th huma scic sci cs, s, 6 but codm co dmd d to isolatio ad to th misfotu of powlssss (sug, it is tu, lik a faiytal)is ow afmd afmd,, i th t h gadios tiity tiity,, " th lumious lumio us tiagl, tiagl , " aithmtic, gomty gomty, th magical magical pows of which hav ovcom, says Lautamot, vythig that was vagu," dull" i his mid: w thfo discov, i this iitiatio,"64 madss but madss ovcom, kowldg havig com a mas of combat, a pow capabl of coquig t Omipott, ad ally th solitud of a vigial" ad spaatabsac atabsac wold, wold, which is howv howv stgh ad happ happi iss ss.. ca us to s hat this pogssio om staza to staza maks h pogss po gss of a pow a wok. W W may udg it ppf fab abl l o aibu a movmt tha holds islf up as supio o vy usticatio to th abitaiss of pu catio. But assigig this ol to fatasy is o mo potically lgitimat tha xaggatig th pat playd by h logic of th thms. Fom h poic poit of viw, it is phaps valid to sk o asoabl" coctio btw o such pisod ad aoth. Bu, fom this sam poit of viw, wh o ss Maldoo, i cato I (i th staza aboutt dath) abou dath),, suddly su ddly appa abov abov m as a appallig comt, " i th bloodstaid spac" (), a imag tha cofoms to his suphuma ol, th, fom staza to staza ad fom cato to cato, this sam imag is asfomd whil psvig[to th littl gil,hai, Maldoo as a th hmaphodit's which appas o must otbuig touch, comt;"65 is th astoid's halo;66 swams swa ms of o f lic, sovigs sovigs of o f th had, kigs kigs of th whol whol had of hai, hul thmslvs up to th top i th ai ad bcom stoy mois;67 vgful ys" of cosciousss, which salk ma vywh whil xtdig a livid am," igoat scic" calls" thm meteo (2); th imagiay bigs," Lma, Lohgi, Lombao, Holz, shi wih a adiac maatig fom thmslvs" ad di stillbo, lik hos spaks whos apid xtictio th y stais to follow" ( 7) ; lat lat, , a h had ad of hai hai wi willll b chagd with a oply otic maig ad th hai, spaatd fom th had, will bcom h hlplss witss of scs of dbauchy,, whil sim dbauchy simulaously ulaously bcomig bcomi g th th mmoy mmo y of pow
The Experience ofLauramont ofLauramont
3
erlessnes s ; 68 gi erlessness ginn lter, lter, Mldorors crime pr p r excellence, excellence, the t he crime whose evoction moves him deeply, to the point tht we no longer know kno w if he believes he h e is guilty guilty of it becuse b ecuse he h e ws only on ly victim victim of it, is crime ginst the hed of hir grsped him by the hir with n iron grip nd whirled him loft so quickly tht his sclp remined in my my hnd " ( ( )n )n imge wherein wherein we gin gin nd the two elements, the centrifugl movement nd the hir, both of which re lredy present in the gure of the comet;6 through to the lst imge in Maldoror, when Mervyn, fr from being the victim of simple, instinctive ggression, becomes the hero of methodicl grnd nle nd is seen projected into the sky, er mjestic evolution, comet triling fter its ming tril" () en we recognize not only the persevernce of such n imge, but its trnsformtions, which re not rbitrry, but lwys oriented in see n how, even round more expnsive drmtic diection, when we it, ll the nd ides,more ll the obsessins nd even the turbulent form of the book come to be kno know wledged, we must recognize, in the successive stnzs, stnzs, someting other thn purposeless inventions of n irresponsible fntsy, but rther the movement movem ent of o f pursuit purs uit tht is going som s omewhere, ewhere, towrd the unknown" Considered s vrit vrition ion on o n the theme of o f childhoo childhood, d, the episode bout the lice shows nothing more thn Ducsses burleque leq ue power mgnicently mgnicently purging bd childho childhood od memory m emory nd ingeniously ingenio usly celebrting the sovereignty sovereignty of the hed represented by themtics But Ducsse is not just n inventor of fntsy, or clever uthor piercing n eness stm f sbtnn from one text to nother, nd we discern tht wht is hppening is much more mo re serious serio us This kind of ll llegor egoryy of lth, this t his pology pol ogy fo the revolting virginit (n inversion of the hermphrodites luinous virginity), culmintes in movements inscribed with siniction tht lcks reltionship to mnifest things The imense lth sets out, it livesnd, through it, one of the strngest forces in Maldoror tkes shpe: something inert, dull, imobile, slowing down of time, time , sleep in the middle of o f the dy dy, the slow rumintion of stupeing, decomposing force The
104
The Experiece ofLautramot ofLautramot
lous is ot hpp pidl suckig blood lik th hiolophus70 th suctio bcoms bcom s vdig movmt, movmt, ptit poli pol itio tht pmts th light of d, poctig itsl fom sbt dpths, ito th wold bov d chgig ito tiig d oppssiv mss Bth this h dsit, lgug dulls itslf Though th hidous" cotmpltio, substc both liv d dd iss, spt of mcu' tht xts h dd dd u doubtdl wo ds: udoubt o wod scittio o gous fsci most g most ill Lt, w i icipt Lt, ticipt ibilit w t pos s ibilit s poss vld s c is v imm im mic h stz stz ghtt (i th h liligh i ot oth ibilit ilit,, b ut i os s ib this p oss ss this gi gi ss alligg tim me falli of ti ead of istead e, ist hee, [9 3-9 9 ] ) . The weeck [93 shipw ut the ship about abo l g, i s l thig, vthi ig v dstoig th t, dsto w th gig p ow m,, th gi th ti t i m th b tim m, ill gth o f ti lgth v l fo m d v v fo d v b oo d d b bov d to is bov
bth ck ck owld owl d I t cto c to woms wit wit ss quiv th thuivoc ocll mll, bi bigguous uo us m g g ssf d d oss , th s,,ss u uq com pst st Ib, c tm mp gd th th ; hdg th o c htd, bouddlss h oo's bou Mldoo's oc : Mld th oc m d th btw m shd btw ihiltig fihilti pbl o of cpbl th o ught c to b th o ugh to sts," fu g t o c csts," nc this violnc tl fz fz,, this viol this lm lmtl uth, this phsics " 7 1 Futh, th lws of phsics tht thows him outsid hum limittios, ops up fo him th st tim, though ud th guis of th mol log quick nd dcisiv w out, towd quit oth xistc h log, chst, d hidous couplig" (99) with th fml shk tus Mldoo ito muk muk, goo go o mss suoud suo uddd b fums of ottig vgttio72 This dos ot lst log d th stz quikl cocluds But th vt sufcit mks th light i whih hop pps, o th tht of this oth xistc, th movmts of which ssocit ssoci t it with with otic guish, d how th img of t oc, fom th clw" sid of th violt s to k d vous movmts," th though its siltld dpths, th mu wt of its lit, uits both spcts of th xpic, i costt povoctio towd mtmophosis, whos goudwk is big lid D uig th shipwck, shipw ck, M M ldoo, with his muskt, bshd t t hd o f sixt of sixtold old dolsct, i his dolsc his istoc istocttic d bo b o ld fc c Th Th follow followig stz st z show howss us his cop copss , bu butt it is is o b o dow dow dd in th th Sin Si n,, pssi pssig tim tim d d gi ud u d t t
The Experien per ience ce ofLautramont Lautramo nt
arch ar che e of brid bridgge, a a in anothe otherr tanz tanza whe wherein the lam lamp from ro m a cathedral cathe dral with the the ilv ilveer bu b urner, rner, the the an anggel aga againt int w whic hichh M Maaldor ld oroor i i g ghht ing, ing, follo follow w the coure ure o f the th e curren rrentt fro rom m the he Pont on t
