MALDOROR 5:3 – INTERMITTENT ANNIHILATION OF HUMAN FACULTIES

Balladeer’s Blog resumes its examination of the macabre 1868 French language work The Songs of Maldoror.

INTERMITTENT ANNIHILATION OF HUMAN FACULTIES

We are now on the 3rd Stanza of the 5th Canto. Our protagonist is railing against sleep, which he describes as “the intermittent annihilation of human faculties.”

He further pronounces that a person who sleeps is “less than a castrated animal” and makes it clear that sleeping is no different than binding ourselves on a sacrificial altar called a bed and leaving ourselves helpless at the hands of a malevolent God.

Maldodor claims he has gone 30 years now without sleeping, ever since he realized that those nightly rest periods are nothing but an opportunity for his archrival God to cement his hold on us. Through sleep God whispers his commands and his demented philosophies to his creations, according to Maldoror.

Our main character goes on to recount the bizarre extremes he goes to in order to stay awake, like propping his eyelids open with twigs and attaching himself to cold, hard walls. Maldoror feels it is worth any inconvenience to be free of the nightmares that God sends his way when he slumbers. 

The mad being’s ravings go on and on as he congratulates himself for deducing that sleep provides a double-benefit to God/ the Demiurge. Not only are those who sleep vulnerable to God’s unhinged messages and philosophy being “broadcast” directly into their unguarded minds but humanity’s sleeping minds allow God to rifle through their thoughts and memories.

Maldoror refers to God as a Celestial Bandit for robbing his creations of their most intimate thoughts during the overnight hours. Not even behind the wall of sleep is humanity free from the deity’s interference. +++ 

Okay, this was a fairly bland outing for Maldoror considering the mayhem and ontological warfare that these stanzas are usually loaded with. Next time around things get back on track. 

I WILL BE EXAMINING ADDITIONAL SECTIONS VERY SOON. CHECK BACK ONCE OR TWICE A WEEK FOR NEW INSTALLMENTS.

FOR PART ONE CLICK HERE:  https://glitternight.com/2015/02/28/maldoror-a-neglected-masterpiece-of-surreal-horror/

FOR OTHER PARTS OF MALDOROR CLICK HERE: https://glitternight.com/category/maldoror/

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