It’s tough to judge the sincerity of another person’s religious conversion. I agree with you that Huysmans was a serious man who arrived there after for protracted study, and self-examination. I read Against the Grain as an undergraduate over 40 years ago. It was a milestone on my return to the Catholic faith. I did not experience a flip. It was a slow process, with backsliding. It’s interesting that JKH remains relevant as a symbol and an example of conversion. Much about the current world is so putrid that people recoil from it. Some of them will turn to religion. Some of them will be serious about that turn. Some of them will persevere with it. The years ahead will be interesting. I’m going to take a walk and pray the Rosary, and visit the Eucharistic chapel at the Catholic church near where I live. Someone I knew over 50 years ago committed suicide yesterday, and I just heard about it. There will never be a shortage of lost souls to pray for.
it's crazy that Aaron and Dan are slaying it this hard on a WEEKLY BASIS yeah, honestly haven't seen any other Substacks that are bringing the art like this. makes AI seem even more irrelevant
Loved this essay. I actually bookmarked it and waited until I had the time to leave a proper response. I’m currently reading À Rebours, and I think there are clear omens foreshadowing the eventual “flip”—not unlike the subtle signs in War and Peace that hint at Tolstoy’s later conversion. Des Esseintes’ bedroom, for instance, and his obsessive quest for solitude, feel less like aesthetic indulgence and more like preparations for retreat.
To me, if the turn is sincere—or at least convincing—it never happens overnight. Huysmans himself compared it to digestion, and I find that metaphor apt. Today, the sincerity of such conversions is harder to gauge. Take Milo Y., for instance: are we witnessing an actual change of heart or a strategic rebranding that plays better to a new base?
But genuine conversions do exist. Roosh is a good example. I don’t think he ever truly aspired to be a pickup artist. He struck me as an intelligent man searching for meaning in a world that offered only consumption and labor—mostly consumption. Even a misguided quest is still a kind of quest.
I haven’t finished À Rebours yet, but so far, the book doesn’t make a case for the aesthete’s life—it simply renders it in exquisite, almost seductive, detail.
We note that at the very least, Roosh always appeared genuinely unhappy: it never seemed that there was anything carefree or spontaneous about his hedonistic period. His deleted book on Denmark remains a masterpiece of what can only be interpreted as Swiftian satire; it's the kind of thing we wish we'd written for its matchless absurdity, and is fairly impossible to imagine coming out of any other context. The position of disgust with humanity that he eventually reached is comparable to passages in Huysmans.
Yes, that’s exactly it, there was always a heaviness to Roosh, even during his so-called peak indulgence. Nothing about that phase ever felt light or truly pleasurable; it was as if the performance of hedonism only deepened his sense of isolation. I read his book on Romania, and it didn't read at all like "The Game" but more akin to Bukowski or Hamsun.
I nearly brought up Milo in my contribution. He is very much in the Alfred Douglas school of that conversion coming from a deeper self-loathing place. Douglas veered deep into the more fascist trappings of religiosity immediately following what happened with Wilde, largely because his father was very willing to completely disconnect him from generational wealth.
Milo ran himself into ruin with his own excesses and set upon a grifter path to make up the difference. Money in controversy and all that, but he ended up being a staffer for American conservative politicians to get back into a place of security. The religious frustrations wrapped up in that position are tremendous.
"To resist the flip one must learn to see beauty in the highest and lowest of places". This is a subject I have put a lot of thought into over the years (the high/low flow) and I totally agree with your assessment. In my Rick Rubin piece I refer to it as "dynamic flow". I only infer that it's use is beneficial beyond artistic endeavor, but this piece you've written cements the idea in a more practical way. Well done
The more conservatism exposes that it’s really gone full fascist purity cult, the more I want to champion the beauty of being imperfect. AI and Christian Love end in the same boring place and I’ll have none of that.
High and low, in my understanding and practices, does not involve anything so cheap as religion, but rather anything that contrasts the dark shit I inevitably get myself into
Can anyone recommend the best and most readily available English language versions of the post-La Bas Durtal novels? Ideally, I'd like all of them in a single volume if such a thing exists.
It’s tough to judge the sincerity of another person’s religious conversion. I agree with you that Huysmans was a serious man who arrived there after for protracted study, and self-examination. I read Against the Grain as an undergraduate over 40 years ago. It was a milestone on my return to the Catholic faith. I did not experience a flip. It was a slow process, with backsliding. It’s interesting that JKH remains relevant as a symbol and an example of conversion. Much about the current world is so putrid that people recoil from it. Some of them will turn to religion. Some of them will be serious about that turn. Some of them will persevere with it. The years ahead will be interesting. I’m going to take a walk and pray the Rosary, and visit the Eucharistic chapel at the Catholic church near where I live. Someone I knew over 50 years ago committed suicide yesterday, and I just heard about it. There will never be a shortage of lost souls to pray for.
