“I foresee the possibility of music written specially to be performed in the open air, constructed on broad lines, vocally and instrumentally audacious, floating freely in the air and soaring gaily over the tops of the trees. Certain harmonic progressions that might seem abnormal in the concert hall would certainly be appreciated at their real value in the open air. There would be a mysterious collaboration between the air, the fluttering of the leaves and the scent of the flowers and the music itself; the latter would unite all these elements in such perfect harmony that it would appear to be a part of each one of them... Finally, one would be able to verify once and for all whether music and poetry are the only arts which move in space... I may be mistaken, but it seems to me that there is enough in this idea for future generations to dream about.”

Claude Debussy, 1903

 

“On that world, composed of beings and objects infinitely varied and all of perfect transparency, it is the difference in the density of bodies which indicate surfaces to the Elierians’ expert eyes. With the utmost skill, they can comprehend at a glance the forms of everything; and those forms, themselves penetrable, by no means prevent their gazes from comprehending, through the nearest forms, those of bodies which the first would have hidden if they had been opaque. Thus, an inhabitant of Elier, casting down his exploring gaze from the top of a mountain, perceives at first, on the surface of the ground, the forests spreading out a layer of diaphanous vegetation in dense tufts; and, thoroughly analyzing with his eyes each tree and each bit of moss, he can just as easily and distinctly study the superficial and deep strata from that point on down to the center of the world. His gaze, going through the entire thickness of Elier, can even, by means of a telescope, examine the buildings of a city at the antipodes—if, however, it is not forced to turn away before the rays of a sun blazing at the nadir.”

C.I. Defontenay, 1854

 

O our king, for the delights

Grant us again your palaces, your gardens, your fountains,  

And your golden terraces where the sea of evening breaks,  

And your magic forest where in the night you lead  

The silver Unicorn, the Wyvern, and the black Fawn.  

Grant us again the sweetness of your dead Brides  

Who sleep in the tomb of your soul and who lie  

Under the double lock of gates and doors—  

Your regret, your posthumous love, and your shiver.  

We, who are the eternal Letter of the Book—  

Symbol null, if no one reads the sleeping word!—  

Be the spirit that impresses and stirs and gives life,  

And the triumphal Love that saves from death.  

Tie our hair as a pennant to your standard,  

Sweet knight, dream through us your scattered dream,  

And come to us through life and through chance—  

We are the Mirror and the Amphora and the Lamp.  

Henri de Regnier, 1890

 

“Go into the labyrinth, spend time in the arbors—and read my book, page by page, as if you were a solitary walker, turning over a scarab beetle, a pebble or a dead leaf with the tip of your long, jasper-handled walking-stick, on the dry sand of the pathway.”

Henri de Regnier, 1897

“If you live close to the end, as today we all do, you want to see the course by which the eagle makes his swift descent. Unlike the dove, he leaves a trail of smoke, somehow, in the air. Not that there will not be a new world, but this is the end of ours. And being selfish, we are concerned with that.”

David Stacton, 1960

“When will someone come along and put an end to this dreadful notion, so popular at the moment, that it is as easy to be an artist as a dentist? Why don’t we stop making the secrets of the art so readily available? Let us not keep so many people away from their true vocations at the haberdashery counters of our department stores.”

Claude Debussy, 1912

“Who could tell what unexpected discoveries and what superhuman masterpieces might find a theater in the soul of the Martian god, nestling within its cupola of stone?

Gustave la Rouge, 1908

"I believe in capricious magic of alcohol, and I’m not adverse to feeling its affects. I have about a half-pint of whiskey every night... Strange that it sometimes brings us close to things we’re familiar with, and allows us to see them in a new light.”

Claude Debussy, 1912

 

“Everyone agreed that they had never eaten anything more flavorsome. Then, tranquilly, Scaramouche said: ‘What you are eating, Messieurs, is Human! And I think that if you search carefully in the sauce, you won’t fail to find a few small bones revelatory of the kind of meat you’ve been eating with so much satisfaction.’

