MOUNT ANALOGUE, René Daumal ‘An extraordinary voyage onthe yacht Impose and the partial ascent ofa aymbolic mountain serv e the nuratve touchstone fr this intriguing eprtua auto Biography. ‘The members ofthe expeiton to Mount Analogue form lively group of Knowledgeseking arts and scholars who, utder the leadership of Father Sogl, overcome preliminary diffeultes, and aradally begin to grasp the strange ansformaion of ‘enning wiih ther expedition undergoes. Forte by lity scentsc concer and theories about survival Athighaltudesbecome unimportantjandesch person is faced with the major responsiblity of advancing vith few loyal companions towards hitherto ure Known continent. "Mount Analogue” wate the tuthr, “is the symbolic mountait~the way tht ‘nites Heaven and Earth, aay which mutex i ‘eterial and human for, othernise our situation ‘would be without hope.” Cor pt 174 Cay Sind Mitt Be MOUNT ANALOGUE‘aLAQUE FOU QUE L'AUBK PanAtr, Eas et Note I, Galinard, 1969 ofS wom, Pods BLA, Gln, 088 EETTNES A SES als, vol, Oulina, Jose MOUNT ANALOGUE An Authentic Narrative By RENE DAUMAL VERA DAUMAL 9g CITY LIGHTS BOOKS(© volo ound PUtueans 9areD (CITY Licks BOOKS we pia tty Li esr, 35 Cia tS Po, Cte mm CONTENTS Introduction [WHICH 15 THE CHAPTER OF THE MEETING [WHICH IS THAT OF THE CROSSING IN WHICH WE ARRIVE AND IN WHICH THE PRO- [LEM OF MONEY ARISES IN PRECISE TERMS [WHICH IS THAT OF SETTING UP-THE FIRST CAMP Porface Author's Notes ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE AUTHOR Members of he expedition Benito Cicoria Pertcal diagram of Mount Analogue Horizontal diegrem of Mount Analogue Cylindrical projection showing land masses and loaton ‘of Mount dnalogue a “ ” oO 100 seas stINTRODUCTION Jené Daumal’s work obliges one to think both in ‘terms of shoes and pocket money, and in terms of the true nature of Western civilization. In all ‘writing, the world of concrete objects carries its full com- ‘mon sense of pleasure and hardship, of beauty and blight. At the same time his philosophical turn of mind involves hhim in a real struggle of ideas, one usually carried on by closed minds and obscured by fuzzy words. This strug- gle pits che ‘materialist with their rational methods fageinst tho “dealists' with their intuitive or spiritual iights. After twenty-five centuries of warfare, the battle lines have lost any orderly array. In recent years Julien Benda and Wyndham Lewis (for the materiaiss) tnd Henri Bergson and A. N, Whitehead (Gor te idealists) have rolled up some powerful as well as noi artllery. Raising « marlngly clear voice in the din, Daumal proposes something like a modified pacificism, Or rather he tells us all over again that the true battle Ties within us and calmly transfers the struggle to the slopes of an interior mountain which we must climb, Most of us find that @ harder task than carrying on rousing battle with an ideological enemy, ‘There are considerable portions of Dauimal’s thinking that leave one with the sensation of watching a man ‘limb out of sight on a steep slope. Yet there is no display of superiority or showmanship in his progress his con- victions and his writing are locked together in » profound Integrity of purpose. Daumal is the only twentieth- century French author whose true fame has commenced after his death. He died in 1944, aged thirty-six Stil in his teens during the late Twenties, Daumal ‘was already publishing avant-garde poetry, was training 1MOUNT ANALOGUE Ihimself in Oriental languages, and at twenty helped found a lively literary review. He was astciated for a time with the controversial Russian teacher and sage, Gurdjieff; his own philosophical study Kept him intent ‘on comprehending and reafirming the dialectical method of the West as complementary to the spiritual diseipline ‘of the Bast. To this end Daumal began by w ry form except fiction. Yet, while still young, he knew it ‘was time to fuse his understanding of life into a single work. At that point he began a novel. It makes no reference to esoteric knowledge; the events it narrates are incredible, yet entirely plausible, The work remained unfinished when he died, but enough had been written 1 allow us to grasp the whole. Mount Analogue, as he called that