The Assimilating Harmony: A Reading of Antonin Artaud's Hliogabale Author(s): Carol Jacobs Source: SubStance, Vol. 6/7, No.

17, Maurice Roche (Autumn, 1977), pp. 115-138 Published by: University of Wisconsin Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3684573 . Accessed: 10/10/2013 14:15
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THE ASSIMILATING HARMONY:

A Reading of Antonin Artaud's H liogabale*
Carol Jacobs INITIATION: S'il y a autour du cadavre d'Hiliogable, mort sans tombeau, et egorge par sa police dans les latrines de son palais, une intensecirculationde sang et d'excrements,il y a autour de son berceau une intensecirculationde sperme. (Initial lines of Htliogabale, p. 15)1 On n'est jamais initie d'ailleurs qu'a des operaa des tions, et a des rites,a des signesexterieurs, nous sur la mettent passes hieroglyphiquesqui voie du secret.

(p. 93)
Initiation into the "conscious chaos" (Tbhdtre, p. 139) of Hdliogabale ou takes place, of necessity, as cruelty-a crueltymanifest fromthe l'anarchistecouronnde in those concrete of its referents initial excrement and lines-blood, very beginning continue to circulate the entire text. These with other sperm-that throughout along similar excesses-castration, sacrifice, assasination, parricide, debauchery-so can completely dominate H6liogabale's historical biography that no interpretation a confrontation with that which Artaud terms And escape "cruelty." yet, when Artaud explicitly touches upon this term,in the "Lettres sur la cruaute," he rejects the literalmeaningof the word-as blood or flesh.2 II ne s'agit dans cette Cruaut6ni de sadisme ni de sang,du moins pas de faqon exclusive. (Tbhdtre, p. 120) On peut tres bien imaginerune cruaut6 pure, sans d6chirement charnel. p. 121) (Thbddtre, Cruaut6 n'est pas en effet synonyme de sang vers6, de chair (Tbhdtre, martyre... p. 121)
* This articleis a chapterof The Assimilating Harmonyto appear in 1978 withthe JohnsHopkins Press. University

Sub-StanceNO 17, 1977

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By taking the word in its broad sense, rather,Artaud claims to effecta decisive breakwiththe meaningof language. Ce mot de cruaute doit &trepris dans un sens large,et non dans le sens materiel. Et je revendique,ce faisantle droit de briseravec .... le sens usuel du langage, de rompre une bonne fois l'armature,de faire sauter le carcan, d'en revenirenfinaux origines etymologiques ' de la langue qui traversdes concepts abstraitsevoquent toujours une notion concrete. p. 120f) (Tbhdtre, If one reads to the letter,the text promisesto return fromabstractconcepts to the concrete origins of language ("aux origines6tymologiques"). Such an interpretation et son double which sees Artaud's may harmonize with that reading of Le Thbddtre proposed eliminationof the traditionalwrittentext as an attemptto reach a concrete and pure immediacy.Yet certainly, takingthe text at its word will be a problematical measure here, in a passage which speaks preciselyof a break with meaning.In fact, tracing the word "cruelty" to its etymologicaloriginsthroughthe Latin crudelitas fromcrudelis,and through crudusmeaningraw, one arrives at its concretesignificance -cruor, meaningblood, and kreas (fromthe Greek),meaningflesh.A ratheruntenable conclusion amidst the repeated assertionsthat crueltycannot be made synonymous withblood and flesh. This contradictionplaces us farther than ever froma definition of "cruelty,"yet it indicates at least the way in which the word can be expected to operate. What takes a scene in which crueltyis not place in this passage is a scene in the theaterof cruelty, the referent but the of its simply functioning textuality. If Artaud ruptures the of it is indeed ordinarymeaning language, throughthe etymologyhe proposes, by the true of pursuing meaning language accordingto its originwithrigorouslogic. Yet he effectsthis break, not by arriving at an originof crueltywhichwould lie outside of the word, but at the crueltyof the origin.For the "blood" and "flesh" in whichthe etymological reasoning culminates(as did the rejected materialmeaning) imply both the contradictionin the stated intentionof Artaud's letterand the impossibility of between the "sens usuel" and a break with If one it. on insists, distinguishing however, markinga distinctionbetween the two, as Artaud apparently does, so that the passage it may be said to move from may seem to have some sense of logical progression, "blood" in a "material sense" to "blood" as a "notion concrete"; that is, the notion to understanding and cruelin its repetition. (word) has become concrete,resistant Yet why should the initiationinto Hdliogabale take place by way of Le Thbdtre et son double? To what extent can the scene of crueltycited above be said to serveas a model for cruelty as it functionsin the novel, in which, certainly, no passage plays itselfout in an identicalway. Despite the manifesto formin whichArtauddeliberately cloaks Le Thidtreet son double, a readingof the firstof the "Lettressur la cruautd" showed its contentsto be anything but manifest, and whateveranalogiesmay link it to it cannot be said to the theorybehind it. relate Hdliogabale, discursively

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If Le Tbhdtre et son double worksas the double of Hdliogabale,it is only in so faras of "Sur le theatrebalinais." to the "hibroglyphe" thisdouble operatessimilarly Ces acteurs avec leurs robes geometriquessemblentdes hieroglyphes animus. Et il n'est pas jusqu'" la formede leursrobes qui, d6plagant des vetementsde ces l'axe de la taille humaine, ne cr6e cat6 t guerriersen itat de transe et de guerre perp6tuelle,des sortes de ces vetementssymboliques, des v~tementsseconds, qui n'inspirent, et ne se relientpar tous les entrecroisrobes, une id6e intellectuelle, des perspectives de ements de leurslignesA tous les entrecroisements l'air. (Thedtre,p. 65) The actor's robe rendershim a hieroglyph, by robbinghim of his center,by shifting the axis of the human figure.He remainsin a state of trance and perpetual conflict. And not only do the form of the robes displace the human center,they create yet another set of symbolical garments,which in turn enter into apparentlylimitless with their surroundings.This endless layering of symbolical strata intercrossings creates the semblance of a certainmeaning,but thenviolentlydenies its own apparent logic.3 "Ces signes spirituelsont un sens pr6cis,qui ne nous frappeplus qu'intuitivement, mais avec assez de violence pour rendre inutile toute traduction dans un langagelogique et discursif"(Thidtre,p. 65f). In its relationship to Hdliogabale the "Lettre sur la cruaut6" operatesanalogouslyto the hieroglyph. It displaces the novel ratherthan revealing its unifiedconcept,presents it in a state of perpetual contradictionand, in turn,exercisesa violence upon us such that no translationinto a discursive languagecan take place. It was in just thismanner that the scene of cruelty (in "Lettrescruaut.") sur la functioned.While allegingto define "cruelty," it rejects the materialmeaningof the termthat would provide the most immediateunderstanding of the historicaleventsof Hdliogabale. It thenimposes the hard necessity of a logic which claims to explain the origins of the novel's language, but which, when rigorously followed comes to no conclusion other than a This self-destructive logic would be the best approximation to a self-invalidation. definition of crueltyif the possibilityof definition were not therebyruled out. Now the reader is as "initiated" as he will everbe into Hdliogabale,foraccordingto x et des n Artaud: "On n'est jamais initio...qu' des op6rations, rites, des signes