d' d' uter terlilitz tz to to the Pont de !'Al !'Alma ( 8 690 690)) . Until the then, Duca caee hd
unuccef un ccefully attemp ttempted to to beg be gin in the the tory tory o f the frate fraternal rnal cupl uple;e; every eve ry tim ti me he expecte pectedd to ketch etch i itt out, out, an abrupt brupt b reak reak or
igr igreio eionn return returned ed him im to the the ch c ho."7 o."733 A in ingu gulrly lrly difc ifcul ultt b i r h . Th Thee the th eme i , in it t o ow w n w waay, a yo yo un ungg d dyi yinn g b oy oy w who ho u utt b con ontt inuou in uouly ly reu reucitat citated ed,, an andd it will ill tak ta ke the wh wh ole effort effort o f thre th reee othe other cant canto to l to lead ead it, i t, na nally lly,, into int o full full-e edge dgedd reali realitty. No Now w, the tr trnge nge,, eroti roticc urge urge tht the th e lo long ng,, ch ch te, te, nd nd hi hiddeou eo u coup llnn g . . . o f broth brother er to to i iter" ter" repree re preennt, mk mke e ne new ttem ttempt pt t h theme po p o ible, but b ut throug through the mot mot dicr dicreet img imge: the the
mteriooMldoror mteri u brother" brother" i t t him rt noth not h ing cdver, cdver, n n unkn unknown crpe. bring bck to but life through undoubtedly rher equivocl mneuver4the fble uthorize themnd wen the blond, phyxited corpe, who i only eventeen yer ol, coming bck to life, llow himelf to be recognized the dret of friend, the notion of the crime committed gint hirel or erotici completely kipped over,5 in uch wy tht Mldoror ction ume the ppernce of mgnicently vi uou ct (How ne to ve life! And how the ct tone for ifo n e relly relly wnt wnt to i!" [O [O]] , word through which irony lip, ifo udertnd the mbiguou mening of thi ct."). thi hppn within the clrity of literr pn lit erry" y" rcit Then, both friend ridin off together, brup ly the tnz end, nd we enter into the mst sombe gge i Md Te os soo fll into the emidrkne of o f inomni ino mni;; they get tuck, nd their eort eort to trck trck down obcurity only reult in n endle puruit, in the inconitency of drem tht trnform trnform itelf oon you you touch it, i t, in th ftlity of deth tht i lwy it own reurrection, in the ftigue of leep leep t the hert of which the impo imp oibility ibility of leep leep i
dicovered. Wht iit hocking i e tht thetopreviouly w w, , now give giv birth bi rth repril repri l ofdecribed the mot eiode, virtuou d edful
of mee imge imge of n, the the m mrked ked retur return, le mr ore nd, nd, n o le rem re mor
h o net, eitther pure pure nor ho r, thi thi time nnei repp er, body reppe h drow drownned body
Te Ex Exper perien ience ce of o fLautramont
but carrid away by a lugubrious rivr whri imms tbrous sprmatozoa ow. Evrythig happs as if th drowd boddy whom Maldoror has just bo jus t rsurrctd rsurrctd cotiud cotiu d its xistc as a corps ad rvald its tru atur to us i th implacabl light of rmors ad cosciousss a tragic light that sstially rdrs rd rs dath dath ad slp slp impossi impo ssibl bl.. 76 M this livid am" am" i vai. his misrabl huma atlop" i vai tris to push his ad t arty arty trcacis trc acis o o a hol"; hol" ; lik a drop o thr t xcavatio vaporats" (). Or bttr yt h throws himslf from th top of a promotory ito th oca ad Now for th miracl: th xt day th corps rappard o th surfac of th oca which which bor b or this shy otsam back b ack to sshor hor.. Th ma frd frd himslf from th t h mould of sad hollowd h ollowd by his b ody ody wrug wru g th watr out of his drippig hair ad dumbly with lowrd brow rsumd lif' lif'ss jour jo ur' ''' () ( ) . If this ma dos ot succd succ d i hardhardig himslf hims lf i ordr to lud th vgful vgful clarity clarity it is also to o avail that Maldoror sks to abolish cosciousss. Trribl struggl. Crtaily h ovrcam his my h rducd cosciousss to othig h houdd th woma [cosciousss] from my hous" h drowd hr h gawd ito hr skull but h must always aihilat mor. Itdig to shattr cosciousss h throw thr owss himsl h imsl alog with it from th top of a towr: a profoud dramfall. Th h gathrs" it up xtracts it himslf from th abyss h rsuscitats it i whatvr way bcaus h still wats to mak it a witss to his crims. A iit cotradictio: th frdom of th crim dmads th disapparac of such a witss but th possibility of th crim dmads its survival. Ncssarly th dath of cosciousss always has th cosciousss cotiuo usly usly rvi rviv vd d of dath o its horizo. horizo . This sc too caot caot d: thr tims Maldoror plac placss hr had udr th guilloti; thr tims triumphs ovr th guilloti's blad a victory ovr th kif also dnitive marksof txtrm t impossib impos ilit t of ending t Sucthat a cotiuum o mags xtr msibili dramlik saturatio saturatio
idicats th xtt to which th dgr of discord tat w so calmly calld Lautramot' Lautramo t'ss ght for for th t h light o f day his will to s clarly riss. Lucidity/7 too pur a word appars hr i its
The Experience ofLaumont ofLaumont
1 07
perverse duplicit as the gaze that gives birth to the crime ad the crime itsel, which has the itimacy o the eye, which makes the most righteous view guilty, a accomplice to that which it codems. It also appears, as we oresaw, that Lautramots experiece seems to drive him to a iexorable cotradictio seeig clearly, dimiishig sleep ad dreams, slowly drawig the reality o evil" out ito the ope, yes, without a doubt, ecessarily but, simultaeously, the ueasiess o a radical trasormatio is asciatig ad attractive to him, whe, be it aguish, desire, or methodical methodic al will, will, he must slip ito the maw o space," space, " ito the itermittet aihilatio o the huma aculties." The huma atelope would also really like like to become beco me a wre wreck ckag agee o the esh, a blo ocka ad this precisely p recisely i order odoes rderot to ee eerr" e the lightA o oight day day adearthy shakeblock cosciousess that (). that is the commo lot, carried out i misery, terror, ad cowardliess. Maldorors role is to substitute the provocative decisio, a act o deace ad struggle, or this ight. I deed death ad divie vegeace with a supreme howl" (). The struggle" is thereore truly a audacious armatio o sovereigty, ad assuredly it leads him to struggle i a certai way agaist lucidity, to track dow ad to strike the hollowed corpse" o cosciousess, but so as to make a ew light spout rom it, the remaiig scraps o itelligece" that the Creator did ot o t wat to give ma.7 ma .788 Fially F ially,, Maldorors Maldo rors mysteri mysterious ous att attack ack agaist his head, his eck bared three times to the kie o the guillotie that shook sho ok him to his core core,, " is like a tragi tragicc experimet experimet to o it i ciit cii ty b o o to it orio orioy y r
mouted experimet, rom which he emerges uharmed, i without hope," ad with oe last coset to die o his lips. Thus, there really really was a victory victory, ssic icee the head resisted beig be ig los lost,t, though the loss was also desired; this is why victory is hopeless.
