Christa Giles

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crude commercialism of America, its
materialising spirit, its indifference to the
poetical side of things…its lack of
imagination and of high unattainable ideals. 233
Both Wilde and Huysmans come to reject naturalism,
concluding that: ˝As a method, realism is a complete
failure.˝ 234 Unlike Wilde, however, Huysmans wishes to
retain the scientific concern for detail which was so much a
part of the school of Zola. In a letter to Abbé Boullan in
February, 1890, he reveals the impulse behind the creation
of his novel on satanism – Là-bas:
I long…to make a work of art of supernatural
realism and spiritualistic naturalism. I want to
show Zola, Charcot…that nothing has been
explained of the mysteries about us. 235
The corollary of the rejection of positivism and the scientific
spirit was an interest in the supernatural, which suggested
paradoxically, a kind of idealism. Satanism became the
expression of a belief in things unseen. Thus Durtal asserts
that ˝the effrontery of the positivists is appalling. They
decree that satanism does not exist.˝ 236 Religion was
perceived as inadequate and was replaced to some degree
by a belief in the supernatural.