Citizen Maxwell writes:

“Never let the facts get in the way of a good story”.

We continue our grim march through La-Bas. Some people like the baroque prose, some people admire Huysmans’ descriptive powers; I like that it’s an old work that touches upon diabolism. Whatever keeps ya reading, I suppose. 

I was wanting to go back and forth about Gilles de Rais’ guilt or innocence. Then I found a document that says in 1992 he was acquitted (https://archive.org/details/gilles-de-rais-de-montmorency-laval) in a French court. Things have a way of being anti-climactic like that. 

Durtal is as mistaken about Gilles de Rais as he is about women. I could see how a fictional character, for whom the author obviously did no research, could indulge in flights of fancy about old-timey aristocratic shit. What I consider offensive to my sensibilities is that no less a respected thinker than Georges Bataille bought into that same bullshit. Like ‘’what the hell Georgie? Your analysis of Fredrich Nietzsche is spot on, why you fumbling the bag so much on this?” The whole thing has me shook. 

Will our hero Durtal succumb to the enticements of the flesh? Will he run to church for forgiveness of his improprieties? Will he be led further down the path of unspeakable depravities? Find out next time in the next thrilling installment of La-Bas. 

Please read chapters 10-14 in La-Bas. Pages 155-209 in our edition.

Citizen Maxwell writes: “We continue La-Bas. Now that we are familiar with Durtal, I direct our attention to more ambiguous person: Gilles de Rais. Please read the chapter on Joan of Arc in Witchcraft & the Gay Counter-Culture (pages 19-29) online here.”

In La-Bas, please read chapters 8 and 9, pages 113-154.

Optional Supplement:

Citizen Maxwell explicitly does NOT recommend Aleister Crowley’s lecture on Gilles de Rais.

Again, La-Bas. Joris-Karl Huysmans on French Satanism. We proceed into chapters 5-7, pages 56-112 in the PDF.

That’s it. We’re reading Huysmans! This novel – less famous than A Rebours, but just as strange – gives us a morbid vision of French Satanism on two registers, in two times. Behold: La-Bas. Let’s read the first 4 chapters. In this edition, it’s pages 1-55. Other translations are welcome. And if you can read French, bully for you.

This week, we continue our, uh, “Machenations,” as it were, with The Great God Pan. Please read the second half, pp.57-87 (sections VI-VII).

This week, Arthur Machen’s The Great God Pan! This is a more aversive image of that God – a story conspicuously omitted from last week’s lecture. Please read the first half, pp.9-57 (sections I-V).

For a change of pace: PAN through history, as catalogued – and invoked? – by the charming Gresham Professor of Divinity, Ronald Hutton. It unfolds in video form here. Please bring three questions to discuss with the group.

We continue our journey into the “good book.” Please read the following: 1 Kings 16: 31-34 (pp.545), 1 Kings 18: 20-40 (pp.548-549), 1 Kings 19: 1-3 (pp.549), 2 Kings 9: 30-37 (pp.574), Deuteronomy 32: (pp.331-334).

Cup leads our inquiry into the Priestly Source this week. Please read the following: Genesis 1 (pp.38-40), Exodus 25-31 (pp.144-155), Leviticus 26 (pp.207-209), Numbers 17 (pp.242).

Cup continues to bring us their explorations into the authorship of the earliest parts of the Bible. This week we slow the onslaught of slides by doing more preliminary reading: Selections from the Book Of Genesis – 3-4 (pp.42-45), 11:1-9 (pp.52-53), 25:19-34 (pp.73), 27 (pp.75-76), 29 (pp.77-79), 30:1-24 (pp.79-80), 38 (pp.91-92), 42-45 (pp.96-100).

For convenience, the PDF page numbers are listed here.