Woes of the True Policeman

Friendships of Arcimboldi

Raymond Queneau, whom he considered to be his mentor and with whom he quarreled at least ten times. Five times by letter, four times over the phone, and twice in person, the first time with curses and insults, and the second time with scornful gestures and glares.

Georges Perec, whom he admired deeply. Once he remarked that Perec must surely be the second coming of Christ.

Raoul Duguay, Quebecois poet, with whom he maintained a relationship based on mutual hospitality: when Duguay was in France he stayed with Arcimboldi, and when Arcimboldi traveled to Canada or taught college classes he stayed with Duguay. On the subject of Duguay’s working life: he might be a professor at a Texas university for three months and a waiter at a bar in Vancouver for the next three months. Which is something that might seem perfectly normal in America but that never failed to astonish Arcimboldi.

Isidore Isou, whom he saw mostly between 1946 and 1948, and with whom he broke ties upon the appearance of the book Réflexions sur M. André Breton (Lettristes, 1948). As far as Arcimboldi was concerned, Isou was a “Romanian fuck-stick.”

Elie-Charles Flamand, whom he knew between 1950 and 1955. By this time the young Flamand was already extremely interested in esotericism, which in 1959 got him excommunicated by the surrealists. He and Arcimboldi shared a taste for certain poetic and kabbalistic interpretations of texts. According to Arcimboldi, Flamand was so unobtrusive that when he sat down it was practically as if he had remained standing. (This observation of Arcimboldi’s can be found in an Agatha Christie story.)

Ivonne Mercier, librarian from Caen, whom he saw from 1952 to 1960. He met Miss Mercier while on holiday in Normandy. For a year their contact was strictly epistolary, though frequent, consisting of two or even three letters a week. At the time, Miss Mercier was engaged and hoped soon to be married. The sudden death of her fiancé brought them closer. Ivonne Mercier traveled to Paris an average of six times a year. Arcimboldi, meanwhile, made only one more trip to Caen in his lifetime, in the summer of 1959, the year of the publication of the novel Hartmann von Aue and the poetry collection Railroad Perfection; or, The Fracturing of the Pursued. In 1960 Ivonne Mercier married a builder from the Normandy coast and broke off her visits to Paris. They continued to write for a few years, though very sporadically.

René Monardes, childhood friend from Carcassonne whom Arcimboldi always visited on his trips back to town. Monardes, a wine wholesaler, remembered Arcimboldi as a sincere and bighearted person. He had never read any of his books, though he kept some on the bookshelf in the dining room. Even after Arcimboldi had left France, Monardes claimed that he occasionally came back to visit. Once every two years. He comes, we have a glass of wine, maybe eat some figs under the arbor, I fill him in on the news, not that there’s much of it these days, and then he leaves. He’s still a nice guy. Not a big talker, but a nice guy.

7

Epistolary Relationships of Arcimboldi

Robert Goffin, ten letters dated between 1948 and 1951. Subjects: eroticism, painting, motoring, the weather, Belgian and French cyclists, scams and great scam artists.

Achille Chavée, fifteen letters, 1953 to 1960. Various subjects. Literature, as they say, is noticeable for its absence. In the letters, Chavée rallies Arcimboldi: courage, young man, courage.

Cecilia Laurent, of the Center for Atomic Energy Research, Paris. Forty letters, postcards, telegrams, all dated 1960. In one postcard Arcimboldi confesses that he wants to kill her. In the next letter he takes it back: what I really want to do is make love with you. To penetrate you = to kill you. That same afternoon he sends her a telegram: never mind, forget what I said, I didn’t mean it.

Dr. Lester D. Gore, of the Nuclear Energy Institute, Pasadena, California. Ten letters, dated 1962 to 1966, of a pseudoscientific nature. From one of them it may be deduced that Arcimboldi tried to visit Gore during a trip to the United States in 1966, but that in the end they were only able to speak by phone. (Was he trying to gather material for a scientific novel, as he explains in a subsequent letter?)