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Watchfiends and Rack Screams: Works from the Final Period
This is the first new English language anthology of Artaud's writing in nearly twenty years, and reflects an increased interest in his late work (a show of Artaud's visual art from this period was on view at MOMA throughout 19961). Clayton Eshleman's translations have won widespread acclaim, including a National Book Award. Now in its second printing.
352 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1978
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972 people want to read
About the author
Antonin Artaud
264Ìýbooks761ÌýfollowersFrench surrealist poet and playwright Antonin Artaud advocated a deliberately shocking and confrontational style of drama that he called "theater of cruelty."
People better knew Antoine Marie Joseph Artaud, an essayist, actor, and director.
Considered among the most influential figures in the evolution of modern theory, Antonin Artaud associated with artists and experimental groups in Paris during the 1920s.
Political differences then resulted in him breaking and founding the theatre Alfred Jarry with Roger Vitrac and Robert Aron. Together, they expected to create a forum for works to change radically. Artaud especially expressed disdain for west of the day, panned the ordered plot and scripted language that his contemporaries typically employed to convey ideas, and recorded his ideas in such works as Le Theatre de la cruaute and The Theatre and Its Double .
Artaud thought to represent reality and to affect the much possible audience and therefore used a mixture of strange and disturbing forms of lighting, sound, and other performance elements.
Artaud wanted that the "spectacle" that "engulfed and physically affected" this audience, put in the middle. He referred to this layout like a "vortex," a "trapped and powerless" constantly shifting shape.
People better knew Antoine Marie Joseph Artaud, an essayist, actor, and director.
Considered among the most influential figures in the evolution of modern theory, Antonin Artaud associated with artists and experimental groups in Paris during the 1920s.
Political differences then resulted in him breaking and founding the theatre Alfred Jarry with Roger Vitrac and Robert Aron. Together, they expected to create a forum for works to change radically. Artaud especially expressed disdain for west of the day, panned the ordered plot and scripted language that his contemporaries typically employed to convey ideas, and recorded his ideas in such works as Le Theatre de la cruaute and The Theatre and Its Double .
Artaud thought to represent reality and to affect the much possible audience and therefore used a mixture of strange and disturbing forms of lighting, sound, and other performance elements.
Artaud wanted that the "spectacle" that "engulfed and physically affected" this audience, put in the middle. He referred to this layout like a "vortex," a "trapped and powerless" constantly shifting shape.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
March 19, 2010
Who am I?
Where do I come from?
I am Antonin Artaud
and if I say it
as I know how to say it
immediately
you will see my present body
fly into pieces
and under ten thousand
notorious aspects
a new body
will be assembled
in which you will never again
be able
to forget me.
Where do I come from?
I am Antonin Artaud
and if I say it
as I know how to say it
immediately
you will see my present body
fly into pieces
and under ten thousand
notorious aspects
a new body
will be assembled
in which you will never again
be able
to forget me.
May 12, 2018
For those who have seen the void.
September 7, 2017
is a very strange author at any period of his life, but at the very end of it - the final period that this book covers - he has truly descended into the depths of his own delirium. Electroshock and opium, schizophrenia untreated for years and the undernourishment and abuses that came from life in a series of uncaring asylums had reduced him to this: the unnerving artwork that dons the cover of this book and the ravings inside. Too often work from the final period of Artaud's life has gone untranslated, and largely denied any true regard. But is that a fair assessment?
What's to be found in this book is a man attempting to put his mind back together, and the strange ways in which he does so. This book is a cry for meaning, sometimes finding it, sometimes not, and the very alchemical act of attempting to create new languages, new ways of expression when all else was failing him.
While I would hesitate to recommend this book to anyone unfamiliar with Artaud, and indeed understand why this work has been ignored for as long as it has, I do think it has meaning. It has interest, and through the dregs of delirium at times there are passages that truly chill the bones. This is fascinating, very much of its time, and influential in ways that still haven't fully been understood in the development of the 60s artistic movements. Artaud lives on, at times in strange ways, and I'm sure of that he would have been - if not proud - then perhaps grateful. Grateful that even now we're still seeking to understand.
What's to be found in this book is a man attempting to put his mind back together, and the strange ways in which he does so. This book is a cry for meaning, sometimes finding it, sometimes not, and the very alchemical act of attempting to create new languages, new ways of expression when all else was failing him.
While I would hesitate to recommend this book to anyone unfamiliar with Artaud, and indeed understand why this work has been ignored for as long as it has, I do think it has meaning. It has interest, and through the dregs of delirium at times there are passages that truly chill the bones. This is fascinating, very much of its time, and influential in ways that still haven't fully been understood in the development of the 60s artistic movements. Artaud lives on, at times in strange ways, and I'm sure of that he would have been - if not proud - then perhaps grateful. Grateful that even now we're still seeking to understand.
