Baudelaire in the American Midwest

Response to Jay and Sustar & Bean Nonsite.org Adolph Reed, Jr.

Chicago politics concern this article and it is a polemic against a mayoral candidate Karen Lewis. She became known for her leadership that resisted the  current mayor's neo-liberal education policies.

The two criticisms the author finds distasteful involves infighting in progressive circles that fear her progressive politics are diluted by her choice to run as a democrat rather than an independent. They believe the Democratic Party is neo-liberal and using her to appear progressive while carrying the same agenda.

The criticism is that they are naive and basically philosophizing about purity myopically. There is also a criticism that they falsely believe there is an already mobilized movement that only needs an elected official to enact it. The momentum builds toward the election but sense the priority is the election the energy loses momentum regardless of how pure the candidates politics are.

The author lampoons this by relating their argument to a 1979 movie called Hardcore where a wholesome Midwest girl rebels becoming a pornstar whose path quickly falls from grace and appears in snuff films. Her father is obsessed with purity but also has a quick temper and he  compromises his religious beliefs to produce pornographic films in hopes the will lead him to his daughter. Obviously the snuff film and religious porn director are campy and so, the author thinks, that progressives should divorce themselves from the Democratic Party. 

On Some Motifs in Baudelaire Illuminations Walter Benjamin

I

What Benjamin is at first ruminating about is Baudelaire's intended readers. Not only is the poet being isolated from society, the poetry that is now resounding appeals to a population that cherish revelry to an afternoon with a book.

Benjamin is convinced Baudelaire foresaw his poems would be devoured slowly--he is isolated from poetry as a tradition and the audience that will celebrated his poems. Benjamin also claims the end goal of the poetry is to show man who he really is behind the veneer of civilization and he does this by alienating oneself from virtue and focusing on the carnal.  

Drive-through Garden

Chapter 3 The Secret Life of Paintings R. Foster & P. Tudor-Craig

La Primavera by Sandro Botticelli

Harmony and love are central to this painting. It was painted just as the early renaissance was interested in neo-platonic thinking. While there is one focus on relearning ancient Greek thought it was also mixed with Christianity that was  prevalent. In this way we have a curious mixture of figures of Venus and Mary.

In a world where Satyrs chase after fleeing figures of beauty we also have a symbol of fertile virginity. And the subject of the painting is the idea of Eros--the drive in us that provides us aesthetic energy while at the same time something that is not represented in actuality.

The figures in the painting are also noted for being parts of a musical scale. The embodiment of Eros is venus and whom is in the center and the domniant not of the scale. The other characters are placed accordingly to the idea of harmony and the characteristic disharmony that some notes sound. What is harmonious is sensuously depicted but directed towards at goal of the soul. The dissonant characters are that who direct their longing towards the physical and away from the soul. However, all the figures are depicted as young beauties and their longing is generative and does not lead to being motionless.

They style of the painting was promoted by the Medici family who were still interested in the aims of Christianity but were at odds with it's puritanism and aversion to the idea of beauty. The idea of blending sensuous beauty with the altruistic notions of virtue. This is the Renaissance that we celebrate and are familiar with but the notion at the time was volatile and not readily accepted. In this case it was nurtured by a wealthy merchant family but even this allegiance was fragile. Which is curious because the underlying theme here is a sensuous idea of beauty and attention to the soul that is generative--contentiously causing motion through harmony and attention to flourishing nature in the midst of it blooming.

Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014)

This movie main themes were violence, brash machismo, and inklings of morality that are quickly averted by a distraction. The movie also briefly courts a opposition of tradition and science framing it in regards to purity and the unknown consequences of creating something that has been cultivated slowly in the same fashion but in a new way.

The aggressive male served as the archetype for this movie and all the events seemed to generate from this mind set and obey its rationale. Its central tenant is that all things are in constant transformation and idealizes things that mechanical sources of motion and all this is wedded to violence that relies on impulse.

