THE RELEVANCE OF LAUTREAMONT
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essential to it.s Beneath the obvious mannerisms of the ambitious self–
conscious young writer who wants to make a name, there is a
frightening barbarity in
M aldoror,
a relaxing of intellectual control
and the consequent release of savage subconscious pressures.
The relationship of
M aldoror
to the folk tale is all the closer
in that narrative conventions drawn from legend and romance,
familiar to the point of being archetypal, are used in many of the
episodes. In one of these, Maldoror is vampirized every night for
ten years by a spider which seems to live in his chamber wall. One
night as Maldoror lies paralyzed, the stomach of the spider opens
and two young men step out of it, each wearing a blue robe and
bearing a flaming sword. The youths a.r:e Reginald and Elsseneur,
once beloved friends of Maldoror whom he betrayed in turn. Regin–
ald he had attacked with his super-fine stiletto once as they were
swimming in the sea; the unfortunate youth had resigned his soul
to heaven when he was luckily rescued by fishermen. Eisseneur he
had led off seductively on a solitary promenade whereupon he drew
his
knife and ordered the young man to prepare to die.
If
a herd of
bulls had not happened by at that instant, Elsseneur would have
breathed his last. Both youths, in disillusion, sought death in battle
and became redoubtable warriors; one day they met on the battle–
field .and engaged in a long personal duel. After a heroic contest they
finally paused to catch their breath and, raising their visors, recognized
each other. They swore eternal friendship. An archangel from heaven
ordered them to take the form of a spider and suck Maldoror's
blood for ten years. Now the spell has been rescinded. Maldoror
awakes from his paralysis and sees two forms disappearing into the
sky.
The relationship of such a story to legend or romance is obvious.
What may be less obvious from my retelling is its sophistication. With–
out violating the autonomy of the magical conventions Lautreamont
underlines the elements which render them relevant and suggestive.
Elsseneur's promenade with Maldoror, for instance, is recounted in
3 Even the constant interweaving and interpenetration of themes and
images recall faintly the manifold variations of folk legends. Like the illiterate
bard, Lautreamont tells and retells what is essentially the same story with vari–
ations drawn from a stockpile of common elements. But this story-the hero's
suffering, resentment, retaliation and remorse-never finds its definitive form
and
Maldoror
is without a proper conclusion.
