Malcolm de Chazal
Malcolm de Chazal – Life, Career, and Famous Quotes
Explore the life, works, and philosophical world of Malcolm de Chazal. From his distinctive Sens-Plastique aphorisms to his legacy in literature and art, dive into the thought of this visionary Mauritian writer.
Introduction
Malcolm de Chazal (12 September 1902 – 1 October 1981) was a Mauritian writer, painter, and visionary thinker whose work defies easy categorization. Fluent in French, he is best known for Sens-Plastique, a collection of aphorisms, pensées, and poetic fragments that probe the limits of language, perception, and nature.
Though born and largely based in Mauritius, his ideas resonated far beyond the island. Chazal’s blending of poetry, philosophy, and visual art produced a distinct voice in 20th-century letters. His experiments with thought, metaphor, and the invisible relationships between things continue to intrigue readers seeking a more intuitive grasp of reality.
In this article, we will unfold his journey, his methods, and his enduring voice through biographical detail, literary insight, and a curated selection of his most striking quotes.
Early Life and Family
Malcolm Edmond de Chazal was born on 12 September 1902 in Vacoas, Mauritius, into a Franco-Mauritian family with a long colonial lineage.
His parents were Edgar de Chazal and Emma (née Kellman). He was the thirteenth and last child in his family.
From an early age, Malcolm’s interior world was shaped by a spiritual dimension. His family observed the principles of the Church of the New Jerusalem (Swedenborgian tradition), and Chazal would later reference the correspondences between spiritual and natural realms in his work.
When he was still young, the family moved residence several times—from Cokerney to Forest-Side and then to Curepipe—settling eventually in a home on Rue Bernardin de Saint-Pierre.
On Sundays, the family attended the Swedenborgian church built in 1907 on Remono Street. In the wooded environment of Curepipe, the young Malcolm began to imagine the island as an Edenic terrain, “the intimate embodiment of all things.”
He learned to read at the Brunel school run by nuns, where his intellect was soon evident.
In short, Chazal’s family background offered him a blend of colonial heritage, spiritual sensibility, and access to European education and tradition.
Youth and Education
At the age of about 16 (in 1918), Malcolm de Chazal accompanied his brother to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in the United States, to pursue studies in sugar technology.
He enrolled at Louisiana State University, where after years of study he obtained a degree in engineering (agronomic specialization) in sugar technology around 1924.
After graduation, he did a brief stint working in Cuba’s sugar industry before returning to Mauritius in 1925.
Back in Mauritius, he initially worked in the sugar industry (in family or colonial plantation contexts) and also in the textile sector (particularly in aloe or related goods).
Over time, however, he grew disenchanted with conventional industrial life and shifted toward writing, philosophy, and eventually art. Between 1937 and 1957, he held a civil service post in the Electricity and Telecommunications Department of Mauritius.
During the 1930s, he also ventured into political economy and social critique, publishing essays under pseudonyms (notably Medec).
Yet his inner journey took precedence, and gradually his written output shifted toward the poetic, philosophical, and visionary.
Career and Achievements
Literary Emergence: Pensées and Sens-Plastique
From 1940 onward, Chazal began publishing short numbered thoughts (aphorisms) in volumes titled Pensées (I, II, III, etc.) in Mauritius.
In 1945, he released Pensées et Sens-Plastique, and then Sens-Plastique II in 1947. It was the 1948 edition published by Gallimard in France that brought him significant literary attention.
Sens-Plastique is a collection of metaphorical, fragmentary observations on the relationships between things, language, perception, and existence. Its title suggests the “plastic sense” or “sense made manifest” in form.
The work was greeted with a mixture of wonder and perplexity. Literary figures such as André Breton acclaimed it (calling him a surrealist), though Chazal resisted being pigeonholed.
