Surrealist Poetess Married to the Ghost of Ducasse Since 1970

The wife of the late Surrealist poet, Isidore Ducasse, seeks to stop a New York performance artist from a staging marital publicity stunt.

(PRWEB) July 12, 2004 -- News of a New York performance artist seeking to wed a dead poet, has disturbed the poet's surviving widow, according to sources.

The poet in question, the late Isidore Ducasse, is considered by many to be the father of the Surrealist literary movement. Ducasse's iconoclastic work, "Les Chants du Maldoror," (The Songs of Maldoror,) first published in August, 1868, was heralded as the beginning of a new era in literature. Ducasse credited this shocking work to his alter-ego, Le Comte de Lautreamont, a name he culled from a popular character of a then-popular French novel. In a surprising twist to this story, it is interesting to note that the poet in question has been dead since 1870.

French authorities and scholars alike expressed surprise after being alerted about the planned, unauthorized event, which is scheduled to take place in New York, sometime within the next week.

This strange series of events is the result of the passing of an obscure French law, sanctioned by the former President of France, Charles De Gaulle. This bizarre law, claims to legally recognize the marriage between two individuals, married after the decease of one of the partners.

Under French Civil Code 171, the President has the authority to authorize marriages between the dead and the living. The law was originally enacted in 1959, when then-President, de Gaulle, toured the town of Frejus where a dam had burst, killing hundreds. A young woman, mourning the untimely death of her intended husband, approached the President with the request that she be allowed to marry her dead fiancée. The President sympathetically granted the young womans request by enacting a special law, on behalf of those mourning, resulting in the legal marriages of several hundred people.

In hopes of utilizing this 1959 French law, a New York performance artist is urrently in the planning stages of a proposed "wedding". The New York artist, who publicizes her work under the name, Shishaldin," has tried to enlist the help of French authorities to grant her permission to stage her marital stunt.

Unfortunately, Ms. Shishaldin was, up until recently, unaware that another woman, the current Mrs. Isidore Ducasse, had previously invoked the same sanction of the aforementioned French Civil Code 171 in the 1970s, to celebrate the Centennial of the death of the late poet.

According to reports, Mrs. Ducasse is a Surrealist film maker, painter and poetess. She wrote a novel entitled, "The Marriage of Maldoror," in 1972, wherein she recounted the events leading up to her marriage to the long-dead poet. The book, of which there are only rare copies still extant, is considered to be the literary companion of Lautreamont's masterpiece, The Songs of Maldoror.

The widow Ducasse has expressed concern that the reputation of her dead husband is being marred by what she considers to be a shameless publicity stunt, staged merely to garner media attention at the late poet's expense. Furthermore, Mrs. Ducasse has stated her further concern over the questionable use of pornography on the New York artist's website, citing that it's use, in conjunction with the publicizing of the upcoming event, demeans the Ducasse literary legacy.

When confronted about the use of pornographic imagery in her own late husband's writing, Mrs. Ducasse quietly stated, "Whatever our opinion may be of a person and the way in which he lived his life is one thing; however, upon a person's death, we should show them reverence and respect." She continued, adding, "Before this terrible situation, I was glad to live in anonymity, speaking of my situation only in veiled terms. But, now I have been forced to tell my sad story of love -- a love that could only live in death."

News leaks of the proposed wedding stunt however, did not surprise Los Angeles underground poet, Boy Ray, spokesman for an international collective of Surrealist poets known as the League of Convulsive Beauties.

When asked to share his viewpoint of the entire situation, Boy Ray enigmatically responded by quoting the words of Ducasse himself, simply stating, Do not blush at the thought of what the human heart is."

Additionally, Boy Ray, commented on the fact of how fitting it was that the current events surrounding Le Comte de Lautreamont continue to make him appear as mysterious in death, as he was in life.

French Authorities currently looking into the odd situation have declined to comment at the moment, pending further investigation. Questioned as to whether the standard wedding vow of "Til' death do us part," would have any bearing on the possible legal proceedings, officials politely declined to comment.

###