Life in the Folds originally published in French in 1949 is the Belgianborn author and artist Henri Michauxs 18991984 most direct exploration of the many forms of suffering a laboratory of fantastical destructive energies in which the poet presents his methods for dealing with the world around him. The first two sections offer such items as the Slapping Gun and the Man Sling in the section Freedom of Action to the scenarios that call for defensive measures such as the Constellation of Jabs and the visceral Blow of Fatigue in the section Apparitions. Also included is one of Michauxs more complex fantasticalanthropological travelogues Portrait of the Meidosems an account of the ways and manners of a population of vague ectoplasmic figures anguished filaments of sorts that struggle to exist but are never allowed to sit still.