The idea that a machine is alive seems to form this deep familiarity and suggests a unity. This unity is also in peril from the dubious character played by Kelsey Grammer who see's the mingling of man and car as impure and seeks to divide this curiously by allying with a shadow version of this love--blindly falling in love with the darker version he dislikes.

Architecture also is an important but abused character in the film. Buildings ferociously become bystanders in the fight between moving machines and their lack of movement causes them to bear punches rather than skilfully moving out the way. While the end goal of the fighting is to save the city, it is often neglected in particulars seeming to be vulnerable to bouts of aggression. The city's dependency and abuse is also mirror with the daughter who takes on a role of being in distress and being controlled by an dominating father.

The film seems to emphasize briefly with the daughter. The barn in which her father tinkers is set in relation to the space craft with the collection of heroic robot cars. It is an enclosure that wouldn't nurture life. Although it is othered as some alien space craft it mirrors the psychological reality of her fathers barn which is filled with objects of sentiment and feel familiar but terrify with sentiment and uselessness.

A Farce in a Picturesque Hell

What is Epic Theater? Illuminations Walter Benjamin

The Actor/Theater on a Dais picturesque 

The actor is set up as a real person playing a role and part of the play. This to me is like some strange love affair where two who are meant for each other are cast away from each other. The are aware that they should love but do not commune. Benjamin brings back the theme of empathy and describes how it is avoided by creating tension that involves spontaneity not only in plot but the fabric of the play in general. The play becomes mercurial and constantly announcing itself steaming with anxiety and scientific farce.

The idea that the stage is a 'dais' brings us back to the Middle Ages where people are asked to step up and be distinguished which is theatrical but the illusion is not as fantasy as a play that tries to contain the meaning in itself rather than relate to the audience that it is not fully real.

The Great Beauty (2013)

The main character and Rome are intertwined--so much so that I don't remember his name but remember his love interest, Ramona. 

The character thinks himself an artist but he is no muse but merely a mercurial figure. He knows all the important figures and can get into the choicest places but he is at a loss to weave his experience into a satisfying story.
 

One wonders if his disenchantment comes from chaotic lifestyles people adhere to as a regular carnival that is their afternoon or if he is too much apart of what he wants to bring to life like one who struggles to see how others view them.

He seems, at times, to be some mythological figure leading us through death. One scene in particular stands out as he gets private access to a museum housing iconic roman art. The lady he's with named after the city they are in does not receive a long speech about the statues. He simply exists as a connected person that takes people to places. Even as the viewer we have this relationship and depend on him to take us to the next spot on the way.

Flying a Gondola

Epic Theater Illuminations Walter Benjamin

The didactic play

This segment Benjamin telescopes out to the wider aim of epic theater which is to teach. But his way to explain this is first to explain the nature of the audience and the actors as equal participants--all striving for the same goal.

Then we turn to airplanes and heros. Shamefully Brecht wrote a play in which there is a hero but he gets redacted. We then hear Benjamin compare pilots to monks and end with a allusion to Brecht speaking about a hypothetical and alienated struggle.

Don't Look Now (1973)

The city of Venice is set in relation to an art restorer’s dead child. Water is also a frequent theme and in many ways the source of motion of the drama. Along with the sense of loss and uneasiness we also contemplate high class and treating Venice as a giant tomb.

Venice is treated very much as the city of the 'others.' There is a language barrier but what is strange is this is usually a trope given to people in society that are immigrants or people generally stereotyped as degenerate. There is a language barrier and we are suspicious of whether the people are actually demons and consider that the place might be haunted. On top of this, the city generally bears in mind it's intense ties to culture but the movie seems to question it's place in the contemporary and treats it so frigid that psychological archetypes can be a serial killer.

The trouble begins after a randy display of sex between the posh couple shortly after arriving in Venice. It is not certain what sparks this passionate coupling--they just lost their daughter and are grieving, the mood of the film is foreboding, they are in luxury but it is some what truncated and dangerous. This love making seems to give birth to a phantom that makes the rest of the film a garish farce. The city realizes itself as a decaying but picturesque maze and we struggle with love and alienation as well as truth and paranoia.

