Bøger af René Daumal

"Le commencement de tout ce que je vais raconter, ce fut une écriture inconnue sur une enveloppe. Il y avait dans ces traits de plume qui traçaient mon nom et l¿adresse de la Revue des Fossiles, à laquelle je collaborais et d¿où l¿on m¿avait fait suivre la lettre, un mélange tournant de violence et de douceur. Derrière les questions que je me formulais sur l¿expéditeur et le contenu possibles du message, un vague mais puissant pressentiment m¿évoquait l¿image du « pavé dans la mare aux grenouilles ». Et du fond l¿aveu montait comme une bulle que ma vie était devenue bien stagnante, ces derniers temps. Aussi, quand j¿ouvris la lettre, je n¿aurais su distinguer si elle me faisait l¿effet d¿une vivifiante bouffée d¿air frais ou d¿un désagréable courant d¿air."

In this novel/allegory the narrator/author sets sail in the yacht Impossible to search for Mount Analogue, the geographically located, albeit hidden, peak that reaches inexorably toward heaven.

A fitful interloper among the Surrealists, the author rejected all forms of dogmatic thought, whether religious, philosophical, aesthetic, or political. He combined his skepticism about Western metaphysics with mystic's effort to maintain intense wakefulness to the present moment and to the irreducible particularity of all objects and experience.

Essays reflecting on the science of imaginary solutions, from an influential figure in pataphysical thoughtPataphysics: the science of imaginary solutions, of laws governing exceptions and of the laws describing the universe supplementary to this one. Alfred Jarry's posthumous novel, Exploits and Opinions of Dr. Faustroll, Pataphysician, first appeared in 1911, and over the next 100 years, his pataphysical supersession of metaphysics would influence everyone from Marcel Duchamp and Boris Vian to Umberto Eco and Jean Baudrillard. In 1948 in Paris, a group of writers and thinkers would found the College of 'Pataphysics, still going strong today. The iconoclastic René Daumal was the first to elaborate upon Jarry's unique and humorous philosophy. Though Daumal is better known for his unfinished novel Mount Analogue and his refusal to be adopted by the Surrealist movement, this newly translated volume of writings offers a glimpse of often overlooked Daumal: Daumal the pataphysician. Pataphysical Essays collects Daumal's overtly pataphysical writings from 1929 to 1941, from his landmark exposition on pataphysics and laughter to his late essay, "The Pataphysics of Ghosts." Daumal's "Treatise on Patagrams" offers the reader everything from a recipe for the disintegration of a photographer to instructions on how to drill a fount of knowledge in a public urinal. This volume also includes Daumal's column for the Nouvelle Revue Française, "Pataphysics This Month." Reading like a deranged encyclopedia, "Pataphysics This Month" describes a new mythology for the field of science, and amply demonstrates that the twentieth century had been a distinctly pataphysical era.

Den franske forfatter René Daumal (1908-43) var aktiv i en tid og et miljø, hvor nogle af de mest indflydelsesrige kunstneriske strømninger dukkede op, først og fremmest surrealismen og Dadaismen. Det Poetiske Bureaus Forlag er stolt af, med denne udgivelse af den ufuldendte roman, Mont Analogue, for første gang at kunne præsentere René Daumals forfatterskab på dansk.Bjerget, som bogen handler om er et symbolsk billede. Bogens egen beskrivelse af det, i fingeret fakta-form, viser en dimension af Daumals arbejde som adskiller ham fra surrealismen. Hvor surrealisterne søger det ubevidste som en art understrøm i bevidstheden, søger Daumal det, vi er ubevidste om i en art højere spirituel verden. Her er han inspireret af den russiske mystiker Gurdjieff (1866-1949), som han mødte og arbejdede sammen med en kort periode.Romanen handler om opdagelsen af og bestigningen af bjerget. Den er en veloplagt og ofte morsom tour de force gennem en strømmende verden. Under det ligger også en skarp kritik af materialismen i det moderne samfund.Udgivelsen af Mont Analogue er forsynet med en introduktion til René Daumal og afsluttes af fire tekster af Daumal, skrevet i forbindelse med romanen.