novel, epeaks for itself, An introduction to it here serves no meaningful purpose except that an English reader cannot do what. hhe may be most moved to do at the end of the book: to seek out Daumal’s other writings. Most readers should ‘tum directly to the text of the novel and come back to these pages afterwards, For in them I have set myself ‘the principal task of tracing the themes of Mount Analogue through Daumal’s brief life and long work. So T was being observed! I was not alone in that world! That world which I might have taken for sheer personal fantasy. For Nerval has been there, and Aescribes just what Ihave seen, and often what hhappens to me there. ‘Thus Daumal opens his long essay in tribute to ‘Nerval the Nyctalope’, the great French romantic poet born exactly one hundred years before him, The spiritual link between them is perfectly clear, for both write alternately about and out of ‘that world? which lies ‘beyond this one. And neither of them took cover behind 2 the convenient shrubbery of the ‘ineffable’; words Drought their tials and their triumphs. Daumal’s work {allows Nerval’s in its resolve to fuse body and Spivit, speech and sleep, logic and intuition, in order to enter @ ‘Second life’, Nerval, however, prepared himself in- creasingly to disappear for good into that other world, and finally hung himself in a Paris alley. Daumal, some- ‘hat les aflcted, or blessed, with night vision, resolutely returned to this world, his eyes seeking light again, his ‘mind struggling to tell what he had seen. He was one of the sanest and most wide-awake of men. A letter he faddresed at twenty-four to Jean Peulhen makes this declaration: ‘ASSURE. YOU THERE WAS FIRE. AROUND US IN THE AIR" Yet two pages later he ‘writes with equel vehemence, ‘we must fit become Jhuman before seeking anything superior’, Although his spiritual ancestry goes back most directly 1 Nerval, Daumal’s literary forbear by geography is Rimbaud. Born in the northern forests and moors of the Ardennes, they both attended the Zyede in Charleville fand showed astonishing mental powers in early adoles- fence, At ten Deumal told his parents in a letter, write verses without realizing it.’ He continued ‘his ‘education in Reims, but with less and less respect for the conventional frontiers of learning and experience. He later described these years to his physician. From 15 t0 17, at Reims. I began to have doubts, to ‘question the basis of everything. Without giving up ‘my naturally healthy liking for nature, the open air, ‘te, T began to perform all kinds of experiments ‘in order to see". Along with a few friends (some of the brightest pupils in the Lycée but all a litle wild) 1 tried eleohol, tobacco, night life, ete I tried knocking ‘myself out (with Cl or benzene) in order to study just hhow consciousness disappears and what power T bad 3mount anatoove over it. I became intersted in poeuy (the mmaudi’tadiion)” and’ ploophy "ihe. “occa radios) ~ the way: my hss with eligi Backgrounds were gotng infor Swann At 17 for Taek sf any good reson to goon living, Tatra suicide. Immediately T ft tho tis tomy aly ad say responsity toward my younger bher, Unsatistied by his regular studies, Daurnal now began learning Sanskrit by himself. Within afew years he had sms he Imguage end much of Hestrecom- pored a Sanskrit grammar as he went slong, and begun "eri of tartans and yvahations ef Sigil tet ‘hat he would continue right up to hie desth In Pars ‘where he pushed his studies further into mathematin science, medicine, and philosophy, a bad fall while doing feymnastcs deprived him of is memory the first day of competitive examinations for the Beale Normale Supé- eure. He grew to consider this sbrupt diversion from a career in ‘higher learning’ as a fortunate accident. In ‘ite of precarious health and signe of fatigue, he began to experiment with hashish and other droge in his search for direct experince. of truth, and at the same time increased his’ literary activity. Principally, he ‘ocame one of the most dedicated editors of the review, Le Grand Jeu, In 1928 the forces of Dada and Surrealism had been ‘making loud noises for ten yeare and were beginning to be taken seriously by e small public and a growing