(Untitled)

[elektra3]

Dear Charles Baudelaire,

I don't care how misunderstood you are. STOP WHINING.

This message has been brought to you by the Department of People Who Are Really Sick of Their French Homework.

Comments

[mickawber_fics]

I hate to tell you...

He won't.

At least he's better than Rimbaud, who takes whining to a whole new level. ;-)

[elektra3]

Oh, fantastic.

[mickawber_fics]

Hey! At least he did fabulous translations of Poe! He was good for something! ;-)

[elektra3]

I don't hate everything about his poetry. He's very clever with his use of language, and the result is quite beautiful. It's just... Well, take "L'Albatros," for instance. He has this gorgeous examination of Man's Inhumanity To Everything... and then, in the last stanza, hijacks his own message and starts bitching about how alone and isolated and misunderstood he is. And I want to beat him to death with a flounder.

[bratfarrar]

Did anything in particular prompt this message? Or just the collection as a whole?

[elektra3]

Just his tendency to hijack his poems with completely pointless bouts of wah-wah-wah-pity-me. Which drives me nuts, because he's a much better writer than that.

I think it's a particularly sore point with me because it's something I've struggled with a lot in my own writing: The need to get the hell over myself and let the piece be what it is, even if it doesn't fit my agenda. Which is difficult, God knows - but Baudelaire doesn't even seem to be trying.