La-Bas by Noovorous

The only knowledge of Là-Bas I had before I started to read the novel itself was introduction and commentary attached to a copy of À rebours I have read a long time ago. From there I knew that Là-Bas deals with satanism and little else.

Written and set at the tail-end of XIXth century, a period secular enough to have yielded earliest stirs of modern satanism, or at least so I believed. Would the philosophy behind satanic movement in the novel be atheistic with merely symbolic significance of satan, luciferian with the adversary being a noble bringer of light or medieval with necromancy of summoning devils while asking saints for protection? I had no idea.

Satanism that I found in the novel was that of middle ages and of early modern period. Satanism that those burned at stakes of witch hunts were accused of but none or almost none of them practiced, now in this more modern age of disappointment with God and his church blossomed into reality. Satanism of Là-Bas is one that stems from deep belief in God’s existance and even deeper hatred for him, one that requires a priest so that holy hosts may be used in ritual profanation of Christs flesh and in casting curses, poisoning through supernatural means, feeding fish and mice on a diet of consecrated hosts and summoning incubi and succubi.

The protagonist (Drutal) is in the very begining rooted to the modern age (albeit lightly rooted for his lifestyle is almost eremitic) only to be removed from his day and age and put for the remainder of the novel into a bubble of middle ages and early modern period not as they were but as they are imagined. He witnesses both sides of the grand battle between forces of Creator and Adversary as he visits a bell ringer’s humble abode in a church tower and a black mass conducted by a blaspheming poisoner priest.

Does the novel accurately depict satanism of its age I cannot say. Supposedly Huysmans attended a black mass himself. But truth is not important here as decadence cares little for such detail as reality. The mood of the novel is painted like a masterpiece of dutch masters of brush and canvas, its vocabulary and rythm being a soothing balm on the mind of someone like me- a person that keeps a yellow book always by my bed.

RESPONSE BY XP (VIA LS666 BLOG) 

A great story — here are links to my version of this novel — I also reference an article by Mick on LS666 back on 27.02.2022, titled “Black Mass” by Occult World. It referenced books by the banned novelist, J.K. Huysmans — his tetralogy that tracks the character Durtal and his spiritual journey. The main character, Durtal is a thinly veiled version of Huysmans himself, the sequence of novels begins with ‘Là-bas’, and is followed by ‘En Route’, ‘La Cathédrale’ and ‘L’oblat’ …

Story link (LS666): Chariot 1

Story link (LS666): Chariot 2

Article link (LS666): https://littlesally666.com/black-mass-by-occult-world-non-fiction/

Article link (Messy Booker): https://messybooker.wordpress.com/2021/06/10/la-bas-j-k-huysmans-tr-brendan-king/