26 Aug 2009

Hydrogen Is The Answer

At work, a package arrived address to the 'conseil general' of where I work. Inside was a booklet like this:


Also attached was a letter, that seemed to suggest that I should photocopy this booklet and distribute it freely:



It was written by a French Canadian called Claude Deschennes, who has a bit of a thing about religion:



Not only that, he seems to LOVE rubber stamps, and using them:



He is also keen on drawing diagrams about how he views the world. I liked this one because of the distinction drawn between 'Plants', 'Beasts' and 'Humanity'. To the left, you'll see he's also written "Posters, please, for the classes of biology", as well as more rubber-stampage:



In case you weren't sure, this emphasises once again the importance of Hydrogen:



There's also frequent references to the 'Nebula' as demonstrated by this diagram (and more rubber stamps):



Claude has included a photocopied picture of (what I guess to be) himself:



And thankfully, on the rear, he explains the purpose of the book:



There's so much dense handwriting, rubber-stampage, religious critique and references to the importance of Hydrogen that I can't really do it justice in this blog, but consider this post Claude's first foray onto the internet, as I couldn't find any reference to him when I searched.

Hi Claude!

8 comments:

Beth said...

Claude! Claude!
Amazing. Beth x

Thad said...

Still the only Claude Deschene reference on the net. Ours arrived today, two copies in fact, with different covers.

The return address is Shawinigan, Quebec. which Google satellite shows as a modest house on the corner. No street view.

Anonymous said...

A Claude update! I work at a magazine, and we got a copy too. (11/22/63) Same content, it looks like, but a new cover, "Hydrogenic origin of stars planets and life."

Anonymous said...

oops, sorry, that date above should be 11/22/11. (Typing it reminded me of the anniversary of JFK's death--that's in '63)

skillz said...

Well, really the date should be 22/11/11, but let's not fuss.

punkmonk said...

can you place Claude's masterpiece in a library? That way perhaps we can all enjoy his vision for the world. Failing that, maybe it can be discussed in the philosophy reading groups.

skillz said...

When I get time I might scan the whole thing and make it into a downloadable pdf.

Anonymous said...

He's still sending them out. I work at a university in NS and received one today, 05/01/2012.