Hece somber, resiged words that roused coclude catolaudable II It cat bethe helped i some urtive shadow, by the aim o avegig the humaity I have ujustly attacked, surreptitiously opes the door o my room ad, brushig agaist the wall like a gulls wig, pluges a dagger ito the ribs o the wrecker,
8
The Experience ofLautramont ofLautramont
the plunderer of celestil otsm! Cl m just s well dissove its toms in this mnner s in nother" (6)
Lautramont and God Lutrmont's reltionship with God is mrked this strnge fct: the prt of his work wherein eroticism is the most direcl present is lso the prt wherein God pls the most ctive role. In the fmous stnzs wherein God is invoked turns s the , Aig, nd h elestil Bndit, give w to drinking inge nd to the most villinous deucher, the pprent ll this is to ssocitenwht is the most reputed high with cts intention of whichofmnnd especill dolescentis to e the most shmed. The pprent intention nevertheless remins msteriou msterious.s. The suppressed supp ressed memor memo r of degrding stor ots over such scenes, nd everthing sinks into this degrdtion. At the sme time, in the depths of this degrdtion, it seems tht there is n endless exceeding, superhumn possiilit tht cn onl e expressed through the evoction of n irreducile trnscendence. God flling into drunkenness, into prostitution, is undoutedl the dolescent who, giving himself over to these immorl sttes, seeks to drg supreme morlit there, so tht, destroed, this morlit cn no longer judge him. But Lutrmont lso ttriutes trnscendent mening to these sttes, recognizing therein the equivlent of divine vision. visio n. The God in Maoror is the most mistreted in literture. All crimes nd ll vile cts re ttriuted to him. He is kind of sovereign cnnil, priding himself hims elf on humn humn excreme excrement, nt, his feet in lth pon po n d. To the fll fll of Lucif Luc ifer, er, to the fll fll of mn, m n,
Lutrmont dds the divine fll. This gret existence is no more thntht eggr to rwhom offers even fellnt so low Mldoro Ml doror comesone to tk his his lms. siside de inSovereignt this lst er rmn rmnnt eings , ou re en eg ou ou spre sp re this humn eings, enn nts ts terrible ut I eg Gret Being who hs not et don don sleeping sleep ing off off te ef efffects of lt liquor.. . . Oh! You will never know how difcult liquor difcult thing it ecomes e comes,, constntl to e holding the reins of the universe!" ()
The Experience ofLauamont ofLauamont Surr prsng Su prsng comp co mpasson asson,, ut ut t s s ve veed an an mpen mpenetr etrae ae r ron on,,
cause t s aso a na wa to thwart ths great enem whe takn hmateto hm e equa equa worth of pth ts, sense, wh whch ch sLsautram howeve howeverront's dest de stne ned hm hma evenfurther ev furth er In tht autramo God to God s uch ch more de d e ad than than the dead dea d God God,, and aone, aone , somer somer,, degraded, and an d hdeous hdeous,, " h e has cro crossed ssed the the bounda b oundares res of heave heavenn , " a rhrhnce n cerr os rdded rdded wth wth uets, an an o d man man reverted everted to to chdh chdh o o d , fr�ghtened fr�ghten ed h h s own scandas, candas, pteous pteous suject sujected to Sa Satan's reroaches, he verges upon the rdcuous and mmora gures asocated (we are tod) Kaa wth the memor of ost transcndence In fact, what s the resut of ths fa? Nothng, and when God, Go d, returnng to the scenes of o f hs h s crmes to tr to erase an remanng trace, recommences hs vrtuous es and shfts to man te pentence for hs own msdeeds, t s assured a queston of one na ow to morat, though he aso extracts the certant tat, as ow as the stor goes, the daogue etween good and ev can on contnue unpertured here s an engma engma aout a out God Go d n Maldoror It does doe s not n ot howev howev-er seem that ths engma touches drect upon the feengs that Dcasse coud have fet for God Between Kaka and Ducasse, the dtance remans mmense: heren there s nether a nostaga for te o ost aw aw n9o rLa an angushed angu shed frg frght be before fore power power ces tmes s of paces paths nce the sometme some osehtdea deance mon n t, whose wh Lautra utramo stde death7 ath79 ept ept wth pa r wth ostt often often o n a par gh mos though eow God, thou tte aove o r eow h a tte ct a enact orderr to ena dversar n orde su perorr adversar ths supero t need needss ths ,, n rea reat h
hs fur hrouggh H m , hs hmse Throu surpaass hm eren he w surp wheren struggge wh stru smes sem imesio e experie i
aother poss pos st t, he h e gauges gauges the momentum mome ntum needed to overcome a nnte space Between ths Great Beng and Madoror, there s a ontnuous exchange of stuaton, of nature, and of power Sometmes God vs assumes hs pace and ecomes the magstea fo tea form, rm, ut ut so somet metmes mes oone ne can co com maat and and de de ose osesson ssonss a dor oroor eren n Mad enee wh where thee sc scen thus , o nto th epth s (thus, ured d epths add o s cured a g, s u dog, hs udo the he he p o f hs ung gr g r, wth the es a o oung crces eadfu fu s acrc dead d
actonss o f dstracton same dstr red amp: the same the red sce ne of the posed the scen permposed sperm etmes es,, egsters sters)) S o m etm dffereent reg ed out o n dffer aed snee ss a r e pa weres ressn pwe p
The Ex Experien per ience ce o fLautramont
behind God nd therefore shielded, under the cover of this selfmotivted motivt ed God, Go d, Mldoror is fullled nd nd becomes bec omes wht he dres dres of being. Thus between them symmetry symmetry nd even even n indecisio indecis ion, n, which Lutmont delinetes lwys more consciously hrougout Maldoror nd concludes in the scene of cnto V wherein oe of them is recognized recognized in the other oth er nd ech believes believes the other o ther o be himsel 80 This is why critic like H. R Linder cn conclue veeervice, ce, i iee e ve servi es t t G Goo d 's se om etimes ' ro ro w ometim servic,, oror's servic is t Ml M lddoror's God is though God oclyp se,, though thee poclypse ngels o f th ful ngels
wherein he cn irror wherein bulouss mirror thee fbulou o ering ering h i m th po int of o f o to the the point it (becuse it imge (becuse redfuul img dimennsions o f his dredf true dime the true ntempp lte the contem co
superbly emerged from his limits).
