Customer Reviews

Impressions of Africa (French Surrealism)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A precurser to Surrealism, this gem of French literature is not to be overlooked despite it's "out of print" status. The imagery in this book is nothing short of amazing and the oddly structured "plot" easily holds your attention throughout the book. In fact, the imagery alone is worth the price you may have to pay tracking this book down.

When I started reading the book my attention was immediatly drawn into the bizzare descriptions of absurd machines and circus-like performances that made little sense at the time. It was hard to stop laughing at some of the off the wall images my mind conjured while reading and when the pangs of laughter finally alleviated I couldn't put the book down. The second half is full of explainations about what you just read and introduces the characters and setting from the first part of the book.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys Surrealism or experimental literature. It really doesn't get much better.

Unfortunately, this is the only English translation available of Impressions d'Afrique. Alexis Lykiard, one translator of Lautréamont's Maldoror, spends five pages and many footnotes mercilessly rebuking previous translators of that work; you do not, however, need to be a masterful translator, or even know any French at all, to see the problems with this translation of Roussel's Impressions. At first these errors and typos are confusing, then irritating, and eventually you just regret spending money on the book (sometimes though, to be fair, it looks as if it were actually the fault of the proofreader(s).) There are awkward literalisms (on page 65 the English is "A head without a body...standing on a large red disc, fitted with an iron frame to prevent it from toppling over. This way was Philippo." The French is nothing stranger than "tel était Philippo." Then on 202, "Talu...had just precipitated himself into Sirdah's hut" translates the French "se précipiter," which just means to hurry or rush); weird attempts at colloquialisms (an animal's tongue is in French like "une platine humaine"---which in English becomes "like those which gabble in the human gob"); weirder typos (on 88, "...quickly detaching the scales, which dropped into leucoma the current and soon disappeared..."--- or nonce words like "divurgent" and "frabrics"); and things that are just plain bizarre, like on 223, on preparations for a theatrical performance, "the procedure did not obviate all need for suppers" (translating "...n'excluait pas toute figuration.") There are also unfortunate approximations (an African child carried off by a large bird becomes "the little monkey," translating "espiègle," which my dictionary defines as mischievous, prankish, roguish).

Here are two others, just a few of many more:
177, "...because of a legend that peopled its darkness and maleficent spirits" (for "qui peuplait ses ombrages de génies malfaisants")-- "and" should be "with."
206, "...Juillard then put up the idea of founding, about a picked body of us, a curious sort of club" (for "Juillard émit alors la pensée de fonder, au moyen d'un groupement d'élite, une sorte de club étrange.")

About a picked body of us?!?

You don't have to be a pedantic nit-picker to see that something is very wrong here. All you have to be is a first-time reader of Roussel, with no other options to choose from. Hopefully somebody will come out with something better soon.

Shipwrecked European travelers are held for ransom in an imaginary African kingdom. While they wait for the payment they set up a series of entertainments to keep their spirits up. These performances are the main focus of Roussel's book, an often neglected classic of experimental literature. The first half comprises objective descriptions of bizarre individual talents and strange "technological" demonstrations. The second half explains to the reader what he has just read: the background of the participants and the origins of their skills.

Trying to describe Roussel's enigmatic novel in 1000 words is impossible. While the book is currently not available, readers can check out an extract in Roussel's "How I Wrote Certain of My Books," an excellent volume itself, which contains sections form some of Roussel's other works and John Ashbery's translation of Roussel's essay explaining his fascinating methods of composition.

Intriguing novel I came across by accident, Roussel's 'Impressions of Africa' is a fantastical tale showing an authorial imagination unbridled. It mixes ancient fables from around the world with amazing spectacles, performances, inventions and machines. Written in the early part of the twentieth century, there is an underlying theme of European culture versus 'the other', in this case a race/tribe indigenous to Africa, for whom the European hereditary gene, style, ideas and modes of dress are seen as superior and desirable. There is intrigue, revenge, adultery and betrayal which frames an elaborate interaction between shipwrecked Europeans and their African captors in a clever, non-linear timeframe. This narrative, however, takes second place to the overwhelming reader experience of fast-changing visual and musical sensations. The book shows interest in icons and their representative values, and it further touches on relationships between communal/historical artefacts and their display. There is some experimentation in intertextuality, most notably Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet'. I have since learnt that Roussel took a semi-formulaic approach to prose writing based on extended homonymic punning which in retrospect is revealed in a slightly mechanical textual rhythm which I had rather dismissed as the style of a different time coupled with the French to English translation. Certainly an extremely imaginative piece and a curio of French literature.

(Five stars for Roussel) I was wary of this translation, having suffered through Heppenstall`s wretched and disrespectful "translation" of Balzac's SPLENDORS & MISERIES OF COURTESANS (which he called A HARLOT HIGH AND LOW!). It was so inaccurate, with so many phrases added and removed, that it was an actual impediment to understanding the original French.

Until now, this was the only translation of Roussel's IMPRESSIONS OF AFRICA. But, glory be, Dalkey Archive has just published a new translation by Mark Polizzotti - Impressions of Africa (French Literature Series). Comparing the first three pages to the French, I was amazed at how close he comes in meaning, yet keeping it a (relatively) fluent read. Highly recommended over this disgraceful trash.

Here's something you don't see every day. Impressions of Africa by Raymond Roussel, a guy I've never heard of. In fact, you have to go WAY out of your way to get your hands on a copy of this book. So why the heck did I get it? Well, I read in another book that a Salvador Dali picture entitled "Impressions of Africa" was based on a book, so I did some research and one thing led to another, and here I am reviewing this specific title.

I only found one thing bad about the book, and I'm going to discuss that right away. This one thing happens two times, but it's the same phenomenon causing the same problem. It happens first in describing a chemist (I think his name is Bex) and his precious stone locating machine, and again in describing an inventor (I think his name is Bedu) and his weaving machine. In both scenarios, there's lots of terminology involved in the description of how both machines work, and it bores me to death. I think these parts could have really been shortened. But perhaps I would have enjoyed the weaving scene more if I knew what half the words meant. What the heck do I know about weaving in the first half of the 20th century? I'm freakin' 26 years old.

Everything else about the book was great. There's no plot through the first half of the book whatsoever. It's just a bunch of folks putting on various interesting displays at a crowning ceremony. There are a few violent punishments too, but each of those is quite short.

One fellow is throwing magic pills into a pool of water that create ripples in the shape of detailed pictures, another is playing like ten instruments at a time even though he has no arms or legs, and another is demonstrating how a worm can play a zither. Lots of interesting stuff happens really fast, except for the two scenes previously mentioned.

Then the second half of the book is an actual story, with a bunch of short stories mixed in. The short stories mostly tell how each character chose to display such and such performance at the crowning of the new African emperor, and the actual story tells the history of the family roots of the Emperor and a bitter feud he had with another tribe.

My favorite short story is about this one fellow who loves the ocean and wants to see what's on the bottom so much, he puts himself in a deathlike state until he can actually sleepwalk into the ocean without drowning. When he comes back with some coral-like momentos from his long dreamed of trip, he discovers he can make them come to life if he gives them some of his blood clots to eat. Definitely stuff you don't see every day.

Roussel's work paints a picture of Africa as a very interesting and unusual land. A perfect setting for this kind of obscure book. It's definitely worth checking out for anyone who's into surrealism.