And as always, great art by Aaron. We're lucky to have the contributing artists that we do
it's crazy that Aaron and Dan are slaying it this hard on a WEEKLY BASIS yeah, honestly haven't seen any other Substacks that are bringing the art like this. makes AI seem even more irrelevant
"In other words, we encourage you to take a brief break and then resume excess sinning with renewed imaginative energy."
I
Never
Fucking
Stopped
great piece, a lot to think about
Loved this essay. I actually bookmarked it and waited until I had the time to leave a proper response. I’m currently reading À Rebours, and I think there are clear omens foreshadowing the eventual “flip”—not unlike the subtle signs in War and Peace that hint at Tolstoy’s later conversion. Des Esseintes’ bedroom, for instance, and his obsessive quest for solitude, feel less like aesthetic indulgence and more like preparations for retreat.
To me, if the turn is sincere—or at least convincing—it never happens overnight. Huysmans himself compared it to digestion, and I find that metaphor apt. Today, the sincerity of such conversions is harder to gauge. Take Milo Y., for instance: are we witnessing an actual change of heart or a strategic rebranding that plays better to a new base?
But genuine conversions do exist. Roosh is a good example. I don’t think he ever truly aspired to be a pickup artist. He struck me as an intelligent man searching for meaning in a world that offered only consumption and labor—mostly consumption. Even a misguided quest is still a kind of quest.
I haven’t finished À Rebours yet, but so far, the book doesn’t make a case for the aesthete’s life—it simply renders it in exquisite, almost seductive, detail.
We note that at the very least, Roosh always appeared genuinely unhappy: it never seemed that there was anything carefree or spontaneous about his hedonistic period. His deleted book on Denmark remains a masterpiece of what can only be interpreted as Swiftian satire; it's the kind of thing we wish we'd written for its matchless absurdity, and is fairly impossible to imagine coming out of any other context. The position of disgust with humanity that he eventually reached is comparable to passages in Huysmans.
Yes, that’s exactly it, there was always a heaviness to Roosh, even during his so-called peak indulgence. Nothing about that phase ever felt light or truly pleasurable; it was as if the performance of hedonism only deepened his sense of isolation. I read his book on Romania, and it didn't read at all like "The Game" but more akin to Bukowski or Hamsun.
I nearly brought up Milo in my contribution. He is very much in the Alfred Douglas school of that conversion coming from a deeper self-loathing place. Douglas veered deep into the more fascist trappings of religiosity immediately following what happened with Wilde, largely because his father was very willing to completely disconnect him from generational wealth.
Milo ran himself into ruin with his own excesses and set upon a grifter path to make up the difference. Money in controversy and all that, but he ended up being a staffer for American conservative politicians to get back into a place of security. The religious frustrations wrapped up in that position are tremendous.
A rebours flipped again -- what a flapjack!
"To resist the flip one must learn to see beauty in the highest and lowest of places". This is a subject I have put a lot of thought into over the years (the high/low flow) and I totally agree with your assessment. In my Rick Rubin piece I refer to it as "dynamic flow". I only infer that it's use is beneficial beyond artistic endeavor, but this piece you've written cements the idea in a more practical way. Well done
The more conservatism exposes that it’s really gone full fascist purity cult, the more I want to champion the beauty of being imperfect. AI and Christian Love end in the same boring place and I’ll have none of that.
High and low, in my understanding and practices, does not involve anything so cheap as religion, but rather anything that contrasts the dark shit I inevitably get myself into
That’s a beautiful consideration of it and I agree.
ASCETICISM + NOT BEING ABLE TO ENJOY YOURSELF != THE FOOT OF THE CROSS
My man don’t even know the joy of monastics!
Reading from this here post duly 'inserted' into L'étranger radio show of 25-05-25. Track 14 - > https://www.radiopanik.org/emissions/l-etranger/show-505-wanton-adel-reeving/
A Rebours flipped again -- vat a flapjack :)
Can anyone recommend the best and most readily available English language versions of the post-La Bas Durtal novels? Ideally, I'd like all of them in a single volume if such a thing exists.
I don't think there's an English version that has all 3-in-one? I recommend the Dedalus Books ones translated by Brendan King