I des passes hibroglyphiques qui nous mettentsur la voie du secret" (p. 93). ext~rieurs, Havingbeen placed on the path ("sur la voie") of the secretof crueltyand anarchy,his initiationplaces him no less "sur la voix," stifling the source of the definitionas he unearthsnothingbut rites,signs,and hieroglyphs. Initiationthen,if it indeed provides some introduction into the principles of the text, precludes the possibility of designating a genuinepoint of origin. Why set out on the path of LeThbidtreet son double if only to stiflethe voice of theoretical reason? Why not problematize the question of origin in Hdliogabale discursively?Perhaps because Artaud writes ironicallyof the reader/onlooker who requires this discursive literality.In "Sur le th6tetre balinais," for those who are

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exhausted by the continual,violent,doublingplay of the hieroglyphic there garments, of human realistic double the actor. a appears de Et pour des amateursde realismea tout prix,qui se fatigueraient ' de la ses allusions perpetuelles des attitudessecreteset d6tourn6es des r6alistedu double qui s'effare pensee, il reste le jeu eminemment ces glapissements apparitionsde l'au-dela. Ces tremblements, pu&rils, ce talon qui heurtele sol en cadence suivantl'automatismememe de l'inconscientdechain6, ce double qui, a un momentdonne, se cache derriere sa proprer6alit6, de la peur... voila une description (Tbedtre,p. 66) The embodied double acts out his fearsof an apparitionfromthe beyond,yet at a given moment hides himself"behind his own reality," the original figurewhom he to appear-not doubles. And so he himselfbecomes the "apparition" which threatens fromthe outside but as the rending of the originalfigure fromwithin. of This scene then indicates not only Artaud's ironicaluse of literalrepresentations the fearful, but within the scheme of such literality,a displacement into that the gesturetowardsetymology violence it pretendedto escape. Certainly hieroglyphic in the "Lettre sur la cruaut6" led to similarconclusions. We should now be ready to enterinto the body properof Hdliogabale. THE ORIGINS OF HELIOGABALE: dans ce mdlange vari6 de semences, il y a une volont6 et de ... l'ordre. Il y a meme de l'unit6,une sortede mysterieuse logique qui ne va pas sans cruaut&. (p. 81) One mightsay of Hiliogabale, for several reasons, what Artaud notes about the religion of the sun. "Cette religiondu Soleil, comme d'ailleurs tout ce qui touche au Paganisme ancien, on ne sait pas par quel bout la prendre"(p. 475). Althoughit begins his birthand ends with the circulationof with the circulation of sperm surrounding his death, it would not be rigorouslycorrect to blood and excrementsurrounding characterizethe text as eitherlinearor circular. Any interpretationmust orient itself to an apparently chaotic succession of from anecdotal details in order to find the necessityof this chaos and of the turning occidental thought required by this orientation.Only in this way can it attempt a "logical image" (p. 475). What follows then is a somewhat forced channelingof the themes of the novel, the reasonable if naive struggleto keep them pure from one anotherwhich will,it is true,not so muchreduce the disorderof the text as play upon its systematic nature. By no means should this be interpretedas an endeavor to on the very assimilate all of Hdliogabale: if anything it will ratherbe a commentary impossibility.

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structure of the book closelycorresponds The anarchic to thefirst the "theme," of Heliogabale, which(although theissuecannot be pursued here)mayalso be origins considered the themeof themes: on theimpossibility forArtaud insists of relentlessly backHdliogabale's in a waythatcouldestablish tracing lineage anyarch&. As the initiation will have made evident, the spermalluded to in the opening sentence of the novelare the signs whichsurround and hieroglyphs and obscure the source of Hdliogabale. It is not by meansof multiplicity alone thatthe namesof those excessivesignsdisseminated the Heliogabale'spossibleancestors, throughout themselves an identity to (the sign text,render indecipherable. ultimately Assigning hismaleancestor to be a critical of) H6liogabale through proves problem. il a autourde son berceauune intense circulation de sperme. .. y ' avectout estn6 uneepoque oi toutle mondecouchait H6liogabale le monde; et on ne saura jamais o0 ni par qui sa merea 6te reellement f6cond6e. (p. 15) unableto precisely thesourceofsperm, an entangled soon Although specify genealogy a matrix of candidates. With theexception of a single member thislist (p. 16) offers includes all theliving malesof Bassianus' family. I willcut offthepursuit of H6liogabale's father rather here-atleastlong abruptly to pose the question:is the relationship in thegenealogy enough amongthesefigures is there, in thisspermatic thatwhichturns the circulation, really(only) familiar-or mostfamiliar and knowable intotheexcessive and inaccessible? Le spermecoule ' flotspeut-&tre, mais c'est un fleuve intelligent, de sperme, que ce fleuve qui couleet qui saitqui'ilne se perdpas. (p. 41) it is not immediately ofsperm of the river Certainly apparent whythe "intelligence" shouldruleout comprehension, or howthisfloodrelates to Artaud's assertion thatthe source of the insemination of H6liogabale'smotherwill remainunknown. Most difficult to graspin thispassageis thatthesperm, while "sait ne se qu'il perd flowing "does not lose itsway,"thatit tracesan pas." This is to say not onlythattheriver senseof the term), conscious of this course,but thatit is also (in Artaud's assigned it this because must the refuses to rigorous necessity. Precisely obey necessity, sperm lose itselfin yet anothersense of the term,namelyto the reader-historian who to designate the father andthereby reduce theflowof the"mdlange de varik attempts semences" static source. The stream, as perpetual does (p. 81) to a single displacement, not disappear, to gushforth in torrents whose ("il ne se perdpas"), but continues

excess defiessuch naming. This interpretation leaves rather vague just how the "intelligence" of the river differentiates itselffromthat historicalsense of truthwhich triesto fix the originof Hd1iogabale,but the "Lettres sur la cruaut6" provide a useful term, analogous to intelligence."La cruaut6 est avant tout lucide, c'est une sorte de directionrigide,la

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' soumission la n6cessit6.Pas de cruaut6sans conscience,sans une sortede conscience appliqu6e" (Thbdtre,p. 121). The lucidityof the riveroperates as submissionto the necessity of a rigid direction, a lucidity which Artaud calls here "applied consciousness." If the applied consciousness is, as the etymology of "applied" suggests,a twined or twisted consciousness,thisapplicationhardlyimpliesthe perfect coincidence of consciousnesswith that onto which it folds. The latterwould function precisely as the structureof that historical consciousness which comes from the outside to seek the truthof its object. But Artaud's "conscience appliquee," if it may indeed be said to be conscious of something, knows that it mustsubmitto the cruelty of "direction." It is the consciousnessof authority ceaselesslyshifted away fromitself as it yields to movementin a particular direction.It mightbe called the consciousness of the loss of consciousness although the phrase tends toward meaninglessness, or more rigorously, a consciousnesswhich, applyingcrueltyto itself,perpetually cancels itself. This operation may be attributedto the "intelligence"of the riverof sperm,which is, as we have seen, a riverof signs-those names sowed throughoutthe text as the of Hdliogabale.The "intelligence"(frominter-between, possible if improbablefathers and legere,legein-to read, say) of the flow of signsis the displacementfromone to another, a saying or reading between the names, the play of the currentof the text itself which is constantlyin motion and unable to fix upon any one of its signs as givingaccess to an origin. The circulation of sperm, then, that surroundsH6liogabale's cradle is no orderly circular movement periodically returning back to its origin but rathera perpetual Nowhere is this better spending. enlargedupon than in the lengthyscene describing the circulation of that other riveralluded to in the initial line of the novel, (if not directly named), the Tiber, as it sweeps H6liogabale's cadaver out to sea. This is the final,if explicitlyinconclusive, passage of Hdliogabale. S'6tant bien repue de sang et de la vue obscene de ces deux corps denud6s, ravag6s,et qui montrenttous leurs organes, jusqu'aux plus secrets,la troupe essaie de fairepasserle corps d'H6liogabale dans la premierebouche d'6gout rencontree.Mais si mince qu'il soit, il est encore trop large.II fautaviser. On a dji ajoute a Elagabalus Bassianus Avitus, autrementdit H6liogabale, le sobriquet de Varius, parce que forme de semences multiples et issu d'une prostitu&e;on lui a donne par la suite les noms de Tibirien et de Train6, parce que train6et jet6 dans le Tibre apr&s qu'on a essaye de le faire entrer dans l'6gout; mais arriv6 devant l'6gout, et parce qu'il a les epaules trop larges,on a essay6de le limer. Ainsi, on a fait partirla peau en mettanta vif le squelette que l'on tient t laisser intact; et l'on aurait pu alors lui ajouter les deux noms de Limi et de Rabot6. Mais une fois lim6, il est encore trop large sans doute, et on balance son corps dans le Tibre qui

