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Locus Solus

Summary

summary::
Locus Solus is a surreal and fantastical novel that takes the reader on a tour of an estate where the eccentric scientist Canterel showcases his bizarre inventions and experiments. These include resurrected historical figures reliving their key memories, a diamond tank filled with strange creatures, and other fantastical contraptions, each with its own elaborate and absurd backstory. The novel is characterized by its dreamlike imagery, intricate descriptions, and playful exploration of science, art, and the boundaries of reality.

Locus Solus by Raymond Roussel is a journey into the bizarre and fantastical, centered around the estate of the eccentric scientist Canterel and his outlandish inventions. The novel explores themes of memory, artificial life, and the boundaries between science and art, all wrapped in a distinctly surreal package. Canterel's experiments often involve blurring the lines between life and death, such as his method of resurrecting corpses to relive their past memories: "At last, after a great deal of trial and error...the professor prepared on the one hand vitalium and on the other resurrectine... As a consequence of a curious awakening of memory, the latter would at once reproduce, with strict exactitude, every slightest action performed by him during certain outstanding minutes of his life". This quote encapsulates the novel's fascination with reanimation and the manipulation of memory.

The theme of artificiality extends beyond just reanimated corpses. Canterel's estate is filled with strange contraptions, like the "dazzling tank on the sunniest spot in his estate...which Canterel named aqua-micans," showcasing a blend of science and whimsical artistry. This is further exemplified by the "Cartesian divers" and "hippocampi" within the tank, creating a crazy imagery.

Constraints and the cyclical nature of existence also emerge as themes. The passage about Gรฉrard, who uses a meticulous process to mark off the days of his confinement, highlights how individuals grapple with limitations and find ways to measure their existence within those constraints: "As fifty days, counting the present one, still stood between him and the unalterable date of his death...".

Ultimately, Locus Solus challenges the reader to question the nature of reality, memory, and the possibilities of science and art. Through Canterel's eccentric inventions and the dreamlike atmosphere of his estate, Roussel crafts a world where the boundaries of what is possible are constantly being pushed.

Thoughts

An entirely unique experience; like a leisurely, sometimes disturbing, stroll through a museum of magic, each exhibit offering a layered history. Loved it, some "magic" was more fun than others, but all in all I had a blast. Hopefully one day I can visit Locus Solus ;)

see Locus Solus - Murder Suicide

Highlights

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santonica ๐Ÿ”—

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ibn Batuta ๐Ÿ”—

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amenorrhoea ๐Ÿ”—

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crepuscular ๐Ÿ”—

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โ€œJouรซl burns, heavenly star.โ€
The gate opened wide โ€” then closed when the visitor had passed through to enter the green cave. ๐Ÿ”—

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The kings of Kerlaguรซzo had, from the beginning, affixed the word Ego to important documents, in place of their name: this heightened their prestige by making each of them, during his reign, the supreme I, source and goal of all things. ๐Ÿ”—

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sagacity ๐Ÿ”—

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aerostat ๐Ÿ”—

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Just above the level of the clawsโ€™ attachment, the dial of a final chronometer was mounted at a peripheral point on the very bottom of the bar. ๐Ÿ”—

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The professor had developed the art of weather-forecasting to its furthest possible limits. Examination of a mass of fantastically sensitive and accurate instruments enabled him to determine the direction and force of every breath of wind at a given spot ten days in advance, as well as the time of arrival, dimensions, opacity and condensation potential of the smallest cloud. ๐Ÿ”—

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peregrinations ๐Ÿ”—

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cockcrow ๐Ÿ”—

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deambulation ๐Ÿ”—

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plangent ๐Ÿ”—

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sistrum ๐Ÿ”—

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strophe ๐Ÿ”—

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exeat ๐Ÿ”—

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mountebank ๐Ÿ”—

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hippocampi ๐Ÿ”—

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As we turned our fascinated gaze from Faustine to the Cartesian divers and from the hippocampi to the frolicsome cat, the professor began speaking to us of the diamond and its contents. ๐Ÿ”—

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The professor sited the dazzling tank on the sunniest spot in his estate, with its narrow base lying almost flush with the ground in an artificial rock; when the sun came out the whole object took on an almost unbearable radiance. The round hole which opened in the colossal jewelโ€™s roof could be closed, when necessary, with a special metal lid. This prevented rain from getting mixed with the precious water, which Canterel named aqua-micans. ๐Ÿ”—

