tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5682738581019360100.post6692320893187770114..comments2024-03-16T10:33:57.915-04:00Comments on cafe selavy: The True Knowledgecafe selavyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15326753057795689263noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5682738581019360100.post-47419485843602707182021-07-10T07:43:58.702-04:002021-07-10T07:43:58.702-04:00"An image to characterize Baudelaire's wa...<br />"An image to characterize Baudelaire's way of looking at the world. Let us compare time to a photographer - earthly time to a photographer who photographs the essence of things. But because of the nature of earthly time and its apparatus, the photographer manages only to register the negative of that essence on his photographic plates. No one can read these plates: no one can deduce from the negative, on which time records the objects, the true essence of things as they really are. Moreover, the elixir that might act as a developing agent is unknown. And there is Baudelaire: he doesn't possess the vital fluid either - the fluid in which those plates would have to be immersed so as to obtain the true picture. But he, he alone, is able to read the plates, thanks to infinite mental efforts. He alone is able to extract from the negatives the essence a presentiment of its real picture. And from this presentiment speaks the negative of essence in all his poems. <br /><br />Underlying Baudelaire's writing is the old idea that knowledge is guilt. His soul is that of Adam, to whom (Eve, the world) once upon a time offered the apple, from which he ate. Thereupon the spirit expelled him from the garden. Knowledge of the world had not been enough for him; he wanted to know its good and evil sides as well. <br /><br />And the possibility of this question, which he was never able to answer, is something he bought at the price of eternal remorse [Remord]. His soul has this mythical prehistory, of which he knows and thanks to which he knows more than other about redemption. He teaches us above all to understand the literal meaning of the word "knowledge" in the story of Eden.<br /><br />Baudelaire as litterateur. This is the only vantage point from which to discuss his relationship with Jeanne Duval. For him as litterateur the hedonistic and hieratic nature of the prostitute's existence came to life. "<br /><br />Essays on Charles Baudelaire, The Writer of Modern Life- Waler Benjamin <br /><br />The photo at the top - enjoyable to view. <br />Lisa Nickersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02748824411772434531noreply@blogger.com