The well-known Baudelaire, such as the well-known flower of evil, is known to almost all people who have always called it modern art and those who love modern poetry. But not many people can understand and explain Baudelaire's obscure thought. This paper tries to sort it out and reveal it clearly, without beating around the bush or pretending to be profound, hoping to provide reference and help for readers to understand Baudelaire and read Flowers of Evil.
Baudelaire explored the truth of life-nothingness. Everything goes to destruction, death and decay. But for people who are used to and live in the "beautiful" reality of deception, the truth seems to be a sin. This unbearable truth is the reason for Baudelaire's melancholy. Life is full of deception and self-deception. "Reality" is a big scam, but Baudelaire discovered the truth of "beauty" with his discerning eyes. It turns out that "beauty" generally considered by the secular world is a fig leaf to cover up the truth, and the truth of life is only "ugliness" and "evil". However, because there is a great transcendence between ugliness and evil-truth, real poetry should be connected with it, and it shows more extensive humanistic care than cheap aestheticism and hypocritical chanting, thus creating "poetry" in "poetry". Here we should distinguish Baudelaire's "secular beauty" and "transcendental beauty" (let's make such a distinction): "secular beauty" is perfect. The truth is shocking and unbearable. However, if we extract "existence" from ugliness and disappearance, and appreciate the magical power in decay, this transcendental insight and the face-to-face recognition of falsehood and pain arising from this struggle between life and death can be transformed into "apocalyptic" poetry, thus having some extraordinary transcendence. In Baudelaire's view, secular beauty is ugly, hypocritical and unreal, while ugly, evil and torn wounds are acceptable because of their truth. In reality, the illusion and ugliness of life are really lingering and entangled, and this kind of melancholy based on nothingness is the real "poetic heart"-"Where were those lost years before me?" Behind me, where are the future generations? I think of heaven and earth, there is no limit, there is no end, I am alone, my tears fall. " Only by achieving a mysterious unity between poetry and the origin of the universe can the soul be settled and comforted for a moment.
Baudelaire saw the cruelty and disillusionment of reality after removing the illusory "beauty" veil of capitalism. The truth is unbearable, but the truth is the truth. It is better to beat people's numb souls with ugliness than to praise the false beauty naively. Let people wake up from romantic dreams. But Baudelaire's cleverness is not here. He has more important work to do. If the disillusionment of reality and the meaninglessness of life make us fall negatively, then Baudelaire wants to save us from the abyss of sinking again. Because simply exposing "evil" and ugliness cannot save our lives, and the meaning of life itself cannot be revealed. Although the reality is discouraging, life will go on after all, and we have to live. So Baudelaire pointed out a beautiful paradise for us. But this paradise is not on the other side of Christianity, and we don't need God to save it, because God's paradise is for kind and beautiful people. Baudelaire, an earthly prodigal son, is not qualified, but he is not rare. Baudelaire discovered the real heaven-beyond (at least his own paradise), but the road or portal to heaven is "ugly", "destructive" and "temporary", and all these things point to "death", so heaven is close to "death", but we can't commit suicide (although Baudelaire did commit suicide, but failed), so we can only. Heaven and ugliness are adjacent, and "destruction" becomes some kind of justice. In this way, we accepted some realities. Ugliness and death are not only acceptable, but also have some metaphysical positive significance. What was once regarded as eternal, what was once cherished by us, has been excessively influenced and become perishable-everything eternal is the product of artistic degradation-which is Baudelaire's contribution to modernity. "Modernity is transient, ephemeral and accidental, half is art, and the other half is eternal and unchangeable." (See Selected Works of Baudelaire, translated by Guo Hongan, People's Literature Publishing House, 1987, p. 485). All "existence" can't avoid "finiteness" and can't escape transition, transience and accident. It can be said that it is not "existence" itself. On the contrary, the "chaotic and profound unity" that makes everything "harmonious" is an eternal "existence", but this transcendental "existence" is never accessible to ordinary people living-wizards, poets (or the dead? There are sacred things in words and phrases that we can't express. Clever use of a language means practicing some enlightenment witchcraft "(on Teofil Gaudi, see Salon 1846: Selected Aesthetic Papers of Baudelaire, p. 70, Guangxi Normal University Press, 2002). Poets are dying dancers. We can define Baudelaire as a "psychic".
Of course, Baudelaire must not be misunderstood. Bole's "ugliness" and "evil" see beauty, which is a poetic discovery beyond the usual standards of beauty and ugliness in reality, and a higher perception of real beauty with a detached attitude and overlooking eyes. However, if some commentators don't understand this level and feel the mysterious and vast cosmic life itself of "everything should be in harmony" from Baudelaire's standpoint and state of mind-in the words of China people, this is called "big talk" (of course, this may depend on the help of alcohol and marijuana to Baudelaire), but they comment on the poet's poetic heart from a secular perspective and say evil from an ordinary perspective. Baudelaire is not a perverted sociopath who regards ugliness as beauty or distorts his mind. On the contrary, he is full of yearning for beautiful things and compassionate sympathy and love for mankind. At the very least, we should understand his intention-since the truth of the world is illusory and ugly, then everything can't be adhered to. All we can grasp is disillusionment and death, but it is from disillusionment and death that things show the emergence of new life. The growth of beautiful things is only possible in the destruction of dead things, and we can only expect (death is ugly, and when "beauty" is eternal, it becomes dead things, which is the ugliest thing. This does mean something like "afterlife".
(This article was originally written by Bu Diandong. Welcome to pay attention to "empty rooms make white luck" and communicate. )