Tag Archives: Gothic horror

June 18, 2015 · 12:18 am

MALDOROR 4:6 – WALLOWING IN A MIRE MOST FOUL

Balladeer’s Blog resumes its examination of the macabre 1868 French language work The Songs of Maldoror. God – Maldoror’s archrival – gets the better of him in a very crafty way this time around.

WALLOWING IN A MIRE MOST FOUL

Maldoror 4 6 hogAn exhausted Maldoror is on a cliff overlooking a gravel pit far below. Overcome with fatigue our supernatural protagonist tumbles forward and falls several hundred feet to the ground below. His descent loosened a few large stones and one of them comes crashing down on top of him.

This makes a massy pulp of Maldoror’s body but naturally it quickly begins to reshape itself. To his surprise our main character finds himself wearing the body of a large hog. No matter how hard he tries he cannot cast off this form and resume his normal appearance.  Continue reading →

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June 13, 2015 · 8:07 pm

MALDOROR 4:5 – PROJECTION OF A SHRIVELED SILHOUETTE

Balladeer’s Blog resumes its examination of the macabre 1868 French language work The Songs of Maldoror. We’re now on the 4th Canto, 5th Stanza. 

PROJECTION OF A SHRIVELED SILHOUETTE

Maldoror 4 5 bodiesMaldoror, in an even more unstable frame of mind than usual, finds himself in a run-down room in an unspecified building somewhere. He is wary because he has come face to face with another supernatural creature that he has identified as a potential threat. Every man, woman and child in the town is dead except for himself and this new entity, the figure responsible for the slaughter.

SPOILER: In our current age in which we’ve all grown up with anthology shows from Twilight Zone on up through Tales From the Crypt or any number of others we can spot the “twist” in this segment right away. Maldoror eventually becomes lucid enough to realize he’s arguing with his own reflection in a mirror. Since modern readers can spot that “surprise” a mile away I’ve disclosed the ending right up front and will now explore the deadly actions that Maldoror confesses to in this stanza.   Continue reading →

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June 10, 2015 · 11:31 pm

MALDOROR 4:4 – FOUR CENTURIES ON A SHAPELESS THRONE

Balladeer’s Blog resumes its examination of the macabre 1868 French language work The Songs of Maldoror. People who want to see our vile main character suffer will definitely enjoy this part. 

FOUR CENTURIES ON A SHAPELESS THRONE

Image by GodofPegana at Deviant Art.

Image by GodofPegana at Deviant Art.

This stanza opens up with Maldoror paralyzed and suffering a variety of excruciating torments. Like a wooden stake through the heart will take out a vampire and a silver bullet through the heart will kill a werewolf, Maldoror’s weakness is at last revealed to us.

While our supernatural protagonist was seated on a boulder contemplating his next move in the ongoing feud between him and God an unnamed human being crept up on him from behind and drove their sword downward through the nape of Maldoror’s neck and on, vertically, driving it through the fiend’s spine like a spike. This has rendered Maldoror paralyzed but happily (given his countless atrocities) NOT immune to pain.  Continue reading →

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June 6, 2015 · 5:31 pm

MALDOROR 4:3 – THE TORMENTED MAN

Balladeer’s Blog resumes its examination of the macabre 1868 French language work The Songs of Maldoror. It’s back to more explicitly horrific material this time around.

THE TORMENTED MAN

Maldoror 4 3 tormented manAfter the previous topsy-turvy stanza saw Maldoror lost in The Valley of Unreality this adventure is much more straightforward.

The supernatural being Maldoror is wandering through a forest when he is attracted by the sound of agonized screams. Locating their source he is intrigued to see a man hanged from a gibbet by his very long hair and with his hands tied behind his back. His legs swing freely, increasing the agony of his pain-wracked form.

The man’s emaciated form showed he had not been fed in days and his face was so stretched from long suspension by his hair that it had lost nearly all human shape.

The tormented man screams that, due to all manner of tortuous pain, he has not been able to sleep during the three days he has been hanging there. He also begs Maldoror to slit his throat and put him out of his misery. 

From hiding Maldoror observes two crazed, drunken women approach the spot where the man hangs. One of the women is very old with her uncombed hair fluttering in the breeze. The other woman is much younger but so thin her knees knock together as she walks. The ladies carry whips, paint-brushes and buckets of hot tar with them.   Continue reading →

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June 4, 2015 · 7:53 pm

MALDOROR 4:2 – THE MARRIAGE OF PROVERBS AND METAPHORS

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

THE MARRIAGE OF PROVERBS AND METAPHORS

TowersMaldoror’s excursion into madness this time around put me in mind of William Blake’s Marriage of Heaven and Hell, hence the title I assigned to this 2nd stanza of the 4th Canto. Some critics contend that this section is set near Dendera in Egypt, where Maldoror’s wanderings had taken him in the previous stanza.