Gesturing in the Backyard

What is Epic Theater? Illuminations Walter Benjamin

The quotable gesture

After being confused in the last segment I looked up epic theater and found this was not something observed by Benjamin. Once again wikipedia was much more straight forward about it. Or at least it was more sincere that it was an actual 'thing' as opposed to Benjamin's way of speaking which also seems to take into account that it might not actually be a thing. But after doing this I'm somewhat resolved at the moment to take into account Benjamin's description and not to search for a satisfying explanation for epic theater.

The quotable gesture is again masked with confusion. It's not clear to me what it encompasses. Benjamin seems to set it in opposition with the written text of a script. I don't know if this is explicitly like hand gestures, or even intonation of voice, or if it refers to gestures that come from gimmicks of the play in a elevated vaudeville shtick.

But these gestures are described by Benjamin as 'interruptions'. And this is imperative to the weaving of the play which the viewer is conscious of in the way he has described the epic audience. Perhaps it is more simply, and less interestingly, put as a device to promote thoughtfulness in a way that appears destructive.

It Always Rains on Sunday (1947)

In a gritty but vibrant English city we circle through love affairs, market places, domestic life, and crime. In people's houses there are cosy decorations but also psychological tension. He marketplace is a carnival scene where prices are negotiable and goods are have a tincture of desire. The goods themselves are produced from innocent urges but their circulation combines as we contemplate people's complicated life that is a combination of wanting a stable domestic life and giving way to bacchanal urges.

People are trying to live life to match their dreams but they are also poor and have obligations to support a family. They are bound by money but also neglect the parts of life that aren't influenced by cash. The characters that are more pure in their heart have trouble navigating the corrupt world around them while those who chase pleasure see corruption with clarity and try to find their niche in the traffic of nastiness being directed around them.

The mother figure seems to be the most complex. See is wise but aggitated. Her conflict comes from the backyard as a old lover tempts her to obstruct the family she also yearns for. Her presence disturbs the daughters she married into. The daughters also unknowingly become part of her complicated love life.

When the rouge lover is recaptured from his escape from prison, it is not sure if he'll stay behind bars or if his precence will  divide the family order again while the father seems devoted ambiguously not letting us know he is aware of the affair or not. The movie ends in a chase in a coal yard and in a hospital leaving us with a lingering grit and sense that we are ill and recovering from desire's nature to get the best of us.

Come on in, Brecht

What is Epic Theater? Illuminations Walter Benjamin

The Interruption

It is now clear that when Benjamin asks what is epic theater he is rhetorical. He knows what it is and Brecht is it's figure head. In this section we notice a theme from past essays--particularly the one where he collects books. I'm not sure why this section is called the 'interruption' but Benjamin favors a story in which one reflects on instances of plot rather than emphasise emotionally with characters in the story.

A developing current of rationalism which is curious because Benjamin has been described to me as a marxist and lover of myth. He even uses the word alienation and this seems in line with the dispassionate coupling of numeric value to the exchange of goods. Certainly myth involves this deep identification with something that is human that almost goes without explanation or value.

Benjamin's relationship to a story does not seem to be familiarity but intense observation that is brought about by considering something from outside oneself.

And based on how Benjamin trounces through this essay these observations can be fleeting and don't have to agree. For instance in the previous section he was relating how classical literature possessed epic theater but now in this section takes a philosopher from that period and delclares Brecht, illuminator of epic theater, goes beyond Aristotle and his 'empathy with the stirring of fate'.

Now I am at a familiar impasse with Benjamin's writing. I seem to find it a little distasteful but after reading it and observing life, I feel like it's a merited observation and perhaps a little something I've always done but not conscious of it because I find it distasteful. But this way of thinking does seem to be haunting and related to anxiety. And partially I feel my impasse is the very thing being described and now I'm cross eyed. But at this point it's hard to reconcile how a mind can be opposed to newspapers while at the same time championing a style of writing that turns people into reporters.

