A curious specimen of Fortean.
Whose connection is slight, and removed at that.
Joseph-Paul Swenne was born in Belgium around 1898. He is most famous for being a sexologist, publishing under the name Marc Lanval. In 1924, when he was an engineer, Swenne founded the Belgian League of Heliophilus Propaganda—styled Hélios. According to Evert Peeters, he combined the community, situated in a small village near Brussels, “with controversial propaganda in favour of ‘scientific contraception’, the new discipline of sexology, and sexual reform.” The community, as might be guessed by its name, was nudist—and, in my thinking, reminds me of Jocelyn Godwin’s “Theosophical Enlightenment,” which found in Theosophy and its offshoots the pairing of sun worship and the veneration of generative powers. In Lanval’s case, though, sex was not permitted in Hélios, though the sun was seen as curative.
Whose connection is slight, and removed at that.
Joseph-Paul Swenne was born in Belgium around 1898. He is most famous for being a sexologist, publishing under the name Marc Lanval. In 1924, when he was an engineer, Swenne founded the Belgian League of Heliophilus Propaganda—styled Hélios. According to Evert Peeters, he combined the community, situated in a small village near Brussels, “with controversial propaganda in favour of ‘scientific contraception’, the new discipline of sexology, and sexual reform.” The community, as might be guessed by its name, was nudist—and, in my thinking, reminds me of Jocelyn Godwin’s “Theosophical Enlightenment,” which found in Theosophy and its offshoots the pairing of sun worship and the veneration of generative powers. In Lanval’s case, though, sex was not permitted in Hélios, though the sun was seen as curative.
Lanval’s brand of nudism was leftist, as opposed to other strains during the time that allied themselves with Nazism. According to Peeters, most nudists were not attached to Fascism, but neither did they oppose it. Lanval did. He argued that German National Socialism grew out of a “homosexual psyche” and could only be repaired by giving women more rights, promoting individual thought, free initiative, and democracy. Swenne also stood against the Catholicism of his country. He seems to have been a prolific writer and moved widely in European sexological circles.
Joseph-Paul Swenne died around 1955.
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Based on a very superficial exploration, Swenne does not seem to have been particularly well-known outside of Europe, which raises the question of how he came to the Fortean Society. The most likely connection was though Harry Benjamin, who was a friend of Tiffany Thayer’s, a member of the Society, and an internationally regarded sexologist. He also may have found his way to the Society via Francois Delisle, another member, a socialist, feminist, and advocate of birth control, who had been, for many years, the lover of Havelock Ellis.
Or the connection may not have even been that strong.
Swenne, as Lanval, warranted only a single mention in Doubt. At the time, Thayer referred to him as an MFS—Member of the Fortean Society. But that honor could easily have been extended to hm after Thayer learned of one him, and a book Lanval had written than fascinated Thayer; perhaps Lanval agreed to become a member—and maybe even send in dues—after consulting with Delisle or Benjamin. It’s all speculative at this point, but the Fortean Society was on the edge of sexological research because of these connections, and so it is possible to imagine a path Lanval might have followed. Of course, there may have been some other connection altogether.
What warranted Lanval’s inclusion in Doubt was not his sexological work, but a monograph he published in 1953, “L'énigme du Manneken-Pis.” (For those keeping score at home, this is the second book published in 1953 to capture Thayer’s attention that started the title “The Enigma of . . .”) The Manneken-Pis is a famous Belgian sculpture in Brussel, created in the early 1600s, that shows a little boy peeing into a fountain. It’s a symbol of rebellion. Thayer adopted the Manneken-Pis as a Fortean symbol back with issue 16 of Doubt (1946), and images of it occasionally appeared in the magazine.
There are, as one would expect, many legends as how this statue came to be. Thayer offered on version in Doubt 18 (July 1947): a King’s son, named Charles, went missing. The King swore on St. Thomas that if he found the boy, he’d commission a statue to be erected at that exact spot. And so of course he found his boy peeing on a passing parade; and so of course the state was made and installed. Thayer wrote, “Its Fortean significance hardly needs laboring, for surely it is more than coincidence that the patron of the Fortean Society is Saint (Doubting) Thomas, too, and that the name of the little prince who peed on the parade was Charles.” He hoped to have replicas made, and given to the Named Fellow each year. (As Far as I know, that plan never came to fruition.) With the story was a picture of the statue, taken by Eric Frank Russell.
