The Ways of Paradise - Peter Cornell

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The Ways of Paradise

by
Peter Cornell

general information | our review | links | about the author

Title:	The Ways of Paradise
Author:	Peter Cornell
Genre:	Non/fiction
Written:	1987 (Eng. 2024)
Length:	141 pages
Original in:	Swedish
Availability:	The Ways of Paradise - US
	The Ways of Paradise - UK
	The Ways of Paradise - Canada

	from: Bookshop.org (US)

Notes from a Lost Manuscript
Swedish title: Paradisets vägar: noter till ett förlorat manuskript
Translated by Saskia Vogel
With numerous illustrations

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Our Assessment:

(-) : interesting concept and execution

See our review for fuller assessment.

The complete review's Review:

The Ways of Paradise is presented as the critical apparatus to a(n apparently) lost work. A short Preface by Peter Cornell explains that: "Almost every day for more than three decades" the (unnamed) author of these notes could be seen "absorbed in his studies, in reverie" in the reading room of the National Library of Sweden, where:

It was said that he was occupied with an uncommonly comprehensive project, a work that -- as he once disclosed in confidence -- would reveal a chain of connections until then overlooked.

       All that has been found of the work, however, is this sheaf of 122 loose sheets of paper, with these notes. Cornell admits to some editorial intervention -- notably in numbering the notes (as neither the pages nor the notes are numbered in the collection of papers); this despite the fact that, as he notes: "The extent to which this order was finalized we cannot be sure; other combinations cannot be ruled out". He also added some illustrations -- "notably reproductions of various artworks named in the text", to go along with some already included with the notes.
       The resulting work is divided into three parts, the notes numbered only within each part rather than continuously across the whole (i.e. the second part begins again with a note one, as then does the third part). There are exactly 200 notes (part II has both a note 56 and note 56a), ranging from, simply, the abbreviation: "Ibid." (occurring several times) or the single word: "Beehive" to some that are more than a page in length.
       By numbering the entries, Cornell has imposed a clear order on them, and there are sections where successive notes cover similar subject-matter or references, suggesting continuity, but much is also too random-seeming to easily discern the content this might be the critical apparatus for.
       The references are very wide-ranging, and include mention of many art-works that challenge traditional forms in various ways, from Nerval's Voyage en Orient, where: "the narrator's travel entries are constantly mingled with the romantic fruits of the author's reading", to the automatic writing of Hélène Smith. Surrealism and Dada feature, as do the writings of Freud and Jung (among many others). One of the texts repeatedly discussed is Mallarmé's never fully-realized "utopian, total and ethereal" The Book -- an obvious inspiration for this work -- where:

radically new modes of reading are suggested. The reader was to abandon the rigidity of linear reading for 'a new way of reading, concurrent'. The reader could begin at the start or at the end of the work. And the pages, according to an intricate system, could be reordered so that new combinations and contexts of meaning would ever be arising. As such, The Book had neither a beginning nor an end, no fixed meaning, only perpetual circulation

       Other art-forms are also discussed, including automatic drawing (e.g. Michel Til) and, for example, the works of Robert Smithson. The labyrinthine figures prominently, from: "Leonardo and Dürer's eternal knots" to the Sicilian labyrinth that: "could be a figure and symbol of Nerval's route of travel" to: "two alphabetic labyrinths by Jost Amman and Johann Caspar Hiltensberger". So also "promenading and flânerie", such as the random strolling of the surrealists ("They get to know and understand Paris by walking around") play a significant role -- the (seemingly-)random allowing for deeper understanding.
       The Ways of Paradise is a conceptually interesting work, and many of the very varied examples and brief accounts (as well as the accompanying illustrations) are in and of themselves engaging. A readily-discernible whole -- a clear larger picture -- remains, however elusive in this labyrinthine and open-ended work (as surely was Cornell's intention and, to some extent, point).
       Readers should be aware of what they are getting themselves into; Cornell leads (if one can call it that) down many intriguing paths, but The Ways of Paradise is a complex maze whose arrangement and purpose can seem baffling. Worth a gander -- indeed, worth some serious, active engagement --, but those who prefer their narratives and arguments easier to follow might quickly find it frustrating.

- M.A.Orthofer, 27 April 2025

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Links:

The Ways of Paradise:

Fitzcarraldo Editions publicity page
Gidlunds förlag publicity page
Excerpt

Reviews:

Peter Cornell:

Obituary

Other books of interest under review:

See Index of Scandinavian literature

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About the Author:

Swedish author Peter Cornell lived 1942 to 2025.

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