The Dream Life of Balso Snell E-Book

Nathanael West

• Herausgeber: Raanan Editeur
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

The Dream Life of Balso Snell is a 1931 novel by American author Nathanael West. West's first novel, it presents a young man's immature and cynical search for meaning in a series of dreamlike encounters inside the entrails of the Trojan Horse. |Fadedpage|

Leseprobe

NATHANAEL WEST

THE DREAM LIFE

OF BALSO SNELL

Contract Editions

Paris New York

1931

Raanan Éditeur

Digital book902| Publishing 1

To  A. S.

“After all, my dear fellow,

life, Anaxagoras has said,

is a journey.”

BERGOTTE

While walking in the tall grass that has sprung up around the city of Troy, Balso Snell came upon the famous wooden horse of the Greeks. A poet, he remembered Homer’s ancient song and decided to find a way in.

On examining the horse, Balso found that there were but three openings: the mouth, the navel, and the posterior opening of the alimentary canal. The mouth was beyond his reach, the navel proved a cul-de-sac, and so, forgetting his dignity, he approached the last. O Anus Mirabilis!

Along the lips of the mystic portal he discovered writings which after a little study he was able to decipher. Engraved in a heart pierced by an arrow and surmounted by the initial N, he read, “Ah! Qualis . . . Artifex . . . Pereo!” Not to be outdone by the actor-emperor, Balso carved with his penknife another heart and the words “O Byss! O Abyss! O Anon! O Anan!” omitting, however, the arrow and his initial.

Before entering he prayed:

“O Beer! O Meyerbeer! O Bach! O Offenbach! Stand me now as ever in good stead.”

Balso immediately felt like the One at the Bridge, the Two in the Bed, the Three in the Boat, the Four on Horseback, the Seven Against Thebes. And with a high heart he entered the gloom of the foyer-like lower intestine.

After a little while, seeing no one and hearing nothing, Balso began to feel depressed. To keep his heart high and yet out of his throat, he made a song.

Round as the Anus

Of a Bronze Horse

Or the Tender Buttons

Used by Horses for Ani

On the Wheels of His Car

Ringed Round with Brass

Clamour the Seraphim

Tongues of Our Lord

Full Ringing Round

As the Belly of Silenus

Giotto Painter of Perfect Circles

Goes . . . One Motion Round

Round and Full

Round and Full as

A Brimming Goblet

The Dew-Loaded Navel

Of Mary

Of Mary Our Mother

Round and Ringing Full

As the Mouth of a Brimming Goblet

The Rust-Laden Holes

In Our Lord’s Feet.

Entertain the Jew-Driven Nails.

He later gave this song various names, the most successful of which were: Anywhere Out of the World, or a Voyage Through the Hole in the Mundane Millstone and At Hoops with the Ani of Bronze Horses, or Toe Holes for a Flight of Fancy.

But despite the gaiety of his song, Balso did not feel sure of himself. He thought of the Phoenix Excrementi, a race of men he had invented one Sunday afternoon while in bed, and trembled, thinking he might well meet one in this place. And he had good cause to tremble, for the Phoenix Excrementi eat themselves, digest themselves, and give birth to themselves by evacuating their bowels.

Hoping to attract the attention of an inhabitant, Balso shouted as though overwhelmed by the magnificence of his surroundings:

“O the Rose Gate! O the Moist Garden! O Well! O Fountain! O Sticky Flower! O Mucous Membrane!”

A man with “Tours” embroidered on his cap stalked out of the shadow. In order to prove a poet’s right to trespass, Balso quoted from his own works:

“If you desire to have two parallel lines meet at once or even in the near future,” he said, “it is important to make all the necessary arrangements beforehand, preferably by wireless.”