René Daumal

A beloved cult classic of Surrealism, Pataphysics and Gurdjieffian mysticism, Rene Daumal's Mount Analogue is the allegorical tale of an expedition to a mountain whose existence can only be deduced, not observed. As its numerous editions (most now rare) over the decades attest, the book has been highly influential: Alejandro Jodorowsky's visionary 1973 film The Holy Mountain is a loose adaptation of the book, and John Zorn based an eponymous album on it. This edition, brings the original 1959 English translation by Roger Shattuck - widely considered the best - back into print.

Romanen handler 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.

Ranskalainen kirjailija ja itseoppinut indologi René Daumal antoi keskeneräiseksi jääneelle romaanilleen Mont Analogue (1952) alaotsikoksi "vertauskuvallisesti todenperäinen ja epäeuklidinen vuoristoseikkailukertomus". Kirja on kiehtova ja viihdyttävä yhdistelmä filosofiaa, kehitysromaania ja matkakertomusta. Se kokoaa yhteen luomisvoimansa huipulla, toisen maailmansodan aikana tuberkuloosiin menehtyneen ajattelijan henkisen etsinnän tulokset ja taiteellisen mielikuvituksen keksinnöt. Mont Analogue kertoo monikansallisesta retkikunnasta, joka lähtee ranskalaisen vuorikiipeilyopettajan, eräänlaisen 1900-luvun renessanssineron, johdolla etsimään tuntematonta vuorta, Mont Analoguea. Koska vuori on sekä vertauskuvallinen että maantieteellinen, kuten kaikki maailman tunnetut pyhät vuoret olivat kunnes niiden huipulle päästiin, kaikki matkalle kutsutut eivät sille uskalla lähteä. Vain ne, joilla on oikea, pyyteetön asenne elämän arvoitusta kohtaan, ryhtyvät sanoista tekoihin.

Essays reflecting on the science of imaginary solutions, from an influential figure in pataphysical thought Pataphysics: 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.

The author of Mount Analogue explores an uncharted path to the authentic self in this enlightening volume of poetic meditations. For Rene Daumal, true living can only be experienced after the facade of self-identity has been stripped away through a kind of metaphysical suicide. As he states in the second poem of this collection, "The individual mind attains its absolute through successive negations. I am that which thinks, not that which is thought." In Le Contre-Ciel, Daumal invites his readers to venture with him on this Existential journey. Through philosophically contemplative poems, he acts as both chronicler and guide to the process of regeneration-through-negation in pursuit of genuine self-knowledge.

This masterful work of symbolic fiction takes readers on a surreal journey through the absurdities of intellectual society. Published in 1938, this allegorical novel remains one of Daumal's most significant literary achievements. A Night of Serious Drinking is not just a novel; it is a profound exploration of the human condition, filled with Daumal's unique blend of wit, satire, and philosophical insight. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the Beat Generation, surrealist literature, or the timeless quest for understanding the complexities of life. The story follows an unnamed narrator who, during an evening of heavy drinking with friends, embarks on a fantastical voyage that oscillates between paradisiacal visions and the depths of hell. As the night progresses and the party becomes increasingly intoxicated, the narrator encounters a series of bizarre and symbolic experiences that satirize various aspects of modern life, including science, politics, and philosophy. Daumal's narrative is rich with humor and intellectual games, featuring characters with absurd titles such as Anthographers, Fabricators of Useless Objects, and Clarificators. These characters, while seemingly outlandish, reflect the familiar figures of scientists, politicians, and poets, all engaged in their own quests for meaning.

You've Always Been Wrong is a collection of prose and poetic works by the French writer René Daumal (1908–1944). A fitful interloper among the Surrealists, Daumal rejected all forms of dogmatic thought, whether religious, philosophical, aesthetic, or political. Much like the Surrealists (and French theorists of more recent decades), Daumal saw in the strict forms and certainties of traditional metaphysics a type of thought that enslaves people even as it pretends to liberate them. These "cadavers of thought," Daumal wrote with youthful bravado, "must be met with storms of doubt, blasphemes, and kerosene for the temples." Daumal tied Surrealism with mystical traditions. A devoted student of Eastern religions, philosophy, and literature, he combined his skepticism about Western metaphysics with a mystic's effort to maintain intense wakefulness to the present moment and to the irreducible particularity of all objects and experience. Such wakefulness, according to Daumal, leads inevitably to an overwhelming (and redemptive) "vision of the absurd." Daumal's important place in French culture of the late 1920s and 1930s has been assured by both his writings and his role as cofounder of the avant-garde journal Le Grand Jeu. Written between 1928 and 1930, You've Always Been Wrong reveals Daumal's thought as it was coalescing around the rejection of Western metaphysics and the countervailing allure of Eastern mysticism. Thomas Vosteen's nuanced translation provides English-language readers with a provocative introduction to this iconoclastic author.

Rene Daumal's "Le Contre-Ciel" is a collection of poems about death, not a death that ends life but a death that begins it. For this early 20th century French poet-philosopher, "Life," in its most dynamic sense, can only be experienced after the facade of self identity has been systematically negated through a kind of metaphysical suicide. In "Le Contre-Ciel," Daumal invites us, his readers, to go through this process of regeneration-through-negation with him in order to revive in ourselves a knowledge and understanding of our primordial sources."

Bland de stora förnekarna i den moderna litteraturen intar fransmannen René Daumal (1908-1944) en särtsällning. Få har med sådan klarhetslidelse prövat kulturens grundläggande och sanningar mot andliga upplevelser av ett slag som ligger utanför vår världsbild