ionn tht tht o ccurs h r o ugho denstio erootic con co n denst rdinry inry er xtrord Th e extro The linow,, comes comes lierience, nce, now is exp exp erie trtess how th how this illustrte III nd tht nd tht illus cntoo III cnt off n other other exissibility ility o t he po possib shoows tht tht the lso sh light,, lso tle by littl by littlee to light this movmovnguishh o f this desiree or to the nguis to the desir connnected nected to tence ten ce is co
ment. I cross these stnzs, something secret is sid, this s understndbl understnd ble.e. But if something so mething is lso lso hidden hidden,, this is no less viible, nd the brod dylight," which intends to clri the fol deed" committed ginst the poor mdwomn's dughter, ironclly thishelight is, moreover, deceptive one. Te detilsemphsizes tht ppertht fter hs ung himselfupon the young gil (s into the ocen), Mldoror's deception when he gets up dissised, is ed, " dissti di sstisf sfction ction tht seems to follow from from filure, filure, 8 1 te ppel tht he then mkes to the bulldog, who gives life nd for
to the bestility of these bse" things, nlly the mdness tht lone held the memory of this story,82 ll these llusions, repetd nd developed developed in i n the scene sce ne bout bo ut the red lmp (where, (where, for lre prt of the stnz, the identity of the divine chrctr is dissimlted for for u s, He is is presente presentedd s di distinguih stinguiheed foreign foreigner," f fo r ll thi thiss t ime, H e were were not som so m eone w eone who, ho, iitt i s divu divulg lged ed in in te end, en d, hd h d p prticipt rticipted ed in in the scene), do do not beco bec o me n nyy c clerer, lerer, b b t they th ey re p roject ojected ed ont ontoo n imm immen enss e scree screen, n, whe where, re, e v e r y h i igg pperi pp ering ng on supe superi rioor scle scle,, even even the the filin filings gs"" testi testi to to k i d of superpo up erpow wer. Th Thus the the gig gignt ntic ic hir hir,, wh which ich D Duucsse csse tk tkes es cre cre oo desc de scribe ribe me meticulo ticulouusly so so tht tht we w e cnno nnott ignor ignoree its true true ntur nturee ; f,
The Experence ofLautramont ofLautramont
whie the bodiy b odiy desires ooff both bo th partners" gr grow ow,, he hi himsef msef sense sensess his strength diminish," if he coapses" and nay detaches the hair from the iustrious head, this fa, this sefmutiation, becomes beco mes an event of fabuous ampitude, th thee mythic mythic immensity of which whi ch competey competey masks masks the t he modest mod est incident that that et it occur. 8 It is then signicant signi cant that, that , when the lmig lmight htyy, seeing seein g that he is hardy might migh ty, 84 comes to con c onffess his h is shame, he appea a ppears rs bef b efore ore his hair,"" having become hair, bec ome,, in a way, his conscience, consci ence, which j udges hi him, m, as if, throughout the story, the hero discretey reveaed that the ony possibe absoution was to be sought from enigmatic and capricious erotic power. In the end, madness is no ess present in this scene; and this madness, which is the madness of the nuns" shaken by the terribe spectace, is described to us with particuar nuances, ike a ucid obses ob sessio sion, n, a fear fear that refuses refuses every repression and, through through this madness, madnes s, retaining retaining the meaning and and the memory of this madness, contempates its cause, even its fascination85fear that singuary responds to the image of ucidity fashio shioned ned by Madoror and to the miseries of a consciousness that, being unabe to either forget forget itsef or to forget a dark past, cruey cruey makes another attempt. Through a detai, Lautramont has suggested that this entire scene, we remembrance are seeing in the present, was in reaity a reading of thewhich past, the of an event that, before being recounted, even before taking pace, we might ob scure angua anguage ge ( (in in Hebrew Hebrew understand hrough the code of the obscure
characters" [122] that conceas it. The inscription on the piar, which divuges the unfortunate fate of the genius adoescent to us dve-e me spn sm c moments n te house and was sady acerated by the debauched divinityceary audes to D ucasse, 86 and, and, nevertheess nevertheess,, this this story s tory of yesteryear, in which whi ch he had been bee n a victim, victim, he present watches through the bars of a gried window, a witness to himsef through a the mythica ayers of the rt in his mind. 87 The excessiveness that the erotic signs reach is not ony an aibi and a compensation. It is through these reations that Madoror aso experiences excess, and this entire fabuous scene, where the organs start to grow, to act of their own accord, where every rib
liZ
The Experience ofLauamont ofLauamont
bon of sh chngs nd hs n obscur, utonomous xistnc, whr gsturs tk tk possssion p ossssion of th limbs tht xcut xcut thm, nd movmnts ssum shps, forcing thm to bcom n morphous substnc rdy for xtrordinry chngs, such scn is th most conscintious prprtion for mtmorphosis, th prmonition of which guids th book. This is clrly indictd: ths unprllld swying hips," through which God himslf ntty," combnton forcd by both bng, n incommnsurbl byss sprts," rprsnts climx tht opns th wy for th trnsgrssing oflimits" nd, through crim, fury, mdnss, nd dgrdtion, nnouncs unccustomd chngs," th bsis for mystry." Royl soul," writs Lutrmont, surrndrd in on forgtful instnt to th crb of dbuch, th octopus oc topus of wknss of o f chrct chrctr,r, th shrk of o f individull bsmnt, th bo of bsnt mor u mo rls, ls, nd th monstrous ssnil nil of idiocy!" (). If ths r th imgs, w s, through thir common origin, through thir ntur, which rturns ch img to similrly viscous, viscous , prolif prol ifrting rting xistnc, xistnc, cpbl of o f indnit nd substntil growth, utomtic nd indtrmint, how ths mor mo rll mtphors, mtphor s, whil signiing twof twofold old physicl opprssi oppr ssion on,, from within nd from without, strongly ttrct th bing to th
hrt of mtmorphoss mtmorph oss,, in th miliu miliu th most chrgd with with lmntry powrs, origin of formlss dpths nd of limitlss rlity rlity.
