The Arcades Project - Operi

fact that a purely philological commentary has missed the mark with this poem.
Yet the relevant datum is not so far afield. The piece corresponds with a particu­
lar passage from Les Paradis artijiciels. It is this passage, however, that can shed
light on the philosophical import of the poem. []84,4]
The following passage from Les Paradis artijiciels is decisive for "Les Sept Vieil­
lards;' It makes it possible to trace the inspiration for this poem back to hashish:
"The word 'rhapsodic; which so well portrays a train of thought suggested and
dictated by the outer world and the hazard of circumstance, has a great and more
terrible truth in relation to hashish. Here, human reason becomes mere flotsam,
at the mercy of all currents, and the train of thought is ,r!finitely more accelerated
and 'rhapsodic;" Vol. 1, p. 303 . ' 6 0 []84a,l]
Comparison between Blanqui and Baudelaire, in part deriving from Brecht's
formulations: the defeat of Blanqui was the victory of Baudelaire-of the petty
bourgeoisie. Blanqui succumbed; Baudelaire succeeded. Blanqui appears as a
tragic figure; his betrayal has tragic greatness; he was brought down by the
enemy within. Baudelaire appears as a comic figure-as the cock whose triumphal
crowing announces the hour of betrayal.461 []84a,2]
If Napoleon III was Caesar, then Baudelaire was the Catilinarian existence.
[]84a,3]
Baudelaire unites the poverty of the ragpicker with the scorn of the cadger and
the despair of the parasite. []84a,4]
The significance of the prose poem I'Perte d'aureole' cannot be overestimated.
First of all, there is the remarkable pertinence of the fact that it spotlights the
threat to the aura posed by the experience of shock. (Perhaps this relation can be
clarified by reference to metaphors of epilepsy.) Extraordinarily decisive, more­
over, is the ending, which makes the exhibition of the aura from now on an affair
of fifth-rate poets.-Finally, this piece is important because in it the inhabitant of
the big city appears menaced more by the traffic of coaches than he is nowadays
by automobiles. [J84a,5]
Catiline figures in Baudelaire among the dandies.462 [J85,1]
Love for the prostitute is the apotheosis of empathy with the commodity.
[]85,2]
"Recueillement" should be presented as Jugendstil poetry. ]ne difuntes annees
"" " as allegories in the style of Fritz Erler. []85,3]
The hatred for genre painting that can be discerned in Baudelaire's "Salons" is a
sentiment typical of Jug ends til. []85,4]