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enfilades ๐Ÿ”—

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tegument ๐Ÿ”—

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erethism ๐Ÿ”—

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Cartesian divers ๐Ÿ”—

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coruscation ๐Ÿ”—

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Bergamo ๐Ÿ”—

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mordant ๐Ÿ”—

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laconic ๐Ÿ”—

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pleiad ๐Ÿ”—

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4 ๐Ÿ”—

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supererogation ๐Ÿ”—

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capacious ๐Ÿ”—

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โ€œStar in Rubies,โ€ ๐Ÿ”—

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At last, after a great deal of trial and error and long experimenting with corpses submitted in time to the required degree of cold, the professor prepared on the one hand vitalium and on the other resurrectine. The latter was a reddish substance based on erythrite, which, when injected as a liquid into the skull of some defunct person through a laterally pierced opening, solidified of its own accord around the brain, encompassing it on all sides. It was then only necessary to put some point of the internal envelope thus created into contact with vitalium (a brown metal easily introduced into the injection hole in the form of a short rod) for the two new substances, each of them inactive without the other, to release a powerful current of electricity at that moment, which penetrated the brain and overcame its cadaveric rigidity, endowing the subject with an impressive artificial life. As a consequence of a curious awakening of memory, the latter would at once reproduce, with strict exactitude, every slightest action performed by him during certain outstanding minutes of his life; then, without any break, he would indefinitely repeat the same unvarying series of deeds and gestures which he had chosen once and for all. The illusion of life was absolute: mobility of expression, the continual working of the lungs, speech, various actions, walking โ€” nothing was missing. ๐Ÿ”—

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Erebus ๐Ÿ”—

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At the end of the book was an excellent alphabetical index, always in two columns and of interminable extent, which contained all the subjects โ€” animal, vegetable or mineral โ€” that were treated. After each entry an indication of the pages dealing with it was given.
As fifty days, counting the present one, still stood between him and the unalterable date of his death, Gรฉrard looked to see if there was any page that listed precisely this number of words. At the top of the fifteenth page, which answered his requirement he employed his skillful process to write the words โ€œCell Daysโ€ โ€” the first word being warranted by the harshness of his confinement. Two further words, โ€œCreditโ€ and โ€œDebitโ€ were written to serve as titles, one the right way round above the first column, and the other back to front below the second. Still using the thorn, the water and the gold dust, he was to strike out each day, starting from the beginning of the page one of the fifty names henceforth destined to represent the last fifty days of his solitary confinement. Gรฉrard would see his credit, consisting of the number of days accomplished, grow at the same time as his debit, the total of days yet to do, diminished. ๐Ÿ”—

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suffusing ๐Ÿ”—

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parsimonious ๐Ÿ”—

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pridiana vidua ๐Ÿ”—

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desideratum ๐Ÿ”—

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peremptorily ๐Ÿ”—

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sinecure ๐Ÿ”—

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erythrophobia ๐Ÿ”—

The Suicide of Franรงois-Charles Cortier

  1. A young man named Franรงois-Charles Cortier โ€” a mysterious suicide brought to Locus Solus under very special circumstances. ๐Ÿ”—

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pecuniary ๐Ÿ”—

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primogeniture ๐Ÿ”—

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cedilla ๐Ÿ”—

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  1. A young man named Franรงois-Charles Cortier โ€” a mysterious suicide brought to Locus Solus under very special circumstances. ๐Ÿ”—

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Lucius Egroizard ๐Ÿ”—

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lucubrations ๐Ÿ”—

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caprice ๐Ÿ”—

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The bacon, as the object of a judicious preference, provided a fresh indication of progress toward sanity; in view of its slightly resistant elasticity, it possessed the properties desirable, in the present instance, to a greater extent than any other material. ๐Ÿ”—

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apophthegm ๐Ÿ”—

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aphaniptera ๐Ÿ”—

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componium ๐Ÿ”—

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lachrymal ๐Ÿ”—

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suppuration ๐Ÿ”—

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inured ๐Ÿ”—

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horripilation ๐Ÿ”—

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ephemerides ๐Ÿ”—

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As an example of a happy event in the past she might choose: โ€œWas my love in a certain quarter sincerely returned, as I believe?โ€ โ€” and as a happening that boded ill: โ€œDid a certain heart attached to mine harbour silent reproaches toward me on a certain occasion, as I fear?โ€ The present allowed analogous enquiries and the future presented an unlimited field of interrogation. ๐Ÿ”—

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The six faces, which seemed as though veined by the letters, were numbered in one corner from 1 to 6 and showed the three phrases โ€œWas it?,โ€ โ€œIs it?โ€ and โ€œWill it be?โ€ separately, once in red and once in black, with the formulas that corresponded to one another on opposite sides. ๐Ÿ”—

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prosody ๐Ÿ”—

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acrostics ๐Ÿ”—

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diaphanous ๐Ÿ”—

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vaticination ๐Ÿ”—