The Decadent Gardener

by Durian Gray, Medlar Lucan

"There is an odd, subversive book called The Decadent Gardener by Medlar Lucan and Durian Gray. The introduction describes the decadent gardening ethos thus: 'In the garden, the decadent seeks to create a moment of beauty, which should be allowed to fall into decay and ruin.'Gardening, Lucan and Gray believe, is 'little more than systematic violence in pursuit of beauty', and the gardener is first and foremost a sadist. These two, the Kropotkin and De Sade of horticulture, understand that'nowhere are sex and death more intimately bound together than in the garden.' For them the garden is a place of 'agony, self-doubt and betrayal.' They remind us that, if we are to believe the Bible - not that they would be inclined to - the first murder was carried out by a gardener.And the first garden was a place where sin beckoned wherever you turned.The book abounds with piercing, pricking truths.The flower, they remind us, for example, is nothing but a sexual organ.The Decadent Garden consists of the plans for a series of thematic gardens that Lucan and Gray had conceived for a wealthy patroness. Each garden would symbolise an aspect of nature as they saw it. The Cruel Garden would consist largely of impenetrable thickets of thorns.The Fatal Garden would contain only representatives of the vegetable world's many poisonous denizens: among them, black bryony, dropwort and, of course, deadly nightshade.In the Narcotic Garden, by the side of the opium poppy and cannabis sativa, would grow more obscure mind-altering plants such as mandrake, henbane and thornapple. The Priapic Garden would be populated by those species whose flowers and foliage assumed the most suggestive phallic and vulvic shapes.Their Torture Garden carried the libertine ideas of Lucan and Gray furthest and is perhaps best left to the reader's imagination.Because Lucan and Gray barely realised their designs(they were too decadent to bother), their gardens flourish mainly in the mind."

Genres: Fiction

252 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1998

Reviews

[Branden William · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of the Medlar Lucan & Durian Gray original trilogy (the trilogy is, of course, now a foursome as of last year with the publishing of 'The Decadent Sportsman'), this was the most enjoyable to gull over. The two designers explain their overall conception for the gardens at Mountcullen-- a well-proportioned Goergian house standing squarely in eighteen acres of gardens and woods. Their intention was to take Bernard Palissy's idea of the Garden of Wisdom and turn it on its head. Their grand design was to remodel the estate at Mountcullen as a celebration of Decadence and Folly. And in these designs, Gray and Lucan sought to represent the excessive and the irrational-- antique statues, grotesque sculptures, low reliefs of satirical or pastoral subjects from pagan fables, and little else. The specified areas for their Decadent Garden was to be as follows: The Sacred, or 'Blasphemous' Garden, The Garden of Venus, The Cruel Garden, The Water Garden, The Garden of Histrion, The Paradis artificel, The Synthetic Garden, The Garden of Oblivion, The Fatal Garden, and the Gardens of the Mind.

Thus begins the Sacred Garden. Like all of the gardens designed by Lucan and Gray, this garden is a celebration of Decadence. And since the whole notion of Decadence implies a 'fall': "it makes absolute sense to start with the formal garden in from of the house and to re-design it as a representation of the Garden of Eden." This garden would contain only wild and primitive flowers, a garden of Innocence, a representation of Bosch's 'Garden of Earthly Delights', a Penitential Maze, statues of the phallic St. Ters of Antwerp, the Hermit's Cave, the Garden of Gethsemane, and a Calvary featuring flowers which entwined themselves into crucifixes.

Next comes the Garden of Venus. No pun intended. Here it is mentioned, "nowhere are sex and death more intimately bound together than in the garden." This is the ultimate erotic garden. The authors thought it best to describe how a pair of lovers would explore this particular part of the Mountcullen estate, beginning their erotic peregrination in the garden of Aphrodisia. The entrances of all spaces in the erotic garden are marked by stone slabs standing on a broken classical column with various Japanese Geisha songs carved into the stone. Here the naughty bits of the garden are described, as the garden, more than any other, is where sex and death are inseparably linked. Also more advice on tending the garden: "Certain persons may be appointed to perform the sexual act at the very moment when the first seeds are deposited in the ground."

