in "On Some Motifs in Baudelaire," Walter Benjamin conveys his ambivalence towards city life, invoking Baudelaire's poetry. there is a sonnet he quotes ("A une passante"):
Far, far from here! Too late! or maybe, never?/For I know not where you flee, you know not where I go,/O you I would have loved (o you who knew it too!)
the ambivalence is represented by Benjamin's (1) distaste and wariness towards crowds, the alienation and isolation and anonymity one can feel living in a city and (2) the fascination and excitement and shock one can also feel from the buzz of city life. thus, he writes:
"What this sonnet communicates is simply this: Far from experiencing the crowd as an opposed, antagonistic element, this very crowd brings to the city dweller the figure that fascinates. the delight of the urban poet is love -- not at first sight, but at last sight. It is a farewell forever which coincides in the poem with the moment of enchantment."
he goes on to say that that the city dweller is "spared, rather than denied fulfillment."
isn't that beautiful? and that, my friend, is my minor dissertation on your blog posting. I have trouble conveying thoughts in short responses. I get rather excited when my school work relates to general everyday life (which it should more often). omg, I am pontificating now. I need to stop. I'm going. I'm gone already.
1 comment:
in "On Some Motifs in Baudelaire," Walter Benjamin conveys his ambivalence towards city life, invoking Baudelaire's poetry. there is a sonnet he quotes ("A une passante"):
Far, far from here! Too late! or maybe, never?/For I know not where you flee, you know not where I go,/O you I would have loved (o you who knew it too!)
the ambivalence is represented by Benjamin's (1) distaste and wariness towards crowds, the alienation and isolation and anonymity one can feel living in a city and (2) the fascination and excitement and shock one can also feel from the buzz of city life. thus, he writes:
"What this sonnet communicates is simply this: Far from experiencing the crowd as an opposed, antagonistic element, this very crowd brings to the city dweller the figure that fascinates. the delight of the urban poet is love -- not at first sight, but at last sight. It is a farewell forever which coincides in the poem with the moment of enchantment."
he goes on to say that that the city dweller is "spared, rather than denied fulfillment."
isn't that beautiful? and that, my friend, is my minor dissertation on your blog posting. I have trouble conveying thoughts in short responses. I get rather excited when my school work relates to general everyday life (which it should more often). omg, I am pontificating now. I need to stop. I'm going. I'm gone already.
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