Status Updates From Maldoror and the Complete W...

Read the first canto. Confused? Yes! Repelled? No ;-)

un chef d'œuvre insondable.

from "Maldoror" I got the impression that Lautreamont was half a Wm. Burroughs of the 19th century, half a kindred spirit to Friedrich Nietzsche and then *that* image of him is shattered when I read his poetry. I haven't come across an author that baffling yet obviously gifted since his countryman L. F. Céline.

"Maldoror" was just a total mind-bender, not sure what to make of it yet. The title character kinda reminds me of a prototype of Friedrich Nietzsche's Übermensch. Gotta wonder if the good Count's poetry is just as fucked up.

gets further into fantasy territory, but harder to really fit into any newer genre than someone like Poe

some parts are self-conscious about knocking down Roman Catholic social taboos, there might be layers of meaning I missed because I don't know that much about Catholic theology

gets weirder and weirder, there's a flashback to the main character falling in love with a female shark

disorienting and unnerving, but very beautiful in a sick and fucked up way... you can definitely tell this inhabits the same universe as Poe did, but it's much less "normal literature"

this is like reading the lyrics to a black metal album, 120 years before black metal existed

I'm hoping this will be a total head trip