Adonis Diaries

“The spirit cannot reach the deepest spot of premonition…”, (August 31, 2009)

“The true premonitions are created so deep inside us that the spirit cannot visit.  Sometimes, these premonitions force us into activities that are interpreted wrongly by our closest friends.  The most disorganized person, who is about to die but doesn’t know it consciously, starts to put all his affairs in order. His life seems to have changed. He wakes up early and goes to bed early.  He shuns his previous vices.  His friends congratulate one another for this miracle.  His brutal and sudden death seems entirely unjust: He was about to live happy!”

That was the end of “Devil in the body” by Raymond Radiguet who died at the age of 20 of high fever, after publishing three books and a collection of poems.  This prodigy of a writer had a hard heart that barely reacted; his heart needed fire and other high caliber diamonds to cut through. Actually, Jean Cocteau who promoted this young author and befriended him testified that, four months before Raymond death, Radiguet developed the same behavior of someone who have changed and became more sociable.

Three days before death, Radiguet told Cocteau “In three days I will be executed by a firing squad of the soldiers of God.  The order has been given. I have heard the order”.  Shortly before sinking into a feverish coma, Radiguet said “There is a color taking a walk and people hiding behind that color.” Cocteau asked him if he could chase away these people and Radiguet replied “You could not: first you need to see the color that you cannot see”.

A few hint cards, written by Radiguet were recovered.  About his notes on “Le Diable au corps” Raymond writes: “People wanted to consider my book an autobiographical confession. Priests know better this mechanism:  adolescent boys and women confess non realized sins by pure pride. It is for enhancing the novel (roman) of “The Devil…” that all is false. Painting this boasting character of the young hero was the main objective.”

Another note says: “Age has nothing to do with genius. It is not because of the young age of Rimbaud that his collections of poems have values and astonished me. Very often, prodigy kids end up piling up stupidities as they grow up. Great poets are the ones who make us forget that the best they wrote were done when they were 17 of age.”

A third note says “Weakness would be failing to write.  The timid waits for mature age to show his work on the assumption that he can always do better: he has no excuses for his weaknesses.  In a subtle sense, we never do better: we never do worse of what we wrote at an early age.”