Far from breaking radically with the past, modern representations of the city are haunted by it - Essay Example

FAR FROM BREAKING RADICALLY WITH THE PAST, MODERN REPRESENTATIONS OF THE ARE HAUNTED BY IT. DISCUSS WITH REFERENCE TO BAUDELAIRE POEMS "LE CYGNE" AND "À UNE PASSANTE" -CAILLEBOTTES PAINTING: "PARIS STREET Name Institution + City Professor Class Date Submitted Far from breaking radically with the past, modern representations of the city are haunted by it. Discuss with reference to Baudelaire poems "le cygne" and "à une passante" -Caillebottes Painting: "Paris Street In the late 19th and 20th century, a new kind of movement arose for far reaching transformations in the western society. Along the transformations were cultural, physical and societal changes. The rapid growth of cities and development of modern societies are some of the factors that shaped the present day. The world war one was also a great factor that has shaped modernity. From it, nations had the urge to develop equipments that would secure their territories and that would protect them if such war occurs again. This led to advancement in the technological world and brought the present day. With modernism, religious belief was under threat as human being thought that they would shape and reshape the world without need for a greater being. In addition, they had less time for religious matters as the innovation and creative world brought with it hard inflation times that made people busier trying to make ends meet. Modernism was brought by the view that traditional forms of architecture, art, religion, literature, philosophy, social organizations, and other daily activities were now out of place in the dynamic social, political economic organizations of the changing world. The past poetry also shaped the modern day world, as poetry was one of the platforms that were used to bring out the present as in a world that people found pleasure in art, and then people would be carried into the vehemence it carried along with it if it was used to bring the change. Self-consciousness was a notable characteristic of modernity. This brought about experiments and techniques that considered process and materials that were used in creation of poems and paintings. The ideology of realism was rejected by modernism (Holland 2006, 93). Modernism also made use of past works by using rewriting, revision, incorporation, reprise, recapitulation and parody. “If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday” Pearl Back (Marder 2001, 77). This means that though that the past will still shape today. Today has an aspect of yesterday and today cannot survive without the breath of yesterday. The best way of exploring and exploiting a city; the changes, shifts, breaks in cloud helmet, movement of light in water, is by walking. The recommended mode is by wandering purposefully, this is by tramping asphalted earth in alert trance thus allowing the invention of an underlying pattern to reveal itself The method of wandering involves the study of phenomena where one or more persons, during a certain stage, drop their usual reasons for wandering and actions, their relations, their work and leisure activities and allow themselves to be drawn by the attractions on the topography and the encounters they find there. Baudelaire allows him to be drawn by the beauty of the woman and follows her in the passerby. Navigating the city by foot and evaluation of the city in terms of the mental effect that it has upon the individual that are there in the Situation’s definition (Marder 2001, 77). Nevertheless, if someone examines the growth of the concept from its surfacing in 1950s, Paris to its contemporary London usage, even as the methodological foundation of psycho-geography remains more or less constant, its teleological assumptions have shifted drastically.  Idealism is said to be a situation where everyone is said to be happy and no sad thing happens. Romanticism is the search for that which cannot be found anywhere in space or in the earth (Maltzer 2011, 194). It is the construction of own paradise on earth. It is the building of mortal things that cannot be destroyed, things that are fragile, perfect and the one s that can be worshipped. This is created through evacuation of memory and nostalgia, drug induced trance and dreams, mind returns reverie and contemplation, it embraces what is there with anxiety and sensitivity its artistically cool music. Baudelire created this kind of scenario in the passerby: To a passerby The street about me roared with a deafening sound. Tall, slender, in heavy mourning, majestic, grief, A woman passed, with a glittering hand Raising, swinging the helm and flosses of her skirt; Agile and graceful, her leg was like a statue’s. Tense as a delirium, I drank from her eyes, pale sky where tempest (Maltzer 2011, 194) Germinates The sweetness that enthralls and the pleasure that kills A lightning flash..Then night! Fleeting beauty This makes the romantics to go in search of the paradise in the mind, the mountain vividly created in the mind, where everything is a haven than before, the vast greens that spread through the valleys and hills, the lilies that filled the