The Cruel Garden. "You hear people talk of tending their gardens, of lavishing love and care on their gardens. What nonsense! Gardening is little more than the systematic violence in pursuit of beauty." Here decadent gardeners are mentioned, followed by excerpts from Mirbeau's 'The Torture Garden'.

The Water Garden. Pools of Herod, ideas for including barrels of ink so that one's jets d'eau might spout black water, Fountains of Imbecility, Water Staircases, Grottoes, a Theatre D'eau where nude statues of Decadents of the Ancient World and Decadents of the Modern World are displayed (replaced by live humans on hot days), Bassin De Follies, a River Cull, a dining table with a channel of water running down the centre for cooling wine and dipping fingers and other overheated parts of the anatomy, Four Rivers of Eden, Water Avenues, the Labyrinth, Chadars, and underwater Indian brothels.

Next is the Garden of Histrion-- the most complete and most interesting plans for Mountcullen. Here they entail the full script for the Earl of Rochester's pornographic farce 'Sodom, or The Quintessence of Debauchery'. It involves actors 'frigging with dildoes', kissing and doing obeisance to each other's genitals, and copulating on stage. Since the script is included in full, I do plan on one day carrying a reproduction out. The blueprint for the theatre is shown followed by the fact that "Anything can happen here, and no doubt will." Decadent London pleasure-gardens are explained, as well as blueprints for excessively structured statues.

The 'Paradis Artificiel'. This is the name given to the Narcotic Garden, obviously taken directly fromthe title of Baudelaire's book. Here directions for how narcotic plants are to be taken in this garden are explained.

The Synthetic Garden. Glass gardens, Stone gardens made entirely of white marble procuring a ghostly effect, and des Essientes' experience with a garden in A Rebours is mentioned. Felipe Azari's manifesto for the anti-gardener is given.

The Garden of Oblivion. This contains two alternative plans for a cemetery, as well as catacombs, a funeral temple, and an Island of the Dead on which various Decadent memorials would be erected. Then Poe's "The Premature Burial".

Next is the Fatal Garden, a glossary depicting poisonous plants, medicinal or narcotic.

Lastly, The Gardens of the Mind. Some of the imaginary gardens that inspired and excited Lucan and Gray during their journey at Mountcullen.

As "a mixture of pure art in a garden scene adds to it a great beauty," the gardens explained by Lucan and Gray exist somewhere between the human and the divine. Lucan and Gray's ideal garden certainly could have been built by angelic forces, creating a heavenly gateway for the Decadent soul to surrender themselves in lust. Next stop, The Decadent Sportsman.

[Missberet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gardening and life, like the four seasons we live a life, plants live another life, yet planting in spring and summer,death in autumn and winter, half dead. Cruel realities for us all; birth and death, the soul of a plant that is sexually vibrant as the bees pollinate away.
Durian and Medlar are re- doing a garden for Concheta Gorden that leads them upon an odyssey of six months of research that includes detailed plans for these gardens along with knowledge, as in Eden. The word Orchid is Greek for Testicle and anyone who committed adultery in Greece had a Horseradish shoved up their arses. Vegetables were used for erotic toys, all a part of research for an erotic part of the garden. Early belief also recommends that all couples should restrain themselves until seed is laid. Chinese believe welcoming a stranger into the house to have a successful flowering. If you have difficulties with growing in pots, then simply cut off your lovers head and place it in a pot under soil as done in Boccaccio's Decameron. Along with gardens come entertainment, the play " The Farce of Sodom" by John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester is an erotic play to be presented in the nude. Medlar himself is no slouch as he shares the story of his experience of using Henbane in Slovenia and the most brilliant finale of this garden is the decadent's favorite planti for the " Fatal Garden" a complete list of poisonous varieties including Apple seeds,Potatoes and.......

[Rosminah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as compelling as the Decadent Cookbook, this Medlar and Durian book pokes around the naughty bits of plants and gardens. But as a botanist, I already knew plants were little sex fiends. That's also why I needed this book in my collection. First read in 2000, purchased my own copy probably in 2005.