umber of culture speculators. The general staf of Surrealism, all men sill under forty, had attempted to impose certain discipline on the avant-garde, Yet in 1928, at « meeting called ofcillyto discuss the etude Surrealism would adopt toward Trotty’s defection end banishment, the obstreperous proceedings Were mono: poled by the question of whether or not to cllaborate ‘ iNTRopuCTION vith the editors of the new review, Le Grand Jeu. These ‘men, acting on the assumption that all the terrain ‘of Surrealism had already boon conquered and ennexed for their generation, had no pationce with the eternal wrangling of the surrealists over political affiliation with Communism, personal animosties and purges, and various forms of public posturing. Ten years after its Birth, Surrealism had no intention of allowing itself to bbe pushed aside and outdistanced by a few youngsters. kis, of course, exactly what had to happen. Barely out of their teons, the editors of Le Grand Jew had worked together for four years as a tightly knit (group, sharing their intellectual escapades and aspira- tion, first atthe Lyd in Reims, then as ‘free students? in Paris, The original four in Reims, aged sixteen, had called themselves the ‘Simplists': Roger Gilbert-Lecomte, the forceful erratic leader of the group, Roger Vailland, ‘ho went on to win the Prix Goncourt in 1957 with his novel, The Law, Robert Meyrat, and René Daumal. Of the four Daumal had the most relentless and best trained rmind.* This Grand Jeu group showed such a sure eonse of the challenge posed by Surrealism, and to strong a resolve to stop at nothing in its investigations of human consciousness, that it has been described as a ‘many- hheaded Rimbaud’. Far more than the surrelists, they ‘concentrated on group experiments such 6s meeting in ‘planned dreams and attempting several forms of spiritual tnd initistory experience. The dedication and occasional hharmafulness of their researches help explain why the two real leaders of the group both died at thirty-six: Gilbert- Lecomte of the effects of morphine addiction, Daumal of swaberculosis. ‘The labour of bringing out Le Grand Jeu and the A fow others ltr Jaina them: Pierre Mint, A. Rolland de Rendvly J Sra, and Marien Henry (day tall Rnown er toon). 5Moun aNatoour sustained simishes withthe sures culminated in ‘lengthy public Teter by. Dauinal to André Breton pobied in the las number ofthe review” Daumal teks the movement to tak for infec dol overs, and a set deste for a place in lteery sory The fandamental prinsper of Surrealism ie agiation in favour of soil and spiritual Iiberetion, he fly approves ven though this was an extremly fruitful perio in Dacia’ Tierary carer he ltr wrote of it "Vlent Ieadaches en anemia mevered between dsp and lwphy? His mind wae fred, hi ature promising and yt in 1930 be was prepred throw ovr ever thing he had worked to aomplsh, justo Rimbaud SSandoned terstre at's crespondlng ages At this juncture ashe eaten several pace, Daum egeined hin conBence and his wens of dnecton wa rout of meting aman ho appeared to embody the goals which Bana i ing om him. de ema vas one ofthe sot arresting figures in the community ‘ound Gurdjiefe Doma dacibes him ine letter ab former deri, former Benedictine former profesor of Fins, hese, sage dengne, not tut Tt i Bs ea, am neredite m!Te cting ed ots much chango Dasma’ des ts reconfirm al the taking he had done inthe previos five years and then bogus to doubt. Sakmann dzeced Dssnal's energies wit new fore toward religion snd Oresal ploy and gave him a sense ofthe profnd importance he work for sich Ie had bees preparing Himself sce th age of Sixteen. Soon ater, Dauimal oaried Véru Milsove, sroman dep in sympathy with his ens, and ted Anat ent four fin his ence atthe Sonne td cara his ving inthe insecure word af leer, They were anything but ary Yeas His miltry service ended abruptly in a dnharge fra heart eon 6 iwrRopuetion tion, He produced a series of estays on Nerval, Spinoza, Dalerooe, Hegel, Plate, Sanskrit texts, a wide range of Hinds, philowphy and ite hereie, and the Western poetic tradition, He worked riefy pres agent for the Tndian dancer, Uday Shankar, and scoped him to the United States in 1933. For a seaon the