sea. Human memories become haunted by the past, this past is what the mind seeks, and seeking this and trying to leave it, the mind creates the present. This present is not as the old but much more advanced than the old did a paradise greater than the old did. Advancements take places, technology, society, culture, social and economic aspects is affected by this changes and the present is born. Present from past is born and the past that many are running from (Maltzer 2011, 194). Paris Street on a rainy day is a picture that can be used to trace Paris from it old days. A picture painted in 1887 depicts the changes that it has passed since then. It shows a city that is quickly modernizing. The picture shows a couple fashionably dressed strolling down near Saint-Lazare train station. This railway station has undergone a lot of transformation that has also transformed the people living around. This picture compared to the present shows a series of events that has brought modern day. That is the modern has evolved from the past. (PARIS STREET: RAINY DAY, 1887) Young Man at His Window The man is looking at an urban scene. The window creates a curiosity of what the man is seeing. There seems to be a tense relationship between the man’s elevated position and the detailed scene of the street. The painting is used to depict the unprecedented future, which is covalent and charged. A future that seems opposite to the reality. This shows that by only looking at the past, it is then that we can find the future. We can see the opposite side of the past, which is the future. Le Pont de lEurope The photo is of a couple walking and an observer on the bridge. According t the social norms of the society a woman like that was viewed to be a prostitute. This shows the passage of sexual orientations and attractions from old time. That man has always been attracted to the opposite genre from when he lived. Tense as a delirium, I drank from her eyes, pale sky where tempest Germinates The sweetness that enthralls and the pleasure that kills A lightning flash… then night! Fleeting beauty By whose glance I was suddenly reborn, Will I see you no more before eternity? (Holland 2006, 93) By whose glance I was suddenly reborn, Baudelaire creates an impression where one thing and creates the basis for future reference. Rebirth represents the new mind that is opened. A mind that is free of thought. A mind that can wander without restrictions and a mind that invents. Rebirth in this sense represents the current world that was reborn out of something. Cities grow from one city. By the need to create that which will fascinate and that which will improve. By the fleeting beauty, a reborn was made that made the mind to wander about eternity. Will the eternity be here forever? Will it survive the ordeal of time? (Holland 2006, 93) What can I do to make it better to stand the storms of time? The writer tries to ask and answer these questions. According to Baudelaire, the journey of his mind and spirit has been set. The reborn has become present now. The voyage of ensuring the beauty has been reserved for eternity. Baudelaire uses symbols in his work. These symbols come from past art. He views art itself as a means for justification of self beyond the mere entertainment. His concerns is how to be, how to live and rotates in the moral centre. How the morals are upheld to eternity, how the world will be perfect even in the days to come. This is in light with a world, a world with no recourse and a world that is untimely intention less (Marder 2001, 77). Despair is fashioned into his mind that what is there today might not be there tomorrow. The beauty of today is under threat and that what is viewed, as today is paradise may fade away tomorrow and remain no more. The mind is the only archive that he has to store the paradise of present the paradise of which will be used to build days to come. Therefore, when the past will be long gone, new things come and beauty recreated, the archive will serve to reminiscence the beauty of yesterday that will build the beauty of today. Andromache, I think of you!-that little stream, That mirror, poor and sad, which glittered long ago With the vast majesty of your widow’s grieving That false Simois swollen by your tears, Suddenly made fruitful my teeming memory, As I walked across the new Carrousel -old Paris is no more (the form of a city Changes more quickly, alas! Than the human heart) (Holland 2006, 93) Baudelaire in the poem of The Swan creates Paris as it was before. He depicts it as a city that is changing more quickly than the human heart. Paris is a city that today is created by past art. It is a city that has seen the changes of time and has a great history to write. It describes a city that is host to modern civilization of art, economy, social culture and political aspects. He thinks of it as it was before. The little streams that were there during the old days are not there in the present. That false Simois swollen by your tears suddenly made fruitful my teeming memory, the past forms the basis for the present and therefore breaking from the past is possible but the haunts of the past will continue to create the present. We are