tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post7235544915580436153..comments2024-03-29T03:04:00.853-05:00Comments on Wuthering <br>Expectations: The ideal is always jealous - French Decadents on art and SchopenhauerAmateur Reader (Tom)http://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-14567559193591138162014-09-10T16:50:36.776-05:002014-09-10T16:50:36.776-05:00Doug, it was sometimes tricky to guess the degree ...Doug, it was sometimes tricky to guess the degree of sarcasm or irony in these stories. Or perhaps I mean the direction of the irony. The treatment of violence, for example, I think was always tongue-in-cheek. But I am sure I was often misled.<br /><br />For so many French writers, Hugo was something like a problem to be solved. He took up so much space.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-44691796138938027682014-09-10T15:25:38.754-05:002014-09-10T15:25:38.754-05:00Jarry is often funnier than Wilde. His collected ...Jarry is often funnier than Wilde. His collected short columns ("La Chandelle Verte") is remarkable for its comic invention.<br /><br />The Decadents, I suspect, sometimes wrote with their tongues in their cheeks. They often reacted not only against Hugo's grandeur, but his pompous earnestness, which could be a bit trying. As early as the 1830s, Gautier was mocking Romantic pretensions (including his own) in "Les Jeunes-France."Doug Skinnerhttp://www.dougskinner.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-60876508774405726012014-09-07T22:53:14.814-05:002014-09-07T22:53:14.814-05:00Wilde openly stole from the French Decadents. He ...Wilde openly stole from the French Decadents. He gives a good taste of them. None of them are as funny as Wilde.<br /><br />I didn't go into it, but the Decadents are in part reacting <i>against</i> Hugo. They are decayed <i>from</i> the impossible grandeur that us Victor Hugo.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-57050801060089824362014-09-07T09:33:50.273-05:002014-09-07T09:33:50.273-05:00Interesting reading here as always. I'm afrai...Interesting reading here as always. I'm afraid what little I know of the Decadents is English, Yellowbook and Oscar Wilde. My knowledge of French literature is Victor Hugo and assorted 20th century writers. <br /><br />I do like your position of naturalism as con-job. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-91048048813811061012014-09-06T21:54:54.266-05:002014-09-06T21:54:54.266-05:00Roger, I wonder if, at least among Austrians and G...Roger, I wonder if, at least among Austrians and Germans, if his artistic influence ever ended.<br /><br />Robert, thanks so much. I just write 'em the way I think they oughta be writ. Maybe most people see a 3,000 word blog post and think "all right!" but plenty often I think "I'm going to save that for later." Later can turn out to be pretty late.<br /><br />Weird France has been a running theme of the blog for a while. French literature has such a wonderful history that in American literature would be thought of as counter-culture, but in France quickly became part of the canon - I was tempted to say "became the canon," but that's Argentinean literature. I think you're fundamentally right about the decadents, but the term got attached to lots of odd offshoots and digressions. New Weird, absolutely. Neil Gaiman could have put a version of that Jules Laforgue story in <i>Sandman</i>.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-64317081282241114182014-09-06T08:48:18.777-05:002014-09-06T08:48:18.777-05:00What a wonderful blog you have here! I've just...What a wonderful blog you have here! I've just discovered it. Dipped my toe in by reading this series on the decadent tales. I love the way you set up your posts with an overview of the book, and a sort of thesis about the nature of the decadent, defining it as <br /><br />"ome combination of weirdness, Schopenhauer , repellent attitudes towards women, mental illness, attention to prose style, prostitutes, artists, over-aestheticized attitudes, and some move towards the destruction of human values"<br /><br />and then all subsequent posts have been marchings forth from the sally ports set up in that sentence. It's a novel and fascinating way to blog. I can see I'm going to have to back up a year or two in your archives and get a running start with your current literary preoccupations. It's always so fun to discover a new blog that I know immediately I will want to read religiously.<br /><br />Oh, and on this subject of the decadent. Your demonstrations and analysis have fleshed out my own mental image of the term. I used to think of decadence as an unorthodox use of energy, appearing lazy in the matters of life that engross the attention of the bourgeois, and investing that energy with unholy fervour in bizarre aesthetic projects. Rather like an edible fungus, a darkness-loving, cave-dwelling form of nourishment.<br /><br />But now I'm starting to think the decadent might have more in common with the New Weird. Laforgue and China Mieville, for example, seem like they might get along rather well. <br /><br />Anyway, marvellous blog. I'm off to read some more of it!Robert Mintohttp://www.robertminto.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-19709419457522416182014-09-06T02:43:32.748-05:002014-09-06T02:43:32.748-05:00Schopenhauer's artistic influence went on into...Schopenhauer's artistic influence went on into the next century. He provided the visual inspiration at least for Dr Caligari in The Cabinet of Dr CaligariRoger Allenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11012987757094423896noreply@blogger.com