#Selections from Baudelaire's Les Fleurs Du Mal

[majestativa]

You suit my most intimate of tastes.

— Charles Baudelaire, The Language of Silent Things: Selections from Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs Du Mal, transl by Patrick Barnard, (1983)

[weirdlookindog]

Félicien Rops - Frontispiece for Charles Baudelaire's 'Les Épaves' 1866

"Rops met Charles Baudelaire towards the end of the poet’s life in 1864, and Baudelaire left an impression upon him that lasted until the end of his days. Rops created the frontispiece for Baudelaire’s Les Épaves, a selection of poems from Les Fleurs du mal that had been censored in France, and which therefore were published in Belgium..." quote "Together, Rops and Baudelaire adopted the self-described lifestyle of “the decadent” embracing pleasure, passion, fantasy and exotic indulgence as a ‘fuck you’ to society’s obsession with order and progress. In art, this meant exploring depravity, horror, and weird, nasty sex..." quote

[poquito-burrito]

One of my friends who's graduating this year wrote her thesis on "translating poems into scenography" and she chose a selection of censored poems from Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du Mal. When I tell you I cannot WAIT for her to have to speak about sapphic sex in front of 20 family members

[ofallingstar]

List of books I read this year

Persuasion by Jane Austen

Red Dragon by Thomas Harris

A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Morirás Lejos by José Emilio Pacheco

Devotions by Mary Oliver

Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chbosky

Mrs. Dolloway by Virginia Woolf

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Collected Poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay

My Cousin Rachel by Daphne Du Maurier

Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami

Twelve Moons by Mary Oliver

The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo

At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O’Brien

New Selected Poems 1966-1987 by Seamus Heaney

Ulysses by James Joyce

The Celtic Twilight: Faerie and Folklore by W. B. Yeats

Normal People by Sally Rooney

The Dark by John McGahern

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Une sirène à Paris by Mathias Malzieu

Atonement by Ian McEwan

The Shipping News by Annie Proulx

After the Quake by Haruki Murakami

Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms by George R. R. Martin

The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris

Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

A Room with a View by E. M. Forster

Les Fleurs du Mal by Charles Baudelaire

E. E. Cummings: Complete Poems 1904-1962 by E. E. Cummings

No me preguntes cómo pasa el tiempo: Poemas 1964-1968 by José Emilio Pacheco

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Mrs. Caliban by Rachel Ingalls

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

Beloved by Toni Morrison

After Dark by Haruki Murakami

The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats by W. B. Yeats

The Collected Poems of Oscar Wilde by Oscar Wilde

Breath, Eyes, Memory of Edwidge Danticat

Marina by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

El Aleph by Jorge Luis Borges

Selected Poems by Marina Tsvetaeva

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

Kiss Kiss by Roald Dahl

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood

Adonis by Adonis

If Not, Winter by Sappho

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-García

The Trial by Franz Kafka

The Iliad by Homer

Collected Poems, 1909-1962 by T.S. Eliot

The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke by Rainer Maria Rilke

The Odyssey by Homer

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri

A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson

The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

The Tattoist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

Fire & Blood by George R.R. Martin

Arráncame la vida by Ángeles Mastretta

The Wonder by Emma Donoghue

32 Candles by Ernessa T. Carter

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami

Collected Poems, 1912-1944 by H.D.

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

Hannibal by Thomas Harris

The Tell-Tale Heart and Other Writings by Edgar Allan Poe

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving

The Shining by Stephen King

The Complete Poems by John Keats

The Monk by Matthew Gregory Lewis

The Birds and Other Stories by Daphne du Maurier

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay

The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector

La ciudad de vapor by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde by Audre Lorde

Hiroshima by John Hersey

Selected Poems: 1965-1975 by Margaret Atwood

Selected Poems II: 1976-1986 by Margaret Atwood

Dearly: New Poems by Margaret Atwood

Uncollected Poems by Rainer Maria Rilke

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa

Circe by Madeline Miller

The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran

The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking) by Katie Mack

Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Poems: 1962-2012 by Louise Glück

Lady Windermere’s Fan by Oscar Wilde

You can follow me or add me as a friend on Goodreads.

[obirains-archive]

Do you have any books that you feel everyone should read? I'm trying to read a little bit more and I have no idea where to start

I hope you're having a great day!

It’s Literature Hours!

Aw, thank you! I hope you’re having a great day, too :) 

I think I mentioned in a LH ask like, 2 months ago? that this question is really hard because so much of what I’ve enjoyed reading are classics, which are. You know. Kind of notorious for containing all varieties of bigotry in varying degrees. It’s a little impossible for me to say, “Everyone should read this” because I’m acutely aware that what for me is uncomfortable but doesn’t 100% ruin my reading experience may for someone else be extremely triggering. Thus I have very, very few books I actually think everyone should read but I’m giving it my best shot below! 

1. White Tears / Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color by Ruby Hamad (nonfiction, political, feminism, race)

I’m about halfway through the book right now, and it’s fantastic. Fantastically written, fantastically argued, and fantastically challenging. If anyone (especially self-identified white feminists) wants to understand the history of white feminism, and, to quote readwithcindy, “how the vulnerability of white women is both a weakness (under white patriarchy) and a weapon (against people of color)” (goodreads), this is essential reading. Not just as feminist or political literature, but as an insight into the way in which we have systematically traumatized women of color (and people of color in general) for centuries.

For more information, these goodreads reviews explain what I’m trying to get at with a lot more clarity and depth, as well as potential content warnings (nothing graphic, just really intense). 

2. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (fiction, philosophy + psychology, some Christian themes)

THIS is one of the only classics I feel comfortable putting on this list. The book is well-paced and well-written (do yourselves a favor and get the Pevear-Volokhonsky translation, not the Garnet one), touching on really heavy themes (mental illness, destitution, prostitution, etc) without weighing itself down. I’ve read this book four times, one of which was for my 25-page thesis paper senior year, and it never gets old. 

Obligatory content warnings: graphic depiction of a double-homicide, animal abuse, discussion of prostitution and sexual assualt, implied pedophilia, suicide, Christianity, some misogynistic undertones (I don’t remember 100%, but I’d probably add antisemitism to the list as well). 

THAT SAID none of the above content warnings are so graphic that this isn’t regularly assigned high school reading. 

3. The Republic of Plato by Plato (philosophy)

I don’t think that everyone should read the whole thing, per se, but there are certainly selections from it (including Plato’s famous Cave Allegory) that I do think everyone would benefit from. If you do want to read the whole thing, more power to you! Also if you’re interested in Western philosophy in any capacity, you need a healthy understanding of Plato. British philosopher A. N. Whitehead basically summed it up as “[consisting] of a series of footnotes to Plato” and he’s fuckin right yeehaw 

Minor content warnings: misogynistic undertones but like. This is Ancient Greek philosophy lmfao

Other books that won’t be for everybody but that I think are generally beneficial to read - I just think they’re neat ;)

Fiction - Demian by Hermann Hesse - Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte - The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

Theological - Silence by Shusaku Endo - Confessions by St. Augustine of Hippo - The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Philosophical - Tau Te Ching by Lao Tsu - Purity of Heart Is To Will One Thing by Soren Kierkegaard

Poetry - Les Fleurs du Mal by Charles Baudelaire - The Wasteland by T. S. Eliot - Four Quartets by T. S. Eliot - Secrets from the Center of the World by Joy Harjo (and Stephen Strom)

[wildeoaths]

LGBTQ Book & Film Recommendations

Hello! As someone who tries to read widely, it can sometimes be frustrating to find good (well-written, well-made) LGBTQ+ works of literature and film, and mainstream recommendations only go so far. This is my shortlist. 

