{"id":14817,"date":"2014-01-27T02:19:20","date_gmt":"2014-01-27T02:19:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/?p=14817"},"modified":"2023-06-05T14:45:07","modified_gmt":"2023-06-05T13:45:07","slug":"polypodes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/2014\/01\/27\/polypodes\/","title":{"rendered":"Polypodes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"jianfu.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Sepia (no date) by Gao Jianfu.<\/em><\/p>\n

Quelquefois, dans une nuit d’orage, pendant que des l\u00e9gions de poulpes ail\u00e9s, ressemblant de loin \u00e0 des corbeaux, planent au-dessus des nuages, en se dirigeant d’une rame raide vers les cit\u00e9s des humains, avec la mission de les avertir de changer de conduite, le caillou, \u00e0 l’\u0153il sombre, voit deux \u00eatres passer \u00e0 la lueur de l’\u00e9clair, l’un derri\u00e8re l’autre; et, essuyant une furtive larme de compassion, qui coule de sa paupi\u00e8re glac\u00e9e, il s’\u00e9crie: \u00abCertes, il le m\u00e9rite; et ce n’est que justice.\u00bb Apr\u00e8s avoir dit cela, il se replace dans son attitude farouche, et continue de regarder, avec un tremblement nerveux, la chasse \u00e0 l’homme, et les grandes l\u00e8vres du vagin d’ombre, d’o\u00f9 d\u00e9coulent, sans cesse, comme un fleuve, d’immenses spermatozo\u00efdes t\u00e9n\u00e9breux qui prennent leur essor dans l’\u00e9ther lugubre, en cachant, avec le vaste d\u00e9ploiement de leurs ailes de chauve-souris, la nature enti\u00e8re, et les l\u00e9gions solitaires de poulpes, devenues mornes \u00e0 l’aspect de ces fulgurations sourdes et inexprimables.<\/p>\n

Les Chants de Maldoror<\/a> (1869) by the Comte de Lautr\u00e9amont<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"maldoror.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Sometimes on a stormy night while legions of winged squids (at a distance resembling crows) float above the clouds and scud stiffly towards the cities of the humans, their mission to warn men to change their ways\u2014the gloomy-eyed pebble perceives amid flashes of lightning two beings pass by, one behind the other, and, wiping away a furtive tear of compassion that trickles from its frozen eye, cries: \u201cCertainly he deserves it; it\u2019s only justice.\u201d Having spoken thus it reverts to its timid pose and trembling nervously, continues to watch the manhunt and the vast lips of the vagina of darkness whence flow incessantly, like a river, immense shadowy spermatozoa that take flight into the dismal aether, the vast spread of their bat’s wings obscuring the whole of nature and the lonely legions of squids\u2014grown downcast viewing these ineffable and muffled fulgurations.<\/p>\n

Translation by Alexis Lykiard<\/a>, 1970<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"pennington-cthulhu.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Mask of Cthulhu, 1976 paperback reprint. Cover art by Bruce Pennington.<\/em><\/p>\n

Above these apparent hieroglyphics was a figure of evidently pictorial intent, though its impressionistic execution forbade a very clear idea of its nature. It seemed to be a sort of monster, or symbol representing a monster, of a form which only a diseased fancy could conceive. If I say that my somewhat extravagant imagination yielded simultaneous pictures of an octopus, a dragon, and a human caricature, I shall not be unfaithful to the spirit of the thing. A pulpy, tentacled head surmounted a grotesque and scaly body with rudimentary wings; but it was the general outline of the whole which made it most shockingly frightful. Behind the figure was a vague suggestion of a Cyclopean architectural background.<\/p>\n

The Call of Cthulhu<\/a> (1928) by HP Lovecraft<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Previously on { feuilleton }
\n\u2022 Ulysses versus Maldoror<\/a>
\n\u2022 Maldoror<\/a>
\n\u2022 Vampyroteuthis Infernalis by Vil\u00e9m Flusser<\/a>
\n\u2022 Books of blood<\/a>
\n\u2022 Magritte\u2019s Maldoror<\/a>
\n\u2022 Frans De Geetere\u2019s illustrated Maldoror<\/a>
\n\u2022 Maldoror illustrated<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sepia (no date) by Gao Jianfu. Quelquefois, dans une nuit d’orage, pendant que des l\u00e9gions de poulpes ail\u00e9s, ressemblant de loin \u00e0 des corbeaux, planent au-dessus des nuages, en se dirigeant d’une rame raide vers les cit\u00e9s des humains, avec la mission de les avertir de changer de conduite, le caillou, \u00e0 l’\u0153il sombre, voit … Continue reading “Polypodes”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[42,22,26,18],"tags":[5685,2783,104,5684,1687,510,4046,428],"class_list":["post-14817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-horror","category-lovecraft","category-surrealism","tag-alexis-lykiard","tag-bruce-pennington","tag-cthulhu","tag-gao-jianfu","tag-hp-lovecraft","tag-lautreamont","tag-maldoror","tag-ulysses"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pq7rV-3QZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14817\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}