Back to Balladeer’s Blog’s chapter guide to my examination of Isidore Ducasse’s 1868 work of surreal horror The Songs of Maldoror.
FOURTH CANTO
Fourth Canto, Stanza 1: PRELUDE TO A PRIVATE ARMAGEDDON – At Dendera in Egypt Maldoror recalls his past visits to the city and foresees a future day when he will battle all of the Earth’s armies in that same location. CLICK HERE
Fourth Canto, Stanza 2: THE MARRIAGE OF PROVERBS AND METAPHORS – Maldoror becomes lost in the Valley of Unreality where literal reality and metaphorical reality overlap. All that plus esoteric reflections on ancient meditation practices intended to unleash one’s astral body. CLICK HERE
Fourth Canto, Stanza 3: THE TORMENTED MAN – While watching a man getting tortured by his own wife and mother Maldoror reflects on various atrocities of his own. CLICK HERE Continue reading
Third Canto, Stanza 1: THE MYSTERIOUS RIDERS – The enigmatic monster Maldoror and his lover Mario (another supernatural being) terrorize humanity, mate in space and encounter unspeakable creatures beneath the sea. CLICK 
To celebrate the upcoming release of Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, the Sleep Matters Club have rounded up 40 bedtime monsters for 
THE GALLOWS MAN – This is another neglected American horror legend which has been presented in many different versions over the years. Ralph Sutherland was born in 1702 in either New York City or a town near the Catskills, depending on the version. 
Halloween Month continues here at Balladeer’s Blog! Marvel Comics’ Doctor Strange movie is coming out soon. 
Balladeer’s Blog’s month-long celebration of Halloween continues … 
THE SPECTRE LEAGUERS – In 1792 the Gloucester Leaguers returned from the dead to plague Massachusetts 100 years after their horrors had first been unleashed.
Balladeer’s Blog’s month-long celebration of Halloween continues with this look at some of the films from one of the most envelope-pushing horror directors of all time: Germany’s “auteur of the transgressive,” Jorg Buttgereit. 
A THOUSAND DEATHS (1899) – This story was the first published work by Jack London and it definitely shows, but it still has certain merits. The protagonist – who is never named – is the scion of a wealthy British family. Feeling stifled by his rigid upbringing he ran off in his teens to roam the world. He’s fallen into various shady professions over the years and now at age 30 he’s begun having regrets. 
He seems to feel himself going under but then wakes up after an indeterminate time on board a luxurious yacht. The man has various tubes and wires connected to his body and soon learns that he has been saved from drowning by the crew of … his estranged father. That father (who also goes unnamed – it’s early Jack London all right) fails to recognize his son because of the changes the younger man’s rough life has inflicted on him. 