Some caveats: 1) I have only watched/seen some of these, though they have all been well-received.

2) The literature list is primarily focused on adult literary and genre fiction, since that is what I mostly read, and I feel like it’s easier to find queer YA fiction. Cece over at ProblemsOfABookNerd (YT) covers a lot of newer releases and has a YA focus, so you can check her out for more recommendations.

3) There are a ton of good films and good books that either reference or discuss queer theory, LGBTQ history and literary theory. These tend to be more esoteric and academic, and I’m not too familiar with queer theory, so they’ve largely been left off the list. I do agree that they’re important, and reading into LGBTQ-coding is a major practice, but they’re less accessible and I don’t want to make the list too intimidating.

4) I linked to Goodreads and Letterboxd because that’s what I use and I happen to really enjoy the reviews.

Any works that are bolded are popular, or they’re acclaimed and I think they deserve some attention. I’ve done my best to flag potential objections and triggers, but you should definitely do a search of the reviews. DoesTheDogDie is also a good resource. Not all of these will be suitable for younger teenagers; please use your common sense and judgement.

Please feel free to chime in in the replies (not the reblogs) with your recommendations, and I’ll eventually do a reblog with the additions!

BOOKS

> YOUNG ADULT

Don’t @ me asking why your favourite YA novel isn’t on this list. These just happen to be the picks I felt might also appeal to older teens/twentysomethings.

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo - poetry.

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender - trans male teen protagonist. 

Red, White & Royal Blue

Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda

The Gentleman’s Guide To Vice And Virtue

The Raven Boys (and Raven Cycle)

> LITERATURE: GENERAL

This list does skew M/M; more NB, trans and WLW recommendations are welcomed!

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. One of the most acclaimed contemporary LGBTQ novels and you’ve probably heard of it. Will probably make you cry.

A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood. Portrait of a middle-aged gay man.

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh. M/M affair, British student high society; definitely nostalgic for the aristocracy so be aware of the context.

Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman. It’s somewhat controversial, it’s gay, everyone knows the film at least.

Cronus’ Children / Le Jardin d'Acclimation by Yves Navarre. Winner of the Goncourt prize.

Dancer From The Dance by Andrew Holleran. A young man in the 1970s NYC gay scene. Warning for drugs and sexual references.

Dorian, An Imitation by Will Self. Adaptation of Orscar Wilde’s novel. Warning for sexual content.

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg. Two wlw in the 1980s. Also made into a film; see below.

Gemini by Michel Tournier. The link will tell you more; seems like a very complex read. TW for troubling twin dynamics.

Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin. Another iconic M/M work.

Lost Boi by Sassafras Lowrey. A queer punk reimagining of Peter Pan. Probably one of the more accessible works on this list!

Lie With Me by Philippe Besson. Two teenage boys in 1980s France.

Maurice by E. M. Forster. Landmark work written in 1914. Also made into a film; see below.

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. An expansive (and long) novel about the story of Cal, a hermaphrodite, by the author of The Virgin Suicides.

Orlando by Virginia Woolf. Plays with gender, time and space. Virginia Woolf’s ode to her lover Vita Sackville-West. What more do you want? (also a great film; see below).

Oscar Wilde’s works - The Picture of Dorian Gray would be the place to start. Another member of the classical literary canon.

Saga, vol.1 by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples. Graphic novel; warning for sexual content.

Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinburg. An acclaimed work looking at working-class lesbian life and gender identity in pre-Stonewall America.

The Holy Innocents by Gilbert Adair. The basis for Bertolucci’s The Dreamers (2003). I am hesitant to recommend this because I have not read this, though I have watched the film; the M/M dynamic and LGBTQ themes do not seem to be the primary focus. Warning for sexual content and incestuous dynamics between the twins.

The Animals At Lockwood Manor by Jane Healey. Plays with gothic elements, set during WW2, F/F elements.

The Hours by Michael Cunningham. References Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway. Probably a good idea to read Virginia Woolf first.

The Immoralist by André Gide. Translated from French.

The Song of Achilles by Madeline MIller. Drawing from the Iliad, focusing on Achilles and Patroclus. Contemporary fantasy that would be a good pick for younger readers.

The Swimming Pool Library by Alan Hollinghurst. Gay life pre-AIDS crisis. Apparently contains a fair amount of sexual content.

What Belongs To You by Garth Greenwell. A gay man’s coming of age in the American South.

> LITERATURE: WORLD LITERATURE

American and Western experiences are more prominent in LGBTQ works, just due to the way history and the community have developed, and the difficulties of translation. These are English and translated works that specifically foreground the experiences of non-White people living in (often) non-Western societies. I’m not white or American myself and recommendations in this area are especially welcomed.

All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson. The memoirs and essays of a queer black activist, exploring themes of black LGBTQ experiences and masculinity.

A People’s History of Heaven by Mathangi Subramanian. Female communities and queer female characters in a Bangalore slum. A very new release but already very well received.

Confessions of a Mask by Yukio Mishima. Coming-of-age in post-WW1 Japan. This one’s interesting, because it’s definitely at least somewhat autobiographical. Mishima can be a tough writer, and you should definitely look into his personality and his life when reading his work.

Disoriental by Négar Djavadi. A family saga told against the backdrop of Iranian history by a queer Iranian woman. Would recommend going into this knowing at least some of the political and historical context.

How We Fight For Our Lives by Saeed Jones. A coming-of-age story and memoir from a gay, black man in the American South.

In The Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado. Another acclaimed contemporary work about the dynamics of abuse in LGBTQ relationships. Memoir.

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo. Contemporary black British experience, told from the perspectives of 12 diverse narrators.

> POETRY

Crush by Richard Siken. Tumblr loves Richard Siken, worth a read.

Diving Into The Wreck by Adrienne Rich.

He’s So Masc by Chris Tse.

If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho, trans. Anne Carson. The best presentation of Sappho we’re likely to get.

Lord Byron’s works - Selected Poems may be a good starting point. One of the Romantics and part of the classical literary canon.

Les Fleurs du Mal by Charles Baudelaire. The explicitly lesbian poems are apparently in the les fleurs du mal section.

> MEMOIR & NONFICTION

And The Band Played On: Politics, People and the AIDS Epidemic by Randy Shilts. An expansive, comprehensive history and exposure of the failures of media and the Reagan administration, written by an investigative journalist. Will probably make you rightfully angry.

How to Survive A Plague: The Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed AIDS by David France. A reminder of the power of community and everyday activism, written by a gay reporter living in NYC during the epidemic.

Indecent Advances: The Hidden History of Murder and Masculinity Before Stonewall by James Polchin. True crime fans, this one’s for you. Sociocultural history constructed from readings of the news and media.

Queer: A Graphic History by Meg-John Barker. It’s illustrated, it’s written by an academic, it’s an easier introduction to queer theory. I still need to pick up a copy, but it seems like a great jumping-off point with an overview of the academic context.

Real Queer America by Samantha Allen. The stories of LGBTQ people and LGBTQ narratives in the conservative parts of America. A very well received contemporary read.

The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson. Gender, pregnancy and queer partnership. I’m not familiar with this but it is quite popular.

When Brooklyn Was Queer by Hugh Ryan. LGBTQ history of Brooklyn from the nineteenth century to pre-Stonewall.

FILMS

With films it’s difficult because characters are often queercoded and we’re only now seeing films with better rep. This is a shortlist of better-rated films with fairly explicit LGBTQ coding, LGBTQ characters, or made by LGBTQ persons. Bolded films are ones that I think are likely to be more accessible or with wider appeal.

