"Horror" would actually be "Horreur" in french. The "...oror" part of the name sounds more like the word "aurore" which means "dawn". Also "un mal de" could express either a disease or a "diseased longing", like the longing of a drug or any addictive substance. So Maldoror can be read as "mal d'aurore", which could mean either "Dawn disease" or "Desperate need for dawn".

I bought this book when I was 16 years old after having read Rimbaud's works and letters. I am now 80, and I think I will dust off both books and read them again. Don't try to make sense of them. They are stream of consciousness looks inside the minds of two different young men. They are experiences that can be appreciated by untroubled minds.

In the early years of the 1860's when Ducasse was working on his Book, wich he called a Novel ( black Humor right from the Start ), Paris was under Siege. Ruins, Diseases and Famine were all over the City. No wonder, that a very young man with a gift to play with words in such a manner, choose to go all in, trying to describe the Horrors of War. I believe, he had some Drug Issues but on the other hand he was a good Student. The Mystery of his Person made Maldoror so popular. Even if it was all a prank of a very dark and very funny young man, I adore this work. It is so unique, that even in some hundred years there will be noone to understand his writing. Ducasse: 100 Points The Rest: 0 Points And that is what I call Art!

My favorite writer of all time not because of the theme but more because of his stile of writing very unique have not read anything like this, wish he would have produced more works. Have read it multiple times and still feels like the first time, always amazed. Great review.

Finally reading it this month and I'm incredibly excited. I hope it doesn't dissolve my soul as water does sugar.

Lautréamont, one of my favorites. Camus have a very good chapter/essay about him and his work in _The Rebel_ (1951). I recommend the austrian expressionist poet Georg Trakl.

@Zorak_97

3 жыл бұрын

@SteppenWolff100 I only read this now. Yeah, Camus was very critical of Lautréamont. But his chapter is still good because Camus was a great essayist (I prefer his philosophical essays than his literary work). And Camus shows important aspects of Lautréamont's poetics despite being critical of it.

Read this when I was 22, changed my life forever, highly recommend!

Black metal band Schammasch is releasing a series of EPs based on Maldoror. The first one came out in June.

@iroh6114

5 жыл бұрын

Actually I found the book because of Schammasch and I'm very thankful for that

@blakepennycook8952

4 жыл бұрын

Schammasch brought me as well.

@ulvessens5902

3 жыл бұрын

Maldoror - She

I'm loving all these videos coming out recently

I usually detest Halloween - but you, as usual, make my day. Bravo, Maestro!

Great book. Been waiting for this one. Also love the new setup.

I discovered this book by chance after spotting a copy in a charity shop the other day, and after reading the summary on the back I was intrigued. I've already read works like Naked Lunch, and so 89 pages into it it's proving to be a fantastic read for me.

My reads inspired by your reviews - Dirty Havana Trilogy, The conspiracy against the human race, Sun and steel and Blood Meridian. Loved them all. Recent buys - Nightmare Alley and Pedro Paramo. Keep going! I like the pauses you take in between to contemplate on a text or a thought or generally :)

I came to this because Lautreamont was referenced in a novel called The War Artist by Steven Kelly; in itself a bizzare and bloody story. Excellent review. Gonna check him out. Thanks 👍🏼

One of the most disturbing and poetic at the same time books I ever read. Its a real masterpiece.

Love the review and presentation, love Maldoror, like a Bacon painting written, indeed.

This book is a satire. Ducasse, living in Paris in times of War, was a kid with a dark sense of humor. Death, starving and destruction were all around. In my view, the whole story is an evil laugh at all the writers who worshipped the 'romantic evil' while living in times of peace. He was a citizen of an occupied city at war. With no romantic thaughts. All was brutal reality. Death and destruction were the daily 'business'. So, I think, he started to joke about the whining writings from the past times. He was a cynic young dude fueled with hate. The Book was nothing but a very dark joke. All that senseless dialogues between Beasts and men, all that bizarre Scenes, when Maldoror approaches different Places. All this is nothing but a hateful joke. Ducasse knew, that he never would achieve Stardom. He was a poor little boy. All he got was money from his father. And travelling to france was his greatest mistake. So he tried to make the best out of it and write down his feelings in times of war. Dying young was no big thing then, when you lived in a big and dirty City like Paris. I think, that if he had'nt died that young and if he could explained his writings later, noone would care about him today. But that's ok. It fits the 'mystery'. And I still hear him laugh at all the people who saw or see him as a 'Meesiah' of the obscure Forms of Art that follow his writings. And, in Fact, for this type of a Joker, he was a genius! Far ahead of his time. At last the private letters he wrote showed all his youthful arrogance and humor. The letters are the only key to his thoughts and actings. May he live forever!