November 5, 2016
This confuses the hell out of me, and I'm thankful for that.
August 31, 2014
From the thin line between genius and madness that Artaud had often walked enigmatically, he appears to have left the line completely during this period, in the process of becoming "suicided by society", meditating on alchemy, and myth, Nerval's hanging himself by street lamp being more than just a bit foretelling. He never ceases, though, in being both a genius and mad.
"There is no inside, no spirit, outside or consciousness, nothing but
the body as it may be seen, a body that does not cease being, even when
the eye that sees it falls.
And that body is a fact.
Me."
"There is no inside, no spirit, outside or consciousness, nothing but
the body as it may be seen, a body that does not cease being, even when
the eye that sees it falls.
And that body is a fact.
Me."
July 13, 2017
This book provides a fascinating insight in to the mind of a disturbed man, who channelled his mental anguish into surreal writings that are unlike anything I've ever read. Antonin Artaud's work is vulgar, confusing and incoherent but it's also hypnotically compelling, and the brilliant introduction by Clayton Eshleman was insightful and helped me divine some insight into Antonin's work.
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January 2, 2018Artaud'un kitaplarından seçilmiş metinlerin bir derlemesi. Tavsiyem bu kitabın Artaud ile tanışmak için uygun bir kitap olmadığı yönünde. Çünkü ben daha önce okuduğum metinlerle kıyasladığımda bu kitaptaki çeviriyi daha az akıcı buldum.
Çoğu daha önce okuduğum metinlerdi ama yine de bir şekilde sürekli karşılaşmayı seviyorum Antonin Artaud ile.
Çoğu daha önce okuduğum metinlerdi ama yine de bir şekilde sürekli karşılaşmayı seviyorum Antonin Artaud ile.
January 24, 2015
Now this is some crazy shit
November 13, 2018
“To confront the metaphysics I created for myself, in accordance with the void I carry within me.�
June 10, 2022
"Succubi e supplizi", Antonin Artaud, 1947.
Leggere questo libro è squarciarsi il cuore.
Alda Merini scriveva che il manicomio, dove anche lei fu internata, è un "il monte Sinai, maledetto, su cui tu ricevi le tavole di una legge agli uomini sconosciuta".
Mai definizione fu più corretta.
Queste pagine infuocate furono concepite da Artaud nel 1946, proprio mentre egli si trovava rinchiuso nel manicomio di Rodez, ultima stazione di un calvario lungo nove anni.
Sofferenze indicibili, tra cui oltre cinquanta elettroshock.
Scriverà a tal proposito:
"E io dico quanti triliardi di anni mi ci vorranno per riprendere tutto ciò che l'elettroshock mi ha tolto."
Annullamento della personalità . Uno dei punti più bassi dell'umanità .
Succubi e supplizi sfugge ad ogni possibile classificazione. È possibile definirlo come una "stenografia bruciante", dove psiche e corpo (vera e propria ossessione di Artaud) si incontrano e scontrano.
Uno stile di scrittura concreto, "reale". Artaud non scrive, incide sulla carta. E sulla pelle dei lettori.
Consigliato? Assolutamente sì, ma con due avvertenze. A questo libro ci si approccia con pazienza e rispetto.
Pazienza perché non è sempre facile, spesso è impossibile, tenere il filo dei pensieri dell'autore.
Rispetto perché mai si deve pensare che queste pagine siano semplicemente i deliri di un folle. Possono non piacere, per carità . Ma ogni riga è il frutto del dolore. A soffrire è stato lui.
Voto? Un milione di stelle.
"Da dove viene la felicità ,
ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý la tristezza,
ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý la gioia?"
Leggere questo libro è squarciarsi il cuore.
Alda Merini scriveva che il manicomio, dove anche lei fu internata, è un "il monte Sinai, maledetto, su cui tu ricevi le tavole di una legge agli uomini sconosciuta".
Mai definizione fu più corretta.
Queste pagine infuocate furono concepite da Artaud nel 1946, proprio mentre egli si trovava rinchiuso nel manicomio di Rodez, ultima stazione di un calvario lungo nove anni.
Sofferenze indicibili, tra cui oltre cinquanta elettroshock.
Scriverà a tal proposito:
"E io dico quanti triliardi di anni mi ci vorranno per riprendere tutto ciò che l'elettroshock mi ha tolto."
Annullamento della personalità . Uno dei punti più bassi dell'umanità .
