The Sacred Monster Table of Contents
Find your way around!
Sacred Monster has been around since March of 2024 — nearly two years later, I thought it useful to catalog every essay here for easy perusal. Subscribers at the paid level have access to the archive entirely; free subscribers may find a paywall removed here and there (ssssshhhhh….)
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to reach out to bonjour@chloecassens.com. Happy reading!
Jean Cocteau
Welcome to Sacred Monster Why you, and I, and we are here today (February 2024)
Sexy, Sparkling and Grotesque A love letter to La Belle et La Bête (1946) (March 2024)
The Juggler’s Revenge How a landmark exhibition at the Peggy Guggenheim in Venice celebrated what were once Cocteau’s most maligned qualities (April 2024)
Wild, Child Les Enfants Terribles, Yves Saint Laurent, and that time Pierre Bergé blackballed me when I was 17 years old (May 2024)
Jean-Jean & Jean Cocteau’s first great love lived sensually and died a hero (June 2024)
Le Roi Soleil Cocteau escaped to the south of France, became a 12-year house guest, and explored his spirituality (July 2024)
The Pen of Light Le Sang d’un Poète (1928) was nothing short of explosive upon its release (September 2024)
Jean & Coco Without Chanel’s care to keep him alive, Cocteau may have died many years earlier (October 2024)
Jeannot & Jean Cocteau’s greatest and most enduring love story made him one half of the “first gay power couple” (November 2024)
In The Zone Orphée (1950) set the table for the New Wave (December 2024)
The Message The last thing Cocteau ever did was speak to the year 2000 (January 2025)
This Charming Man Cocteau is all over the New Wave, if you know where to look for him (February 2025)
Monsieur Bébé How Raymond Radiguet exploited Cocteau’s love for him, and left a trail of destruction through the course of his very short life (April 2025)
Club Classics Well before Charli xcx and Brat, there was Jean Cocteau and Le Boeuf sur le Toit (May 2025)
Bloom & Gloom Jean Cocteau’s first mentor was the biggest star of his time (June 2025)
The Final Word Le Testament d’Orphée (1960) was Cocteau’s eulogy (July 2025)
A Love of Love Cocteau’s 1928 semi-autobiographical Le Livre Blanc remains a radical argument for the acceptance of queer people (August 2025)
An Angel, A Flower, A Bird How Cocteau championed the first drag superstar (October 2025)
Severin Wunderman Stories
The Time Lord Who was Severin Wunderman? (February 2024)
The Golden Ring A story about chance, destiny, and Andy Warhol (June 2024)
The 450 After the Palisades fire, I ended up the custodian of a Wunderman family heirloom (March 2025)
Sex, Sex Workers & Sexual Politics
Monster, Legend, Divine Sarah Bernhardt was the first Sacred Monster. She was also a sex worker, Jewish, slept in a coffin, and had one leg (August 2024)
The Lost Queen of Montparnasse The Pompidou’s Surrealist centennial may have displayed Man Ray’s revenge porn (October 2024)
On All Fours The Louvre gave wall space to Aristotle’s favorite dominatrix (November 2024)
“You Can’t Afford It.” How a courtesan mastered the art of the publicity stunt — from her boudoir (May 2025)
Ghosted Marie Duplessis died at 23 but has haunted the narrative for two centuries (October 2025)
Modern Monsters & Pop Culture
The Reality Above Reality, Parts One & Two An opus about Vanderpump Rules and André Breton (March 2024)
Soft Power in Your Area How the K-Pop machine and Blackpink refined what Louis XIV started (July 2024)
The Beautiful and the Damned John Galliano remains the rarest of men: a Sacred Monster of the modern era (August 2024)
Requiem for a Monster Kanye West was once a Sacred Monster, and he knew it (September 2024)
Showgirls is a Dada Masterpiece Marcel Duchamp’s urinal was the precursor to the so-bad-it’s-transcendent film (December 2024)
Human After All What Daft Punk can teach us about humanity, the dance floor, and the French (February 2025)
It’s Britney, Bitch American society turned a pop princess into a monster (March 2025)
The People’s Monster Princess Diana was perhaps the most sacred and profane of them all (August 2025)
Getting Personal
Paris/Hollywood Reflections on my two home cities, originally commissioned for 7Hollywood magazine (January 2025)
I Fought A Nazi in Tom Ford-era YSL Don’t let your mouth write a check your ass can’t cash (March 2025)
From The Archives: Frankenstein Excerpts from an academic past (April 2025)
A Note About Los Angeles Underestimate her at your own risk (June 2025)
A Note About the Musée Jean Cocteau and Menton Answering questions that for a long time, I was unable to address (September 2025)
Sacred Musings: The Greatest Hits
April 2024 Recapping the Venice Biennale; gov’t sanctioned art always sucks
June 2024 TV recommendations from my Covid sickbed
July 2024 More thoughts on K-pop and the Rolling Stones
August 2024 That time I lived in an emptied-out Chateau Marmont
December 2024 24 things I learned in 2024
April 2025 Sinners, Paris Noir and Parisian racism
August 2025 Zoolander, Josie & The Pussycats and the death of the “sellout”