Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain and René Daumal’s Mount Analogue: From Pataphysics to Power

• Thesis title in Czech: Svatá hora Alejandro Jodorowského a Hora analogie René Daumala: Od patafyziky k moci
• Thesis title in English: Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain and René Daumal’s Mount Analogue: From Pataphysics to Power
• Key words: René Daumal|Alejandro Jodorowsky|Svatá hora|Hora analogie|patafyzika|moc|Lacan|psychoanalýza|RSI
• English key words: René Daumal|Alejandro Jodorowsky|The Holy Mountain|Mount Analogue|pataphysics|power|Lacan|psychoanalysis|RSI
• Academic year of topic announcement: 2019/2020
• Thesis type: diploma thesis
• Thesis language: angličtina
• Department: Department of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures (21-UALK)
• Supervisor: doc. Erik Sherman Roraback, D.Phil.
• Author: hidden - assigned and confirmed by the Study Dept.
• Date of registration: 07.10.2019
• Date of assignment: 07.10.2019
• Administrator's approval: not processed yet
• Confirmed by Study dept. on: 10.10.2019
• Date and time of defence: 10.09.2020 00:00
• Date of electronic submission: 12.08.2020
• Date of proceeded defence: 10.09.2020
• Submitted/finalized: committed by student and finalized
• Opponents: Mgr. David Vichnar, Ph.D.

Guidelines

This thesis will depart from the indeterminate relation between Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain and René Daumal’s Mount Analogue: A Novel of Symbolically Authentic Non-Euclidean Adventures in Mount Climbing. Instead of continuing the ongoing debate of the possibility of an adaptation of Daumal’s book, the film and the unfinished novel will be considered alongside one another in order to demonstrate common themes for both works and what aspects of the works in question can, as a result, be subjected to critical analysis.
First, among such themes are the ones of language and the Real that will be discussed from the perspective of Lacanian thought. The possibility of the context of the latter is based on the interest of Lacanian psychoanalysis in language and in its qualities, as well as on the role the Real plays in the so-called Borromean-knot model suggested by Lacan. Following on from this, the thesis will explore the ‘narrativization’ of human experience as it is implemented by psychoanalytical practices, and will analyze the consequences of ‘narrativization’ as they are reflected in the works in question.
Second, the influence of pataphysics on the film and on the written opus will be considered. Given both characters of The Holy Mountain and Mount Analogue attempt to reach the unreachable, or the Real, their ‘reality’ is subjected to reinterpretation, and so the Real becomes tangled with the Imaginary and with the Symbolic. At the same time, the perspective of a scientific approach is abandoned in favor of that of pataphysics. Thus, the ‘imaginary solutions’[1] offered by ‘pataphysicians’ underline the instability of reality that is ultimately based on language, and, once again, stress the impossibility of reaching the Real – as is demonstrated in both the film and the unfinished novel.
In the final part of the thesis, the conclusions achieved in the analysis of the operation of the above-mentioned concepts will be applied to spiritual leadership as it figures in the two target works. The last part will, then, deal with the allegorical constituents – political leadership and political power – as well as with their functioning by means of both the power of language and of the potential for manipulation through the processes of ‘narrativization’.
The following grounds the importance of the present topic: 1. The Holy Mountain is rarely considered outside the common topics of hallucinatory imagery, religious references, and esoteric contexts – such an approach is descriptive rather than analytical and therefore ineffective; 2. There is unrealized potential in the discussion of the works of Daumal, whose writing seldom becomes the focus of academic analysis, especially, in the English-speaking world. However, the cultural influence of Daumal and of pataphysics in general cannot be denied; 3. Viewed critically side by side, The Holy Mountain and Mount Analogue open up important dimensions of cultural and allegorical commentary that constitute theoretical value and throw light on the problematic of the Real, language, and power.
[1] Alfred Jarry, Exploits and Opinions of Doctor Faustroll, Pataphysician (Exact Change, 1996), 22.

References

Baudrillard, Jean. Simulacra and Simulation. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1994.
Daumal, René. Mount Analogue: A Novel of Symbolically Authentic Non-Euclidean Adventures in Mount Climbing. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1971.
Daumal, René. Pataphysical Essays. Cambridge, MA: Wakefield Press, 2012.
Deleuze, Gilles. ‘An Unrecognised Precursor of Heidegger: Alfred Jarry’ in Essays Critical and Clinical. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997.
Ibsen, Henrik. Peer Gynt. Mineola: Dover Publications, 2003.
Jarry, Alfred. Exploits and Opinions of Doctor Faustroll, Pataphysician. Boston: Exact Change, 1996.
Jodorowsky, Alejandro. The Holy Mountain. ABKCO Films, 1973.
Lacan, Jacques. Écrits. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2005.
Lacan, Jacques. Seminar XI: The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1998.
Lacan, Jacques. ‘R.S.I’ in Ornicar? Nos.2-5. Paris: 1975.
Pecotic, David. ‘Mountains Analogous? The Academic Urban Legend of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Cult Film Adaptation of René Daumal’s Esoteric Novel’ in Australian Religion Studies Review 27(3):367-387. 2015.
Rosenblatt, Kathleen Ferrick. René Daumal: The Life and Work of a Mystic Guide. Albany: SUNY Press, 1999.
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Žižek, Slavoj. The Sublime Object of Ideology. London: Verso, 2009.