The author Isidore Ducasse pulls us into a bizarre realm of unreality – or maybe hyper-reality – with his vile main character. The Tower of Proverbs and the Tower of Metaphors catch Maldoror’s attention as he negotiates his way through an other-worldly valley in which literal reality blends with symbolic reality. At times in this section Ducasse comes close to anticipating the Stream of Consciousness writing pioneered by John Dos Passos and refined by James Joyce. Continue reading →

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May 30, 2015 · 4:41 pm

MALDOROR 4:1 – PRELUDE TO A PRIVATE ARMAGEDDON

Balladeer’s Blog resumes its examination of the macabre 1868 French language work The Songs of Maldoror. We are now at the 4th Canto, 1st Stanza.

PRELUDE TO A PRIVATE ARMAGEDDON

Maldoror 4 1 denderaThe supernatural being Maldoror has arrived at Dendera in Egypt. He is perforce surrounded by human beings and, given his loathing of humanity, he compares being among so many people to other unwholesome sensations. Among those: accidentally stepping on a frog and feeling it being crushed and smeared into the ground underfoot. Our narrator tells us he shivers with disgust at any contact with humans the way a dead shark’s heart continues to beat long after it is dead.

As usual Maldoror contradicts some of the information he has previously given readers about himself and claims that he stood in Dendera back when it was at its height in the 1st Century B.C. He disgustedly notes how swarms of wasps have inhabited so many of the corners and entrances of the ancient works of architecture. Their buzzing reminds him of the sound of his own sorrow when he ponders the perverse conduct of his archrival God.   Continue reading →

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May 27, 2015 · 12:04 am

MALDOROR 3:5 – THE RED LANTERN AT TWILIGHT

Maldoror 3 5 red lanternBalladeer’s Blog resumes its examination of the macabre 1868 French language work The Songs of Maldoror. This is one of the most twisted sections of  a book loaded with them.  

THE RED LANTERN AT TWILIGHT

All of the action in this stanza takes place at twilight and the first moments of darkness. The supernatural being Maldoror comes upon a French brothel that used to be a convent centuries before. A rough wooden bridge leads across a stream of filth to the establishment. Customers take their leave by crawling out through a grate into a courtyard littered with chickens and chickenshit.     Continue reading →

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May 23, 2015 · 3:38 pm

MALDOROR 3:4 – THE SUPREME DRUNKARD

Balladeer’s Blog resumes its examination of the macabre 1868 French language work The Songs of Maldoror. This time around our supernatural protagonist commits his greatest affront to God so far.

THE SUPREME DRUNKARD

The coveted Portuguese translation of The Songs of Maldoror.

The coveted Portuguese translation of The Songs of Maldoror.

This is the 4th stanza of the 3rd canto. On a beautiful spring morning Maldoror comes upon God lying in a drunken heap on the side of a road in France, sleeping off his binge of the night before. Periodically he makes to stand up but always collapses back down into slumber.

A passing hedgehog prods the hungover deity with his spines but that fails to rouse him. A woodpecker and a screech owl try to wake him up by pecking him and clawing at him to no avail. A mule kicks the Creator in the temple and a toad spits in God’s face but not even these assaults and insults excite a response from him.   Continue reading →

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May 19, 2015 · 8:37 pm

MALDOROR 3:3 – THE TIGER-HEADED DRAGON

Balladeer’s Blog resumes its examination of the macabre 1868 French language work The Songs of Maldoror. It’s a battle of monsters this time around.

THE TIGER-HEADED DRAGON

Image by Joey B at Deviant Art

Image by Joey B at Deviant Art

As this stanza begins the supernatural being Maldoror has been conversing with the Wandering Jew from folklore. Way back in And Now Men Fear You No More we learned about Maldoror’s long-ago relationship with Lohengrin the Knight of the Swan when they both lived in the Grail Castle. Now our main character interacts with another figure from legend.

The narrative never bothers clarifying which of the many versions of the Wandering Jew story it favors, it’s simply presenting a chance meeting of two ancient beings who wander the Earth.  

A white-winged, serpent-tailed dragon with the head and body of a tiger makes an aerial approach toward the two figures. The dragon lands and the Wandering Jew notes it is taller than the tallest oak. The dragon has come for Maldoror and the two exchange words of greeting as a prelude to their battle.  Continue reading →

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May 15, 2015 · 8:43 pm

MALDOROR 3:2 – VICTIMS BOTH LIVING AND DEAD

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

VICTIMS BOTH LIVING AND DEAD

Maldoror 2The malevolent supernatural being Maldoror commits one of his most horrific acts of violence ever in this stanza. For those horror fans who prefer to see our vile main character perpetrating genuine atrocities this is the tale for you.  

This stanza begins with Maldoror contemplating an elderly, poverty-stricken madwoman who roams the roads of France. She wears tattered clothing and her aged face is withered like a mummy’s while what little hair she has left falls like long spider-legs over her head and neck. Continue reading →

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