Charles Baudelaire (Part 2): The Poetics of Evil

In this video, Dana Gioia examines Baudelaire’s revolutionary theory that the doomed, the ugly, and the evil posses a kind of beauty.
This video is part two in Dana Gioia's series on the poet Charles Baudelaire. For the full Charles Baudelaire video series, check out this playlist: • Charles Baudelaire - H...
My website: danagioia.com
My Twitter: / danagioiapoet

[@niccoloflorence]

Loved your poem Homage to Soren Kierkegaard, sir. Your voice has a unique depth and calm which make these beautiful lines come to life. Eagerly awaiting your next video!

[@DanaGioiaPoet]

I just co-edited a new anthology of poems in response to Soren Kierkegaard with Wiseblood Books. Lots of writers are fascinated by his complex but compelling work.

[@Borequee]

Fantastic. Well researched. I think this is a good example of popularisation that does not come at the cost of content.

[@johnmartin2813]

So in actual fact Baudelaire was intensely concerned with morality, and with the nature of good and evil. What he so successfully avoided was preachiness. In other words he used skillful means to actually get to the heart of the matter. And so involve the reader more intensely in the actual drama.

[@darylcumming7119]

❤ thank you.

[@peterchaloner2877]

Baudelaire would have enjoyed MDMA as a means to mysterious grace.

[@alankovacik1928]

use caution ⚠ ⚠ ⚠

[@macleadg]

I can only wonder how the victims of the Rwandan genocide would react to the notion of finding beauty in evil. What an ivory-tower, pedantic concept, taken seriously only by the privileged.

[@blainestevens6701]

Did you not listen to what were Baudelaire’s words and concerns? Poetry should concern itself with itself. It needs to tap dance between reality and the imagination and create new symbols of rhyme and connection between both states of being. If every artist concerned themselves with every atrocity and political upheaval that is ongoing and will continue ad infinitum, than they would have little to differentiate themselves from most modern news casts; and the world, and most people within it, would cease, by and large, to have any sense of beauty or mystery to them. Creating art IS a privilege. Let artists have what privileges left to them. 🤣 Go throw rocks through some politician’s window if you’re so concerned, rather than dig up a dead poet’s corpse and beat em over the head with your morality. 🤣 It is ill placed.

[@macleadg]

@@blainestevens6701You attack me rather than my ideas. This is what people do when they have no substantial argument. I did listen to this and I think it’s nonsense.

[@blainestevens6701]

@@macleadg I have nothing substantial to argue against. 🤣 Nor do I really wish to argue at all. I just found your comment a little weird and pointless. You should direct your efforts to creating or achieving something more congruent to your own values.

[@macleadg]

@@blainestevens6701 You realize it’s no one’s prerogative to dictate to others what to say or how to spend their time, right? No? Ok, I’ll play by your rules. You should stop ad hominem attacks. You should stop assuming you know what someone’s value system is based on a couple of comments on social media. You should stop thinking you are entitled to tell others what to think, say, or do. Above all, you should check with me first before posting anything again. You should also realize that if you find a comment insubstantial, but take time to comment on it, you are contradicting yourself.

[@blainestevens6701]

@@macleadg I have just a right to post what I feel as you do. I’ll take your suggestions to heart, and offer my sincere apologies if I fail to take them up when next you comment something as mean spirited as above. Baudelaire published the Flowers of Evil in 1857. To attack your ideas, rather than yourself, as you inferred, one could argue that publishing that book once again cemented an aesthetic that could draw from subject matter that most would overlook or deem vulgar; and furthermore, keep artists away from the shackles of government censorship, which was a fear in Baudelaire’s time. Whether Baudelaire intended the book to be ‘Art for Art’s sake’ is irrelevant. As the very act of publishing the Flowers was in itself a political statement. Hell, Charles Baudelaire is not necessarily a weird poet, per say, but he did help inspire the works of Clark Ashton Smith and others, so that, outside of any political sphere, is something I’m personally grateful for. He also helped cement Poe’s legacy abroad, another boon. Surely that is something substantial to our literary culture and the politics surrounding art.

[@gratiamephpheta]

Excellent.

[@forerealz]

This is captivating and amazing.. did you write this and read it to us? Or are you reading someone elses writings?

[@DanaGioiaPoet]

I wrote this script. It is adapted from a long introduction I wrote for a new English translation of Baudelaire by Aaron Poochigian.

[@Des393]

Yes, 'One should remain drunk at all times, preferably on Virtue. I believe Baudelaire realized the masculine and feminine depths of the universes, the flowers of evil, a degeneration of cosmic love into a sensual whore.

[@brannonmcclure6970]

I keep coming to listen; I borrowed my copy of Evil Flowers from our public library. Sioux City!🧑‍🎨

[@NTNG13]

Chills at the last line. Such an adventurous spirit!

[@solusr8655]

It is no wonder that Baudelaire appreciated Wagner's music as much as Proust later did.

[@stefanquist5091]

Bob Dylan couldn't agree more...

[@DanaGioiaPoet]

You are so right. Part of Dylan's genius has been the ability and willingness to express dark emotions and cruel opinions in his work.

[@Dave183]

Hearing the voice of women, is the new aesthetic these days. The modern cave man can only sit and wait- for the opportoonity to syncopate.

[@billyfudd818]

dude! thanks for your comment. it resonates

[@brian_nirvana]

ty🌤

[@guitarsz]

just because you gaze at the repugnant does not mean it is beautiful or you can transform something evil into beauty. You can embrace, accept, or gaze upon something with no power to transform them into something different. It is in the eye of the beholder so perhaps if you are evil you may see evil as beautiful. He obviously was depressed as well. Drugs will do that to you.