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The Assimilating Harmony l'entraine jusqu'd la mer, suivi cadavre de Julia Soemia. ' quelques remous de distance, du

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Ainsi finitHiliogabale, sans inscriptionet sans tombeau. . . une telle vie, qu'une mort pareille couronne, se passe, il me semble de conclusion. (pp. 136-137) to fix the Implicit in the riverof spermwas the figureof the historianattempting name of the father, to put an end to the scandal of so many sperm and the is analogous to the police of the final uninterpretable glidingof signs.This moral figure passage, who, having killed their emperor,have now had more than theirfill of the satiated obscenity of his cadaver,the excessive vestigesof Heliogabale. Quite literally (repue), they attempt to force another mouth ("la premiere bouche d'6gout rencontree") to digest and reduce the body to traceless excrement. "Mais... il est encore trop large": in what sense broad? The second of the three paragraphscited above notes a type of ungovernableaddition which well exceeds the measure of H61liogabale'sshoulders, the apparentlyendless addition of signs. Not only has the of his name (Varius) multiple spermwhich formedHdliogabale led to a proliferation but the very attempt to eliminate his remainshas added the names of Tib6rian and Traini and the possibilityof two others.It is no coincidencethatthese last two terms, traces of a finaleffort to file and plane down H6liogabale,are both used in expressions "to meaning polish one's style," (limer son style, raboter son style); for the manoeuvresof the police to erradicatethe chaotic and extravagant signsof H6liogabale would be akin to an effort to reduce that perpetual play of signstakingplace in the river of sperm, to a style ruled by convention and narrow logic. But, as Artaud repeatedlyinsists,"il (his style) est trop large."4 Despite this apparently limitless proliferation of signs, the long probe into H6liogabale's ancestrycan perhapsfindan end in Bassianus. He is the figure repeatedly put forward as the initial member of the dynasty-though not without some reservations withrespectto the historicalknowledgegained. de percer le mysteredes originesde ce Bassien avec Tenterons-nous commence lequel l'&phemere dynastie des Bassianides... Histori... quement l'operation semble impossible,et ce travailde fichesn'a d'attrait rien. pas pour nous. 11ne nous apprendrait (p. 303) It teaches us nothingbecause Bassianus, patriarch of the line, is also a "parricide" and therefore the annihilation of the father no less than his authentication. signifies Mais pour en revenir aux Bassiens, dont H61iogabale est le plus illustre,et dont Bassianus est le fondateur,il y a un terriblehiatus entre la lign&edes Bassiens,et celle des Samsig6ramides; et cet hiatus

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Carol Jacobs sans est marque par une usurpationet par un crime,qui detournent la descendance du soleil. l'interrompre (p. 20)
... entre Bassianus... et le dernierroi solaire d'Emese se recontre un fosse.. . Car il y a, ne l'oublions pas, Al'originede la dynastie des Bassiensfond&epar ce Bassaniusd'Emese, un parricidesur lequel l'Histoireglissesans insister. (p. 336)

En ce qui concerne Bassianus,un fait est certain,c'est que, dans la des pretres-rois d'Emath, il y a une coupure tres lign&eh&reditaire nette. (p. 309) Justhow to describethe "hiatus" and "cutting"is a ratherdelicate problem.We can get around it temporarilyby noting at least the more abstract implications of Bassianus' profession,before he assumed the r61eof patriarch."Leur pere a tous, la avoir source f6minine de ce fleuvede stupreset d'infamies, devait,avantd'etre Pretre, in turn traces his &t6 cocher" (p. 15). Not only was Bassianus a "cocher," but he ancestryfroma coach driver. N'est-il pas plausible de croire que ce Bassianus n'6tait pas le fils de Samsigeramusmais de sa femme,et que celle-ci ayant illkgitime faut6 avec un cocher a voulu 6loigner du Sacerdoce l'enfant adulterin... (p. 313) Yet this originary source of the familyis no less "cocher" than "coch6," which is to he is that marked with a "coche"-a strokewhich cuts into and removesa partof say the name it tallies. Bassianus is threatenedwith being crossed out by the same sign which checks him off and affirms him as the source of a line, a sign recordedby the new generation.Similarly, Bassianuswas son both of a "cocher" and of a "coch6," for, as his double r6le of father and parricide will already have indicated, his father suffered a violent cutting: ". . .(Bassianus) n'a pas craintpour parvenir jusqu'au tr6ne d'6gorger ses ascendants directs" (p. 307f). This then sets the pattern for the generation of H6liogabale, a reproduction which takes place from origins already theirsource. vulgarand which produces descendantsonly by rupturing The significance of this cuttingand vulgarity linked to generationhas hardlybeen exhausted. A passage fromthe appendix bringstogetherthe turnof generations, the cochers/coch6s, and an indirect recommendation from Artaud as to their interpretation. Le vieux royaume d'Emath est, nous l'avons dit,r~duitA un temple. Si & l'intbrieurde ce temple Bassianus, fils de cocher, et ancien

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The Assimilating Harmony cocher lui-meme, est roi, il n'a guere a l'ext&rieur, et en face de Septime Sevbre, que quelques droits tres lkgersde remonstrance, dont il n'aurait d'ailleursgarde de se servir. C'est la que se fondrale sens des M6taphoresles plus grossieres, et explosives,directement assimilkes. saisies,directement (p. 322)

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As in the relationshipbetween Bassianus and his father(coch6), Septimius Severus appears on the scene as usurper of his future father-in-law. Although there is of the apparentlynothingvery shockinghere,Artaud insistson the excessivevulgarity passage's metaphors, the sense of which will dissolve if taken too literally, "directement saisies." I have already deviated from the normal interpretation by the play between cocher/coch6, and can now push the point a bit further suggesting with another, in the context of H61iogabaleall too evident,meaningof "coch"--to have been treaded5 by a male fowl (concidentallya "cochet"). Leur pere a tous (Bassianus), la source f6minine de ce fleuve de stupreset d'infamies,devait avant d'etre pretre,avoir 6te cocher de fiacre,car on ne comprendrait pas, sans cela, l'acharnement que mit ' une fois sur le trone se enculer des faire cochers. par H61liogabale (p. 15) Bassianus is thenthe bas anus fromwhich Hdliogabaledescends and whom he imitates. And the repeatedreference to "fiacres" are no less innocent. Saint Fiacre: Son culte est tres populaire. Si en Alsace, il passe pour guerir la syphilis, il est surtout r6put6 pour la guerison des hemorroides,autrefoisappelkes le "mal de S. Fiacre," peut-etreen vertu d'un jeu de mots: le rapprochementde son nom avec fic, fistule.7 Yet a too literal interpretation of the function of such plays, here, as above will simplydissolvethe passage's explosiveness.WhenArtaudwritesof "des M6taphoresles plus grossikreset explosives," it is certainlynot the pornographiccontent of anal intercourseor homosexualityto which he refers, for this contentwould be a limited inversionof a moral code, the simple replacingof one arche by another.The passage rathersets into motion an endless chain of inversions, ironizing preciselythat logic of literality in favor of a perpetual perversion of meaning. The traceability of first would H61iogabale'shomosexual taste for coach driversto his father's profession imply a smooth linkage and repeatabilitybetween generations,analagous to the structure of causalitywhichgovernsthe naive logic of a literalreading-the assumption of a non-problematic link between a signand its signification. than H6liogabale's perversionsare far less attributableto Bassianus' coach driving to the disseminationof cocher/cochi/cochetand Bassianus/basanus. And if these