“The writhing and the laughter redoubled. But Scaramouche, said, imperturbably: ‘If I’m not the Night herself, I’m her cook. The immense blue vault is a transparent frying-pan, on which I fried, holding it by the Milky Way, which is its handle, Venus, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Neptune and all the stars, on the stove of the eternal Sun. The comets, which have the form of a cruet, pour flamboyant oil; every red bolide is a grain of Cayenne pepper, and the wind of infinite space has the function of a bellows that activates the fire under the frying-pan—with the consequence that it’s the sky, cooked to perfection, that I’ve served you for supper. Not all the sky; the planets, being tough, remained in the cooker; but the little parasites of the heavenly bodies—I mean the living beings of the firmament—have sizzled in the sauce, and you’ve nourished yourself on your celestial resemblances.’

“At the same time, with a long black leg that raked the whole table, Scaramouche tipped over, broke and extinguished the candelabra; and in the darkness, while he roared with laughter, the dead-drunk scientists, sickened and frightened by the execrable feast, vomited parcels of cutlets, backs, fillets, ribs and fry of Mars, Mercury, Saturn and the divine flesh of Venus, which is golden in the blue of beautiful skies.”

Catulle Mendes, 1888

“Light rays, as well as sound rays, are each formed of a continuous series of globules constantly in vibration.

“This subtle transpiration is radiant because the expansion which provokes it is an equal, uniform Force. It is thus, by radiating, that globes of very large dimensions like the sun, the stars, transpire their light, and globes of small dimensions such as the Earth, having much more condensed envelopes, transpire a more subtle fluid, the caloric. 

“Finally, each terrestrial body, each man, each animal, each plant, each fragment of rock or metal, enjoys the transpiring faculty. Each projects a subtle fluid which, according to the circumstances, remains homogeneous, caloric, or splits into two fluids of different subtlety which balance each other and which constitute it in the magnetic or electric state.”

Pierre Hyacinthe Azaïs, 1831

“'What is an olotelepan?'

“'It’s an apparatus that instantaneously transports the senses to indefinite distances, without any wires. You heard it ring several times; you thought it was my watch, but it was my olotelepan. It’s the latest model!' Gigolus took from his pocket the object that he had held in his hand during his conversation with Dame Marthe. 'Nothing bears a closer resemblance to a watch, but it’s not a watch; it’s an olotelepan. I can’t explain the scientific theory, because I’m not very good at physics, but I can tell you how to make use of it. The first condition is to be in contact...'

“Gigolus put the olotelepan into Gourdebec’s free hand.”

Henri Austruy, 1925

“I was walking in Monsieur Azaïs's garden. He pointed out to me a rather considerable heap of decomposed vegetable matter, under which he had placed a small vessel filled with distilled water, and in which he thought small animals would be created whole, by the action of heat alone upon the liquid's elements. I did not learn the results of the experiment, which was to last, I think, for a year; but at any rate I strongly doubt that the ingenious author obtained the result he expected.”

Georges Cuvier, 1833

 

“New projectile launched by Mars towards Earth today…. Supreme Jovian Council met on Ganymede…. After a demand addressed in vain to the people of Mars to cease their unjustified hostilities in the name of sidereal Fraternity and immanent Justice, which are the supreme rules of planetary humankinds, and of which Jupiter has constituted herself the defender on behalf of the Solar System— decides unanimously to come to the aid of our sister planet Earth by any means possible, and decrees…in view of the unspeakably obstinacy of Mars…that the aforesaid felon planet is set outside the law of love and sidereal fraternity, and that all the scientific resources of Jupiter will be set to work with the least possible delay to inflict the most exemplary chastisement upon the Martians. To the people of Earth, courage and fraternity!” 