A Single Man (2009) - Colin Firth plays a middle-aged widower.

Blue Is The Warmest Colour (2013) - A controversial one. Sexual content.

Booksmart (2019) - A pretty well made film about female friendship and being an LGBTQ teen.

Boy Erased (2018) - Warning for conversion therapy.

BPM (Beats Per Minute) (2017) - Young AIDS activists in France.

Brokeback Mountain (2005) - Cowboy gays. This film is pretty famous, do you need more summary? Might make a good triple bill with Idaho and God’s Own Country.

Cabaret (1972) - Liza Minelli. Obvious plug to also look into Vincent Minelli.

Calamity Jane (1953) - There’s a lot that could be said about queer coding in Hollywood golden era studio films, but this is apparently a fun wlw-cowboy westerns-vibes watch. Read the reviews on this one!

Call Me By Your Name (2017) - Please don't debate this film in the notes.

Caravaggio (1986) - Sean Bean and Tilda Swinton are in it. Rather explicit.

Carol (2015) - Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara are lesbians in 1950s America.

Clouds of Sils Maria (2014) - Hard to summarise, but one review calls it “lesbian birdman” and it has both Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart in it, so consider watching it.

Colette (2018) - About the bi/queer female writer Colette during the belle epoque era. This had Keira Knightley so by all rights Tumblr should love it.

Fried Green Tomatoes (1991) - Lesbian love in 1920s/80s? America.

God’s Own Country (2017) - Gay and British.

Happy Together (1997) - By Wong Kar Wai. No further explanation needed.

Heartbeats (2010) - Bi comedy.

Heartstone (2016) - It’s a story about rural Icelandic teenagers.

Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party (2015) -  Queer teens and religious themes.

Je, Tu, Il, Elle (1974) - Early Chantal Akerman. Warning for sexual scenes.

Kill Your Darlings (2013) - Ginsberg, Kerouac and the Beat poets.

Love, Simon (2018)

Lovesong (2016) - Lesbian and very soft. Korean-American characters.

Love Songs (2007) - French trio relationship. Louis Garrel continues to give off non-straight vibes.

Mädchen In Uniform (1931) - One of the earliest narrative films to explicitly portray homosexuality. A piece of LGBTQ cinematic history.

Maurice (1987) - Adaptation of the novel.

Midnight Cowboy (1969) - Heavy gay coding.

Milk (2008) - Biopic of Harvey Milk, openly gay politician. By the same director who made My Own Private Idaho.

Moonlight (2016) - It won the awards for a reason.

My Own Private Idaho (1991) - Another iconic LGBTQ film. River Phoenix.

Mysterious Skin (2004) - Go into this film aware, please. Young actors, themes of prostitution, child ab*se, r***, and a lot of trauma.

Orlando (1992) - An excellent adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s novel, and in my opinion far more accessible. Watch it for the queer sensibilities and fantastic period pieces.

Pariah (2011) - Excellent coming-of-age film about a black lesbian girl in Brooklyn.

Paris is Burning (1990) - LANDMARK DOCUMENTARY piece of LGBTQ history, documenting the African-American and Latine drag and ballroom roots of the NYC queer community.

Persona (1966) - It’s an Ingmar Bergman film so I would recommend knowing what you’re about to get into, but also I can’t describe it because it’s an Ingmar Bergman film.

Picnic At Hanging Rock (1975) - Cult classic queercoded boarding school girls.

Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) - By Celine Sciamma, who’s rapidly establishing herself in the mainstream as a LGBTQ film director. This is a wlw relationship and the queer themes are reflected in the cinematic techniques used. A crowd pleaser.

Pride (2014) - Pride parades with a British sensibility.

Rebel Without A Cause (1955) - Crowd-pleaser with bi coding and James Dean. The OG version of “you’re tearing me apart!”.

Rocketman (2019) - It’s Elton John.

Rent (2005) - Adaptation of the stage musical. Not the best film from a technical standpoint. I recommend the professionally recorded 2008 closing night performance instead.

Rope (1948) - Hitchcock film.

Sorry Angel (2018) - Loving portraits of gay French men.

Talk To Her (2002) - By Spanish auteur Pedro Almodóvar.

Tangerine (2015) - About trans sex workers. The actors apparently had a lot of input in the film, which was somehow shot on an iPhone by the same guy who went on to do The Florida Project. 

The Duke of Burgundy (2014) - Lesbians in an S&M relationship that’s going stale, sexual content obviously.

The Gay Deceivers (1969) - The reviews are better than me explaining.

The Handmaiden (2016) - Park Chan-wook makes a film about Korean lesbians and is criminally snubbed at the Oscars. Warning for sexual themes and kink.

The Favourite (2018) - Period movie, and lesbian.

Thelma And Louise (1991) - An iconic part of LGBTQ cinematic history. That is all.

The Celluloid Closet (1995) - A look into LGBTQ cinematic history, and the historical contexts we operated in when we’ve snuck our narratives into film.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2018) - Adaptation of the YA novel.

The Neon Demon (2016) - Apparently based on Elizabeth Bathory, the blood-drinking countess. Very polarising film and rated R.

The Perks of Being A Wallflower (2012) - Book adaptation. It has Ezra Miller in it I guess.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) - No explanation needed, queer and transgressive vibes all the way.

They (2017) - Gender identity, teenagers.

Those People (2015) - They’re gay and they’re artists in New York.

Tomboy (2011) - One of the few films I’ve seen dealing with gender identity in children (10 y/o). Celine Sciamma developing her directorial voice.

Tropical Malady (2004) - By Thai auteur Apichatpong Weerasethakul. His is a very particular style so don’t sweat it if you don’t enjoy it.

Vita and Virginia (2018) - Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West biopic

Water Lilies (2007) - Celine Sciamma again! Teenage lesbian coming-of-age. 

When Marnie Was There (2014) - A Studio Ghibli film exploring youth, gender and sexuality.

Weekend (2011) - An indie film about young gay love.

Wilde (1997) - It’s a film about Oscar Wilde.

XXY (2007) - About an intersex teenager. Reviews on this are mixed.

Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001) - Wonder what Diego Luna was doing before Rogue One? This is one of the things. Warning for sexual content.

[theoptia]

have you ever read a book that just really changed you?

Absolutely.  The Penguin Book of Russian Poetry, Les Illuminations, The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath, Les Fleurs du Mal, Lolita, Aesthetics, Method, and Epistemology, House of Incest, Anne Sexton: A Self Portrait in Letters, The Waves, Nausea, The Stranger, Baudelaire (Sartre), On Seeing and Noticing, The Bell Jar, Poems: 1962-2012 (Gluck), Death of the Author, Ariel, Anna Karenina, Henry & June: From “A Journal of Love” - The Unexpurgated Diary of Anias Nin, The Myth of Sisyphus, Crime and Punishment, A Lover’s Discourse, The Book of Disquiet, Metamorphosis, Letters to a Young Poet, Marina Tsvetaeva: Selected Poems, The Ethics of Ambiguity, Letters to Milena, Basic Writings of Nietzsche, Being and Nothingness, The Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova, Margaret Atwood, Selected Poems: 1956-1975, Plainwater: Essays and Poetry… I could really go on and on, as I’m merely looking and reciting what’s on my shelf presently. 