Succubi e supplizi sfugge ad ogni possibile classificazione. È possibile definirlo come una "stenografia bruciante", dove psiche e corpo (vera e propria ossessione di Artaud) si incontrano e scontrano.
Uno stile di scrittura concreto, "reale". Artaud non scrive, incide sulla carta. E sulla pelle dei lettori.
Consigliato? Assolutamente sì, ma con due avvertenze. A questo libro ci si approccia con pazienza e rispetto.
Pazienza perché non è sempre facile, spesso è impossibile, tenere il filo dei pensieri dell'autore.
Rispetto perché mai si deve pensare che queste pagine siano semplicemente i deliri di un folle. Possono non piacere, per carità . Ma ogni riga è il frutto del dolore. A soffrire è stato lui.
Voto? Un milione di stelle.
"Da dove viene la felicità ,
ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý la tristezza,
ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý la gioia?"
January 27, 2016
My advise is be in a good place mentally before reading this. Otherwise, intensely compelling.
November 12, 2018
I couldn’t find Artaud’s To Have Done With Judgement of God by itself on here, so I used this book as a place marker in its stead. THDWJOG, in addition to being extremely anti- religious to the point of scatological polemics and erroneously connecting it to the imperialism of American foreign and domestic policy, THDWJOG also demonstrates that Artaud was the first casualty of the current moral twilight.
December 30, 2009
i liked some of it.
i read the french version of each poem wherever it was available because i liked it better.
i read the french version of each poem wherever it was available because i liked it better.
November 10, 2009
Assigned for Poetry for Majors, SP09, Johannes Goransson
July 2, 2022
In high school (and now) I thought Antonin Artaud was so fucking hot. If you think Rimbaud is sexy, you have groomer tendencies... Wes Anderson secondary character ass crush lol
July 9, 2022
"No philosophy, no question, no being,
no nothingness, no refusal, no maybe-be
as for the rest
to crap, to crap;
STRIP THE CRUST
FROM THE BROWSED BREAD;
. . .
That point where it was necessary to choose between renouncing being
a man and becoming an obvious madman.
But what guarantee do the obvious mad men of this world have of being
nursed by the authentically living?"
This text is a wonderful collection of late-Artaud. It opens with a diligent introduction and closes with a brief, but fair notes section. One is forced to think sensibly and non-sensibly to read this text. Enjoy!
no nothingness, no refusal, no maybe-be
as for the rest
to crap, to crap;
STRIP THE CRUST
FROM THE BROWSED BREAD;
. . .
That point where it was necessary to choose between renouncing being
a man and becoming an obvious madman.
But what guarantee do the obvious mad men of this world have of being
nursed by the authentically living?"
This text is a wonderful collection of late-Artaud. It opens with a diligent introduction and closes with a brief, but fair notes section. One is forced to think sensibly and non-sensibly to read this text. Enjoy!
May 31, 2019
Artaud’s work screams a language of a fallen mind. These essays, poems and letters are pieces of thought progression that racks our own brain of an understanding. There is an insanity in all of us, but this man made madness into Art, taking fragments of his life into absurd surrealism, scribbling an understanding of just how his mind works.
Memorable parts of this book:
-Insults To The Unconditioned
-Alienation And Black Magic
-Electricity Is A Body, A Weight
-So Then It Is In Prevention
Pages: 143, 201, 211
Memorable parts of this book:
-Insults To The Unconditioned
-Alienation And Black Magic
-Electricity Is A Body, A Weight
-So Then It Is In Prevention
Pages: 143, 201, 211
April 9, 2019
the "apotheosis" of surrealism or psychotic ramblings? there should be no discernible difference, and in fact, there is not
May 19, 2024
Chaud
January 15, 2025
Mind-altering. Perfect. Genius.
His thoughts on mental institutions resonates with me, particularly because I myself have spent time in them and have seen the cruelty firsthand. I feel in a way that he perfectly encapsulated that environment, and put into words the experience of being "insane". I love him, truly.
His thoughts on mental institutions resonates with me, particularly because I myself have spent time in them and have seen the cruelty firsthand. I feel in a way that he perfectly encapsulated that environment, and put into words the experience of being "insane". I love him, truly.
February 20, 2023
Unreadable. I really wanted to like this book but it was just too incoherent.
July 29, 2014
L'ultimo Artaud, dal manicomio la sua "scrittura orale", è così violenta,folgorante, attacca i nervi e li recide, tremendamente Maldororiana; gran bella raccolta, comprende: Frammentazioni, Lettere e Interiezioni.
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February 1, 2018Okuması zor bir kitaptı, kendimi hala Artaud'la tanışmış gibi hissetmiyorum.
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