Mtation Mt ation of La Lanngage Fcd with such horizon of chng, it is invitbl tht the cantos ncountr th momnt whn thy thmslvs chng nd whn th ttmpt, up to now only grzd, grz d, towrd towrd rdic rdicll trnstrnsformtion bcoms conscious ttmpt nd mthodicl xprinc. From th bginning of cnto I th victorious rpidity of th ttck indicts tht th tim hs com: "A mn or ston or tr tr is bout to bgin th fourth cnto" cnto" ((3 3)) nd lmost immditly Lutrmont opns himslf to imgs tht push him towrd this chng, whil clriing its ntur. n th foot slithrs on frog, on fls snstion of disgust but on's hnd
Te Experience ofLautamont ofLautamont
3
ha s are has are to stroke stroke the th e human od o d efore efore the t he skin ski n of o f the ngers ngers raks ike akes akes from a ok of o f mia eing sm smashed ashed hammer ows o ws " 3 3)) The foot sithering sithering on the reptii reptiian an and atrahiatrahian reait, this od, amm, and penetrating touch, is the eginning of a feeing of horror, inspired b the human od, and he who experiences it sees himsef as chnged, through the disgust tat he fees fees,, within the oet o et of his disgust, eomes viscous visco us ike this thing, eomes this thing. At this moment anguage aso sucums to new anxiet, and the arinth that it seeks to e, the soemn and endess progression of words, images that, at the ver moment mom ent when w hen theonsntax, sn ontinuo on tinuous sower, er, seems seem e soost o stthat in assitude, foow, thetax,ontrar, anus eversow more rpids to rate, we no onger have the time to experiene them ompete and we eave them unnished, aknowedging them ess for what the signi than for their movement, the ontinua pssing of one into nother, a pssage even more vioent than the contrast of these images, though awas inked together the strong oherene of the disourse and b a seret onnivane: such disorder, suh order, suh an effort to use ogic to distrat and in order to push speeh a itte outside of its meaning, impies the imminene of a
transformation, after which anguage wi itsef have stepped into another existene Iron, throughout anto III, has aread deep changed its nature. A kind of reservoir, of distant reserves, intervenes in the desription of the ess habitua events The raz mother, reounting her daughter's torture, speaks with a modest and i good nature. The osing speech, pronouned the great tn inst God fter the excesses to which he succumbed, audes to them ike ompete ordinar grievanes: He said he wass great amazed wa amazed . . He said that that the the Creator Creator . . conduted himsef with considerabe evit to sa no more)" (). Thus the derangement of o f a situation is manifested, manifested, wherein wh erein the iggest iggest mistake an on give rise to reproahes expressed in a enign tone Here iron takes itsef for its oect. And Maldoror, the poetr o f Maldoror, takes itsef as its obet. Whie anguage seems to want to deveop outside of ear onsiousness, a onsciousness extended further further around the work reomposes reompo ses itse It is the work
Te Experience ofLautramont ofLautramont
that cotmplats itslf ad iroically afrms itslf sic ol iroy, from slip to slip, through ach xprimt it mad of a simultaity of possibl maigs, ach kpt apart from th otrs, ca tak tak possssio possss io of this this distac distac ad mak mak it visibl. visibl . A ths digrssios ths digrssi os,, ths bifurca bifurcatio tios,s, ad this prptual rro rrorr witwiti which which potry po try is rcovrd rcovrd ad aoucd, aou cd, 88 do ot cocal co cal th fact that thy prtai to a scrt aroud which th words tur, al th whil without dig o com os to it. Naturall o s tmptd to spci mor tha would b rquird. But wh o ss imag th two pillars, Lautramot, which ar alsoaftr two havig baobabsgraspd ad twothpis adofwhich woul latr bcom th trribl gallows gallows of rotic tortur), tortur) , los himslf himslf i craz cr azyy discussios about how to kill bugs ad rhiocross rhiocros s,, wh al of a sudd w har him suggst that this frivolous" subjct i dvlop dv lopd d i plac plac of a kot kotty ty problm . . . of itral patholog patholog, " th, havig, alog th way, glctd to talk about th rhiocros, ackowldgig, shamlssly full of iudo: This upr
mditatd omissio, which will astoish o o who has sriousl studid th ral ad th ixplicabl cotradictios that ihabi th lobs of th huma brai" (3). It is difcult ot to b troubld by this allusio allusio, , bcaus at th th d of Maldoror, thr will will jusj ustiably b a attmpt to rally rally kill kil l th rhiocros, rhio cros, " i whom whom Go Go has th th foud foud rf rfug ad, a d, alog alo g with with God, all th th srious powr powr of maturity, all th authoritis of th world ad of th thrworld.. 8 If h accordigly world a ccordigly forg forgot ot to xami hr h r how, aftr aftr havi killd th is, h could kill th itrstig pachydrm, thi uprmditatd omissio," which h prsts as ixhaustibl food oo d for for thought," thought, " appars appa rs as th strag apparitio apparitio of o f forgtti, cosc coscious ious ofthis what whavry is forgott fcosciousss. orgott ads.dissimulatig d issimulatig its srio s rious us maig bhid vt ry cosciouss I th t h m middl iddl this pro p rologu logu, , whr whri i h h s ms ms to b happ ha ppyy saysayig what ig hatv vrr suits suits his fac facy, y, Lau Lautram tramoo t all all of a sud udd d writ writ tragic trag ically: ally: Th ida ida that that I hav hav volunta oluntarri90 fall ll as as low lo w as m fllow m , a ad hav hav lss right right tha tha ayo ayo ls ls to uttr ttr com com plaits pl aits about ab out o u r lot lot (whic whichh rma rmai iss shack shackld ld to to th hard ha rd crus cr ustt of a pl p l at) at) ad a d o u r prv prvrs rs soul soul's's ssc ssc, , pirc pircs s m lik ik a
The Experience ofLautramont ofLautramont
frge nail" (3). And again One has seen redamp explosions annihilate entire families; but their suerings were brief because dath was almost instantaneous amid the rubble and poisonous gses I exist forever, like basalt!" (3). And then this In the midde as in the the beginning of life life,, the angels resemble themse themselves lves how lng ago it is since I re resembled sembled myself! myself! Man and I, immured in the liits of o f our intelligence" intelligence " (3) ( 3) . A text with with a moving subtlety that sows that at this moment, at every level in the book, on the level o theoretical reection as in the imaginary imaginary region regions,s, the movement tat is in is caught again contradictions andno itst ipossi ip ossible bleplay demands. demands . The once idea of willful willfin ul its degeneration, an idea not clml cl mlyy contemplated, but piercing p iercing like lik e a forge forge nail nail,, and a nd as suc suchh it sems likely to break off, through horror, the condition of which it however conrms the indestructible permanence. The passion r change becomes the passion for nothingness. The feeling aking this change and this nothingness impossibleof an exis-
tnce forever hardened, and this eternity of stone that is our own, aso pronounces the powerlessness of the freedom of the mind, absen ce likewise, the absence rison;; likewise, itself only only a p rison m is itself this freedo freedom because this because o identity that that strikes strikes us conrms our degeneration without rend ring
ti ghtening htening is tig icular ar kno kno t that is the particul we feel the part free.. Here Here we feel us free