Nowelle TReowe Francaise warned over t0 Davinal ite regular epartment of shore reviews and ancodotes onthe Contemporary sone, called "L'Air du Mi. His own ros regular cotrbtion was Pataphysics This Moth’, 4 page of comment on the profound absurdity of the Tater scene ducoveris and chores, He tranlted Hemingway's Death in the Afternoon, and. in 1995 recrived the Jacques Doucet prize awarded by Valéry, Gide, and Giraudoux for hs ht volume of pooms, Le ‘contre-ciel (Counter-Heaven). Three years later Gallimard published La grande bewerie (The Great Carouse), & Filowphicalsnd_highly imaginative satire of the Intellect! environment of Pans. For twenty years it has been kind of underground text, uoforgotten bythe generation that lived through the slow dintogration of the Thirties, For three yesrs Dama slaved over the roofs of the fie eleven volumes to appear before the tear of L'Eneycopétis Francaise. Sas before the fall oi France, an X-ray showed advanced tubercular infection in bath lange It as daring the nxt four yeare of per- petual moving, Physical debility, and uncertain remurees that Daumal started, put aide, and took up agsin the tritng of Ment dalogue. Inthe interval he worked {an editor ofthe iterary review, Fontaine, helped bring out an important number of Ler Cahiers di Sud on Indian philosophy and religion, and translated hree ‘olumes of Suri's marnmoth opus on Zen Budahism Ho died in oocpied Paris the Zit of May 1944, tro weeks befre the Allied landings in Normandy. Eight Year Inter the publisher Gellimerd began bringing oxt 7all his remeining works ~ six volumes, including Mount Analogue (1952). His translations from English and Sensi fill an equal number of volumes. By an evolution that testifies to the nature of his character, Daumal’s physical appearance grew more ‘commanding, more resolutely masculine and illuminated 1s his health declined. The reticent intense young man ‘matured into challenging bearded figure who im- pressed hhis contemporaries as someone who faced the Imminence of his death with a deepening concentration of forces in his life. Yet what should hold our attention, isnot his appearance nor his life nor any single theme in, his work. The poems, the philosophical and literary ‘essays, the symbolic tales, the letters, all lead back to a ‘mind! ~ unquenchable, fearless, fll of human sympathy, devoted to seeking and teaching truth. His least polished ‘and most fragmentary works, of which there are many because of the circumstances of his career, give evidence of the scope of his thought and the range of his know- ledge. Ho was entirely at home in philosophy, science, and mathematics. In literature he had absorbed the works of Nerval and Rimbaud and Jany, three of the ‘most extreme modern visionaries, without losing hie perspective on reality and language. ‘And then there isthe Sanskrit, the crushing discipline which prevented his early attraction to Oriental religions from degenerating into @ misinformed euktism. Daumal is one of the few men in this century to have combined Eastern and Western thought into something more valuable than a set of personal eccentricities. When he was twenty, he opened a review of a book on the Vedanta by stating: ‘The essential weave and texture of my ‘thinking, of our thinking, ofall thinking, is written — as T have known for years ~ in the sacred books of India” 8 ixrropuerion When the Oriental, Jesus Mansi, met Dasa in Marl «few gems before deny head thi Impresion I'can only say tht T hve never en & Wostermer lie Indian fulte 1 sch x pots come Pleeythat is archetypes mt have etn thee from The beginning? Bat what doe it mean? What de ths fietaism aid up to beyond callcon of emverie tert? The Woserner tends by tation t think of GGaring the teasing of ie through certsin race Elperiencee ~ dsthy grief, danger, paonate ave, Sulden sucess eatastaphe, Pxtentialom has py termed them "ateme station in reference to wich wre dicoveroureves ~ whence our atacton tothe ventrou lif, wa siete progres, romantic love Having cst hs ind. deop ino Indian plop, Duma sense thatthe realty and mening of te mond can come tous every mowtent witht Oar hating 1 feiy whelly on estrone stwtons to wrench tat riences Acton, has bron