[bluebeardsbride-archive]

current reading list for 2019

crossed = finished bolded = currently reading plain = to read

CURRENTLY READING Erotism: Death and Sensuality by Georges Bataille Fleurs du Mal by Charles Baudelaire Violence and the Sacred by René Girard Selected Prose of Heinrich von Kleist

TO READ to resume The Horror Reader edited by Ken Gilder The Collected Works of Clarice Lispector Là-Bas by J.K. Huysman On Touching by Jacques Derrida Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection by Julia Kristeva

novels The Border of Paradise by Esmé Weijun Wang Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (reread) Justine by Lawrence Durrell Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy Death in Venice by Thomas Mann (reread) I’m Starved For You by Margaret Atwood The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood The Name of the Rose (reread) by Umberto Eco The Letters of Mina Harker by Dodie Bellamy Story of the Eye by Georges Bataille Sunshine by Robin McKinley Nightwood by Djuna Barnes Malina by Ingeborg Bachman The Lesser Bohemians by Eimear McBride A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing by Eimear McBride Enfermario by Gabriela Torres Olivares Monsieur Venus by Rachilde The Marquise de Sade by Rachilde

Hannibal Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris Monsters of our own Making by Marina Warner “Monsters of Perversion: Jeffrey Dahmer and The Silence of the Lambs” by Diana Fuss

short stories The Wilds by Julia Elliot The Dark Dark by Samantha Hunt Severance by Robert Olen Butler

poetry Extracting the Stone of Madness by Alejandra Pizarnik The Complete Poems by William Blake Unholy Sonnets by Mark Jarman collected works of Charles Baudelaire collected works of Arthur Rimbaud

theatre Faust by Goethe The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe

nonfiction (history, biography, memoir) Love's executioner and other tales of psychotherapy / Irvin D. Yalom. Countess Dracula by Tony Thorne The Bloody Countess by Valentine Penrose Infamous Lady: The True Story of Countess Erzsebet Bathory by Kimberly L. Craft Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History by Bill Schmutt Afterlives: The Return of the Dead in the Middles Ages by Nancy Caciola Caliban and the Witch by Silvia Federici Blake by Peter Akroyd The Trial of Gilles de Rais by Georges Bataille The Marquis de Sade by Rachilde  Blake by Peter Akroyd Dinner with a Cannibal: The Complete History of Mankind's Oldest Taboo by Carole A. Travis-Henikoff The Dragons of Eden by Carl Sagan Emily Brontë by Agnes Mary Frances Robinson  Lives of the Necromancers by William Godwin A History of the Heart by Ole M. Høystad In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

essays When the Sick Rule the World by Dodie Bellamy Academonia by Dodie Bellamy The Body of Frankenstein's Monster by Cecil Helman

academia Monsters of Our Own Making by Marina Warner Monster Culture in the 21st Century: A Reader edited by by Marina Levina and Diem My Bui Essays on the Art of Angela Carter: Flesh and the Mirror edited by Lorna Sage The Routledge Companion to Literature and Food edited by Lorna Piatti-Farnell, Donna Lee Brien

the gothic Woman and Demon: The Life of a Victorian Myth by Nina Auerbach Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters by J. Halberstam Perils of the Night: A Feminist Study of Nineteenth-Century Gothic by Eugenia C. Delamotte Art of Darkness: A Poetics of Gothic by Anne Williams Body Gothic: Corporeal Transgression in Contemporary Literature and Horror Film by Xavier Aldana Reyes On the Supernatural in Poetry by Ann Radcliffe The Gothic Flame by Devendra P. Varma Gothic Versus Romantic: A Reevaluation of the Gothic Novel by Robert D. Hume  A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful by Edmund Burke Over Her Dead Body by Elisabeth Bronfen The Contested Castle: Gothic Novels and the Subversion of Domestic Ideology by Kate Ellis Gothic Documents: A Sourcebook, 1700-1820 by E. Clery Limits of Horror: Technology, Bodies, Gothic edited by Fred Botting  The History of Gothic Fiction by Markman Ellis The Routledge Companion to the Gothic edited by Catherine Spooner and Emma McEvoy  Gothic and Gender edited by Donna Heiland Romanticism and the Gothic Tradition by G.R. Thompson Cryptomimesis : The Gothic and Jacques Derrida's Ghost Writing by Jodie Castricano

religion The Incorruptible Flesh: Bodily Mutation and Mortification in Religion and Folklore by Piero Camporesi Discerning Spirits: Divine and Demonic Possession in the Middle Ages by Nancy Caciola “He Has a God in Him”: Human and Divine in the Modern Perception of Dionysus by Albert Henrichs The Ordinary Business of Occultism by Gauri Viswanathan The Body and Society. Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity by Peter Brown

cannibalism Eat What You Kill: Or, a Strange and Gothic Tale of Cannibalism by Consent Eat What You Kill: Or, a Strange and Gothic Tale of Cannibalism by Consent Charles J. Reid Jr. Consuming Passions: The Uses of Cannibalism in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe by Merrall Llewelyn Price Cannibalism in High Medieval English Literature by Heather Blurton Eating Their Words: Cannibalism and the Boundaries of Cultural Identity edited by Kristen Guest

crime Savage Appetites by Rachel Monroe In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

theory/philosophy Life Everlasting: the animal way of death by Bernd Heinrich The Ambivalence of Scarcity and Other Essays by René Girard Interviews with Hélène Cixous Symposium by Plato Phaedra by Plato Becoming-Rhythm: A Rhizomatics of the Girl by Leisha Jones The Abject of Desire: The Aestheticization of the Unaesthetic in Contemporary Literature and Culture edited by Konstanze Kutzbach, Monika Mueller The Severed Head: Capital Visions by Julia Kristeva

perfume & alchemy Perfume: The Alchemy of Scent by Jean-Claude Ellena The Perfume Lover: A Personal Story of Scent by Denyse Beaulieu Past Scents: Historical Perspectives on Smell by Jonathan Reinarz Fragrant: The Secret Life of Scent by Mandy Aftel Das Parfum by Patrick Süskind Scents and Sensibility: Perfume in Victorian Literary Culture by Catherine Maxwell “The Ugly History of Beautiful Things: Perfume”

medicine Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery by Richard Hollingham Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance by Atul Gawande Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande The Butchering Art by Lindsey Fitzharris

articles “The Dread Gorgon” by Caroline Alexander “Ruggiero’s Deceptions, Cherubino’s Distractions” by Mary Reynolds “A Thing of Shreds and Patches” by J’Lyn Chapman “Dissection” by Meehan Crist

unsorted Dwellings of the Philosophers by Fulcanelli Mysteries of the Cathedrals by Fulcanelli Jean Cocteau, from ‘Orphée’ The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio*

FINISHED Red Dragon by Thomas Harris The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris Hannibal by Thomas Harris Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi (reread) Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enríquez (reread) Painting Their Portraits in Winter: Stories by Myriam Gurba The Sadeian Woman by Angela Carter the collected poems of Emily Brontë Fearful Symmetry by Northrop Frye A Monster’s Notes by Laurie Sheck Cain by José Saramago House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski (reread) Such Small Hands by Andres Barba House of Incest by Anaïs Nin Macbeth by William Shakespeare Hannibal Lecter and Philosophy: The Heart of the Matter edited by Joseph Westfall The Body: An Essay by Jenny Boully A Lover’s Discourse: Fragments by Roland Barthes Carmilla by Sheridan le Fanu Cabinet of Curiosities by Guillermo del Toro John Donne’s Holy Sonnets Surfacing by Margaret Atwood Literature and Evil by Georges Bataille Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi Richard III by William Shakespeare The Dead Seagull by George barker Power Politics by Margaret Atwood

[literastudy]

Ever wanted to start reading French authors and French literature, but never knew where to start? Here is a list of major works that are seen as staples of their movement or era for you to start with. 😋 (This is part 2 of 2, it covers literature after the French Revolution.)

