Walter Benjamin, 'On Some Motifs in Baudelaire'. Publishing Details. (by K B)
In the essay 'In Some Motifs in Baudelaire', Walter Benjamin illustrates Baudelaire's refusal to be an active participant in the rapidly changing society where he created his works. Some would argue that Baudelaire was the prototypical flaneur, dedicating his life to a nonchalant way of living. Also looking at Baudelaire’s example of rebellion, the great poet refused to live his life in the pursuit of material wealth and worthless possessions. There is another side of Baudelaire; however, the side that lived through society and came out a bit jaded. In his collection of poems Fleurs du Mal, Baudelaire writes, Lost in this mean world, jostled by the crowd, I am like a weary man whose eye, looking backwards, into the depth of the years, sees nothing but disillusion and bitterness Baudelaire writes lyrical poetry that testifies to his feelings about the culture of his time.
Baudelaire focuses on the mechanization of humanity. He points out the uniformity of actions in humans as a result of mass industry. The crowd is a central point of study because it perfectly illustrates the deafening monotony of the masses. Baudelaire does not need to give a detailed description of the crowd; instead his power lies in the fact that he does not mention the crowd per se. It is there like a quiet serpent weaving through the grass; the lines of the poems in Fleurs du Mal are laced throughout with his disdain for the busy life of his society.
The hustle and bustle is the enemy of the flaneur who wishes to move with ease, but finds nameless faces jolting him around. This creates what is called the “shock experience”. The lack of ease with which one can navigate through his surroundings can create this shock. “The more readily consciousness registers these shocks, the less likely are they to have a traumatic effect”. Baudelaire refuses the surrendering of oneself to absorbing these shocks as an unconscious act.
The flaneur of Baudelaire's time was a man of leisure, a man of the city. He moved with ease through the playground of his metropolis. The contrasting present day flaneur is one of many worlds. Globalization has made homes on remote islands that of leisurely escape. The modern day flaneur has the world at his fingertips, a world where jostling and shocks are just part of the game.