Buy book one, Traitor Comet! Suddenly his lids closed and his head fell peacefully against the chair and remained there. His breathing stretched, settling into a steady rhythm. I waited but he didn’t speak again. Like a sage he sat there, hands folded, lips pushed aside a bit from the pressure of the cushion onContinue reading “From Book 1: Language”
Author Archives: nonpersonne
From Book 3: Gaston Ferdière
As soon as he was settled, Desnos invited Justine and me to his new, shabby flat near the Boulevard Montparnasse for a dinner party with Artaud and Louis and a new acquaintance, a medical student named Gaston Ferdière. After only a few minutes of speaking with this Ferdière, I decided that he was the mostContinue reading “From Book 3: Gaston Ferdière”
From Book 2: Breton’s Speech
We were crossing a long, grassy mall toward a soot-darkened stone edifice, very square and squat, with dull beige tracery. A dilapidated iron balcony in a recessed alcove overlooked the long rows of steps to the entrance, where two huge oak doors were propped open. I swore when I saw Youki Foujita disengage herself fromContinue reading “From Book 2: Breton’s Speech”
From Book 4: Body without Organs
Author’s note: This takes place in 1975, the year my epic story of Antonin Artaud finally ends. This section is also in memory of Robert Artaud, no relation to Antonin, who was a member of the French Resistance, and in memory Artaud’s young brother Robert who died in infancy. We flew to Marseilles andContinue reading “From Book 4: Body without Organs”
From Book 2: The Sex Discussions
Author’s note: What Antonin Artaud had to say about sexuality can raise the hair on your neck and it did mine, at first – but you have to dig deeper to understand that the mania-catatonia that dogged him all his life extended into his sex life in the form of swings between uncontrollable erections andContinue reading “From Book 2: The Sex Discussions”
From Book 2: Waking Dream
Suddenly, Desnos reappeared. “Hey, everyone,” he interjected, in a snotty tone of false enthusiasm. He gave me a shriveling look. He was so unforgiving! Angered now, I slumped in my chair, shaking my head at him. “Let’s revive an old Surrealist tradition. In honor of our uninitiated guests.” His glare was definitely for me.Continue reading “From Book 2: Waking Dream”
A Proposal: You’ve Been Artold!
Surely you’ve heard of Rick Rolling? I’m wracking my brains for a way to get President Trump (aka His Orangeness, aka Carrot Caligula) to recite part of Antonin Artaud’s “To Have Done with God’s Judgment” in a speech! And other world figures, too. Suggestions and collusion are welcome. Download QR
Book Four: Génica
This section presented in its entirety. There were three of us at the Office of the Mairie that day: Louis and me and Génica Athanasiou. She appeared suddenly, gracefully, in the doorway as we waited in our chairs, and stood momentarily framed in doorway’s rectangle of light so that stray beams caught the copperyContinue reading “Book Four: Génica”
From Book 2: L’Étoile de Mer
Author’s note: My protagonist, yoked to a six-pointed starfish, changes the histories of real people’s lives by entering them, bringing with him the spectre of Fantômas and the possibility of love. Therefore his perception of Desnos’s film is his own. “Let it go, Geoffrey,” Desnos repeated. “Lay low for a couple of weeks.” “You’reContinue reading “From Book 2: L’Étoile de Mer”
From Book 2: Desnos, the Select, and Theatre Alfred Jarry
Author’s note: I have long been frustrated with misinterpretations of Artaud merely as “mad,” a cold person, and a failure. Like Martin Esslin correcting the Beats’ version of Artaud, Kimberly Jannarone unearths the powerful admiration Artaud’s friends and colleagues had for him and I am grateful to her for restoring the Theatre Alfred Jarry toContinue reading “From Book 2: Desnos, the Select, and Theatre Alfred Jarry”