Please note that this selection is arbitrary and not exhaustive, and many more authors and works could be included here, but it was necessary to make choices for the sake of providing a relatively brief but comprehensive list. Titles are provided in their original French version to avoid any confusion.

E. Romantism

Les Fleurs du Mal by Charles Baudelaire Poetry (sonnets and others) 1857

Judged to be scandalous because the author talked about darker subjects, creepy themes or just plain ugly things and glorified them, it is a masterpiece of romantic literature and a very good reference for understanding the movement around the figure of the poet during the 19th century in France.

Méditations poétiques by Alphonse de Lamartine Poetry (alexandrines and others) 1820

Lamartine’s collection of poems is considered by some to be one of the first major works of romanticism, in the form that it was going to take during the 19th century. His work is a great embodiment of the romantic image of love and nature.

Les Contemplations by Victor Hugo Poetry (alexandrines and others) 1856

While he is more widely known for his realist success Les Misérables, Hugo’s poetry is strongly aligned with romanticism and exploits its major themes in a deeply personal way, considered autobiographical by most.

La Mare au diable by George Sand Novel 1846

Don’t be fooled by her pen name, George Sand is a woman. This novel is part of the vogue of pastoral fiction during the 19th century, which is deeply embedded into romanticism by the way it is presented by the author. Lyrical and fantastical, this novel tells the love story of a man trying to break his widowing.

On ne badine pas avec l’amour by Alfred de Musset Theatre (proverb) 1834

On ne badine pas avec l’amour was meant to be a proverbial play, with a light plot and a moral at the end, but Musset’s love quarrel with George Sand as well as his literary influences of the time brought him to make his play move more and more towards the romantic drama genre. A good example of a romantic influence in an otherwise not so romantic piece.

F. Realism

Le Père Goriot by Honoré de Balzac Novel 1835

Balzac is the gigantic master of realist literature. His novel depicts the ambitions of Eugène de Rastignac, a young provincial man who came to Paris to study law and decided to pursue a higher social status thanks to his somewhat noble name and the help of Vautrin, a mysterious man living in the same pension as him. Balzac’s care for detail and motivation for every character’s move is clearly laid out in this novel, which is considered by some the foundation of La Comédie humaine.

Germinal by Émile Zola Novel 1885

Germinal tells the tale of the unjust field of mining work in France during the late 19th century and puts in play a workers’ strike against an unfair company’s practices. But this is just a setting to allow Zola to pursue his novels about an infamous curse that runs in the blood of Étienne Lantier.

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert Novel 1856

Considered by many to be the masterpiece of classic French literature, Madame Bovary is a novel in which a middle class woman who was dreaming of a better, bourgeois life, lives above her and her husband’s means to trump the ennui, and ends up crumbling in debt, like many people of the time did.

Le Rouge et le Noir by Stendhal Novel 1830

Stendhal’s novel tells the story of Julien Sorel, a young man who falls in love with someone he doesn’t have the right to love and aspiring to a grandeur far above his means. Like Balzac’s books, Stendhal’s novel shows that everything happens for a reason.

Le Horla by Guy de Maupassant Short story collection 1887

Guy de Maupassant is one of the first major authors to give a try at the short story form. His tales had a specific structure with a twist at the end and, like Edgar Alan Poe (who he references explicitly in at least one of his stories), often have a sense of eerie and mysticism around them.

A note on romanticism and realism: Since these currents are contemporary during most of the 19th century, all of the authors presented in both currents are more or less influenced by the other, and some of them are associated with the other current for another part of their work. The classification here is more or less arbitrary.

G. Surrealism

Precursors of surrealism:

Les Chants de Maldoror by Comte de Lautréamont Poetry (prose, long form) 1868

Long forgotten by his contemporary readers, Lautréamont was rediscovered by André Breton and other surrealists and was a major influence to their movement, explicitly cited as one of their masters. The plot of this work is surrealist in many ways and doesn’t have a linear progression. Rather, it is a collection of episodes only held together by the presence of Maldoror, a maleficent man.

Les Mamelles de Tirésias by Guillaume Apollinaire Theatre (surrealist drama) 1917

This play is a play built on the surrealist model of exaggeration, fooling around with conventions and destroying standards. It is feminist in many ways. Guillaume Apollinaire himself is most well-known for his calligrammes, which are poems written in the shape of a drawing (examples here and here). Apollinaire is also said to be the one to have coined the term “surrealism”. Arthur Rimbaud was a strong inspiration for him.

Du monde entier au coeur du monde by Blaise Cendrars Poetry (free verse) 1957

This collection of poems is a posthumous collection of nearly all the poems written by Cendrars in his young days. His practice of free verse as well as his use of newspaper cutouts to form poems are part of what makes him a precursor and influence of surrealism.

The Surrealist movement:

Manifeste du surréalisme by André Breton Manifesto 1924

This text is a detailed explanation of all the ideological tenants of surrealism. Among them, the important value of the subconscious mind, dreams, automatism and automatic writing, and anticonformism should be noted, as they are principles embraced by all the authors associated with the movement. The main ideological belief of surrealism is that the subconscious mind is the ultimate source of aesthetic and artistic truth.

Le Théâtre et son double by Antonin Artaud Essays 1938

This series of short essays explains the tenants of Theatre of Cruelty as a theatrical form that seeks to break with the norm and solicit all the senses of the audience, to bring it in and engage it in an experience. His theory is heavily influenced by surrealism, although he broke from it earlier.

Exercices de style by Raymond Queneau Short story 1947

Raymond Queneau was a surrealist in his younger days, but broke from it and ended up forming his own literary association, with the help of François Le Lionnais, the OuLiPo (which stands for Ouvroir de la littérature potentielle, “Opener of potential literature”). The main objective of the OuLiPo is to encourage creativity through formal constraints, hence why Exercices de style, where the same, simple story is re-told 99 times in different ways. (Famous authors of the movement include Georges Perec, author of A Void (La Disparition) and Italo Calvino, amongst others.)

L’Écume des jours by Boris Vian Novel 1947

Boris Vian’s book draws heavily from surrealist influences in its poetic imagery, being full of incongruous metaphors and figures of speech, with an environment that resonates with the characters’ feelings in ways that go far beyond the usual. Sadly, it did not gain any recognition during the author’s lifetime, but it became one of the most important novels of the 20th century. (Note: I recommend strongly that you read at least some of Jean-Paul Sartre’s works before you read this one.)

H. Existentialism

La Nausée by Jean-Paul Sartre Novel 1938

A philosophical and somewhat autobiographical novel, La Nausée presents the main tenants of surrealism as they will be found in Sartre’s philosophical essays. It tells the tale of a man taken over by nausea because of the very task of existing. (This philosopher is also known for his close relationship with Simone de Beauvoir.)

La Peste by Albert Camus Novel 1947

La Peste, just like the author’s most well known book, L’Étranger, seeks to show the absurdity of existence in a city taken over by the plague. It is not without strongly resonating with the rise of Nazism that led the world to WWII.

Rhinocéros by Eugène Ionesco Theatre (Theatre of the Absurd) 1959

While Eugène Ionesco strongly denies any ties to existentialism or philosophy in his theatre, it’s easy to see the ideological ties between Camus and Sartre’s works, and Ionesco’s plays. Rhinocéros tells the story of a town taken over by an outbreak of a strange illness that turns everyone into rhinos. It can also be seen as a metaphor for the rise of totalitarianism and Nazism that led to WWII.

