“How inferior the human machine is, compared to man-made machines. They can be decoked, unscrewed, oiled and parts replaced. Decidedly, nature is not a very wonderful thing.” MenHumansMadeNatureWonderfulMachinesInferiorsReplacedWonderful Things Book:The Road from Decadence: From Brothel to Cloister : Selected Letters of J.K. Huysmans Source: The Road from Decadence: From Brothel to Cloister : Selected Letters of J.K. Huysmans
“Last comes the class of persons, of nervous organization and enfeebled vigour, whose sensual appetite craves highly seasoned dishes, men of a hectic, over-stimulated constitution. Their eyes almost invariably hanker after that most irritating and morbid of colours, with its artificial splendours and feverish acrid gleams,-orange.” MenPersonsEyeLastsClassOrganizationConstitutionNervousSensualColourAppetiteArtificialDishesOrangeCraveIrritatingMorbidGleamSplendourHectic Book:Against the Grain: (À rebours) Source: Against the Grain: (À rebours)
“The belief that man is an irresolute creature pulled this way and that by two forces of equal strength, alternately winning and losing the battle for his soul; the conviction that human life is nothing more than an uncertain struggle between heaven and hell; the faith in two opposed entities, Satan and Christ - all this was bound to engender those internal discords in which the soul, excited by the incessant fighting, stimulated as it were by the constant promises and threats, ends up by giving in and prostitutes itself to whichever of the two combatants has been more obstinate in its pursuit.” MenWayGivingHumansHas BeensTwoSoulEndsLife IsFightingWinningBeliefForceHeavenChristStruggleHellPromiseBattleCreaturesEqualLosingConstantThreatBoundsConvictionExcitedPursuitHuman LifeSatanInternalsEntityUncertainHeaven And HellDiscordGiving InWinning And LosingIncessantObstinate Author:Joris-Karl Huysmans
“No longer was she merely the dancing-girl who extorts a cry of lust and concupiscence from an old man by the lascivious contortions of her body; who breaks the will, masters the mind of a King by the spectacle of her quivering bosoms, heaving belly and tossing thighs; she was now revealed in a sense as the symbolic incarnation of world-old Vice, the goddess of immortal Hysteria, the Curse of Beauty supreme above all other beauties by the cataleptic spasm that stirs her flesh and steels her muscles, - a monstrous Beast of the Apocalypse, indifferent, irresponsible, insensible, poisoning.” MenWorldMindBodyGirlBreakCryMastersKingsDancingVicesFleshSupremeLustCurseBeastMusclesImmortalOld ManGoddessIndifferentSteelApocalypseBellySymbolicBosomsIncarnationIrresponsibleMonstrousThighsHysteriaPoisoningInsensible Book:Against the Grain: (À rebours) Source: Against the Grain: (À rebours)
