Sometimes the best way to explore a city on foot is to simply wander, with no goal in mind other than to follow the sound of church bells, or drift across a leafy square.
Baudelaire on Beauty, Love, Prostitutes and Modernity
In Baudelaire, beauty is horror, and horror, beauty. The source, or origin, of beauty doesnât matter. Beauty is what beauty does, and nothing can save us from its devouring force.
The dark power of Baudelaireâs poetry in Le Fleur Du Mal/ The Flowers of Evil is best experienced when it disturbs and is difficult to access. Photo: anncapictures/Pixabay
In his celebrated essay on Charles Baudelaire,
The Aesthetic Dignity of the âFleurs du Mal’, the philologist, Erich Auerbach ended with a brilliant observation while addressing âthe horror of
Les Fleur Du Malâ. Auerbach had âa word⦠in defense of certain critics who have resolutely rejected the book. Not all of them, but a few, had a better understanding of it than many contemporary and subsequent admirers. A statement of horror is better understood by those who feel the horror in their bones, even if they react against it, than by those who