Half the artists who frequent this site are probably in San Diego for the comic convention. Good! I'm in the mood to write something really, really off-topic...something that absolutely no artist will want to read! Here goes....TWO OBSERVATIONS ABOUT ROMANCE
First off, the picture above relates to my second point and has no relation to the kind of romance I'm writing about in this paragraph. Here I'm writing about the Romantic Era which may have started with Rousseau but reached its height in the 19th century. Now the odd thing is that the Romantic movement quickly split in two. It meant something totally different in England than it did on the continent. In England it was primarily a literary movement. It influenced poetry and stories and gave us novels like "Frankenstein." On the continent it was mainly a philosophical movement and it produced anti-Enlightenment philosophers like Nietzche and Mussolini.
English Romanticism favored people like Byron and Colleridge. Continental Romanticism favored Napoleon. Even the people who fought Napoleon openly admired him. He was informed by reason but he was said to have transcended it through his will. Continental literature of the period was full of references to will and the philosophers codified it. I love what the English did with Romanticism; I can't even begin to understand the continental variety.
Here's the second observation about romance. This time I'm talking about romance in the sense of a man and a woman falling in love. My guess is that romance is one of the factors responsible for the concept of human rights and liberty. Lots of institutions give lip service to supporting love and families but I get the feeling that every institution actually feels threatend by them. People who are passionately in love have their own agenda and they're willing to die for it. It's amazing that the medieval troubadors would have sided with this anti-social behavior. Eventually they persuaded society to support lovers at the expense of the weakening of the state. Interesting, huh?
Thanks to Steve Worth for the French postcard. Also, I hope Blogger will publish the paragraphs in type that's all the same size, as it is in the window I'm writing it in.
6 comments:
Eddie-
Are a big fan of the broad range of English Romantic poetry? If so, what are some of your favorite poets and/or works?
It sounds like the english romantics where linguistic aesthetes while the ones on the main land where more concerned about man living up to his abilities and trying to seize life itself, overcoming mediocrity and striving for the best.
If this is correct i feel closer to the second concept.
The first one would come up with generic beauty, rambling about following a formula and occasionally exceptional, though without true content (or selfish motives) while i imagine the main land concept to get you seize life, go out and get grand things done. A bit like your textbook concept for grownups!
I think we also tend to be overly ambitious while at the same easily lazy and in this sense nietsche might be a good wake up call while the englisch seem to have more of a cozy armchair attitude.
All above is only a response to your post though, i have read little byron, seen some waterhouse paintings and read small bits of nietsche. Excuse if it doesn't make all to much sense:)
I once knew a girl though who said how ever wants to marry here has to a) give here a real, huge harp and b) recite all verses of Lady of Charlotte. I never got it done...
Anonymous: Favorite English Romantic Poem? Definitely "On looking into Chapman's Homer" by Keats. I don't know why I like it so much. It's a bit dry and academic when you see it in print. You only realize how good it is when you read it aloud.
Danny: I like the aspect of Romanticism that you mentioned. For me the ideal is to overlay a Romantic attitude on top of an Enlightenment core.
I knew this wouldn't be a popular topic but I didn't know it would be THIS unpopular. I seem to have discovered the secret of repelling artists.
Of course there's the convention in San Diego. Not only that but
The temperature in my part of L.A. reached a record 112 degrees Farenheit. Maybe everybody's at the beach. I may do the same it's this hot tomorrow.
Eddie
I second that! Your blog is the best, and I check it out all the time!
I only respond when I feel like I have something to say...
So for now I'll just say thanks for one of the best sites on the net!
James.
Thanks for the kind words everybody! Cableclair, I'm sorry about your break-up!
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