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termsestablisha connectionbetween the patriarch and son, theyare also the means of its dislocation. Each word play indicates, through the act of reproduction,the debasing or attack on that which,as origin,may be called the arch,. Yet, as the return to an already cited passage will show, the violence practicedon the father is no simple destruction: "... .cet hiatus est marque par une usurpation et par un crime qui la descendance du soleil" (p. 20). The nature of this d6tournentsans l'interrompre hiatus should now be unmistakable.It has been taken over by a criminalmissuse,as the etymologyof usurpationsuggests:the "coche" thus inflicted by the son castrates the father and renders him "la source f6minine" (p. 15). The hiatus between generationsdoes not, therefore,marka complete break, but merely"detourne. . .la descendance." In what sense "d6tourne"? The meaningof descendance is firstof all twistedto mean degenerate, low. The fatheris inverti, turnedinto a deviate.The origin has been displaced. As here, throughoutHdliogabale, the questions of originand lineage,which never cease to circulate,are inextricablybound to the question of representation. In this the of the term held "cocher" be as even respect, operation might exemplary-ifthe nature of its operation didn't exclude the possibilityof the model. In establishing the link between Bassianus and his image, H6liogabale, its differential mark significations the non-repeatability of an integral origin. The conclusions to be drawn for the relationbetween the criticaland literary texts are somewhatscandalous. Hdliogabale refusesto be set up as a source of meaningto be to reveal "directlyseized, directlyassimilated" (p. 322) by a criticaldiscoursedesiring its sense. Admittedlythis puts the criticin a ratherdifficult Artaud demands position. an approach to his novel which functionswith no less violence than the generationof Bassianus' line, namely a re-production which usurps the text,attackingit as an arche of fixed meaning,and yet which "(le) d6tourne. Nothingless is ..sans l'interrompre." than an of inversion the text which it on turns its end. The violence we have required been tracingin Artaud then is hardlyone-sided,for if the criticalattack releasesinto play "des Metaphores les plus. . .explosives,"it implicatesitselfas much as the literary text in the perversion of sense. HISTORY: THE ONANIST IDIOT A le replacer dans le temps, ce d6ploiementinnombrablede dieux que les peuples, dans leur avance historique, r6pandent successivementdans les cieux,-et souvent le meme emplacement du ciel visible est occup6 par des effigiesde nature conautour des traire, .-a le replacerdans le temps,ce pietinement ... principesne touche pas plus a leur validit6initialeque les masturbations d'une idiot onaniste ne touchentau principede la reproduction. (pp. 59-60) For the sake of logic, I unfolded earlier only a single version of the notion of riverof spermwas history.The relationshipbetween the historianand the intelligent

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and history, never namedat thatpoint hierarchically, although specifically organized of Artaud's was the as naive to text, implicitly present attempt escapethefluxofsigns and to fixdefinitively theorigins ofHdliogabale. andreduction of Yet,suchseparation " . . . le meme the notionof history is necessarily inerror aboutitssignification: nom ... servait.. . a deux formes" ofone signification is only (p. 60), andthedetachment halfthestory. Still this side of the storymustbe morefullyrelatedbeforewe can tracethe inversion into its opposite.Direct allusionsto history are oftenmade by way of for the historical which a number of passages havebeen ridicule, texts,(from great assimilated intothe novel), as the voice of moral in variance with are, judgment, direct the narrative voice. "Je ne juge pas ce qu'il en est r6sult6 commel'Histoire peutle cettedebauche me plait"(p. 21). juger;cetteanarchie, This moralizing on the partof history is not unrelated to itsattempt to slideover the hiatusin Hdliogabale's a hiatuswhich was seento be one of those descendance, les plusgrossikres et explosives" "Metaphores (p. 322). ... entre son ancetre, et le dernier roi solaired'Emesese Bassianus, rencontre un foss6que l'Histoire ne peut combler. Car il y a, ne l'oublionspas, I l'origine de la dynastie des Bassiens fondeepar ce Bassaniusd'Embse,un parricide sur lequel l'Histoireglissesans insister. (p. 336) Deux historiens sur les trois,qui, vivant 1 l'apoque d'Heliogabale, nous parlentde l'hre'dite' de Bassien,mentionnent, sans trop y ses origines et ils le donnent comme insister, plkbeiennes, pourtant descendant d'une de Ils rois. l'authentique lignee ininterrompue mais commeen faisant la coupure dontnous parlions notent, plus haut, et nous laissent le soin de concilier ces insolubles contradictions. (p. 309) As hasbeenso often thehistorical textinverts an entire constellation of anticipated, conclusions. It playsthe moralcounterpart to anarchy, reduces themultiplicity and differentiation of the origin, of reproduction replacesthe pattern through parricide withan uninterruptable of all, establishes a system of and,mostsignificantly lineage, lineal representation in which all possibility of contradiction is repressed. This of H6liogabale's of its own textual manipulation is, of course,a defense ancestry endeavor-the faithful oftheoriginal historical reproduction reality.
The narrator'smockery of the documentarystyle is best traced to his enigmatic commentaryon Lucian's descriptionsof the temple at Hierapolis. Two and a half pages of citation fromLucian concentratetheirattentionon the enormousphalluses in the vestibulebeforethe building.They are circumscribed criticism. by the following

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Hieropolis. .. Rien ne semble l'avoir frapp6en dehorsd'un pittoresquetout exterieur:

Lucian... raconte une visite a d'Astarte qu'il a faiteau temple

(Here follows the long citation from Lucien of which I record only the last sentences.) "Le temple regardele soleil levant. Par sa formeet sa structure il ressembleaux templesconstruits en Ionie." C'est ici que l'on sent la femme. Si au lieu de nous donner une description exterieure du temple d'Hierapolis, et jamais sa descriptionn'est plus exterieureque quand il fait mine de violerses de s'introduire dans ses secrets,Lucien avait eu la moindre entrailles, curiositepour les principes,il auraitrecherche surles colonnades du des sexes pdtrifids de femelle qui en temple l'origineextra-humaine formentl'ornementation.C'est le principe m8me de l'architecture d'Ionie. (pp. 31-33, italicsmine)

