Tara Isabella Burton on dandyism, self-promotion/self-creation, and the selfie era. — Charles Baudelaire goes still further, treating dandyism in his 1863 essay “The Painter of Modern Life” as “a kind of religion.” Like d’Aurevilly, Baudelaire sees the ultimate dandy as transcending his humanity—by choosing and creating his own identity, he remains splendidly aloof, unaffected by others or by the world at large. “It is the pleasure of causing surprise in others, and the proud satisfaction of never showing any oneself. A dandy may be blasé, he may even suffer pain, but in the latter case he will keep smiling, like the Spartan under the bite of the fox.” Baudelaire takes pains to emphasize that the popular trappings of dandyism—“clothes and material elegance”—are secondary to the philosophy underpinning them. “For the perfect dandy,” he writes, “these things are no more than the symbol of the aristocratic superiority of his mind.” Clothing, makeup, intentionally confounding accessories—all these are useful not for themselves but for the role they play in creating a public persona.— theparisreview.org/blog/2014/02/20/keep-smiling/
Posted on: Mon, 24 Feb 2014 15:48:22 +0000
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