I. Nouveau Roman

La Jalousie by Alain Robbe-Grillet Novel 1957

La Jalousie seems on paper to be nothing but an ordinary love triangle, but what makes the Nouveau Roman is not the content of a book but its form. It is written in a non-linear, circular, redundant way, and told by an overly invasive and at the same time totally absent narrator that distorts and shapes the novel to his will.

Détruire, dit-elle by Marguerite Duras Novel (and movie) 1969

A novel around the strength of desire, Détruire, dit-elle has a minimal action set between four characters, and where destruction becomes the way of self-preservation. The book itself is written more as a collection of fragment than as a long, cohesive story. (Marguerite Duras directed herself a movie based on her book, which came out on the same year.)

Les Fruits d’Or by Nathalie Sarraute Novel 1963

This novel has no main character. It is a practice of the mise en abyme taken to the extreme, a figure where a fiction contains in itself another fiction, which has characteristics that mirror the first degree of fiction.

La Modification by Michel Butor Novel 1957

This book has a narrator that speaks with the second person plural, making the figure of its main character confound itself with the reader, and taking the reader on a trip from Paris to Rome and a train trip through the character’s consciousness. The trip itself has an influence on the novel’s structure.

Les Années by Annie Ernaux Novel 2008

Annie Ernaux’s novel is loosely tied to the Nouveau Roman by her choice of an autobiographic, stream of consciousness telling, but distant from it by the ideological content concerning the rise of consumerism in 20th century France (the Nouveau Roman writers typically distance themselves from any kind of social, political or philosophical commentary).

Note on surrealism, existentialism and Nouveau Roman: During the 20th centuries, very few authors actually followed a program during their whole life, and most of them were influenced on various levels by other movements. Some authors were only included for being influenced by a movement.

This is all for the second part! If you missed the first, you can find it here.

[majestativa]

You […] will always love the sea! The sea is your mirror.

— Charles Baudelaire, The Language of Silent Things: Selections from Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs Du Mal, transl by Patrick Barnard, (1983)

[generallygothic]

"𝕳𝖔𝖜 𝖑𝖎𝖙𝖙𝖑𝖊 𝖗𝖊𝖒𝖆𝖎𝖓𝖘 𝖔𝖋 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖒𝖆𝖓 𝕴 𝖔𝖓𝖈𝖊 𝖜𝖆𝖘, 𝖘𝖆𝖛𝖊 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖒𝖊𝖒𝖔𝖗𝖞 𝖔𝖋 𝖍𝖎𝖒! 𝕭𝖚𝖙 𝖗𝖊𝖒𝖊𝖒𝖇𝖊𝖗𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝖎𝖘 𝖔𝖓𝖑𝖞 𝖆 𝖓𝖊𝖜 𝖋𝖔𝖗𝖒 𝖔𝖋 𝖘𝖚𝖋𝖋𝖊𝖗𝖎𝖓𝖌." - Charles Baudelaire 🕷🕷🕷🕷🕷🕷🕷 Born on this day, 1821, Charles Baudelaire was a French poet credited with bringing the works of Edgar Allan Poe to the French reading public. Though not the first to translate Poe into French, Baudelaire was considered high amongst the best. Dedicated to perfection, he would pursue English-speaking sailors for the maritime vocabulary required in 'The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym' (Poe, 1838). Perhaps, however, the skill of Baudelaire's translations came from the personal affinity which he had for the works of the American. Baudelaire found in Poe the poetry of his own soul. In correspondence (or as he refered to it therein, "this scrawl") with Théophile Thoré, 1864, Baudelaire wrote: "Do you know why I've translated Poe so patiently? Because he was like me* The first time I opened one of his books, I saw, with horror and delight, not only topics I'd dreamed of, but sentences I'd thought of..." - Selected Letters (Lloyd, 1986) I would love to discuss the similarities and dive deep into the ghosts of Poe in the works of Baudelaire with you but... despite his being on my tbr since I saw 'Total Eclipse' ('95) yeaaaaars ago, I am sorry to admit that I have not yet read Baudelaire. 🤔: So, I ask you this: 'The Flowers of Evil' (1857) or another collection? Where should I begin, & would anybody be interested in reading along with me? *or, as translated in the Huneker preface to 'Baudelaire' (1919): "Because he resembled me" 📸: Baudelaire surrounded by ghosts; frontispiece to 'Les Fleurs du Mal', Georges Rochegrosse (illustration)/Eugène Decisy (engraving), 1917. Via Wiki Commons. (Ps. Look at him here. How Poe can you go?!) . #generallygothic #gothic #darkpoetics #charlesbaudelaire #baudelaire #theflowersofevil #poe #edgarallanpoe #americangothic #poetry #frenchpoetry #frenchgothic #paris #1800s #literaryhistory #darkacademia #quote #darkacademiaaesthetic #bookstagram #spookynerd #books #readalong #literature #classicliterature https://www.instagram.com/p/B-xkVFEgNZV/?igshid=10ir92harzhsv

[bigyack-com]

Headed to the India Art Fair? Here’s what you shouldn’t miss - art and culture

The 12th edition of the India Art Fair (IAF), which begins on January 30 in New Delhi, will bring together over 75 galleries from across South Asia and the world to showcase, and sell, contemporary and modern art to Indian collectors. Here is a selection of programmes and artists to watch out for at the four-day affair.Queering Culture: As part of the IAF’s vast parallel programming, Godrej Culture Lab will screen two films and hold a panel discussion on January 28. Parmesh Shahani, who heads the Mumbai-based Lab and is the author of Gay Bombay: Globalization, Love and (Be)Longing in Contemporary India (2008), will moderate a conversation with screenwriter Ghazal Dhaliwal, activist Dhiren Borisa and Rainbow Literature Festival director Sharif Rangnekar, among others, to examine how the city has multiple sites of queer resistance, beyond nightclubs and bars.

a film about a transman in Delhi, will be screened as part of the fair.The two films being screened are Daaravtha by Nishant Roy Bombarde, a 2015 Marathi film about a young boy discovering his gender identity and sexuality; and Please Mind the Gap by Mitali Trivedi and Gagandeep Singh, a 2018 PSBT offering about a young transman navigating the city of Delhi, through its ubiquitous and gendered spaces including the Metro. When: January 28, 5 pm onwards. Where: The Manor, 77, Mathura Road, Friends ColonyArtist in Residence Programme: For the first time, the IAF brings together four artists and an art collective, who will, apart from displaying works, also conduct workshops with viewers. New York-based Ghiora Aharoni will guide participants on how to make a series of collages that will bear an imprint of everyone’s input, inspired by the Surrealist art practise of cadavre exquis, or collaborative art making. Manisha Parekh, who presses her own paper, will conduct an hour-long workshop on using old paper like giftwrapping and newspaper sheets, to create art or personalised gifts. Gagan Singh, a Delhi-based visual artist, will get participants to use the Fair as a live study, to observe and sketch from. When: January 31 to February 2. To book a slot, email devika@indiaartfair.in Outdoor installations: While the Fair will house 75 galleries and a gamut of renowned and early-career artists, the grounds outside the main tent will also turn into an exhibition space. Among the installations to catch will be Anita Dube’s reformulated 1994 metal sculpture inspired by the French poet Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du Mal. Dube’s piece stands revived and extended, as it takes the shape of a cyborg with skeletal flowers and angry tongues.