Beyond Sens-Plastique, Chazal published:
-
La Vie Filtrée (1949) — essays elaborating ideas toward filtered life and inner vision
-
Sens Magique (1957) — further explorations of magical perception
-
Poèmes (1968) — poems presenting his metaphoric voice in verse form
-
Petrusmok (1951) — a mythic/spiritual history of Mauritius, infusing the landscape with symbolic meaning
-
A wide array of other works: essays, political economy writings, theatrical pieces (e.g. Iésou), La Pierre philosophale, Aggenèse, and many others.
In fact, Chazal wrote or published over sixty titles over his lifetime.
Visual Art
Later in life, at the suggestion of Georges Braque, Chazal turned seriously to painting. His visual works often depict Mauritian landscapes, vegetation, birds, villages—interpreted via a naive or emblematic style, rather than purely representational.
Unlike his aphoristic writing, his paintings tend to show a more stable visual world, though imbued with symbolism.
His paintings have been exhibited in Mauritius, France, and beyond.
Recognition & Influence
Chazal’s work has been recognized in France and beyond. His Sens-Plastique sold modestly but earned praise from the French literary avant-garde.
He influenced writers, philosophers, and artists curious about the edge between language and perception. His style is considered part of a “magical” or visionary tradition in literature.
In Mauritius, Chazal is considered one of the island’s greatest literary figures, a source of national pride.
His unpublished notebooks, chroniques (newspaper writings), and later autobiographical writings such as Autobiographie spirituelle have continued to be studied and published posthumously.
Historical Milestones & Context
Chazal’s intellectual life unfolded amid major global and colonial changes:
-
The first half of the 20th century saw Mauritius under colonial rule, with its sugar economy, plantation structures, and imported European culture. Chazal straddled this colonial world and the emergent intellectual identity of the Indian Ocean region.
-
The 1930s economic crises and debates on colonial development influenced his early essays in economics and social policy.
-
After World War II, the rise of existentialism, surrealism, and philosophical experimentation in Europe opened an intellectual climate receptive to fragmentary, aphoristic, and visionary writing forms. Chazal’s Sens-Plastique arrived in France in 1948, intersecting with these trends.
-
The decolonization and postcolonial period in Africa and Indian Ocean islands brought renewed interest in formerly marginal voices. In that light, Chazal was seen as a precursor or silent precursor to thinkers who would later claim formerly colonial perspectives.
-
The cross-cultural tension—writing in French, living in Mauritius, drawing on both European and local elements—makes Chazal a bridge figure between metropolitan intellectual traditions and regional voices.
His life spanned a period of cultural flux: from colonial certainty to postcolonial questioning.
Legacy and Influence
Malcolm de Chazal left a multifaceted legacy, though one that remains under-explored.
Literary Legacy
His works have been collected, republished, and translated (notably Sens-Plastique into English by Irving Weiss).
Scholars in Mauritius and in francophone circles have produced bibliographies, essays, and critical studies on Chazal’s thought (e.g. the thesis Malcolm de Chazal: bibliographie classée et biographie littéraire).
In Mauritius, he is regarded as one of the island’s greatest literary figures. His life and works are taught, exhibited, and celebrated in cultural festivals.
Artistic Legacy
Chazal’s paintings are preserved in collections in Mauritius, France, and South Africa.
His dual identity as writer and painter is part of his distinct legacy: he resisted rigid boundaries and preferred to let perception and metaphor guide his work.
Philosophical / Intellectual Influence
Though not a mainstream philosopher, Chazal’s work is admired by those exploring mysticism, aphoristic writing, and poetics of perception. His dense, eccentric style has influenced writers who toy with hybridity, fragment, and metaphorical leaps.
Contemporary readers and translators have revived interest in his notebooks, chroniques, and marginal works. For instance, Autobiographie spirituelle (published posthumously) reveals deeper layers of his inner journey.
In recent years, documentary films (e.g. Malcolm, le tailleur des visions) and cultural retrospectives have reintroduced his voice to younger audiences.