potted out many tines, itor Westerners both simula and drug The four Sages of Hin iitntion, fom the Veda the Upin- Shuts andthe complemeatary dpines of Yoga ond ony prepares nt form carer of grat expt to be ecalled tno age, but fora fe inewsingy ddicaed {othe tenching which cae thvagh aon Drumal he thew several level of knowlege in lice ne only bya een sentbily and ineligenos, bt Es by cente of ionic perspective on then all = the Simple need to Inugh fnlly 4 the enormous Sparity betnecn the. parler andthe univers, betmeen iwi and tt, between ob ersreyed terion of {hinge (oy the wry fact that eed eyer tote ‘cought and what he facetioly: dered the ‘Shjesve saben? inherent in ely: On a hit moe Tint demonstration called ‘The Fasehod of Trt, later eror ae the prncpeof eration ond exitence °for one tiny trath would obliterate the entre univer By nt svcd nie eof ha "to other mane tha Tar’ term, pata Te Probl the or if ep of Buumal hater Deomblue with the ret, nde most human, aumatwoggithnes ad natprevent i from seaking,vroulst to penetrate te myer of human Tough Boga fac reveal the outward eeu ‘tan of his Such Daun’ fst encounter with the Fea of lie come aot in the usal form of eorcening Scie, but os an intense and trying evarener of death; And when he had conquered this tan rest by icraing to contrl hi pal end nervow eo be wret ot to overcome the templation of lide tn eer ‘he tempat of dug. And he had fo strugge with the fenpunon to which pow are prone thettendeney to tonuive of ife and reaityentiely rough language, Mead dnalpue, nhs Split of spree Sb Sry of mig, any pects Daun imate reckoning wih the problem of language, ‘hile and obtae. m= ‘Pugh thee sages of inner struggle, Daumal became ncreningly sve ofa move of met operation ‘ich sot new rm o ith he age ut Wh at 17 cart ung in Mo lop can be fd a he sgh 6 wer gl Gres te Epes ha oe Ein © antec a i aah ie ey mofo tc ois ed i gets ea TRUER anyon ane semen septa acetone rmie in Eevee into tn inn of ited coneieanen, Brame is ie ae a pe. The eon int on for at ‘mental behaviour, and no prcblogst cam ealain to se how we Alvide and co-ordinute our atenton in euch complex ston looking tthe star listening to fap, or reaing an allgey. 10 remained foreign to our activist way of life, He under- food very early that the basic act of consciousness is @ negation, # dissociation of the J from the exterior world fof not-I. Meaningful perception reduces and refines the ‘7, withdraws it from the world imto an increasingly strict identity of subjectivity. Then, however, beginning a vibratory rhythm which must follow if self-anniiatior {s not to result, the pure consciousness expands again into all things, experiences the world subjectively once ‘more, loes itself in the mystery of creation. Baudelaire ‘eseribes this rhythm of consciousness in the terse words thet open Mon cur mis @ nus ‘De la vaporisation et de Je centralisation dur Moi. Tout est li." Daumal would ‘cept the terms and reverse the order. Centralization ‘or concentration: elimination of everything exterior in ‘order to arrive at the intensity of self-awareness. Vapor~ ination: ressimilation of all the universe in the amplitude of sympathy and action. The alternation of contraction fand expansion gives buman consciousness its rest and motion, its inner time and spoce, its own East and West In contrast to Bergson’s intuitive surrender to the object ‘of knowledge, Daumal asserts over and over agein in ‘postry and in discourse the essentially masculine, cretiv ‘and revelatory act of negation, of disociating the world from ourselves and from itself in a meaningful dialectic, ss when God divided light from darkness, the firmament from the waters. This initial stage of consciousness Dau- ‘mal called an ‘asceticism’; only if this ascetic discipline hhas been achieved can one attempt the opposite and more tempting movement of fusion with all things. Tin 1941 the editor of Les Cahiers de la Pléiade asked ‘a number of writers to describe the most significant and ‘crucial experience in thei life. Most ofthe others agreed land then begged off; Daumal, spurred by the example ‘of Milos’ Epistle to Sorge, produced one of the most ‘authentic and influential texts on extra-rational ex: > 0