Anita Dube’s sculpture inspired by Baudelaire’s ( MASH Sculptural Space ) Be sure to also catch internationally acclaimed Magnum photographer Martin Parr’s exhibit, which will feature photographs taken on the site at the Fair. When: January 30 to February 2. Where: NSIC groundsYoung Collectors’ Programme: Keen to buy art, but don’t know where to begin? The previous iteration of the Fair conducted a Young Collectors’ Programme, with talks and site visits, but it was for a closed group. This time around, the programme will be open to all, even those who may not have begun to collect. The programme will include visits to artists Anoli Perera and Ayesha Singh’s studios, personalised tours of art shows, a VIP preview of the Fair a day before it opens, a private walkthrough with Shaleen Wadhwana, as well as talks on the dos and don’ts of being a collector, and one by Siddharth Mehta on the legal aspects. Signing up will also mean access to exclusive lunches and dinner parties: all in all, everything that a collector would be required to do.Finally, the art itself: With 75 galleries from 20 cities exhibiting at the Fair, it’s not easy to curate a list of must-visit booths. However, an artist we’re excited to see again is the Scandinavian artist Olafur Eliasson, who returns with another massive installation that uses light, reflection and scale, in a playful yet profound way. He’s known for installations that use natural, physical phenomena (one of his recent pieces used chunks of a melting glacier from Greenland, transported to the banks of the Thames, to quite literally bring home the fact of climate change). Sameer Kulavoor, known for his quirky graphic art, returns with This is Not Still Life, a piece that upturns expectations of the popular idiom of art-making that is a staple of art school curricula.

Artist Sameer Kulavoor will display his quirky graphic art at the fair. New galleries at the Fair include Berlin’s cutting-edge contemporary PSM and New York’s Marc Straus.The India Art Fair is being held on January 31 (2 pm to 7 pm), and February 1 and 2 (10 am to 6 pm) in New Delhi. Passes are available online. Read the full article

[herearesomegoodpoems]

“Spleen (IV)” by Charles Baudelaire

(I have only recently read Les Fleurs du Mal for the first time, which is to my discredit. The translation I have is Richard Howard’s, which keeps Baudelaire relatively intact, except for the rhymes. This doubtlessly takes a powerful layer from the poems, but, consulting the original French, which Howard helpfully provides at the back of his translation, I think that these translations are pretty great and wonder who Baudelaire’s better English translators could be. I have selected this poem, “Spleen (IV),” almost at random, for on practically every other page of Les Fleurs du Mal a reader will find something valuable.)

When skies are low and heavy as a lid over the mind tormented by disgust, and hidden in the gloom the sun pours down on us a daylight dingier than the dark;

when earth becomes a trickling dungeon where Trust like a bat keeps lunging through the air, beating tentative wings along the walls and bumping its head against the rotten beams;

when rain falls straight from unrelenting clouds, forging the bars of some enormous jail, and silent hordes of obscene spiders spin their webs across the basements of our brains;

then all at once the raging bells break loose, hurling to heaven their awful caterwaul, like homeless ghosts with no one left to haunt whimpering their endless grievances.

—And giant hearses, without dirge or drums, parade at half-step in my soul, where Hope, defeated, weeps, and the oppressor Dread plants his black flag on my assenting skull.

[hyaenagallery]

Félicien Rops (1833 – 1898) was a Belgian artist, known primarily as a printmaker in etching and aquatint. He was born in Namur, the only son of Sophie Maubile and Nicholas Rops, who was a textile manufacturer. After his first artistic training at a local academy, he relocated to Brussels at the age of twenty and briefly attended the University of Brussels. He subsequently attended the Académie de Saint-Luc and began creating satirical lithographs which were published in the student magazine Le Crocodile. These and the lithographs he contributed until 1862 to the magazine Uylenspiegel brought him early fame as a caricaturist. In 1857, he married Charlotte Polet de Faveaux, with whom he had two children, Paul and Juliette (the latter died at a young age). He produced a number of etchings as illustrations for books by Charles de Coster. In 1862 he went to Paris where he met the etchers Félix Bracquemond and Jules Ferdinand Jacquemart. His activity as a lithographer ceased about 1865, and he became a restless experimenter with etching techniques. Rops met Charles Baudelaire towards the end of the poet's life in 1864, and Baudelaire left an impression upon him that lasted until the end of his days. Rops created the frontispiece for Baudelaire's Les Épaves, a selection of poems from Les Fleurs du mal that had been censored in France, and were therefore published in Belgium. His association with Baudelaire and with the art he represented won his work the admiration of many other writers, including Théophile Gautier, Alfred de Musset, Stéphane Mallarmé, Jules Barbey d’Aurevilly, and Joséphin Péladan. He was closely associated with the literary movement of Symbolism and Decadence. Like the works of the authors whose poetry he illustrated, his work tends to mingle sex, death, and Satanic images. According to Edith Hoffmann, the "erotic or frankly pornographic" nature of much of Rops's work" is at least partly due to the attraction these subjects had for a provincial artist who never forgot his first impressions of Paris." #destroytheday

[recentanimenews]

FEATURE: Cruising the Crunchy-Catalog: "Flowers of Evil"

What's Cruising the “Crunchy-Catalog”?

  Selecting a new anime to watch may not be as difficult as interpreting the work of 19th century French Symbolist poets, but a little guidance certainly couldn't hurt. Consider “Cruising the Crunchy-Catalog” to be your friendly literature tutor. Each week we provide additional information and cultural context to help anime fans decide whether or not they'd like to take an unknown series for a test drive.

    What's Flowers of Evil?

  Flowers of Evil is a 2013 TV anime with direction by Hiroshi Nagahama and animation by Zexcs. The series is based on the Aku no Hana manga by Shūzō Oshimi, which was serialized in Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine from 2009 – 2014. The series takes its title from Les Fleurs du mal, a collection of poetry by Charles Baudelaire. Crunchyroll describes Flowers of Evil as follows:

    "FLOWERS OF EVIL revolves around Takao Kasuga, who is caught stealing Nanako Saeki's gym clothes by Sawa Nakamura whose cold attitude makes her generally disliked by everyone. In exchange for her silence, he makes a ‘contract’ with her, in which he must abide by all of her unreasonable demands. Initially torturous, Kasuga wants out until one day when things start to change between them..."

    Essentially, Flowers of Evil is a dark drama with elements of adolescent romance and psychological suspense. The series is a slow-burn, digging deep into the psyches of a trio of troubled youths whose complicated emotional and psychological growth belies the prosaic setting of their sleepy mountain town.

    The Art of Rotoscoping.

  The most striking visual element of Flowers of Evil is the extensive use of rotoscoping, a technique that isn't terribly common in Japanese television animation. Rotoscoping involves animators tracing over live action footage frame-by-frame, a labor-intensive process that is greatly aided by modern computers.

    The rotoscoping in Flowers of Evil was a bold directorial choice, one to which many fans of the original manga (which has a more traditional visual aesthetic) objected. However, the rotoscoping not only allows Flowers of Evil to maintain a high level of verisimilitude – especially with regards to the subtle nuances of facial expressions – but it also allows the animators to make heavy use of the environment as a metaphor for the minds of the characters.

    When Kasuga is happy, his imagination paints the world around him as a bright place filled with blue skies and sunshine. When he sinks into the depths of despair, the world transforms into an inky hellscape with a blood-shot horizon, overrun with prickly thistles sporting accusatory eyes, the titular "flowers of evil".

    The Audio Landscape.

  The music and sound design of Flowers of Evil are also especially strong. As Kasuga descends deeper and deeper into his internal crisis, his stress is represented by the slithering, scuttling sound of the flowers of evil growing within his heart. The ending theme in particular (“Hana – a last flower” by ASA-CHANG and Junray) is great at conveying a sense of psychological disquiet and creeping unease.