It is here that one senses Artaud's irony.Withthe same gesturethatcondemnsthe concrete exteriorityof Lucian's description,he himselfadds yet another superficial detail as the essentialmissingelement. Lucian, by neglecting the principles, has failed to searchforthe femalegenitalson the columnsof the temple.The almost too obvious in lightof the "Guerre des principes" (Part II of Hdliogabale), is that interpretation, the historicaltext necessarilyremains ignorantof the doubleness of the originand therefore presentsonly the phallic aspect of the temple. Yet Artaud's duplicitygoes much farther. If the narrator insistson the extra-human and ornamentalnature of the vaginas,it is because a resemblanceother than that of simple representation,(the basis for the historicaltext), warrantscalling them "le principe meme de l'architectured'Ionie." These non-sensiblesimilaritiesmust be a laterpassage of Hdliogabale describing the insigniaof JuliaSoaemias pursuedthrough and two othersfrom Fabre d'Olivet's De l'Itat social de l'Homme, so oftenalluded to in the novel. Son (Soaemias') insigneest la violette "Ioneh", la fleurde l'amour et du sexe, parce qu'elle s'effeuillecomme un sexe. Et sur son 6paule la colombe "Ionah ". (p. 80, italicsmine) C'est I cause du nom de Yoni, analogue A celui de Ioneh, une Colombe, que cet oiseau a 6t6consacr6 la D~esse de l'Amour... t (p. 421)8

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The Assimilating Harmony Le Yoni prend aussi la formed'une fleurde violette;et voila ' aux loniens. consacree Junon, &tait si chore cettefleur, pourquoi

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mine) (p. 421,italics partly

differentiation of almost identical signs takes place. Each of these signs (italicized on Lucian: loniens/Ionie; above) finds an oblique echo in the narrative commentary ici qu'on sent la femme, Yoni/sexes . . . de femelles;Ioneh, violette/C'est violer;Ionah, Colombe/colonnades. Whereas Lucian's documentary description uses the term "lonie" in its most precise and limitedsignificance, it is immediatelyplayed upon as Ionah and Yoni (fragrance and woman) in a sentencewhose reference would otherwise be meaningless:"C'est ici qu'on sent la femme." It is this assimilationof signsthat so radicallyviolates the historicaltext's concept of truth-assimilationin the double sense, both as a relationship of analogy and differentiation of the meaningof one sign between signsand, a replacingor devouring to "spread by that of the next. History,as our epigraphhas alreadyindicated,prefers out successively" in time those effigies of non-coincidentmeaning which might otherwiseoccupy the same site, in order to maintaina fixed,unambiguousclarityof signification. je veux dire qu'immediatement,le meme nom ne servaitjamais a ' deux formes,si l'on tient considirerces formescomme des entites veritablement separ6es, mais le meme nom etait souvent la contractionde deux formes,faites,semble-t-il, pour se divorerl'une l'autre...

andthose The narrator between thetemple at Hierapolis elaborates theresemblance of Ionia throughan obscure allusion to other parts of his text where the

(p.60)

wastes its seed-involved in a reproduction History,like an onanistidiot, quite literally which is totally self-affective, which admitsno conflicts withthe realityit attemptsto it of fromits other,of that lacks the consciousness differentiation duplicate; perpetual excess and crueltywhich I have tracedas the mode of reproduction of Bassianus' line. This definitive distinction between the historical and narrative text creates a convenientfiction,althoughit failsitselfinto the historicaltendencyof separationand reduction. It also fails to account for the narrator'scontinual manipulation of an historicalrhetoriceven in moments,such as those just cited,when he directly attacks that rhetoric: ceux qui, comme H6liogabale, sont parvenus A offusquer ... l'Histoire, c'est qu'ils avaient des qualitis qui auraientpu changerle cours de l'histoiresi les circonstances avaient6ti pour eux. (p. 50)
The circumstances necessary both to obscure the historical sense of truth and to change its course are against Hdliogabale, but nevertheless are for Hdliogabale. These

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circumstancesare a certain architectural use of the text, much akin to that used by Nietzsche in The Birth of Tragedysuch that the scheme of successive,distinctperiods that it was of historybeginsto dislodgeat its foundationsthe notion of representation meant to preserve.For this scheme of successiveeras parallelsthat of the relationship of the historicaltext to its source-in the case of Artaud's "history,"to that of other historical texts-a relationship best described as "d6marquage": this is the other a citationfromPhotiuswiththe versionof the notion of history.Artaud supplements remark. following une oeuvre II faut dire que ce texte de Photius n'est pas lui-meme originale,mais qu'il est le demarquage d'une livreperdu, qui, a en semble avoir juger par le nombre des (crivains qui s'y rbferent, constitue pour les anciens une vraie Bible du Merveilleux: la Vie d'Isidore par Damascius. (p. 25) The originalwork is a book already lost. Another text,in plagiarizing it,has deprived it of that mark which would establish its identity,and thereby leaves its origin untraceable. TEMPLES: THE ARCHITECTURE OF ANARCHY The temples of Heliogahale serveto illustrate those anomolies whichhave been seen to specifythe functioning of the text, for theirsedimentary is veryakin to structure the layering of mython mythand historicaltext on historicaltext. These temples,like Artaud's novel, are founded on the ruins of formerconstructions. It is in these ruins piled one upon the other accordingto a stricttemporalorder,that the arche-o-logist, the scientistof the arch6, expects to find highlystructuredtraces of the past; but building on a foundation of ruins means building "sans fondations" and the seeker aftertruthfindsthe hierarchical levels levelled. ... on entasse sans fondations6dificessur 6difices,et constructions le passe, sur constructions.On pilonne, sans sourciller, ferocement, et si quelque vestige, qui pour nous, pour un archeologue, serait precieux, d6passe par trop ou simplementaffleure,on le rase, on nivellel'ensemble... (p. 466) The architectonicsof these temples are analogous to the baseless foundationson which they are built. Constructedaccordingto a systemof descendingspirals,it is a blueprintwhich deconstructsits own hierarchical plan. "Sous le sol, le templedescend en spirales vers les profondeurs; les chambres des rites s'entassent, se succhdent verticalement..." (p. 36). The spiralling levels enter into a strangeharmonywiththe sacred noises of the temple. Each sound, like the structural seems to be stratifications,

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But superimposed successivelyon the next, settingup a systemof mutual reference. this harmony of vibrationsand echoes excludes the possibilityof communication.It and noises whose only organizing puts into play a seriesof non-intelligible whisperings principleis that of the echo. Dans le silence soudainement tombe, on entend des pas, des voix, des allkes et venues de toutes sortes dans les chambressouterraines de l'6difice; tout cela formant comme des tranches, des 6tages et de bruits. superpos6sde chuchotements ... le temple vibre, en harmonie avec les tourbillonsstratifies des sous-sols... (L)es veilleurs se passent le mot, donnent de la voix, heurtent des gongs, font gemir des trompes dont les vouites se renvoient les 6chos. (p. 36) No element in these rites can escape enteringthe endless web of analogy. These ritualsof harmonizing elementsat Emesa all turnabout the rapaciousnessof the god to feed the god. Elagabalus, forthe entirefunctionof the templeis quite literally C'est qu'autour des quatre grands repas rituels du dieu solaire, tourne un peuple des pretres, de desservants. d'esclaves, de h&rauts, Et que ces repas eux-memesne sont pas simples,mais qu'a chaque geste,a chaque rite...repond... (p. 45-46) It is this same god whom the text, in very similarterms,earlier named "Desire": ... et ce d6sir,comme Elagabalus lui-meme,n'est pas simple.. ." (p. 22). The desire of Elagabalus operates as an irreducible,paroxysmal non-coincidenceof elements. What takes place in the harmonicrelationshipbetween different in the stratifications, of trajectoriesinside the analogistic relationshipsof the rituals,in the interweavings temple, is a continual violent assimilation (consumption) through assimilation sets into play the assimilating (comparison). Thus Elagabalus/H6liogabale harmony. LE TIMBRE DETIMBRE: " Mais l'importantest de crier des 6tapes,des perspectives de l'un l'autre langage. Le secretdu theatredans l'espace c'est la dissonance, le d6calage des timbres, et le d6senchainement dialectique de l'expression. (Thbdtre, p. 135) To lay bare the frameworkof Hcliogabale and locate the central image the text offersof itself,the "noeud centraldu bruit" (p. 326), the "point-centre"(p. 326) of

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the intricate web-no passage is more appropriatethan that describingthe visit of Apollonius of Tyana to larchas, "le noeud solaire" (p. 326). To be sure,the anecdote is not an integralpart of the novel, but one of those fragments collected in the appendix and its subject matterhas no immediatepertinenceto the lifeof Heliogabale. Yet nothingin Hdliogabale is so irrelevant that it failsto enterinto the harmonyof the

text: ".

