A Night of Serious Drinking

Book excerpt: The French poet and author of Mount Analogue shares a satirical allegory of the absurdities of intellectual society. As in Rene Daumal’s cult classic Mount Analogue, A Night of Serious Drinking concerns an autobiographical protagonist on a mind-expanding journey. But rather than seeking enlightenment, the anonymous narrator recounts an evening getting drunk with a group of friends. As the party becomes intoxicated and exuberant, the narrator’s wandering lead him from seeming paradises to the depths of pure hell. The characters our hero encounters go by absurd titles, such as Anthographers, Fabricators of useless objects, Scienters, Nibblists, and Clarificators. Yet the inhabitants of these strange realms are only too familiar: scientists dissecting an animal in their laboratory, a wise man surrounded by his devotees, politicians angling for influence, and poets expounding their rhetoric. Their hilarious antics and intellectual games reveal incisive social commentary that combines poetic imagination and philosophical depth.