forced to break from the present so that we can ascend to the future. We must move from where we are today to go on a journey, a journey of life. A journey of creation and recreation (Leakey & Jacobs 1990, 29). A journey that is not secured but one that we must undertake. Baudelaire depicts the journey of transformation as a voyage for the greater. He uses symbol to depict his greatest feelings. Each of the two poems is a journey. It describes a journey full of thoughts and archiving the past. This is what he uses to create the future in his journey of poetry. He creates everything to an unknown creative harbor. From what is there to what is not there? It gives the story of the ruins of the cities to the present state of the city. This is a voyage he creates in his mind and is shown in hi s poetry that though the present is alienated from the past, the past will continue to haunt the present (Leakey & Jacobs 1990, 29). Baudelaire in the poem the passerby, les the persona travel beyond what is the comfort zone. This is the zone of living today without thinking of tomorrow. The persona wanders to that that can be a pain and monotony reliever of the very existence and that does not offer salvation or hope. The persona must accept the invitation to the voyage. A voyage that the end is not guaranteed but the beginning is presented. It is an invitation to the idyll. In pursuit of the paradise that is created in the mind (Holland 2006, 93). The dreams of the mind, the vast greens that are present. The symbol of which becomes the mantra to the future. The driving force to what the present holds. The paradise where the rest of the soul is assured and love flourishes at its best and has no limits. It becomes an epitome of beauty. The two poems are very useful in the building of today. The analogy of the Swan (a large bird with a long neck that lives near water) to show how the past is missed (Leakey & Jacobs 1990, 29). The Swan misses the rains and wonders when they will come to refurnish its home. The labors are busy cleaning preparing for tomorrow. Tomorrow that is neither known nor clear. The Swan flies to an unknown destination in such of its past. To a land that is filled with water. It longs for the natural way of life that is long gone. That is being swept away. Baudelaire uses this analogy to show the long past that is archived in the existence of the mind. A past that is crucial for development of today. A past that shapes today. From this thirst, a voyage is commenced. The voyage of seeking a better present. The journey of seeking that which was deprived, the simple original glory that it lived on. From it there comes evolution. Evolution that will create something more and better. That brings evolution and innovation. This is what will bring the present. The long awaited present. Therefore, the city might have totally broken from the past but the memory of the past haunts it. From the two poems, a number of things can be learnt. Paradise that is the creation of the mind is fleeing from us. The paradise leaves behind its memories, feelings and sensations, poems and its fragments of hope. These feelings can be evoked or re evoked. The world before was enough, enough to satisfy itself. Complete in its own sense. The world then evoked to be real. Living in the present setting without more creation is exhibited. Living with what was available. Modernism came to reality and the world shifted to not being enough to satisfy the needs of the mind. The paradise that was so long became lost and no hope of recovering again in the external powers and settings but only in the internal being (Holland 2006, 93). The internal force has led to the hustles and bustles of trying to create today. The insatiable feeling that has raised to the inner mind of trying to create today, which is an example of yesterday (Holland 2006, 93). The developments of today are guided for the dreams and the voyages of the past in search of today. The deprivations of yesterday are born in the quest to create it. The journey of the cities of today is built on the arts and designs that evolved from the past. This runs from the classical world to the medieval then to the medieval and the romantics. The past may be long gone and new developments taken their places. They may not be traced by the external settings but will always be archived in the memories. These memories become the incentives of creating a better today. Therefore, the past may be long gone and forgotten but it will always haunt the present cities. List of References LEAKEY, F. W., & JACOBS, E. (1990). Baudelaire: collected essays, 1953-1988. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. HOLLAND, E. W. (2006). Baudelaire and schizoanalysis the sociopoetics of modernism. Cambridge (GB), Cambridge university press. MARDER, E. (2001). Dead time: temporal disorders in the wake of modernity (Baudelaire and Flaubert). Stanford, Calif, Stanford University Press. MELTZER, F. (2011). Seeing double: Baudelaires modernity. Chicago, University of Chicago Press. STAMELMAN, R. H. (1990). Lost beyond telling: representations of death and absence in modern French poetry. Ithaca, Cornell University Press. Read More