..

des lois les plus secretesde la pens6e" (p. 327).

bien6trange, toutcela faitune harmonie discordante. . . qu'on sent si loin

The context is not insignificantsince it draws a parallel between a particular architecture and a voice which destroysits own intelligibility, between that necessity of structure which I have shown to be one componentof cruelty, and the tottering of

It is thisstrange thepassage intheguiseofa complaining music which soul. presents

thatstructure. findsan abyss,which, like thetemples of Hierapolis and Apollonius

levelspiled one upon the other. Emesa, consistsof innumerable il a larchas, le noeud rejoint solaire,-qui gouffre, ... de nichesd'hommes, toutescreus'es" memele rocher. grouillant Sur une muraille d'une fabuleuse et t vif,commeune hauteur, ossature des multitudes de cellulesde moines, a qui un d'6corch6, pan de mur manquerait,s'entassentles unes au-dessus des autres,et habite un

s'allongent jusqu'a l'infini.

(p.325)

to the soul of Palamedes, his visitor theCariancounterpart larchasbrings of the Toth.9 Inventor of the of the musical and of and scale, Egyptian god alphabet, weights he marks the of all of standards measures, communication, origin logical systematized Yet the lamentation of thissourceof Logos concerns art,and scientific judgment. the obliteration of Logos-of thatlanguage and art intended to represent precisely him."Et elle se plaint... de sa statueenterr6e non loinde Smyrne..., de sonnom oubli6 par Homere,-elle s'appelait Palamede, parait-il, chez les humains"(pp. 326-327). This obliteration of wordand reasonis tracedout in themoaning of Palamedes, which a similar to theendless desires of Elagabalus. signals hunger strangely .. quelque chosecommeune ame en boulen'arrete et pas de gemir Rien de plus6trange d'6ructer. d'ailleurs faits que les borborygmes de musique sevrbes sevrbes, parune ame. Cela est pleinde musiques maisdes sonsmaigres, evidemment, qui ne seraient pas desmusiques, des sons6macies de jefine et qui toutle long parune sorte organique, du jour... ne cessentpas de lutter de subtilit&. Or cettesubtilite toutetremp6e d'amour estabsolument sansastuce... (p. 326)
This hungereludes definitionbecause it is itselfthe movementtowardsindefinability. Therefore,in the attemptsto specifyits nature,the music of Palamedes' belchingand

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groaningrepeatedlyundergoesa certainemaciation, an emaciation that takes place as the breakdown of music's fixable and repeatable structuralorganization and that finally results in an apparent silence. The intestinal rumblingshave already been weaned from any musical origin-cut off so that there is no systematicinterrelationship among them determined by rules of conventional harmony: they are sounds rather than music. If they strivewith one another for subtlety, this is not to be for they are "absolutely withoutguile," but understood as a rational intentionality, ratheras subtletyin the sense of an erosion of substance."C'est de la mysticite creus&e which functionslike its etymologicalroot par de la mysticite" (p. 326), a mysticity mystos: keeping silent.The endpoint of the emaciation,then,is not simplymysticity but the multifold, akin to silence. layered,hollowingout of something This process involves a "jefine organique" that is not only the disintegration of systematicorganizationbut also of the "organe"-the voice-and most especially the voice as faithful of humanthought. representative ' C'est... quelque chose qui feraitpenser une voix aiguO de tete fournie pas l'arriere-arriere-gorge, aussi loin qu'une gorge humaine aller dans le et recul, puisse repouss6epar la volonte surtenduede la tete encore quelques diapasons plus au fond. Tout nu, ce son, ce timbre,ce diapason, non seulementpar leur purete,mais fournipar une serie de feuilletsde son, dont chacun est en recul sur l'autre de un, deux ou plusieurs degres. Tous les quarts de ton du monde sensible mis l'un derriere l'autre et dechir6s, ou plut6t soustraits l'un de l'autre, ne sauraientfournir une idle de ce detimbrageatroce et qui finitpar donnerune sensationde vide et de silenceabsolue... (p. 326) Artaud compares the gutteral sounds of Palamedes' soul to a piercing voice that violates the bounds of the human and overstrains the limitsof the center of reasonthe head. This deconstruction of the origin of Logos by means of a successive movement backwards is not unrelated to an all too familiarsemblance of structure that permeates the whole. The tone is put forth by a series of sounds whose of each from relationshipis not preciselymutual destructionbut rathera subtraction the next, a limitless marking of difference which produces an indefinable "detimbrage,"approximatedby, but not equivalentto, absolute silence and emptiness. dans cette musique gutturalede l'Fime,ce timbre d6timbr6, ...or mais qu'il faut depeindre ainsi et le fixer dans le caractere que je viens de lui donner,est encore en recul sur d'autressons et d'autres timbres,il cr&eavec eux des manieresde perspectives, une musique supirieurement organise, et qui donne des noeuds-stations,ces points d'orgue de la vibration qui font nombre,comme un silence qui est.. .le noeud centraldu bruit,comme le point le plus aigu de la finitpar donner de la nuit, comme larchas flamme,le point-centre,

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Carol Jacobs de de toutes les frictions, est le noeud-lumiere, le point de rencontre toutes les contradictions... (p. 326)

Because the "discordant timbre" cannot be fixed, the text is forced to depict it one behindthe throughanalogies, of silence,forexample, or of quartertones arranged other. Yet neitherof these "ne sauraientfournir une id6e de ce detimbrage"(p. 326). No image can coincide exactly. The entire description of Palamedes has been articulatedfromthe very beginning The verysource by a chain of such assimiliations. of the problematicsounds is identifiedonly indirectly as "quelque chose comme une ame en boule " (italics mine), whose belchingsmake one thinkof a piercing head-voice that, in turn,is not identical to a succession of musical tones. The passage just cited adds to the long list of comparisons. As impossible as it may be to fix the idea, the "timbred6timbr6"is (like) a "disprinted imprint" of the text. It is always one step removedfromother sounds and imprintsand gives to them a semblance of harmonicstructure:". . . il cr6e avec eux des manieres de perspectives, une musique superieurement organisee" (p. 326). No analogy can reify it, because it is itself the movement of analogizing as perpetual That imprintmakes both structurea possibilityand the continual differentiation. of deconstruction as well. It functionsas an organizing centeronly in so faras tracing it is the centerof contradiction, disorganization.10 vibration, The dis-printed imprint is at work throughout Hdliogabale, determiningits questionable structure while undermining the organizational basis for critical succession of passages creates an commentary. Although the chaotic fragmentary incoherent"bruit," they lend themselves-perhapsall too easily-to a chanellinginto themes,which, by means of theirapparent referential content,would seem to open a realm of significance. Yet each of these has articulatedseparatelyand systematically the break-downof order and of those notions of origin,reason and representation is founded. All themes, then, although individually upon which thematic integrity to articulated,operate analagously one another: on this basis of a repeatedand similar movementof deconstruction, can I be said to have set up Analogy as a super-structure of the whole? Such a super-structure could itselfin no way escape beingjust one more link in the discordantchain of analogies.Whatever illusoryvantageof perspective may be gained, it necessarilystands in relationship to the otherelements,as theydo to one another.This is to say that no analogisticformulation is possible such that it renders coincides or is reducible to its referent. The attempt to establish a with, present, structureholding together the anarchical fragments of the texts necessarilymoves towardsgreaterreverberations of anarchy. THE INCENDIARY ALPHABET: 11y a dans toute po6sie une contradictionessentielle.La po6sie, c'est de la multiplicit6 broybeet qui rend des flammes.Et la po6sie qui ramhnel'ordre ressuscited'abord le d6sordre,le disordre aux