hicch travtrav maan , " 9 1 whi thee fellow fellow m fear of th ontt . The fear autramon ar ounnd Lautram arou ng septhe Bei eing of the B he solitud solitudee of o nly tthe expres presss only not ex work, rk, doe d oess not ses the wo er erses co mch fo r a com search eratee sear he desp de sperat ates es the in dicat er s it it indic ot hers from oth arated rated from ngi ng nch anging or ds, fo r uncha ther er word nge , i n oth xchaange, rnall exch raterna unio ionn, fo r a frate un rom m b o th ar ises fro that ari ction that radiction conntradi neouusly, the co uion Simultaneo ion.. Simulta oth h- " ! o ft th ot lcdd o l p lc ctl ict s si sii ttios lm m ttio s l ts t
eist forever, like basalt!," How long ago it is since I resembled myself!"shows where, a certain this hneed to get out, an of oe's self sel f comes from rom it isinwithin with in the way, self se lf,, which whic is forever orev er lost, lost alusion to the nostalgia for the mythic identity, which the plenitde of the ocean o cean already already expressed expressed,, the memory memo ry of childhood, childhoo d, the hrror of the duplicity symbolized by prayer, a dupicity that is hpocriticaly insinuated everwhere and, having become the unide mannds il, throug throughh dema gooo d, ev evil, Go d, m en, go the na n ame o f God, rsal law, law, in the vrsal v ev en in in o ur uces even introduces irrors,, introd wi th m irrors trickss wit throughh trick clari ty, throug f r clarity,
6
The Experience ofLautramont ofLautramont
slvs spio d dissmblc I dos o howv sm h h omic id of pdis los hd posiiv mig fo Lumo, o ha i pss xmply idl slvgd fom h uivsl uivsl wckg wckg If Mldoo Mldoo cosvs, co svs, wihi him sl s h oo o o of o f his fligs fligs d h jusicio jusi cio of his ocii o ciis,s, h mmoy of foff xisc o spad fom him, his ffo dos o id o go bck bu o d, wihi h ps momn, n a s spaa d dvdd, y pp vy p,fullss houghd xcsss, hough lik hig giv scp hchils io d h ibulios, void ssudly, h fal cociliio wih ohs is ggg impuls himTwo fids subboly yig o dsoy o oh, wh dm!"bu s his dsi sms o hv is souc i
v blud by is ow llig, v h poisos pcisly his souc so uc d cuss cuss his dsi o b, o h clm app appl l of sim iliis, bu h dcomposig d fuious dliium of oh xisc, s sul, h cociliio is ohig mo h spc of h discod, d is impossibl dsi oy ds h sch fo i mo bsud Wh w w sy h h h sm movm, houghou h wok h is wiig, lds l ds Lumo o shd fsh fsh ligh o o his dk v v is d o ucov ucov,, i h vy vy hoo ho o wh wh,, wh h slips, slip s, h s sss himslf o fom his limis, w possibiliy h h dmads, h h poclims, poc lims, d h h pusus, i h d, s volu voluy y xpic, w sy ohig h h dos o sy himsl bu his would b o misudsd m isudsd h u of o f such movm, which would lik o pcisly disiguish h mom wh h hoic slippig is iumphly covd, lik cocd pojc, i h xpic of h mmophosis mmopho sis Jus s s lucidi is owih cold hoicl cio, d s i pms so pofoudly h dak ss whi i sms o los islf whil i is discovig his vy dkss, d kss, j us s wh wh is voluy voluy i his impu i mpus,s, which h ks s f flig li g ousid ous id of o f himsf hims f,, mais is is l l fom fom h aguish h dov him h, fom h mlis h ld o i, i oh wods, fom h pows mos likly o sup vy dcisio d o ifc libd dsi wih fli Bu oly his vigo
The Experience ofLautramont ofLautramont
7
remains at a certain cert ain moment moment Lautramont mak makes es it his own and a nd this almighty adhesion assures in the beyond of degradation and in those tho se zones wherein all all personal pers onal stability is shattered the main tenance of his sovereignty and the coherence of his incredibly extended ex tended mind.
The To Dis p ositions of Metam Metamor orp hosis r st words rst wo rds of othe f stanza are ar e I I am lthy" lthy" () Since theThe episode about lice whenXcolossal lthiness was set in motion it certainly made strange advances. Now Maldoror immobilized imm obilized in the earth by the the tenacity tenacity of his own own inertia a tree
riddled with parasites (like the body of the unfortunate hanged man in the preceding stanza but his hanging having become his strength) has transform strength) transformed ed himself hi mself into a collecti co llective ve system of o f ani mal lives all of o f which are issued is sued from from the kingdom of viscosi viscosity ty"" toad chameleon viper crab jellysh The rst attempt is outdat ed as we have seen; Maldoror deep in shadow turns his head slowly left and right for hours on end." Here we have four cen turies of immobil immo bility ity voluntary immobi imm obilit lityy which has suspen suspended ded time and at the heart of a passivity similar in every way to death has retained an unwavering tension so that the decomposition of the Being through numbness and sleep is insidiously taken into account as a deliberate attempt. Lautramont did not stop having this premoniti p remonition on if the paroxysm paroxysm of o f frenzied violence while pro ducing a rupture rupt ure can tear him from himself himself the power of an in nte pavt pavt, n uppren up pren tme, n le le apale o en ennter nter ing the undetermined moment beteen life and death when the same disappears and the other approachesa double possibility the progressive progressive experience of which is the prof pr ofound ound experience of Maldoror Here it is nevertheless hatred" stranger than you think" rebellion and the will to ght that transformed him into this cadaverous Job again an uncertain cadaver But that the will the apparently free decision is partly a prisoner or the vow to live diseased" until I had overcome the Creator" is also dis eased this is what Lautramont will discover later and what he
8
The Ex Experien per ience ce of o fLautramont
declares from from this this mome m oment nt on with the strange episode epis ode of the doudou bleedged sword ertically impaled through his loins by a ma who silently came up from behind him. Now this blade is stuk so deeply into his body that no one is able to extract it not the philosopher or the doctors. It truly seems that it might be ths blade that restricts restricts him to immobi im mobility lity and that that this splitting point po int lodged in his ertebrae this gigantic thorn that cannot be withrawn es s kein an tohthe hate toa strange rom presence presens ce embedded his alusion past pas t which whic he isspear also also o seeking s eeking
extract but against which he must oluntarily lean in a certan way n order to reman standng. When faced with this recollection the memory buckles. I do not een remember it clearly" says Lautramont and this memory he reiterates i iss pos possib sibly ly ust a dream. " "55 But B ut since the ffollow ollow-ing stnza will dangerously put these intentional refusals to remember to the test6 ust as it will push further to the point of hallucination the th e distortion disto rtion of lucidity lucidity all al l while while clearly warning Maldoror that his struggle is a struggle against the self and that he is only proecting his own defects and his own impulses onto hs imaginary adersaries after this outrageous and silent interrogation " the dream a kind of alibi that tion that he momentaril mom entarilyy allows himsel recognizes in its own right that that it is the image the story of hs desire and then Lautramont triumphantly accepts the responsbility for for this thi s desire des ire in a glorious frenzy renzy that that opens open s up the doo doors rs of metamorphosis for him. I was asleep on top of the cliff" ( 148). This is the rst sleep in Maldor that is eneloped in an immense insomnia. Sleep mixed the refusal to sleep to beStrange fed tosleep lie. Itweis said. compared to the with catalepsies of magnetism and is in short sh ort ust another expression expression of the methodical methodical apathy of the four centuries" during which Maldoror became a tree.7 At the center of sleep metamorphosis fully takes form: It had come at last the day I became a hog! I tried out m teeth on treebark; my snout I contemplated with delight" (149). It is necessary to note howeer that the meaning of such a transformation whether it is fortunate or unfortunate still remains undecided: a curse or a soereign reward? Degradation inicted upon me
