Locus Solus...Raymond Roussel

"A prominent scientist and inventor, Martial Canterel, has invited a group of colleagues to visit the park of his country estate, Locus Solus. As the group tours the estate, Canterel shows them inventions of ever-increasing complexity and strangeness. Again, exposition is invariably followed by explanation, the cold hysteria of the former giving way to the innumerable ramifications of the latter. After an aerial pile driver which is constructing a mosaic of teeth and a huge glass diamond filled with water in which float a dancing girl, a hairless cat, and the preserved head of Danton, we come to the central and longest passage: a description of eight curious tableaux vivants taking place inside an enormous glass cage. We learn that the actors are actually dead people whom Canterel has revived with 'resurrectine,' a fluid of his invention which if injected into a fresh corpse causes it continually to act out the most important incident of its life."

John Ashbury describing 'Locus Solus' in the introduction of the book Death and the Labyrinth by Foucault.

"It's a rare human that knows death. Most meet
death unprepared armed only with ignorant
unfamiliarity. In other words, people die
simply because it is inevitable."

Jacob Grimm wrote that by incribing "aemaeth"
upon Golem's brow, the clay man lived by drawing
energy from the word for 'truth." But simply
removing "ae" from "maeth" or 'death," returned
the golem back to inanimate clay. That prophecy
told me that no truth would be found within
these walls.

Humans are nothing but the thread from which the
dream of life is woven.

"Who can gaze into the mirror without becoming
evil? A mirror does not reflect evil, but
creates it."

"Thus a mirror bears a glimpse, but not
scrutiny."

"We weep for the bird's cry, but not the blood
of a fish. Blessed are those who have voice."

"Let one walk alone, committing no sin, with few
wishes."

"Like an elephant in the forest."

Brian

'Temet Nosce'