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aspects enflammes; elle fait s'entrechoquer des aspects qu'elle ramenea un point unique; feu,geste,sang,cri. Ramener la po6sie et l'ordre dans un monde dont l'existence meme est un d6fi t l'ordre, c'est amener la guerreet la permanence de la guerre;c'est amener un 6tat de cruaut6applique, c'est susciter une anarchiesans nom.... (p. 106) The apocalyptic propensity implicit in the movement of analogy in Hdliogabale allows the principle strands of our text-those notions of sign, representation, and origin-to be woven together.From the same descriptionof the interpretation Hierapolis temple, which was supplemented by the complex play on Ionie/Ioneh (violets-the insignia of Soaemias)/Ionah (dove, carried by Soaemias)/Yoni (female detail fromthe genitals),Artaud cites the followingapparentlyinnocentdocumentary historianLucian: "Entre ces deux statues (of Juno and Jupiter), on en voit une troisieme6galementd'or, mais qui n'a rien de semblable aux deux autres.C'est le Semeion: elle porte sur la tte une colombe d'or." (p. 35) This passage adds to the web of non-referential similarities which we began to mark out earlier,for Soaemias, whose name almost echoes that of Semeion, like the statue, carries a dove (Ionah). Semeion thus functionsas a sign for H6liogabale's origin,for Soaemias, and by extension, for the male "semences multiples" (p. 137). This constellation Simeion/Soaemias/semences is not based on any physical resemblanceof the statue to the figures of motherand father, forSembion,who is both masculineand feminineand neither,"bears no similarity" to the statuesof Juno and Jupiter, mother and fatherof the gods. In what sense then can Semeion be said to operate as a sign for the originof H6liogabale?Perhapsnot at all-at least not as a sign-forthe origin.At best, one is left with the formulation,the origin of Hdliogabale is a sign (uoipetov),a sign that does not representbut differentiates, that marksthe cleft between the masculine and the feminineand creates the space for their continual war. It is a sign that ratherthan a privilegedcenter,itselffunctionsonly by being assimilatedinto a chain designating of differentiations with other signs. This implies a ratherapocalyptic threat to the of the originand the guaranteeof representation integrality attributed to traditionally both signand origin. Artaud,as usual, has not faithfully reproducedthe historicalsource he cites,and the original passages from Lucian's de Dea Syria give a more precise referenceto this
catastrophe and Sgmbion's relationship to it.

And betwene hem stont a symulacre of gold, not lyk the othere symulacres in no kynde, that hath no propre schap but bereth the

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Carol Jacobs qualitees of the other goddes. And the Assurienshem selve clepen it Tokene, for thei move not seyn whens it cam ne what manerthyng it is. But some beleven, it is of Bachus, and othere that it is of Deucalioun, and othere that it is of Semiramys.And for sothe a dowve of gold stont on his hede, and so their devisen that it is SemiramysTokene. And it doth iorney twyes eech yeer tothe See, forto fecchenthatwateraforseyde.

to the followingearlierpassage: The aforesaidwaterrefers ... in here londe opnede a huge hole and resceyvedealle the water; and when thishapped, Deucalioun leet maken awteresand let byldenover the hole a templehalowed to luno... In tokene of that storie thei don thus. Twyes eech yeer water cometh fro the See in to the temple. fro beyonden Eufrate ..and men and all to the See gon manye bryngen watre, that anon thei scheden out in the temple and thanne it goth adoun in to the hole ... And in doynge thus thei seyn that Deucalioun made suche ordeynnauncefor the seyntuaryein memorie of that tribulacioun and than benefice.11 This peculair image,the Sembion,whose powers of representation are as indeterminate here as in Artaud's version,is ritually used to reenactthe deliverancefromDeucalion's flood. Yet the repetitionof this scene, the bringing of sea water to dry land at the of is no less a as reenactment of the floodingthan of temple Hierapolis, interpretable the deliverance.It is here that the perpetualgenerationof anarchylies, not in a reified difference,but in the contradictoryoperation of the sign both as the apparent of total catastrophe. redemptionthrough repetitionand the instrument The disjoint function of the Sembion is analogous to that of the baetyls, those forthe magical, usually phallic-shapedstones so frequently punctuatingthe narrative, a certainsolar-and theocentrism baetyls also place into question H6liogabale's origins, and a problematicalnotion of representation. La g6n6alogiefamilialed'Hdliogabale n'a d'intr&t qu'en fonctionde ses rapports avec ce globe ign6, coeur ardent de notre systeme ' terrestre (the sun) qui les B6tylesressemblent... Ce n'est pas au hasard, mais pour un nombre on pourraitdire infinid'assimilations spirituelles, qu'Elagabalus, dieu solaire,est repr6sent6 par un c6ne de marbrenoir qui s'leve sur un vagin. (p. 316) It will be no surprisethat this chain of assimilationswhich links severalhierarchical structures the priority of the ancestor,of the sun, the gods together-thoseestablishing and of the penis over the vagina-that thischain is about to be d6chain6.The weakness of the connection between them, and of each structure in itself,lies in a particular

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and imitation. concept of reproduction The gods have created these stones as a direct sign of theirown seed, a signwhich they have not failed to render inert and unchangeable-the impotent,if concrete of theirrites. establishment symbolof theirown existenceand of the firm ... ils repr&sentent sous un aspect determine et fixe la semence meme de dieu, ils remontent au temps oi les dieux creaient directement des etres, et sont le signe redevenu inerte de leur formidableexpansivite.On les trouvedans tous les lieux ou les rites du soleil rayonnent.Ils creent entre la terreet le ciel des manikres On diraitque les dieux ont voulu signid'6chelons symboliques .... fier d'une maniere concrete leur d6sir d'etre adores la. Marquer fixerun inoubliablementles lieux o0i se repandentleurs influences, terrain pour les rites... (p. 329) However passive these signifiers of the divine semen are intended to be, it is to the divineand potent memberthat a certain preciselyby virtueof theirresemblance to take "Ils lI comme un membre actifau milieude ses sont usurpationbegins place. more than usurpation,forthe propres semences.. ." (pp. 316-317). Perhapssomething to obliteratethat baetyl, ratherthan itselfassumingthe theocentric position,threatens whichestablishedthe existenceof the god, its sign. et si leur ardeurs'est momentanement 6teinte,ils portenten eux ... en et la incendiaires, signes grav6s par griffememe de dieu, les au de mortelles, qui paroles jour l'Apocalypse entamerontla fusion de tous les rites,dans le d6chainement d'un alphabet flamboyant. (p. 317) It is the signatureof god, "la griffe meme de dieu" whichwill turnon itself, no longer and the of the but rather representing reaffirming presence origin, releasing an that is no less an the apocalyptic, incendiary alphabet, apocalypse of alphabetic, westernconcept of language. Yet can thisapocalypse actually be relegatedto the position of a futurehistoricalera or is the literal interpreter the butt of a certainjest. If the baetyls are related to the and the sungod Elagabalus genealogy of Heliogabale by an "infinitenumberof assimilations" (p. 316), they also represent Heliogabale in its guise of a textual arch6, the as text fixed principleand as origin of meaning,menaced by, and menacing with, an apocalyptic, but not necessarily deferred,loss of sense. For the phallic stones, which invariablyhave a vagina already cut into-and cuttingtheirbase, are the object of an impossiblereading. Or la base de cette pierredu ciel qui signifie le membrede l'homme t les anciens ont cru voir un vagin. Les deux principesrejointsdans une seule coulke. L'inextricable union de la dualith primitivequi

