The Unknown Celebrity

“Any man who acts singly in the press of a mob will get trampled. Shifting into reverse while making love can kill you.”

He lived in a small overheated attic apartment in Curepipe from where he started with direction Port Louis, capital of the Republic of Mauritius, every morning. He spent the day at the national hotel where he produced most of his art. After a Mauritian Curry, which he normally ate with rice, he used to wander through the surrounding, often he ended up at the Central Market, his favorite place, where he got inspired by the hustle and bustle. Sometimes he got chauffeured around the island, after he never had the desire to take place behind the steering wheel. In the early evening he returned to Curepipe where he had dinner at the Vatel Hotel and occasionally worked a little bit before he went back home.

Who was the man who lived such a self-isolating life and could celebrate some success in overseas?

Malcolm de Chazal was born in Vacoas, Mauritius, on September 13th, 1902, as thirteenth child of Edgar and Emma de Chazal, a wealthy and influential family of French immigrants who settled in 1763. His father continued the family business, which had come to former glory under his grandfather Edmund, whose economic and social reforms improved the workers life on the sugar fields and factories, while Emma took care for the education of the children. Due to her English charm and her religiosity she exerted a deep influence on all children.

“We know the halls of the eye like welcome visitors, but we live in our mouth.”

Malcom visited the Royal College in Curepipe that he succeeded with good grades, however, instead of entering the family business immediately it took him abroad. Over Sumatra and Java he came to Canada, which he crossed with the Canadian Pacific Railroad and only stopped for a winter trip on the frozen river Sugnenay in the province Quebec. Getting tired of constant travelling, he enrolled at the Baton Rouge University, Louisiana, USA, where he qualified as sugar engineer and chemist in 1931. During his six years lasting journey he also completed an apprenticeship in the Cuban Sugar Industry.

First in the year 1932 de Chazal returned to Mauritius after a short stay in Europe and would never leave his native country again.

He refused to enter into the family business and began his career as writer with the essay ‘Nouvel Essai D’economie politique’ New Essay of economical politic. Except for a brief period when he worked in the Government Telecommunications Agency, he completely devoted himself to his writing career and avoided society, in particular those of other celebrities.

“Half-opened petals give the flower an adenoidal look.”

Already in 1940 he started to publish a series of issues under the title ‘Pensèes’ Thoughts, which consisted hundred of numbered thoughts and ideas, however, five years later he published another part, this time with unnumbered aphorisms that he names ‘Sens-Plastique’ Plastic Sense. 1947 he published ‘Sens-Plastique Vol.2’ on which the Gallimard Edition, 1948, is based on and made him famous in France. With ‘La Vie filtrèe’ The filtered Life, a collection of essays that are based on the aphorisms of ‘Sens-Plastique’ he said goodbye to his sole existence as writer and started painting primitive, emblematic forms and landscapes, following a suggestion by Georges Braque.

“Man was made in the image of god. Nature was made in the image of man.”

Nevertheeless, he did not give up writing completely. In 1951 he published the spiritual history of Mauritius with the title ‘Petrusmuk’ and six years later he revealed another volume of aphorisms with ‘Sens Magique’ Magic Sense. After a break of amost a decade he returned back to his beginnings, 1968, he dramatized the experiences of ‘Sens-Plastique’ in short poetic designed sayings, called ‘Poèms’.

1981, October 1st, Malcolm de Chazal died unmarried. Once he said about his life and work:

“But I could never have done this by reasoning. I had to rely on subconscious thinking, the only intuitive resource available to humans, which few of us ever use in an entire lifetime. I should add that I could never have learned to think subconsciously without years of ascetic withdrawal, depriving my body, isolating myself, concentrating my mind and spirit.”

(© 2010-06-11)

This was the first paid article I ever wrote, a few days after I finished studying journalism.

Thank you for reading!