In a journal entry in the spring of 1856, Charles Baudelaire wrote at the top of his journal page the following title: “Self-Purification and Anti-Humanity.” Directly under this title, he writes that “in the act of love,” there is “a great resemblance to torture or a surgical operation.” In the spirit of irony and contradiction […]
Walter Benjamin once said of Charles Baudelaire that his “genius fed on melancholy.” The “main accent of his modernity,” according to Benjamin, can be found in Baudelaire’s “spleen” or anger at the city and humanity. Reading Baudelaire’s journals, one can get a strong sense of how angry he is. But, to be sure, his vision […]
Come and visit the wonderful online journal, Berfrois today to read the first of a two part essay I wrote on Cynicism and Comedy. Enjoy! http://www.berfrois.com/2015/09/menachem-feuer-cynical-clowns/
The relationship of boredom to art, entertainment, and modernity is a topic of interest to great thinkers and writers such as Soren Kierkegaard, Charles Baudelaire, and Walter Benjamin. For all of them, boredom is something that is born out of modernity. In many ways it is something that passes on from the aristocracy to the […]
In our culture, comedians are cultural icons and, from time to time, they even come to influence public opinion. Most recently, for instance, Jon Stewart’s parody of Egyptian President Mursi and the jailing of a comedian reached Mursi and caused a stir. Sara Silverman, Bill Maher, and Stephen Colbert have also looked to use comedy […]
In “The Philosophy of Toys,” Baudelaire writes of how the “overriding desire” of children is to destroy their toys so as to get at the soul of each toy: The overriding desire of most children is to get and see the soul of their toys, some at the end of a period of use, others […]
Charles Baudelaire and Walter Benjamin knew very well of the trickster. To be sure, they saw themselves as tricksters who, in doing their comic tricks, looked to destroy something and find something else (something new) in the midst of ruin. By way of shock, they both believed they could arrive at some kind of “hidden” […]
As can be seen from many of my previous posts, I have been addressing the work of Charles Baudelaire on laughter and the comic. The reason I have spent so much time on this is because I have been attempting to understand Walter Benjamin’s reading of (and identification with) the comic (in general) and the […]
One can tell a lot about an author by virtue of things that he or she mentions and highlights in his or her writings. Charles Baudelaire, a poet and an incredibly talented prose writer, was fully aware of what is at stake in an essay. And he knew full well that the final “notes” of […]
Comedy often deals with power and powerlessness. But as Baudelaire understands it, power usually has the upper hand. For Baudelaire, comedy brings out the Satanic, powerful side of man, not the powerless and humble aspects. It doesn’t return us to innocence. Even though it has elements of “innocence” and although it is guided by the […]
Schlemiel Theory 