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136

Carol Jacobs pr6sidea toute vraie creation. Or meme dans cette union les anciens a la longue n'ont plus su lire. (p. 315-316)

Nowhere is the problematicalnature of interpretation made clearer than by the various anecdotes about the relationshipbetween Eusebius and his baetyl, anecdotes taken significantly enough from that same "livre perdu" which gave the model for between historyas "demarquage." This historicaltext,in fact,locates that relationship

thetwoin ourownera,longbefore thecoming oftheapocalypse.

' C'est dans ce mur qu'il d6posera la pierre.Elle y restera demeure jusqu'au jour du dernier jugement,mais d'ici la Eusebe ne la quittera Et entre et Eusebe la pierre commence une radieuse histoire pas. et telle n'en existait qu'aux grands jours de l'Fige humaine, qu'il d'or. De cette pierreEusebe [s'est constitu6le serviteur, plus que le asservi a ses rites ... serviteur,]1'aede, mystique, l'interpr&te (p. 331) And that relationshipis, of course, that of interpretation, of an interpreter become slave to his textual object, as long as he remainsdeaf to a certainanarchicallaughter his own scientific answering gravity. Entre Eusebe et eux [the baetyls] c'est une bataille constante, une de tous les instants.Ces B6tyles connaissentl'humour et en guerre jouent comme seuls les dieux savent se montrerhumoristiques;car en eux l'Esprit parle toutes les langues, et les d6ceptions qu'ils ont toujoursun caractereinspire. imposenta leur interprete (p. 330) How seriously,then, should one take this holocaust which menaces the very basis of literarycriticism.Only as seriouslyas I have previouslyassumed an integralorigin of philosophical criticism. I am as humouristic as a god Perhaps then humoristically: can be who is soon to be consumed by a flaming alphabet.

The JohnsHopkins University

NOTES All citationsfromHdliogabale and relatedtextsare designated and by a simplepage reference are taken from: AntoninArtaud, OeuvresCompletes,Volume VII (Paris: Gallimard,1967). et son double are markedTbddtre followedby the page numberand Passages fromLe Tbedtre are taken fromAntoninArtaud,OeuvresComplhtes, Vol. IV (Paris: Gallimard,1964).

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The Assimilating Harmony

2.

137

in L'Ecritureet la .difflrence See Jacques Derrida,"La Clbturede la repr6sentation" (Paris: Editionsdu Seuil, 1967), p. 350. The hieroglyph(and later, it will be seen, the analogy), does not quite operate as the flat abolition of dualitywhich Sollers seems to suggest ("La pens6e6met des signes,"in Logiques (Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1968), p. 138), but ratheras an endless concatenationof dualities towardthatabolition. and displacements whichare the movement This interpretation might seem less exorbitantin lightof the followingpassage from the and the the unpolishedstyleof his own narration appendix in which Artaud weaves together natureof Heliogabale'slineage. problematical ' Je (ne) me suis engag6 rien dieprecis,et surtoutpas Aconduiremon recit et en d'une fagon plutbt que de l'autre,et que si j'ai une r6dactioncirculaire spirale oii la pens6e sans cesse a l'air d'en revenirsur la pensee, il faut s'en ' prendretout d'abord a la formede mon espritqui me donne deja assez de fil le sans ou est retordre Il faut prendrece livretel qu'il comme cela. rejeter .... acceptermnmel'amphigouri et la redondancedes ambages, et si l'on accepte l'6tat physique et pages qui suivent et qui decriventsur le mode litteraire philosophique de la Syrie apres la decompositiondu royaumedes Seleucides, du trbnesolaired'Emath. et l'6victiondes Samsigeramides (p. 323)

3.

4.

5. 6.

"to tread: to copulate with - used of a male bird.. ." Webster'sSeventh New Collegiate Dictionary. fiacren.m. V. fiaque fiacre fiaque et, par 6penthese, n.m. posterieur... Dictionnairehistoriquedes argots frangais(Paris: Larousse, 1965), p. 288.

7.

Dictionnaire d'histoire et de gdographieeccldsiastiques,Vol. 16 (Paris: Letouzey et Ant, 1912), pp. 1380-1381. This and the followingquotation are fromFabre d'Olivet,De l'Etat social de l'homme,Vol I, cited by Thevenin,p. 421. They may be foundin the English p. 273 and p. 274 respectively, edition HermeneuticInterpretation of the Originof the Social State ofMan (New York: G.P. Putnam'sSons, 1915), pp. 155-56. See RobertGraves,The GreekMyths:1 (London: Penguin,1955), p. 184.

8.

9.

10. In view of its insistenceon the operationof the "organe" (voice), on organization, both as system and as the unlimitedarticulationof analogy, and elsewherein Hdliogabale on the functionof dismemberment, how can thisessay be said to relate itselfto Jacques Derrida's "La parole souffl6e"in L 'Ecritureet la diffdrence, op. cit., a text whose main ploy (in a compositionof endlessploys) is the apparentassertionof the veryopposite. L 'organisation est l'articulation,l'ajointementdes fonctionsou des membres Celle-ciconstituea la le travail et le jeu de leur differentiation. artus) ( pOpov, de mon (corps) propre.Artaudredoute et le demembrement fois la membrure le corps articule comme le mot d'un seul et meme trait,pour une seule et m8meraison. (p. 279)

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138

Carol Jacobs
in-ratherthanthe dread of-articulation.It is a text that, Hdliogabale is a humorousreveling so though its endless organ-izationapproaches the limits of disorganization-organ-ized can establisha hierarchical positionover another. absolutelythatno elementof articulation To be sure, we concede this as only one face of Hdliogabalejust as Derridadoesn't failto is supplemented note thatthe dread of articulation by "un autretourde son texte." Par toute une face de son discours,il d6truit une traditionqui vit dans la diff&rence, l'alienation, le negatif,sans en voir l'origineet la n6cessite.Pour r6veiller cette tradition, Artaud la rappelleen somme a ses propresmotifs:la ' presencea soi, l'unite, l'identite soi, le propre,etc... Mais par un autretour de son texte,le plus difficile, la loi cruelle,(c'est-a-dire, Artaudaffirme au sens " oi il entend ce derniermot,necessaire)de la difference; loi cette foisportee la conscienceet non plus v6cue dans la naivete' m6taphysique. (p. 291, op. cit.)

11. This and the previouspassage were takenfrom"The Goddesse of Surrye,"in Lucian, Vol. IV (London: HarvardUniversity Press,1961), pp. 389 (first passage) and 353.

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