Locus Solus

Raymond Roussel’s 1914 novel *Locus Solus* centers on the inventor Martial Canterel, who hosts a group of colleagues at his country estate. During the tour, Canterel unveils a series of increasingly bizarre inventions. Among them are an aerial pile driver assembling a mosaic of teeth, a large glass diamond filled with water containing a dancing girl, a hairless cat named Khóng-dek-lèn, and the preserved head of Danton as a separate exhibit. The longest section describes eight tableaux vivants inside a giant glass cage. The actors are corpses revived by Canterel’s “resurrectine,” a fluid that forces a fresh corpse to repeatedly act out the most significant event of its life.

The novel has been translated into English by John Ashbery (published 2017), as well as into Czech, Dutch, Italian, Polish, Turkish, Russian, Spanish, and other languages.

*Locus Solus* lent its name to a short-lived literary journal (1961–62) edited by Harry Mathews, John Ashbery, James Schuyler, and Kenneth Koch. It is briefly mentioned in Mathews’s novels *Cigarettes* and *The Sinking of Odradek Stadium*. In 2014, artist and novelist Mark Amerika published *Locus Solus: An Inappropriate Translation Composed in a 21st Century Manner* (Counterpath Press) for the novel’s centenary, using online translation programs to create a procedural remix. The main antagonist of the film *Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence* takes its name from the book; in the film, characters Batou and Togusa visit a hacker named Kim in a mansion filled with odd mechanical art, and Togusa views tableaux vivants through a peephole—both elements drawn from the novel. In the video game *Wild Arms 5*, *Locus Solus* is the name of a mothership used by the Veruni. Musician John Zorn named a band and album after the novel. Architect Carlo Scarpa frequently referenced *Locus Solus* in his Brion Cemetery project. A yearly music festival in Nantes, France, at Le Lieu Unique is named *Locus Solus*. Electronic musician Richard Knott titled a song “Locus Solus,” which became his breakout hit in 2012. DJ Harvey has recorded under the name Locussolus. Visual artist Pierre Huyghe has cited the novel as a defining influence.