Benjamin seems to be set up as a film noir sleuth. He has this dedication rational clues and has this energy that propels him but in a way that is disguised and only revealed to use when he's ready. It is uncertain if he will meet a chance love in his search and if that will cause any trouble.

Xenia Imagines Philostratus

Xenia is the term for hospitality in greek but here there are no people. It is just a landscape but one that is breaming with delectable food. The fruit is presenting itself to us and practically eats itself on our behalf. Not only is there fruit budding in the peak of it's deliciousness there is promise of more fruit still becoming. But we are in a state of just viewing this unpicked paradise and also encouraged to partake.

This sense of pleasure and welcomening seems to contrast starkly to film noir hospitality where the action of the plot activates as a guest stops by to rent a room. This character is often confused with a murderer or is the murderer. Instead of this image that appeals to our appetites we are left with terror and uncertainty. The sense of welcoming or terror stems from either excepting someone in a way that is overwhelmingly part of us or othering them and making them opposite of us.

Behorsing

What is Epic Theater? Illuminations Walter Benjamin

The Untragic hero

Brecht is in the mind of Benjamin throughout the essay so far. And here we are introduced to the untragic hero. This hero does not seem very clearly established. He gives one example of french nobility sitting in designated chairs. Another is dying Socrates and Jesus.

We contemplate the idea of a philosopher or person of wisdom. Benjamin treats this character as someone who was embraced in past times and then became neglected. He sees Brecht as the playwrite transforming this character in the present.

This detached person seems suspect. The idea of a character alienated from the subject seems like shadow psychology. Rather than being described as opposite from the plot this person is being described as absent from it--severed rationalism.

Pelops Imagines Philostratus

Pelops is depicted here getting his gift from Poseidon which are four horses. These horses will later be used to win a race that will convince a stubborn father to let him marry his daughter. However, we are before the race and the Pelops is being described as just maturing to an adult in the sense he's just growing a beard.

The imagery that is marvelled here isn't the mythological figures but the horses. They are painted active close and do not blur into some heard of horses. And the over all idea of this painting is depicting the a hero who's body is preparing himself to be passionate for women. The transformation from adolescent to a man is characterized but a blessing of energetic beasts. This blessing is harnessed to the person and will give him what's necessary to be bold and a lover rather than be struck down in defeat

Galileo lost in a garden

Chapter 3 The Secret Life of Paintings R. Foster & P. Tudor-Craig

Introduction: St. George and the Dragon by Paolo Uccello

Compared to the previous painting of chancellor Rollin and Mary, this painting receives a lengthy introduction. At first it might be tempting to say the painting of St. George is less a product of fancy because the characters are more knowable, but this is not true. It involves myth and almost entirely fancy. The scene with chancellor Rollin was a commission that mythologised himself while st. George is gently steeped with time and was probably unaware of the future his life would form.

We learn that this painting is somewhat quirky and incorporates ideas of mythical dragon slayers that came from outside of the Christian sources of his day: the dragon is slayed in the eye, there are strange clouds and a forest, and peculiarly the dragon has a manicured garden out side his lair.

The book is not interested in retelling the story of st. George but does so very briefly. We also get background information about the world his myth flourished in. He was a widely popular symbol for the Middle Ages, and one that was embraced by warring societies. He was said to have been championed by crusaders giving a religious stamp to their violence.

The garden fascinates the writers and the believe it to reference a maze. This might be a stretch from my perspective. And speaking of perspective Uccello was fascinated with it in his work, and he also admired mathematics. In my view the parterre garden maybe a transition from the nature imagery above George and the non-living, motionless cave. The idea of a parterre garden interest me and I read else where that these gardens often used patterns that decorate the house and extend them to nature as well.

This looks like the meat of the analysis of the painting. The remaining sections are brief and focus on particular things like the time it was made a a section that highlights the Kaiden's clothes. 