So Thayer was pleased to see Lanval’s book, even if it was in French. he could have come across it in the same ways that Lanval may have come across the Society—streets run both ways—say by having his attention drawn to it by Benjamin or Delisle. Or he may have noticed it in a book catalog: it was copyrighted in America. Since the bronze replicas of the statue never came to pass as a Fortean honor, Thayer hoped the books could serve the purpose. (They could also be purchased by members.) He effused in Doubt 44 (April 1954), under the title “Memento to the Manneken”:
“The most famous citizen of Brussels, Belgium, is the subject of a handsome monograph in the French language by MFS Marc Lanval. We obtained a few copies of this illustrated booklet to use for awards, as in Naming Fellows, and so on. This—in turn—led to a friendly greeting for DOUBT and Forteanism in the State Museum at Brussels, where all the mementos of the Manneken-Pis are treasured.”
The book was on sale for a dollar.
It is not clear what Thayer meant by the “State Museum at Brussels,” but it is probably the Museum of the City of Brussels, which does collect materials related to the Manneken-Pis. Perhaps, then, there are a few copies of Doubt buried somewhere in the Museum—a hidden monument to the tenuous connection between the Fortean Society and a pseudonymous Belgian sexologist.
Joseph-Paul Swenne died around 1955.
*********************
Based on a very superficial exploration, Swenne does not seem to have been particularly well-known outside of Europe, which raises the question of how he came to the Fortean Society. The most likely connection was though Harry Benjamin, who was a friend of Tiffany Thayer’s, a member of the Society, and an internationally regarded sexologist. He also may have found his way to the Society via Francois Delisle, another member, a socialist, feminist, and advocate of birth control, who had been, for many years, the lover of Havelock Ellis.
Or the connection may not have even been that strong.
Swenne, as Lanval, warranted only a single mention in Doubt. At the time, Thayer referred to him as an MFS—Member of the Fortean Society. But that honor could easily have been extended to hm after Thayer learned of one him, and a book Lanval had written than fascinated Thayer; perhaps Lanval agreed to become a member—and maybe even send in dues—after consulting with Delisle or Benjamin. It’s all speculative at this point, but the Fortean Society was on the edge of sexological research because of these connections, and so it is possible to imagine a path Lanval might have followed. Of course, there may have been some other connection altogether.
What warranted Lanval’s inclusion in Doubt was not his sexological work, but a monograph he published in 1953, “L'énigme du Manneken-Pis.” (For those keeping score at home, this is the second book published in 1953 to capture Thayer’s attention that started the title “The Enigma of . . .”) The Manneken-Pis is a famous Belgian sculpture in Brussel, created in the early 1600s, that shows a little boy peeing into a fountain. It’s a symbol of rebellion. Thayer adopted the Manneken-Pis as a Fortean symbol back with issue 16 of Doubt (1946), and images of it occasionally appeared in the magazine.
There are, as one would expect, many legends as how this statue came to be. Thayer offered on version in Doubt 18 (July 1947): a King’s son, named Charles, went missing. The King swore on St. Thomas that if he found the boy, he’d commission a statue to be erected at that exact spot. And so of course he found his boy peeing on a passing parade; and so of course the state was made and installed. Thayer wrote, “Its Fortean significance hardly needs laboring, for surely it is more than coincidence that the patron of the Fortean Society is Saint (Doubting) Thomas, too, and that the name of the little prince who peed on the parade was Charles.” He hoped to have replicas made, and given to the Named Fellow each year. (As Far as I know, that plan never came to fruition.) With the story was a picture of the statue, taken by Eric Frank Russell.
So Thayer was pleased to see Lanval’s book, even if it was in French. he could have come across it in the same ways that Lanval may have come across the Society—streets run both ways—say by having his attention drawn to it by Benjamin or Delisle. Or he may have noticed it in a book catalog: it was copyrighted in America. Since the bronze replicas of the statue never came to pass as a Fortean honor, Thayer hoped the books could serve the purpose. (They could also be purchased by members.) He effused in Doubt 44 (April 1954), under the title “Memento to the Manneken”:
“The most famous citizen of Brussels, Belgium, is the subject of a handsome monograph in the French language by MFS Marc Lanval. We obtained a few copies of this illustrated booklet to use for awards, as in Naming Fellows, and so on. This—in turn—led to a friendly greeting for DOUBT and Forteanism in the State Museum at Brussels, where all the mementos of the Manneken-Pis are treasured.”
The book was on sale for a dollar.
It is not clear what Thayer meant by the “State Museum at Brussels,” but it is probably the Museum of the City of Brussels, which does collect materials related to the Manneken-Pis. Perhaps, then, there are a few copies of Doubt buried somewhere in the Museum—a hidden monument to the tenuous connection between the Fortean Society and a pseudonymous Belgian sexologist.
