Tired or inspired?
Baudelaire
Mais parmi les chacals, les panthères, les lices,Les singes, les scorpions, les vautours, les serpents,
Les monstres glapissants, hurlants, grognants, rampants,
Dans la ménagerie infâme de nos vices,
II en est un plus laid, plus méchant, plus immonde!
Quoiqu'il ne pousse ni grands gestes ni grands cris,
Il ferait volontiers de la terre un débris
Et dans un bâillement avalerait le monde;
C'est l'Ennui! L'oeil chargé d'un pleur involontaire,
II rêve d'échafauds en fumant son houka.
Tu le connais, lecteur, ce monstre délicat,
- Hypocrite lecteur, - mon semblable, - mon frère!
From "Au Lecteur" by Charles Baudelaire
English Translation:
But among the jackals, the panthers, the bitch hounds,
The apes, the scorpions, the vultures, the serpents,
The yelping, howling, growling, crawling monsters,
In the filthy menagerie of our vices,
There is one more ugly, more wicked, more filthy!
Although he makes neither great gestures nor great cries,
He would willingly make of the earth a shambles
And, in a yawn, swallow the world;
He is Ennui! - His eye watery as though with tears,
He dreams of scaffolds as he smokes his hookah pipe.
You know him reader, that refined monster,
- Hypocritish reader, - my fellow, - my brother!
- William Aggeler, The Flowers of Evil (Fresno, CA: Academy Library Guild, 1954)
Lautreamont
Beau comme la rencontre fortuite sur une table de dissection d'une machine à coudre et d'un parapluie
"May it please heaven that the reader, emboldened, and become momentarily as fierce as what he reads, find without loss of bearings a wild and abrupt way across the desolate swamps of these sombre, poison-filled pages. For unless he bring to his reading a rigorous logic and mental application at least tough enough to balance his distrust, the deadly issues of this book will lap up his soul as water does sugar. It would not be good for everyone to read the pages which follow; only the few may relish this bitter fruit without danger. So, timid soul, before further penetration of such uncharted steppes, retrace your steps, do not advance. Hear my words well: retrace your steps, do not advance, resemble the eyes of a son who respectfully looks away when faced with an august maternal gaze . . .""Throughout the centuries, man has considered himself beautiful. I rather suppose that man only believes in his own beauty out of pride; that he is not really beautiful and he suspects this himself; for why does he look on the face of his fellow-man with such scorn?"
Ducasse/Lautreamont/Maldoror - an unholy trinity if ever there was one! Yet I cannot keep away. It calls as it repels. It's not rubbernecking, though. It's magnificent malignany . . . inspires because it's not about figuring him/it out, it's about (recon)figuring yourself and your approach to literature . . . it's writing about writing and reading and makes you question your role - no, it makes you wary of the fact that you have a role - in the process - every book it's reader? Every book, then, its writer(s) . . .total controlled chaos - akin, I imagine to the welter and waste - that primordial slop of energy that preceeded Genesis - and don't we continually rewrite that book and its sequels? . . . It's active, not passive reception - it's creative, in the most literal sense - it's maddening, too, right? But then again, sometimes things are so screwed up that the only way to face it all is through pure insanity . . . cold comfort to be sure, and, as assuredly, not entirely the case . . . but we'll get to the bottom of it - we'll keep reading and keep creating (read:writing?) and it will all shake out - eventually . . . won't it?
Dreams are a second life . . .
Who strange peoples your dreams?
"It has been rightly said that nothing is unimportant, nothing powerless in the universe; a single atom can dissolve everything, and save everything! What terror! There lies the eternal distinction between good and evil.""I am the man of gloom - the widower - the unconsoled
The prince of Aquitaine, his tower in ruins:
My sole star is dead - and my constellated lute
Bears the Black Sun of Melancholia."
(from 'El Desdichado', in The Chimeras, trans. by Richard Sieburth)
Consilience
The flit and flutterOf a butterfly's wing
Will make one man cry,
One man sing;
One will feel the
easy breeze,
One will fail with fever
and sting.
Such is the plaint
and the folly
Of believing
in the Causality
Of the flit and flutter
Of A butterfly's wing . . .
The Link List
Becuase I just can't do it all alone . . .