The Experience ofLautramont ofLautramont
9
y divine divine ustice ustice"" or desire's de sire's s uprem upremee conqu conquest pl plaguy aguy oys"? L aur aur a m o n afrm frmss both both of the these the thenn s udd ddenly enly h e chooses ho oses n d as at at his very very own highest hi ghest p oint oint d runk runk with a a degene egenera ration tion tat t at wit withdraw hdrawss ever everyy b bit it o f divinit ivinit'''' from fro m hi him m eleva elevatin tingg his hi s s oul ith ith t h e ece ecessive ssive height he ight o f that ineffab in effable le sens sensua uall bliss bliss " he p ro ro nounce no uncess the word wo rd that that tra transfor nsforms ms fatalis fatalism m into into freedom eedom:: To my my yes th yes thee meta me tamorp morphhosis nev never er appe appeared ared as anyth anythin ingg but bu t tthe he ealt ealt agnanim m ous ech echo of a p erfect happines happinesss d and magnani
I had l o ng waited" (149). Through this choice of degraded sovereignty rduced to nothingness a greeted sovereignty is created of base ness and of nothingness nothing ness from which Maldoror receives unequaled srength Freed fro srength from m every law law nally re reecting ecting the hurdle hurd le of o f con siousness88 hhee is the embodiment of siousness o f power the int intoicati oication on of unrestrained combat: I was the strongest and gained all the vic tries" (149). And yet so great is his lucidity that in the etreme ircums ance of this aniety when he attains the height of tri umph of movement and oy this is when he also becomes aware tat this movement is immobility this oy solitude and this tri umph sterile Thus he falls from metamorphoss through the dream into the simple dream of metamorphosis But if the dream has a deeper meaning it is seen through this ature: transformed into a hog Maldoror still appears to be aught in a rather course moral mo ral allegory allegory Though Thoug h in fact fact a strange andd atter an dead matter ituree o f dead m ucible mitur irredducible m bed it as an irre desc ribed o g h e descri og or metamor es while while the metam passes twicee pass which ich the the tide twic over wh ving ing esh" esh" over lv the gran againnst the teningg agai attenin frighttful at a frigh scribeed as a itself is describ hoosis itse h iof e'sthe bbey ey"100"100-an an g that atI,rfr rbehind fr u which that t o the oct octo op u uss ge e th ac toistha silkenglance in canto Dazet:
octopus of the silkenglance! You whose soul is inseparale from
mine you the most handsome hands ome inhaitant of the terr terrestr estrial ial gloe, gloe, wh whoo govern a seraglio of four hundred suction cups you in whom are noly enthroned as in their natural haitat, y common consent and an indestructile ond, the sweet virtue of communication and the divine graceswhy are you not with me, your quicksilver elly against my reast reast of aluminu aluminum, m, o oth th of us seated oonn some rock y the the shore (37)
20
The Ex Experie per ience nce o fLautramont
Mald oror Maldor or is there t here,, likewise, lik ewise, asleep aslee p on the top of the clif clif ") can justly say: it is during this very drea that Lautramons hand recalls the name of Dazet from canto I in order to replace it with the image of the octop oc topus us with with four four hundred hundre d suctionc suct ioncups ups o has now become, along similar lines, the hog that Maldoror h d been changed into, and is also transformed, metamorphosed ino
this muddy muddy heap, heap, over which which the deep forces o f the ocean ocea n pass. pass . 101 ts s phoo ss" ss" 1 5 0 , t etaam o rph ineed met ruin right,t, m y ru m y righ resu me,, a s my o resume an, longer b e put o an, it cannot cannot longer apparentt that it is now s o apparen p roject roject is
te fro m te moving fro rmedd, movi conrme ext, it it is con to the nnext, stanza to from one sta of te te are, e, of lly aw awar ct,, f fuully obbj ect he o uch h is the lity.. Suc eality dream to rea doubtt o f the dream doub us cevious thee o bvio onss te ter,r,"" one o f th tain inss a m on h con onta whic ich za,, wh tanza new ew stan sti1l doro rorr, sti1l Mal aldo when hen M ct , w in faact, me nt,, in f this m o ment i s at at this k. It is thee wor work. ters ters of th int ixed ed int h im,, mix ng tow towaard him oming sees comi cliff, sees the toop o f a cliff ding ng on o n the t stan ta ndi
olphinn , who e ike a dolphi just like beingg just l hu man bein o cean, a hum with the oc mateely with mat
way foo r m n correct way f the correct lly show shownn to us as the logically orph phoo sis is logica metam etamor
to expa xp and his h orizon orizo n s : like like the th e free fre e future of hum hu manit anit Lautramont enumerates all the reasons for such an aspira io : moral reasons, freedom from crime, objective reasons, evolutio, the appropria appropriation tion of the place, the instabili instability ty of the human orga orga ismtoo complex to be denitively determinedreasons dran from a poetic dream, a premonition of the possibilities that places in i n human existence, at least on the level level of o f the imaginatio, its agreement with elementary powers, water, air, earth. 1 02 But te true origin of this project is not here: it isLautramont reveals t
in a very mannerin theglimpsed aberrant the states that he himsef tested and,explicit through this process, possibility of su pending or of diverting the laws of nature. In this afrmatio, once again, both irreconcilable and inseparable positions ae implicated, both completely necessary in order to propel Bei g outside itself: these ts of anger and diseases patients) of prid the forceful pressure of the will" and the absence of its effectie collabo colla borration." An Andd in order o rder to to make make i tself more m ore distinc distinct,t, the the all-
sion develops, while revealing, in the language of Maldoror, te same contrast, in a double aberration of duration, having becoe at once excessively speedy and innitely slow. 1 0
Te Experience ofLautamont ofLautamont
121
The amphibian, with its viscous body, its large ducklike feet, surrounded by aquatic strata and schools of sh, once again links the depths of the sea with metamorphosis. 1 04 Meanwhile, insofar as these images are too specically and too directly used in shap-