    The Ordinary and the Perverse.

  There's a Japanese proverb that translates as follows: “The protruding nail gets hammered down.” In Japan, enormous social pressure is brought to bear on young people, encouraging them to conserve and conform, to not stick out, to not make waves. Individual expression takes a backseat to familial duty, and maintaining a sterling reputation in the eyes of one's peers and neighbors is paramount.

    Flowers of Evil is so effective as a drama because it shows both sides of this equation, grounding the story in the ordinary so that the perverse feels increasingly extreme by comparison. For every shot of Kasuga freaking out, there's a reaction shot of some ordinary person simply going about their everyday life, unaffected by the weighty emotional concerns of the protagonists.

    Because of this juxtaposition, all of the conflicts at the heart of Flowers of Evil – Kasuga's “perversion”, Saeki's practice of concealing her pain and confusion behind an impregnable smile, and Nakamura's desperate desire to flee to “the other side” – become magnified in their significance.

  The Tale Continues.

  Crunchyroll currently streams Flowers of Evil in 77 territories worldwide. The series is available in the original Japanese with subtitles in English, Latin American Spanish, and Portuguese. Flowers of Evil is also released on DVD and Bluray in North America by Sentai Filmworks, and all 11 volumes of the original Flowers of Evil manga are available in an English language edition from Vertical, Inc..

    If you're in the mood for a drama with deliberate pacing, unique visuals, strong performances, an acidic sense of humor, and an appreciation for the absurdities of teenage angst, consider giving Flowers of Evil a try. Be warned, though. It's an emotionally draining experience, especially if you see some part of yourself in the characters, in the postures that they assume in public, and in the masks that they wear to hide their true selves from the rest of the world.

    Is there a series in Crunchyroll's catalog that you think needs some more love and attention? Please send in your suggestions via e-mail to cruisingcrunchy@gmail.com or post a Tweet to @gooberzilla. Your pick could inspire the next installment of “Cruising the Crunchy-Catalog”!

  Paul Chapman is the host of The Greatest Movie EVER! Podcast and GME! Anime Fun Time.

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[wine-k]

All My Pretty Hates

All My Pretty Hates                       

Reconsidering Charles Baudelaire.                                                   

By Daisy Fried

I’m writing this in Paris, so, from my many poetic aversions (“all my pretty hates,” to quote Dorothy Parker): Charles Baudelaire, oozing with decay, pestilence, and death. Baudelaire, tireless invoker of  muses, classical figures, goddesses, personifications: O Nature!...Cybele!... 
Sisyphe ... O muse de mon coeur! Baudelaire, who makes an old perfume bottle an invocation of the soul wherein

A thousand thoughts were sleeping, deathly chrysalids, trembling gently in the heavy darkness, which now unfold their wings and take flight, tinged with azure, glazed with pink, shot with gold*             — From The Phial

Anyone ever counted how many times “azure” shows up in Les Fleurs du Mal?

When she had sucked all the marrow from my bones And I languidly turned to her To give back an amorous kiss, I saw no more. She seemed a gluey wine-skin full of pus.             — The Vampire’s Metamorphosis

I’m not one to criticize poems about blowjobs but Really, Charles? My fourteen-year-old self might have been impressed. Ew, gross. Then again, shouldn’t one be aware of not reading through one’s fourteen-year-old eyes? After all, he and Poe invented poetic goth. It’s not Baudelaire’s fault his modern-day followers are goofballs. And not their fault I’m a boring middle-aged American.

The main trouble is that English is a mash-up of Anglo-Saxon, Latin, and other languages, while French, like all romance languages, is more purely Latinate. I think, feel, imagine, and dream in twentieth-century English. Different associations and emotions attach to Latinate versus Anglo-Saxon synonyms. Latinate words seem inflated and emotionless; Anglo-Saxon alternatives are, for me, concrete, emotional, complex. I can stumble along in Baudelaire’s French, and know enough of the language to argue with translators. Carol Clark turns “L’Art est long et le Temps est court” (“Le Guignon”) into “Art is long and Time is fleeting.” Why not the sonically similar “short”? She makes Cybele’s “tétines brunes” in the untitled third poem of Les Fleurs du Mal literary and Eliotish — “brown dugs” — 
instead of “brown tits.”

In “The Venal Muse,” Baudelaire describes the muse of his heart, a lover of palaces, warming her frozen purple feet during the “noirs ennuis” (black boredom) of snowy evenings. Next he asks her: “Récolteras-tu l’or des voûtes azurées?” Azure again. Carol Clark translates this line: “Will you gather gold from the vaults of heaven,” leaving out the explicit sky color and adding a religious whiff with “heaven.” But even in more literal translation, “Will you reap gold from the azure vaults,” thud goes the poem. Of course, this poem’s interest and innovation is partly structural: the thrill ride from register to register, palaces to purple feet to sky blue vaults. Baudelaire conformed to many of the straitjacket conventions of nineteenth-century French poetry: strict syllabics, indefatigable personifications, classical references. In her excellent introduction, Clark explains that his wedging of the hideous, erotic body into those strictures was radical. And yet: gold, azure, vaults — I just don’t like this poem’s escape into the windy figurative.

But. As I reread and edge closer to feeling the French late in my two-month Paris trip, I start to find Baudelaire... lovable. Not only that, but a good model. In the Cybele poem quoted above, Baudelaire imagines a lost arcadia, “époques nues” when men and women “jouissaient sans mensonge et sans anxiété.” Jouissaient: 
“enjoyed each other”  — fucked, presumably — “without lying or 
anxiety.” Sentimental? Maybe. But then he contrasts that dream-age to modern diseased, debauched nineteenth-centry women:

And you, women, alas, pale as church candles, fed and gnawed away by debauchery, and you, virgins, dragging along the inheritance of your mothers’ vice and all the hideous appurtenances of fecundity! (Clark)

Never mind that “hideous appurtenances of fecundity.” Finally, the disgust is glorious, vivid, diagnostic. Objections to sexism in this passage are anachronistic; Baudelaire’s always most revolted by himself.
We in America could use more romantic self-disgust. (Frederick Seidel thinks so. Ooga Booga is the Fleurs du Mal of our time.)

Or take the great poem “Le Cygne” (“The Swan”) in which Baudelaire compares drastically-changing Paris of  the mid-nineteenth century to a swan escaped from its cage, rubbing webbed feet on dry pavement, dragging plumage on rough ground, opening its beak near a dry gutter, bathing wings in dust, dreaming of  home, a beautiful lake, and of water, water. Look up the original. There’s seldom been in 
poetry anything so terribly dry and so full of yearning.

In “The Swan,” Baudelaire invokes Andromache several times. Elsewhere his classical references can seem perfunctory. Here, Hector’s widow injects, finally, an enormous sorrow into the poem, and provides a segue near the end to a strange, and strangely relevant, intrusion:

I think of the negress, wasted and consumptive, trampling in the mud and looking with wild eyes for the missing coconut palms of proud Africa behind the immense wall of the fog;     Of whoever has lost what can never be found. (Clark)

It’s true, Baudelaire can be awfully windy. But I apologize to my 
editors. I’ve developed an aversion to my aversion. If that’s wind, well, sometimes you have to listen to the wind.

* This and some other translations are prose ones by Carol Clark, from Penguin’s Selected Poems, hereafter designated “(Clark).” Where I make no citation, I’ve cobbled together versions from Google Translate, Clark, and other translators, with apologies and no blame.

                                                                           Originally Published: January 2nd, 2013