Great program. Great choice of book. Fantastic fragment. Thank you

Review Starts at 1:26

@joshg.4448

6 жыл бұрын

i actually wanted you to finally make this one! i own the book and will probably check it out really soon.

@rodolfomarques3683

6 жыл бұрын

Today I got my hands on one examplar of Chants of Maldoror. I really like this stuff! By the way there is a Portuguese rock band called Mão Morta which composed a whole album interpreting texts from the Chants of Maldoror. They made a really memorable live show of it. There are a few clips in youtube (with english subs) and interestingly, the excerpt you told in your video about the shark fight is covered in a whole track. Here is the link for anyone curious or interested: kzread.info/dash/bejne/c4N2zquygpbKgaQ.html By the way, great channel. Greetings from an assiduous listener!

I have an absinthe that is named Maldoror. So i got the book. Other people read the book to the film.. i read the book to the absinthe. And if there ever was a book you could name absinthe after, it would be "The chants of Maldoror". The reading experience is as gorgeous as it is confusing. I am still in the middle of the first reading. What caught me most is the very stylish disrespect for.. well anything really that immediately springs from the first pages. Also i am not an English native speaker and the vocabulary is really mind-boggling. I hope to use some parts of it in conversation if i ever get the chance. ❤️

Excellente littérature, Lautréamont est grand poète pas assez lu.

@Neuroneos

6 жыл бұрын

Tous les poètes ne sont pas assez lus, c'est le malheur heureux de la poésie.

@SophiaBORISELKERDINI

5 жыл бұрын

Il faut avouer que la poésie est un genre très intimidant aussi.

"An avalanche of black bile..." You nailed it...

Have you considered making more things in the future, other than coffee? Like matcha or some other teas or something?

Maldoror actually means Mal d'aurore: Dawn sickness or Ill of Light, Sick of daylight. That's how some people see it and which makes a lot of sense, once you read MALDOROR.

Uruguay: great football players and great poets...

@nelsonventura7374

4 жыл бұрын

French father and mother born in Uruguay by chance.

@arrhe

2 ай бұрын

​@@nelsonventura7374El también nació en Uruguay y en medio de la guerra y el Sitio de Montevideo, no se puede negar la influencia que esos hechos tuvieron en su vida y más tomando en cuanta que murió con tan solo 22 años, todo lo que conoció en su infancia fue Montevideo, su padre jamás se fue y el siempre volvía a Sudamérica aún cuando ya vivía en Francia.

Is anyone familiar with Moravagine Blaise Cendrars.?

"Naturally, I have exaggerated the tuning fork to do something new in the sense of this sublime literature, which only sings despair to oppress the reader, and makes him desire the good as a remedy. So, it's always Good that we sing" Lautréamont

@Matheuszappa

2 жыл бұрын

Hi! Can I ask where is this quote from? Thank you!

@tontonkarim2260

2 жыл бұрын

@@Matheuszappa Letter to Verboekhoven, 10.23.1869

@Matheuszappa

2 жыл бұрын

@@tontonkarim2260 Thank you!

A friend introduced Le Compte de Lautreamont to meonly last night.My friend name is Tony Vencatasawmy a widely read man in French and English literatures.This young writer who left the world at the age of 24years of age came across to me as a person a la croisee des chemins confronting Evils headon...

The shark part is from Part II, Chapter 13

I got to know Maldoror through the portuguese musical project Mão Morta (Dead Hand), which has a live show declaring the book in a intense and dramatical way. It's scattered in parts throughout KZread. This is the first part I've watched (and by which was rendered speechless). It's from the beginning of the book, when Maldoror talks about poetry, and has English subtitles (not as good as the portuguese text): kzread.info/dash/bejne/d2ityrOmnNGoZsY.html It's still one of my favorites passages from the book. The other one below is the one with the sharks. It gets really good towards the end. kzread.info/dash/bejne/c4N2zquygpbKgaQ.html

YES! Oh my god one of my favorite books ever. I am so excited you reviewed this.

Great way to start my day

Can you tell us the name of translator of your edition ?

11:00 that escalated quickly

@brianstover8325

4 жыл бұрын

LOL yeah it did! this was nuts

Great video Cliff. We are a UK metal band and have just released a song based on the book! Sent you an email through regarding some things, keep up the amazing work!

You should review The Hermit by Eugene Ionesco!

My favourite book

Hey Cliff, please try to mention explicitly the translation that you read whenever reading a translated title. Thanks !

