Le Flâneur

[[In the words of Guys as quoted by Baudelaire, 'Anyone who is capable of being bored in a crowd is a blockhead..']]

[[The delight of the city-dweller is not so much love at first sight as love at last sight.]]

[[If the crowd is jammed up, it is not because it is being impeded by vehicular traffic-but because it is being blocked by other crowds. In a mass of this nature the art of strolling could not flourish.]]

the art of strolling, i am learning.

[[The crowd is not only the newest asylum of outlaws; it is also the latest narcotic for those abandoned. The flâneur is someone abandoned in the crowd. In this he shares the situation of the commodity.]]

[[Empathy is the nature of the intoxication to which the flâneur abandons himself in the crowd.]]

in the city, you can be whoever you want, you can be as strange as you please and you'll worry about nothing except the occasional smirk of another.

[[The poet enjoys the incomparable privilege of being himself and someone else as he sees fit. Like a roving soul in search of a body, he enters another person whenever he wishes. For him alone, all is open; if certain places seem closed to him, it is because in his view they are not worth inspecting.]]

some quotes from Walter Benjamin, on Baudelaire and his concept of Flânerie, the art of strolling, observing, for leisure, for pleasure, for understanding? for artistic expression? perhaps.

again, i speak of this drama class i am growing fond of. today we talked about this Flânerie and why it's important, but more what the problems are with it, and what we liked/disliked about janet cardiff's audio walk and how that relates to flanerie. Some girls at my table whined about getting lost on the audio walk and being scared and feeling unsafe and not understanding it and feeling that a flaneur is/was just a man who didn't contribute anything to society but just got pleasure out of watching strangers, objectifying women, and who didn't have many friends. And there was no changing their minds about any of this. I agree the flaneur that Baudelaire spoke of had that luxury because he was male, upper class and didn't need a proper day job, but I think the word takes on new meaning today, and I find the flaneur to be anyone and I find the flaneur to be an artist and a critic of the world. And I believe everyone should be a flaneur, for learning and for understanding their world a bit better.

[[And still they crowd by one another as though they had nothing in common, nothing to do with one another, and their only agreement is the tacit one, that each keep to his own side of the pavement, so as not to delay the opposing stream of the crowd, while it occurs to no man to honour another with so much as a glance.]]



my friend hannah is visiting tonight! she's studying in freiburg and will stay with me in london for a week. two of my flatmates went to manchester and liverpool for the weekend, so i've taken steven's mattress for hannah. how sweet of him. we will make do with my tiny room and hopefully the sky doesn't rain too much this weekend.

i'm also trying to make plans for other travel later in the semester. and of course the U.S. is paranoid about threats of terrorism and things like this are happening: http://www.counterfire.org/index.php/news/132-international/6793-strikes-protests-and-street-battles-in-action-against-euro-austerity

but i want to go even more now..

cheers,

xx
emily