Fun Read

Usually I decide to read a book based on an interesting description of the book that I see somewhere. And usually the description has to have something that catches my attention. Did a description of this book "Heliogabulas" catch my attention? You betcha. Why? Oh, try this:

Reflecting its author’s preoccupations of the time with the occult, magic, Satan, and a range of esoteric religions, the book shows Artaud at his most lucid as he assembles an entire world-view from raw material of insanity, sexual obsession and anger. Heliogabalus was Rome’s Emperor from the ages of fourteen to eighteen; his reign was characterized by murder, incest, sodomy, debauchery and an anarchic ridicule for the powers of government. Artaud arranges his account of Heliogabalus’s life around the breaking of corporeal borders and the expulsion of fluids, notably blood and sperm: “round the corpse of Heliogabalus there is an intense circulation of blood and excrement, while around his cradle, there is an intense circulation of sperm.”

In case you missed it:

“round the corpse of Heliogabalus there is an intense circulation of blood and excrement, while around his cradle, there is an intense circulation of sperm.”

Sounds like a good read to me!