ing a literary ction, their importance diminishes, so that the metamorphosis is now less where it appears than already dispersed disper sed in the world, in the ffact act that those who see it see the invisibl invisiblee and those who do not see it become others. Furthermore, behind this type of human hope and from the perspective of the future, the premonition of a troubled past slips in, a past that is the origin of it all, as if it were were alwa always ys becom be coming ing more m ore certain cer tain that to the extent exte nt thatt this past tha p ast wil not have been bro b rough ughtt to light, it will will render this experience null and void, and as though it were necessary for reason to be made the mistress of its aberrationswhich allowed this perspectiv pers pectivee to appearnot in order o rder to to erase them but bu t to overcome them, in other words, to go beyond them. The amphibian is now what is monstrous in the past: plunged in the past, he resembled a reef" ( 1 54) . And when he recounted recou nted how he sought so ught his fr freedom eedo m within the sea, the sea again seems to want to swallow him up in former reminiscences of a life lived fatally' (1 5 5) . The very story the monste mon sterr tells tells brings bri ngs together togeth er diff different themes and images. images . The progression has remained uncertain up to now. Certainly, when we read how the illf ill fated man was lost los t as a result of his twin brothbro ther's jealousy, how his parents, who loved him deeply, were persuaded by the slander of this bad brother, how, then, imprisoned for een years in a dungeon, tortured, succeeded escaping awinfom the to to t s sc he so g msl p ure tradition of the popular po pular novel, nove l, may seem suf s ufciently ciently j ustied by its origin, but it is not no t as ction that that it is important ttoo us. us . The theme of the fraternal pair, also taken directly from the tradition of ction, ction , nevertheless nevertheless allows allows us to foretell, by its obsessive obs essive nature and the interest that weighs this obsession down, that Ducasse's sensibility sens ibility is interested in it. In the very very conventional story of the amphibian, amphibia n, seve several ral previously previously used elements elements charg charged ed wit withh a burnb urning meaning are discovered: the image of the prison refers us to the college dungeon (wherein, for Ducasse, the very meaning of
22
The x xper perie ience nce o fLautramont
frdom prishd), priso to which h hd b codmd by his prts, d i th ttutig circumstcs tht th prst
fbl ttributs ttribut s to th fthr fthr d mothr, thr xists th mmo m mory ry of childlik tdrss, tdrss tht, vry tim h drws fmily pictur, v with th most prodic ittios, obligts him to cotiuously modi th crulty of his dscriptios with crti idulgc. th mphibi wts to b st fr, this frdom will ot oly cosist i gttig him out of th dugo, but, th th txt txt sys, sys, out of th th tripl pillory pillo ry:: th thtt of o f th th progrssiv progrssiv wkig of th body, tht of solitud, d, usttlig dtil, tht of his ffctio for his ow popl, which suggsts tht, for Ducss, big fr is rstly frig oslf of mmoris d os tlgi for o's childhood.
The Work and the irlwind
Th img of th scrt crim" 1 0 5 tht o dy ptrtd th hrt of brothrhood, corruptd it d ow mks it plc of ht d rgrt, is too costt, too prmtd with pssio ot to possss th most importt mig. Which mig is th most importt imp ortt o? o ? W W do ot kow. kow. Dciphrig D ciphrig it would hv hv o othr objctiv th tht of brigig it ito th rlm of com mo xpric, sic this obscur icidtprhps drmd is, for Ducss, D ucss, uiqu d cocld from from ll dirct xprssi xprssio o.. It
Maldoror forc. is this img prstl prs tly y tris to coti thtbout pos ssss it withtht uquld Throughout th d stz lmr, which closs cto I it trs ito w phs: th crim gist brothrly dolsctbrochd for th rst tim i th pisod with Lohgri s ttmpt, though dismissd, d briy mtiod fw pgs prviously, i th stz bout th mirror m irrorw without y possib po ssibl l doubt doub t is fullld ii w whirlw hirlwid id of mmoris mm oris tht ivok ivok it, simultously sim ultously divulgi divulgig g th pssio pss io t mig of this crim, bcus hcf hcforth orth it bcoms crim gist hir. O dy, Mldoror, grbbig butiful blod do lsct fourtyrold boy by th hir, whirld him loft so quickly tht his sclp rmid i my hd" (). Th motif of
The Experience ofLautramont ofLautramont
1 23
hird spciy spc iy of scpd sc pd hir hir cutis cutis o of ths ths tics tics tics dd tics tics " obsssi ob sssiv v motif tht tht Lutr Lutrmot mot doucs do ucs i his Prce un livre livre t tur ur (Prece (Prece to a Future Future Book Book , s th ftity of potry. Th gigtic hir dtchd from th iustrious hd d th f of which is t oc th uishmt of divi xcss d th xprssio of th powrssss coctd to this xcssivss bit tr bcoms th hir of th m hug from th gws d mor prcisy hug by his hir. H ws howig o' uti my rms my hir? With ch mov I disoct my bos but my hir is svrd mor sory from my scp" (138). This ufortut m victimizd by two druk wom two fm orguts" his wif d mothr ss himsf s codmd to b b torturd trrd d w whippd hippd so s to scp icstuous dsirs. Hr Maldoro iroy offrs th most ittio of wiks wi ks t psychoy psychoysisis.s. Th T h tortur to rtur ot oy o y rv rvss th th horrid rcoi bfor orm sxu rtios but th iroy shows tht ts rtios istd of procdig o ordiry v rtur to th pst d tht mrrig cojugy u d void skig uio btw mothr d so is divrtd d moopoizd by th drm of icstuou icstuouss uuio io uio tht is itsf ckig i such wy wy tht th t th puishmt p uishmt is so so tht th t of impotc impo tc.. To To fr th victim victim Mdoror cuts his hir. hir. 6 But i th stz bout th mirror ftr hvig viy cosidrd his ow hd s though it bogd to somo som o s h discovrs discovrs himsf scpd d this this 7
migfu ck of gi hir" ssocitd with th img of priso which pprs oc ds to compstory rvri of ui tucto. t gos wthout s tht uch ttios must m ust ot ot rmi ikd to migs tht th thm momtriy tri y pprs pp rs to wc wcom om.. As strtig s s th tics" r mor stust uig sti is th fct tht ths obsssiv gurs oby w of ssurd dvopmt xpdig up to th momt wh hvig ttid mturtio thy disppr bsord ito mor xpsiv gur. I th stz bout mr th ssti vt is th mrgig of o f th hir motif with with th movmt of o f th whirwid whirwid th ctrifug spiig tht wi soo b rcogizd s th vry w of compositio i Maldoror Evrythig hpps s if th
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The Experience ofLautramont ofLautramont
image of hair was here attaining its culminating moment an, shifting shif ting with all of its emotio e motional nal saturation into the simpler, sim pler, moe p ure and mo more re comprehensive comp rehensive image image of the whirlwind, as if it w ws s now going to be obscurely perpetuated as one of the emotionl nuclei nucl ei of this new image. Through his work, Lautramont passes from the implicit to te explicit, from the obscurity of a secret to the clear consciousne s wherein herein n ever velation lation w reve clarity of a re then en to the the clarity urity, th of obsc ob scurity, evelops a r i d gure that that develops sumptuou tuouss gure ity reside residess . 1 0 8 The sump o bscurity less obscur entl tl resen thi p res show owss thi g sh starling the starlin ht o f the ight irlwindd ig thee wh w hirlwin e th anal nale one cyclone ent o f the cycl vement movem the mo er, the Falm mer, ab outt Fal tanzaa abou I n the stanz tionn ad narratio th e narra nteent nt o f the in th thee cont ith hin sly wit ltane neoo usly w si m ulta essedd sim exprresse exp de r
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