What is Epic Theater? Illuminations Walter Benjamin

The Plot

Benjamin examines an epics plot and from this realizes it is not so much about the passage of time. I was thinking he was referring to a form.
 

Since the story has no definite shape but is told from stories familiar to us we are then interested in the details of certain things rather then the suspense of how the story ends. Although I am baffled by his reference to a Brecht play about Galileo; it makes no sense to me. 

Relaxing in the sewer

What is Epic Theater? Illuminations Walter Benjamin

The relaxed audience

The audience is set up in two ways: Relaxed and 'rapt'. Also these two levels of engagement are caused by whether media is consumed alone or in a group. Being alone we are relaxed but also more prone to contemplation while in a group we are activated but tend to be impulsive--this is as seen by Benjamin.

Also, we hear about epic theater which is a complex term. My guess is it combines the arts capacity to be thoughtful with the perplexing task of being viewed in a group.

The Third Man (1949)

In this film noir we go to Austria in the aftermath of world war two. It is a dishonest place in which the honest protagonist appears and tries to set it straight. Like the Hitchcock film noir, it sets death in relation to love. But in this case the protagonist's sanctity is not in question but we have to question whether this sanctity is naivety and will it be his tragic flaw.

The plot starts when the main character arrives thinking he has job working for a friend. We quickly learn that this friend is dubious and has been pronounced dead. The movie combines farcical elements with a more or less straight forward love story. Strangely enough the love interest is first met at a funeral. The two are very different in that the man is mediocre and brash and the woman is sophisticated and reposed. They are both linked to their relationship with their shadowy friend. They both describe him as a person who is sly and willing to bend rules but are surprised he is wrapped up in a caper.

As the story unwinds we find the man is more dedicated to truth even if that means severing a past relationship while the woman is truthful in her own way to the one she loves. This all happens in a background of confusion with authority and in a city that is one way functional but in other parts destroyed. The part of the city that is the most pristine is essentially the most filthy sewer system that lies underground.

The most underlying current in the film is what happens when people bypass legitimacy for necessity. In this way we have to contemplate whether people really are acting out of necessity or on an impulse that is pleasurable--whether this is creating an illicit blackmarket syndicate that denies children medicine or perusing a love interest that is linked to a once dear friend.

Dissolving cities and panting beauties

Some Reflections on Kafka Illuminations Walter Benjamin

A noticeably briefer essay on Kafka following the last one. It is themed similarly but more to the point with less allusions to figures outside Kafka's writings and contains less obscurity.
 

He first posits tradition with the modern city and pairing them as opposites--and this is the setting he places Kafka in. He is the irrational median between these. Benjamin illustrates his idea in a different way calling to mind how modern physics has atomized matter that would otherwise be considered a solid thing. Considering the world in this way makes walking on the ground an anxious affair. The possibility for the ground to dissolve is a ticklish notion once knowing it made mostly of empty space.

Benjamin describes Kafka as someone who is not foreign from the ways of tradition but is alienated from it and is a prophet for disaster. Even though he is intelligent he is a failure, Benjamin's description, but in a tragic way because of the sum of his parts leading him towards his own disillusion that he writes so clearly about. 

Perseus Imagines Philostratus

Perseus travels far away to slay a monster and rescue a beautiful woman. There is a combination of terror and elation, exhaustion and passion. There is a sea filled with the blood of the slayed beast and a population of othered people who none the less benefit from the passing of the monster.

Eros also arrives as Perseus calls out to him. It really isn't clear if Perseus needed the help or if his presence just fitted the situation. It is Eros that takes Andromeda, the captured lady, and takes her from her frightened entrapment and lets her begin the lure of her hero.

Andromeda's beauty is not cultivated from a city. She has all the traits collectively while a city of Athens would cultivate a sense of stateliness. She has that as well as all other admirable traits women would posses. He pale complexion does not change even in the land where darked skinned people live.
 

The Ethiopians are grateful for Perseus' conquest and shower him with gifts almost as if it were a wedding ceremony. 

