"We must," he thought "retain the documentary veracity, the precision of detail, the compact and sinewy language of realism, but we must also dig down into the soul and cease trying to explain mystery in terms of our sick senses. If possible the novel ought to be compounded of two elements, that of the soul and that of the body, and these ought to be inextricably bound together as in life..."
Page 10
In the first chapter of this novel
Durtal is having a conversation with his friend, Des Hermie. While seeking
advice for his new book, The Story of Gilles de Rais, the two men begin to
discuss the value of French Naturalism. Des Hermie rejects the genre's worth
because it uses strict rules to only show what our senses perceive. He believes
the extra-sensual is just as important in discussing life's mysteries, rather
than focusing on the material world. Durtal understands this skepticism and
hopes to find a middle ground at which to write a biography. He calls human
perception "sick" in order to show that it is damaged and incomplete
on its own. He hopes to embellish his writing with mystic and
supernatural feeling in order to paint a more complete picture of this
criminal's life. I think this conversation reveals how La-Bàs or Down There is
written, with disorienting and mesmerizing diction J.K. Huysmans will
attempt to make this story engulfing.
