Abstract
Arthur Rimbaud and Jim Morrison have a distinctive place among authors who have apparently lived legendary lives, inasmuch as numerous biographies have been dedicated to them as well as biopics such as Agnieszka Holland’s Total Eclipse (1995), which focused on the relationship between Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine, and Oliver Stone’s The Doors (1991). In particular, biographies on both Rimbaud and Morrison generally include accounts of many experiences with intoxicants of different kinds. From Rimbaud’s first taste of Parisian life in the autumn-winter of 1871 that has been described as ‘five months of drunkenness and squalor’, to Morrison’s summer of 1965 in which he ‘began taking daily doses of LSD’, there have been countless tales of their excesses (Robb, 2000, p. 153; Davis, 2004, p. 72). Nonetheless, the effective function of mind-altering substances in the artistic process of either of them is still unknown. It is thus imperative to abandon the figure of the myth and approach that of the author when dealing with a topic such as intoxication in Rimbaud and Morrison or, more precisely, to follow Etiemble’s famous suggestion regarding Rimbaud’s poetry: ‘revenir au texte, à son sens’ (1952, p. 444).1
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Bibliography
Total Eclipse, 1995, dir. by Agnieszka Holland (FIT Productions).
The Doors, 1991, dir. by Oliver Stone (Carolco Pictures).
Artaud, A., 2004. Le Théâtre et son Double, in E. Grossman, ed. Œuvres (Paris: Gallimard).
Baudelaire, C., 1975. Œuvres Complètes, ed. C. Pichois, 2 vols (Paris: Gallimard).
Bonnefoy, Y., 2009. Notre Besoin de Rimbaud (Paris: Éditions du Seuil); first published in 1994 as Rimbaud (Paris: Éditions du Seuil).
Breton, A., 1972. Manifesto of Surrealism, in Manifestos of Surrealism, trans. R. Seaver and H. R. Lane (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press).
Breton, A., 1988. Œuvres Complètes, ed. M. Bonnet, P. Bernier, É.-A. Hubert and J. Pierre,, 4 vols (Paris: Gallimard).
Brunel, P., 1999a. ‘Illuminations’, in A. Rimbaud, Œuvres Complètes: Poésie, prose et correspondance, ed. P. Brunel (Paris: Libraire générale française).
Brunel, P., 1999b. ‘Notices’, in A. Rimbaud, Œuvres Complè tes: Poésie, prose et correspondance, ed. P. Brunel (Paris: Libraire générale française).
Davis, S., 2004. Jim Morrison: Life, Death, Legend (London: Ebury Press).
Debord, G., 2002. Report on the Construction of Situations, in Guy Debord and the Situationist International: Texts and Documents, trans. T. McDonough (Cambridge, MA and London: The MIT Press).
Debord, G., 2006. Rapport sur la construction des situations et sur les conditions de l’organisation et de l’action de la tendance situationniste internationale, in Œuvres, ed. J.-L. Rançon and A. Debord (Paris: Gallimard).
Delahaye, E., 1974. Souvenirs Familiers à Propros de Rimbaud, Verlaine et Germain Nouveau, in F. Eigeldinger and A. Gendre, eds, Delahaye témoin de Rimbaud (Neuchâtel: La Bacconière); first published 1925 (Paris: Messein).
Etiemble, 1952. Le Mythe de Rimbaud: Structure du Mythe (Paris: Gallimard).
Fowlie, W., 1995. Rimbaud and Jim Morrison: The Rebel as Poet (London: Souvenir Press).
Guyaux, A., 2009. ‘Notices, notes et variantes’, in A. Rimbaud, Œuvres Complètes, ed. A. Guyaux and A. Cervoni (Paris: Gallimard).
Hopkins, J., 2010. The Lizard King: The Essential Jim Morrison, Revised and Updated (London: Plexus).
Leary, T., 1998. The Politics of Ecstasy (Berkeley: Ronin Publishing).
Morrison, J., 1970. The Lords and the New Creatures: Poems (New York: Simon & Schuster).
Morrison, J., 1989. Wilderness: The Lost Writings of Jim Morrison, Volume I (New York: Vintage Books).
Morrison, J., 2010a. ‘The Interviews: Creem, Lizze James, Autumn 1969’, in J. Hopkins, The Lizard King (London: Plexus).
Morrison, J., 2010b. ‘The Interviews: Rolling Stone, Jerry Hopkins, Spring 1969’, in J. Hopkins, The Lizard King (London: Plexus).
Morrison, J., 2010c. ‘The Interviews: WNET-TV “Critique”, Richard Goldstein, Spring 1969’, in J. Hopkins, The Lizard King (London: Plexus).
Murphy, S., 2010. Rimbaud et la Commune: Microlectures et perspectives (Paris: Éditions Classiques Garnier).
Nakaji, Y., 1987. Combat spirituel ou immense dérision? Essai d’analyse textuelle d″Une saison en enfer’ (Paris: Corti).
Rimbaud, A., 1966. Complete Works, Selected Letters, trans. W. Fowlie (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press).
Rimbaud, A., 2005, Complete Works, Selected Letters: A Bilingual Edition, trans W. Fowlie and S. Whidden (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press).
Rimbaud, A., 2009, Œuvres Complètes, ed. A. Guyaux and A. Cervoni (Paris: Gallimard).
Robb, G., 2000, Rimbaud (London, Basingstoke and Oxford: Picador).
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2015 Alessandro Cabiati
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Cabiati, A. (2015). Fabulous Operas, Rock ‘n’ Roll Shows: The Intoxication and Poetic Experimentation of Arthur Rimbaud and Jim Morrison. In: Brennan, E., Williams, R. (eds) Literature and Intoxication. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-48766-7_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-48766-7_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-56518-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-48766-7
eBook Packages: Palgrave Media & Culture CollectionLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)