March 4, 2010

Bertha, The Child-Flower: A Raymond Roussel Illustration Contest

This post now resides on my other site 50 Watts:

14 comments:

  1. awesome story.. I love your contest idea. I think the possibilities are endless.. (now lets see if I can come up with something in 2 wks)

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  2. such a great story,and the picture is amazing;]
    first thing i think of when i read the title was this Ernst's collage;]
    http://billyjane.tumblr.com/post/194880127/max-ernst-sixieme-cahier-vendredi-la-vue
    If I come up with something in two weeks,will let you know,those prizes do sound tempting;]

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  3. Blogger is having some issues and deleted my longer response.

    So, short response: thanks! hope you can both contribute! I changed the due date to 3 weeks instead of 2.

    Billyjane -- love the Ernst. I had considered Masson's Flower-Girl, some Ernst, and Polish kids' books.

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  4. I'm proud to have my translation from a while back on this yummy blog!
    Mary Ann Caws

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  5. PS AND THIS IS DEEPLY ENGAGING SURREALISM WITH A VENGEANCE

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  6. Oh ho ho! I am going to do my very best to meet this deadline! I actually have a notebook full of illustration ideas for Roussel's writings, as I've been planning on creating a collage animation based on scenes from Impressions of Africa and Locus Solus for a while now. (My plans have been derailed by an intense day-job schedule, but one day I will finish it!)

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  7. Sounds exciting, Will! I will do my best to participate.

    It is interesting how both - seemingly unrelated - contest ideas deal with the realm of flowers.

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  8. Thanks again Mary Ann.

    Denis, I realized this morning my seeming flower fixation. Maybe because I've been reading Proust off and on since October?

    Myrrh, that would be awesome. I want to see that notebook! What ever happened to Illusory Confections? I miss her blog.

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  9. This child-flower reminds me so much of Herbert Read's The Green Child, which I just read a few weeks ago. It's about a pale green translucent girl who surfaces in an English village. (I don't think I'll ruin the story for anyone if I explain that she came from a sort of parallel universe of crystalline underground caves). Very strange book; the green girl would be intriguing enough but the middle third of the book is a flashback about South American revolutionaries. Anyhow, I can't draw very well but I'll try to rustle up a contest entry!

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  10. I love The Green Child! I'll have to re-read it, it has been so long that I remember the caves but not the translucent girl. Check out this early Lustig cover for the book.

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  11. That's a great cover! My copy is an undated New Directions paperback with a not-terribly-interesting b&w photo by Jean Krulis on the cover.

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  12. Sort of embarrassed to say: Have a Rousel book: Impressions of Africa, but never read it. I'll dive in now, I'll dive in deep.

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  13. this is an blatant ploy to get sundry obscured Rousselians to break cover and reveal themselves to the hooting mob!

    I'm game! Just hope my underground glass-lined gin-cum-resurrectine filled tank can hold out for the three weeks needed …

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  14. Definitely going to try to crank something out for this if I find the time. That story is rife with inspiration.

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