Lautréamont forced Providence to look upon the horrors of creation the way a man might shove a dogs nose into his shit when he has soiled the carpet. And then he pushed himself further, attempting to imagine madness and evil exceeding the natural limits of the universe, just to fuck with God even further.

I have a soft spot for Paris spleen by baudelaire

"better than food" - right on :o)

did you read the book ?

You are my source of good books, but where do you find them yourself?

@Muskrat123

6 жыл бұрын

I'm also dying to know the answer to this question.

@valpergalit

6 жыл бұрын

Recommendations from viewers, he’s sometimes said.

@humaninterface6578

6 жыл бұрын

not difficult, internet,library or bookstores are very good possibilities.

@mrmarcelo612

6 жыл бұрын

Classics are not that hard to discover. One classic leads to another. And learning about literary movements such as french realism will give you plenty of artists to make your way through.

@nikolous4213

6 жыл бұрын

Goodreads site or app

Have you read Maurice Blanchot's commentary and analysis of Maldoror? It's great. Recommended.

@BetterThanFoodBookReviews

6 жыл бұрын

I'm embarrassed to say I haven't, I would have mentioned it if I did.

@eliotbenitez8362

6 жыл бұрын

Better Than Food: Book Reviews It's no big deal. Not everyone's read everything. But yeah, Blanchot's piece is great. Also Philippe Sollers and Julia Kristeva each have texts on Lautreamont too. And they're pretty good. Love them. Did you study literature in college?

@eliotbenitez8362

6 жыл бұрын

Better Than Food: Book Reviews Wait, wait. Here's what I really want to recommend: the novels of Pierre Klossowski. The Roberte novels especially. My God, they are AMAZING. And, judging by your tastes, you'll absolutely love his books. Also his studies on Nietzsche and Sade. Just... glorious.

@BetterThanFoodBookReviews

6 жыл бұрын

Eliot Benitez I completely forgot about him, he was mentioned a lot as a friend of George B’s, do you have a favorite of Klossowski’s?

@BetterThanFoodBookReviews

6 жыл бұрын

Nope, total dilettante. Just read Story of the eye and got wrapped up in the web. I still need to read all the above. Thank you for the reminders.

Added to my list.

awesome booktaste... wanna leave some booktips... - eric stener carlson, muladona - tanith lee, flat earth saga - robert schneider, brother of sleep also check out the russians dostojewski and tolstoi

Watching this at work. I'm so unprofessional, but​ it's worth it.

@anabeatrizcordeiro7274

6 жыл бұрын

Precious Ann Same. 😊

@michelebuckles7865

6 жыл бұрын

Same!

Thank you! :-)

Sounds like Jordan Peterson would have a blast with this one.

Was wondering when you'd do this one :O

@assrake

6 жыл бұрын

Severian yes me too! Good day to do it

recommendation: Tomb for for 500,000 soldiers by Pierre Guyotat

Jesus I need this...

You've read the book. Now watch the Opera kzread.info/dash/bejne/nat2m9GcpM_dcso.html

The horror of reality ⭐️

I started to read Melmoth the Wanderer but lost to many brain cells !

I've read that the name "Maldoror" is supposed to mean "mal d'aurore", or "evil dawn", or the dawn of evil, implying that the main character is the embodiment of evil.

*tips foot* Just waiting for you to review some Dante.

This book was mostly gibberish.

I've gotta fact check myself on this one. But before Maldoror fucks the shark, he talks of the sinking ship and that he pulls out his rifle and shoots the men swimming to shore. It was sometime ago so my memory is hazy, but I read Melmoth The Wanderer -> en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melmoth_the_Wanderer In the story of Melmoth, it felt like the exact same scene except Melmoth doesn't shoot the swimmers, he just laughs at them. I like to believe Maldoror took this scene from Melmoth, I will put some effort into connecting it one day. Melmoth The Wanderer might also be a good book to review, keep it up brother, love your work!

Try out The Book of Disquiet, by Fernando Pessoa!

@BetterThanFoodBookReviews

6 жыл бұрын

kzread.info/dash/bejne/lHWnr7uhndjfmLg.html ;)

@miguelsomething

6 жыл бұрын

😍 Man your channel is something else. Try out Fernando Pessoa's "Tabaqueira" poem, then. Goes well with what you've been reading and will rip you to shreds ;)

@caballerokebab

6 жыл бұрын

The best.

you never explain why you like him or why he is so intelligent. this review says as much as Lautréamont's poetry. almost nothing.

I also like Lautréamont,but comparing him with Rimbaud is absolute nonsense,you do not understand Rimbaud.