Theo Varlet, 1921

 

“Our three young men lived in harmony. The spectra of colors and the music of the spheres sang in their eyes and ears, and all their senses, charmed, combined with one another, melted into the infinite harmony. The eddies of waves and crowds and the beating of their hearts were all a rhythm. 

“People came to stand beneath the windows of the madhouse in order to listen, with terror and delight, to the frightful manifestations of that harmonic power, which sometimes took flight with great wing-beats and departed, further and further, all his vigor driving it in that direction.”

Louise Michel, 1888

 

“The Earth will therefore move through space at the whim of my desire, for I intend to steer it, matter being made in order to be vanquished. Then, riding my planet, I shall go to visit my brothers, the tyrants who are ruling the other planets. I shall play my part in the concert of potentates of the sidereal universe, who range constellations in battle and use asteroid-fire in bombardments...”

Louis Boussenard, 1888

“No, it wasn’t possible that the century that utilized electricity so easily as a means of transport, which challenged distance by the manipulation of steam, perfected destruction by inventing terrible weapons, and reckoned with air and water by the simple use of gasoline-powered propellers, could be incapable of responding to an invasion of animals emerged from a test-tube in a laboratory. Oh, how illogical I was being, given my science!

“‘In any case,’ Monsieur Vernet went on, ‘are the macrobes as much to be feared as interested journalism proclaims? How do you expect these animals, emerged from a culture broth, as vastly developed as one can imagine, to nourish themselves on human flesh?’”

Andre Couvreur, 1909

 

“Symptoms of revolt have appeared among the Atmophytes. These machines have proffered seditious squeaks; these slaves have insulted citizens; and several among them, emerging from the subterranean region to which our constitution restricts them, have taken the air in the street. These fits are the result of the excessive development that you have allowed the Atmophytes’ organs to acquire— unconsidered improvements by which you have given them not merely instincts, but souls and the power of thought.”

Le Comte Didier de Chousey, 1884

 

Les Quat'z'arts Magazine

'Memories Without Regrets'

“An old man, a traveling singer, went proclaiming in the courtyards the word of God.

“To the tune of a very old carol or Christmas song, he would intone in a soft and distant voice a song whose words it was impossible to catch. Whether it was French, Celtic, Greek, Hebrew, the words with their strange sounds would fly away into the air, leaving in the souls a trail of soft light.

“His song finished, he would collect the coins that had been thrown to him, bow and leave the court, starting his refrain again: 'Love yourselves! etc.' We had nicknamed him The Prophet.

“My mother, a musician curious about all musical oddities, wanted to know more. While the prophet was singing, she went down and asked him the origin of his song,— Would it be possible to have the words? she asked, promising she could transcribe the music under dictation.

“The man, his large hat in his hand, with a salute of great lordship fixed my mother with his large clear eyes, smiled gently and said to her—My songs are from a distant world. Do charity: give to the poor without hope of reward and do not seek to know mysteries that you could not understand. Thank you, madam. Then having put his large hat back on, the Prophet turned on his heel and walked away slowly, making a large gray stain on the snow of the sidewalk.

“He died during the Commune, and when I arrive at this page of my memories, I will tell you of his death, too, mysterious, as strange as his life as a traveling musician.”

Charles de Sivry, 1898

“It is official today that the whole of our solar system is moving, insensibly, towards the celestial point marked by the sixth star of the constellation of Hercules (or Zeta Herculis, according to our language). This igneous abyss—of dimensions such that the numbers which express it would somewhat confuse thought (if, for those who think, the apparent sky could have any importance)—seems, in astronomy, to be the end or the inevitable erasure, in fact, of our set of phenomena.”

Auguste Villiers de L'Isle-Adam, 1890

“When all is said and done, Desire is what counts. You have this crazy but inescapable longing, a need almost, for some work of art (a Velazquez, a Satsuma vase! or a new kind of tie), and the moment of actual possession is one of joy, of love really. A week later, nothing.”

Claude Debussy, 1893