Sceptical foggy bridges

Chapter 2 The Secret Life of Paintings R. Foster & P. Tudor-Craig

What's going on outside

This section does as anticipated--bringing some of the particulars together in a way that gives meaning. The meaning is centered on the bridge and the political turmoil that the murder caused. The imagery of the real background and the religious scene in the foreground blend act and intention as the mind does with our actions. The bridge being a scene of barbarism and chaos is in turn baptised by the baby in some holy ceremony. The bridge itself is the same structure but is transformed in the way one looks at it. instead of being the cause of mutiny it serves what it's original function was--to bring to places together.

The lodger (1927)

Hitchcock's silent movie from late twenties involves a suspense between a new love and a serial killer at large. Perhaps an awareness in the human condition that true love can be hard to separate from vengeful hate. New relationships are created at the same time as psychopaths rampage and this causes unease.

In it's quirks the serial killer also brings about the situation where the two lovers meet. The man is in search of his sister's murderer instead finds the love of his life but at the time almost almost undoes himself being chased by a mob and a spiteful sheriff.

The movie also speaks beyond the personal aspects of a relationship towards society in the big picture. Crowds eager for justice chase after what is not murder but a new love budding and law can be coerced by passions that seem pure and protect innocence but are only feelings from a relationship that has produced alienation. The nurturing part of society can turn sceptical and veil the project of maturation of the individual from what otherwise would be seen as a blessing.

The fog that is in the subtitle of the movie comes late in the plot. It happens when the lodger who searches for the killer is seen as identical. His instruments to track the killer seem identical with the way a killer would plan his murders. As the police search his apartment we are place in a situation where we must accept him as broken person in a desperate search or other him as an inhuman murderer. As he runs away and is chase out into the fog we are alerted in two ways that he is a gentle person mischaracterized. One is by the woman who loves him and intuitively knows his heart and the second is by news the actual killer is caught which is relayed by an array electronic communications.

The woman's intuitive understanding does not save him but comforts him-- almost giving him away as she comforts him by bringing him to a bar. He is out of the fog but observable to those who are suspicious of him. The news of shadowy murderer being captured is what saves him from the mob who is reluctant to stop their chase and his jealous sheriff who may be conflicted but dedicated to truth.  

Medieval roses in a marsh

Chapter 2 The Secret Life of Paintings R. Foster & P. Tudor-Craig

What is going on outside?

The attention is now outside the arches and at first to the cultivated garden that is part of the tower. A lot of the flowers relate to the Madonna and the author suggests that the image of Mary is so familiar that this garden representation offers something not familiar and may spark interest in a tired image in the foreground. Along with the plants are tiny game animals that are also cultivated in gardens at the time time.

As we get past the garden and to the parapets we encounter the two figures. It is not certain who these people are. The way they're painted is curiously naive and the character to the left looks directly down at the flowing river below. And this is another theme the author seems to play with this painting--the combination of what is actual and what is invented for the sake of the painting.

After the two characters are considered we acknowledge the city scape that seems to be a city in miniature. We also discover from the author that Chancelor Rolin was at a time a diplomat for peace and we consider this at the same time as we discover the city below. At first we might think this a recognizable city but it maybe as other aspects of the painting--a mixture of past studies and imagination that look rather convincing.

 
The city is said to be pristine and free from decay but we later learn that a scene on the bridge might be alluding to a scene of treachery when a French leader was murdered and a gold cross was placed there to mark the spot in memory. With this there seems to be a narrative between where the figures are located such as each figure is on one side of the river's banks. Perhaps with the last section the author will tie in the themes to the foreground and the background in harmony rather than points of facts that are alienated from each other. 

Hunters Imagines Philostratus

 

The hunters almost fly past us in their pursuit but we find they are beautiful people chasing a creature that is uprooting a cultivated garden where fruit grows. Their chase is frenzied and accompanied by dogs. They chase the boar into a marsh where with the help of the dogs it is taken off it's feet and captured.