Antonin Artaud / Signed Autographed Letter / Psychiatry / Double / Initiates / Art

  

Handwritten letter signed "Antonin Artaud" to Adrienne Monnier Psychiatric Hospital of Ville-Evrard, March 4, 1939, 2 p. In-4° with envelope Small stains, traces of period creases. "Miss ADRIENNE MONNIER Les amis des livres 7 rue de l'Odéon 7 Paris. Asylum of Ville-Evrard, March 4, 1939. My dear Adrienne, I have not yet had time to respond to your last letter.

And when I say time, I mean that I have not been in the mood to do so because I have had a most unpleasant experience in the meantime, and I have been transferred from Sainte-Anne to Ville-Evrard with more than just haste. But since then I have regained my composure and I am replying to you. - Yes, this story of doubles is as old as the centuries, and all the great figures throughout history have had real doubles, whether they physically resembled them or not, who played their role for the common people, while only the Initiated knew the real person. All of this, for the non-Initiated who do not know that life is entirely rigged, seems like fiction and fable. This is how I heard among the Initiated this incredible enormity that it was not the real Nicholas II who was assassinated in Ekaterinburg by the Bolsheviks and that the Tsarevich is still alive. This is how they feed the dreams of the janitors. But for those who know that life is entirely rigged by the Initiated, they will find that the janitors are not wrong. And besides, the janitors think what they think because they see everything they see; And not just anyone can be a janitor! This is how all the Initiated know that Von Ribbentrop, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany, was assassinated in Paris on the night of December 7 to 8, 1938, and Mr. Edouard Daladier is the only one who does not know.

And a double of him has taken his name and was quickly re-shipped from Warsaw to Berlin by R. Beck during his trip to Poland. You did not need to confirm the fact for me. I have known about this story for a long time, which everyone knows but no one has the right to say, apparently, under penalty of being executed by the police of the Initiated.

The power of printed paper is very strong, I agree with you, and the influence of the Initiated on the public's mind is also very strong for having succeeded in hiding such a huge fact as the "execution" in Paris of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany, and for having succeeded in accrediting the lie that the straw man paid by the Initiated, who replaces him, is this Von Ribbentrop who signed the Franco-German Declaration at the Quai d'Orsay. Moreover, the whole history of the world is like this. Many of the great events in the world were not caused by those to whom history attributes them. Neither Joffre nor Gallieni won the Battle of the Marne, but de Langle de Cary had a lot to do with it.

And in the field of literary, artistic, or philosophical creation, it is even worse. Bach is not the author of the works attributed to him. He stole them from another and signed them with his name. Bach have a unique musical character in the West and we know who actually made them, but the Initiated have placed a ban on the name of their incredible creator. Likewise, the mystery of Shakespeare is a story of the Initiated.

And you know why and how. Likewise, the famous "War of the Two Roses" was ignored by its contemporaries. And the enchantments and forgetfulness had a lot to do with this astonishing ignorance.

Now, as a grammarian and a consummate linguist, explain to me the exact psychological meaning of the following expression: "I HAVE MY HEAD NEAR THE BONNET" because upon reflection, it is not as simple as that. And why not also say: "I HAVE MY HEART NEAR THE BONNET," since for some occult sects, it is the heart that serves as the head, and the head does not exist. As for me, my heart, for what little is left of it, is certainly near the bonnet, because without it, it would jump out. Some Mayans in Mexico spoke to me about the coronary artery in the tradition of the Yucatan Mayans, as it was collected by the Quiche Mayans. And regarding this, what has become of my book: The Journey to the Land of the Tarahumaras.

The Tarahumaras are in the north and the Mayans are in the south, that's understood, but it's Mexico and I wrote a book about Mexico, it was published and I have not even seen the edition. This is the 4th time I have been tricked. If you think this can continue, you are mistaken, IT CAN NO LONGER. Things have gone too far and we will have to turn things around and that, Monelle, is what you have seen; - You are right, all the goddesses of antiquity were liars, for example Bogaïlla, but they lie poorly and their lies will not take them far because they have ended up deceiving themselves, and they are all currently in full decline. And it is the very core of each of them that is irreparably gangrened.

All of this is just a waste of time. A creation to begin again. [He adds in the margin of the first page] I have no money and no stamps for my letters, in general And my Publishers owe me a lot of money!

[He adds in the margin of the second page] AND IT WILL BE THE FIRST TIME IN THE ROUND OF ALL WORLDS THAT A BEING IN THE INCARNATE STATE WILL HAVE GAINED THE FINAL TRUTHS. Artaud suffered intense physical pain attributed to hereditary syphilis against which he struggled for much of his life, pain that he alleviated with medications and drugs. He spent his final years interned in various psychiatric hospitals. On February 22, 1939, Dr. Longuet, at the Sainte-Anne psychiatric center, wrote: "Delusional syndrome of paranoid structure, active ideas of persecution, of poisoning, splitting of personality.

" Subsequently, the writer joined the hospital of Ville-Evrard, where he would stay for just under four years, without receiving any treatment, as his condition was considered incurable. He wrote many letters during this period. The second one is addressed to Adrienne Monier, writer and publisher, on March 4, just three days after his arrival. This letter, written in the heat of the moment, mentions the "Initiated" and "non-Initiated." In the eyes of his correspondent, Artaud transforms what psychiatrists call "delusional episodes" into a true imaginative wealth.

"All the great figures throughout history have had real doubles (...) and only the Initiated know the real person." In this letter, Artaud, plagued by paranoid delusions, envisions two parallel worlds that overlap, one being that of the "Initiated" and the other that of the "non-Initiated." The latter is a life "completely rigged" by the "Initiated," a fake and manipulated copy, while the former is reality in the strictest sense. By "Initiated," one must understand those pulling the strings of a conspiracy aimed at persecuting the writer. This makes even more sense when we know that he sees madness as an invention of society meant to exclude its critics." Reading Artaud's letter alongside Dr. Chanès' "Fourteen-Day Certificate of March 14, 1939" provides an interesting key to understanding in that we have a supposedly rational interpretation, so to speak, of the writer's literally delusional remarks. Thus, we read in this certificate that the "Initiated" are indeed "the people in power, at the head of politics, the police, the administration, etc.", with the diagnosis that Artaud is "a poet who wanted to realize his revolutionary conception of the world." In a commentary on this letter, published as early as April 1939 in La Gazette des amis des livres (n° 6-7), Adrienne Monnier revealed: "This is the first time in my life that I receive a letter from Antonin Artaud. I was sure that I had never personally written to him. But after reading everything he tells, I wonder with concern if my double has not been up to something. And if things have not gone devilishly far, since we are now on first-name terms. "We will have to turn things around and that, Monelle, is what you have seen." The work quickly becomes a must-read, and even a sort of unofficial bible for both symbolists and surrealists.

During the interwar period, it proves to be a true anarcho-mystical manifesto, the object of a quasi-cult. Thus, Schwob inspires Artaud in writing The Umbilical Limbo (1925) and his first participation in La Révolution surréaliste, a magazine founded in 1924 by Aragon and Breton, among others.

Artaud and Schwob agree on the inversion of religious values, celebrating the apotheosis of infamy allegorized as an Antichrist. This is the reversal that takes place in Heliogabalus or the Anarchist Crowned (1934). We also remember from both writers the perpetual search for a certain dramaturgy, with Schwob not failing to remind his readers that he is "like in the theater." The original edition of La Gazette des amis des livres, n° 6-7 (April 1939) where the transcription of this letter is included.