As a figure who inhabits the margins, Chazal’s influence is less through mainstream schools and more through individual resonance: for those who sense the world in correspondences, fragments, and metaphor.
Personality and Talents
Chazal’s personality emerges as a blend of the introspective, mystical, and fiercely independent. He refused easy labels—resisting the tag of “surrealist” even while Breton embraced him.
He displayed a restless intellect: his early interest in economics, his gradual shift to spiritual and poetic concerns, and his later forays into painting all attest to a mind seeking new forms of expression.
His method is often fragmentary, aphoristic, poetic rather than discursive. He often speaks in metaphors, suspensions, and in images that leap across conceptual boundaries. This style itself becomes part of his message: that direct propositions may not suffice to grasp reality.
A mystical undertone runs through his work: the belief in correspondences between realms, the possibility of seeing hidden relations, and the sense that language itself is alive.
He had an ambivalent relation with recognition: he aspired for depth rather than popularity, and some of his works sold modestly even as they won the admiration of prominent intellectuals.
Despite the esoteric quality of much of his writing, Chazal could also deliver whimsical, humorous, or paradoxical lines that delight readers for their twist of insight.
Famous Quotes of Malcolm de Chazal
Below is a curated selection of Malcolm de Chazal’s memorable lines. Each quote resonates with the elliptical, image-laden style that is his trademark.
“Monkeys are superior to men in this: when a monkey looks into a mirror, he sees a monkey.”
“The flower in the vase smiles, but no longer laughs.”
“The family is a court of justice which never shuts down for night or day.”
“Our expression and our words never coincide, which is why the animals don't understand us.”
“The idealist walks on tiptoe, the materialist on his heels.”
“The man who can make others laugh secures more votes for a measure than the man who forces them to think.”
“The glance embroiders in joy, knits in pain, and sews in boredom. …”
“The mind gets distracted in all sorts of ways. The heart is its own exclusive concern and diversion.”
“Art is nature speeded up and God slowed down.”
“The beautiful remains so in ugly surroundings.”
These quotes reflect Chazal’s penchant for turning perception sideways, unsettling common assumptions, and urging us to see deeper relations.
Lessons from Malcolm de Chazal
From Chazal’s life and work, we can draw several lessons that remain relevant today:
-
Embrace the fragmentary
Chazal shows us that not everything can be expressed in clear argument. Sometimes a brief metaphor, a paradox, or an image points deeper than a full treatise. -
Trust intuition, explore correspondences
His work urges us to sense hidden ties between things—between nature, soul, language. In an era dominated by rationalism, his voice reminds us of the poetic dimension of perception. -
Resist easy categorization
Chazal rejected being boxed into “surrealist” or any other label. His life teaches that creative integrity often lies in resisting fixed identities. -
Bridge disciplines
He was poet, philosopher, painter, and essayist. Cross-disciplinary curiosity can yield surprising syntheses. -
Persist despite obscurity
Many of his works were slow to find wide readership. Yet his persistence and inner conviction endured—and now his voice is rediscovered by newer generations. -
See the ordinary as sacred
He endowed commonplace things—flowers, mirrors, family—with mystery. This encourages us to pay renewed attention to the everyday. -
Live the life you think
Chazal’s inner life informed his outer work. He did not separate vision from existence. His example invites us to align our creative life with how we perceive.
Conclusion
Malcolm de Chazal remains a luminous and enigmatic figure—both anchored in his Mauritian soil and reaching toward expansive vistas of language, metaphor, and vision. His life embraced the tension between the visible and the invisible, the literal and the symbolic.
Through Sens-Plastique and his many other works—poems, essays, paintings—he invites readers into a world where seeing is a poetic act. His quotes continue to echo because they do not so much resolve as provoke. The journey is opened, not concluded.
If you’d like, I can also provide a more complete collection of Chazal’s aphorisms, or an annotated reading of Sens-Plastique in translation. Do you want me to dig deeper?