- Meany Quinn, Weekend Warrior
- Follow the amazing adventures of Meany Quinn, Everyman's Everyman, but not your average Joe . . . an Existentialist Haiku Master for the jetset . . .
- World Gone Nouche
- Not much here, yet, but I sense there's something brewing that may be fun to experience . . .
- Nerval on Wikipedia
- A very brief, very general intro, but a good one nonetheless.
- Lautreamont on Wikipedia
- Doing the best with what little conclusive info there is about this most elusive and allusive writer . . .
- Lautreamont on Little Blue Light
- Another Lautreamont link with biographical information and some critical context . . .
- Link to a Nerval bio and list of his works
- A decent bio with a full list of his works
- Another Lautreamont bio
- Biographical info and list of works
Lautreamont
Maldoror and Poesies
Maldoror and Poems (Penguin Classics)
Amazon Price: $10.20 (as of 11/22/2008) 
Maldoror and the Complete Works of the Comte de Lautréamont
Amazon Price: $17.59 (as of 11/22/2008)
Maldoror
Amazon Price: $11.66 (as of 11/22/2008)
Books ABOUT Lautreamont
Lautreamont (Bachelard Translations Series)
Amazon Price: $16.00 (as of 11/22/2008)
Lautreamont and Sade (Meridian: Crossing Aesthetics)
Amazon Price: $22.95 (as of 11/22/2008)
Lautreamont Nomad
Amazon Price: $18.00 (as of 11/22/2008)
Lautreamont: the violent Narcissus (Kennikat Press national university publications. Series on literary criticism)
Amazon Price: (as of 11/22/2008)
Nightmare Culture: Lautreamont and "Les Chants De Maldoror"
Amazon Price: (as of 11/22/2008)
Nerval Books
Aurelia & Other Writings
Amazon Price: $11.16 (as of 11/22/2008)
De Nerval: Selected Writings (Penguin Classics)
Amazon Price: $11.56 (as of 11/22/2008)
Aurelia
Amazon Price: $11.95 (as of 11/22/2008)
Aurelia Followed by Sylvie
Amazon Price: (as of 11/22/2008)
Books I'm Currently Reading . . .
And you should too
The Shakespeare Wars: Clashing Scholars, Public Fiascoes, Palace Coups
The best book about Shakespeare that is not a book about Shakespeare. And it's even better than most books that ARE about Shakespeare.
Amazon Price: $25.55 (as of 11/22/2008)
A Guide to Old English, Sixth Edition
Teaching myself Old English. I don't know why either. But I'm having fun and that's all that counts. I'm using this book in tandem with the others related to the subject on this list. I'll keep you posted on my progress because I know you care. Well, you're still reading this, aren't you? Thanks. I'd say "thanks" in OE, but I only know how to decline "this," "that" and "the" so far . . .
Amazon Price: $41.11 (as of 11/22/2008)
Introduction to Old English
This book has a companion website that is very helpful - it's chock full of on-line exercises, some neat hand-outs to help with your study and resources that allow you to hear what Old English probably sounded like . . .
Amazon Price: (as of 11/22/2008)
Old English Grammar and Reader
Amazon Price: $21.95 (as of 11/22/2008)
An Old English Grammar, (Methuen's Old English Library)
Amazon Price: (as of 11/22/2008)
More Books
Gustav Mahler: The Symphonies
A in-depth look at the symphonies - I am not a musicologist or even an advanced listener, but I am addicted to Mahler and am trying my best to gain a braoder and deeper appreciation, although he would have disagreed with my approach, to be sure - it's all about the music, but this is a great way to pass the time between experiencing his musical might . . .
Amazon Price: (as of 11/22/2008)
Against the Day
Just started this baby - and it's slow slogging, but thoroughly enjoyable, like running through a thicket naked and blind, being reminded every step of the way what it means to be alive, or in this case, an active reader . . .
Amazon Price: $14.00 (as of 11/22/2008)
Shostakovich Symphonies and Concertos - An Owner's Manual: Unlocking the Masters Series (Unlocking the Masters)
A great handy guide to Shosttakovich, concentrating on the music, not the politics or the personal . . .
Amazon Price: $22.95 (as of 11/22/2008)
The Aeneid
Amazon Price: $26.40 (as of 11/22/2008)
The Creators: A History of Heroes of the Imagination
Amazon Price: $12.89 (as of 11/22/2008)
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