The assignment is dubbed "Operation
Rimbaud," after the wunderkind French poet who famously lived in Ethiopia from 1880 to 1891.
Because of White's sexuality, his long residence in France, and his literary knowledge, he would have seemed among English-language writers to be the perfect choice as the author of a life of
Rimbaud to replace the obsolete 1930's forerunner by Enid Starkie.
The letter patterns in the first sentence correspond as well to the structure that Roger Little observes in the last sentence of "Mystique": "La douceur fleurie des etoiles et du ciel et du reste descend en face du talus, comme un panier,--contre notre face, et fait l'abime fleurant et bleu la-dessous." In "
Rimbaud's 'Mystique': Some Observations," Little identifies a pattern he describes as a "parabola":
Ao subtitulo "os ultimos anos de um poeta no exilio" na edicao brasileira de
Rimbaud na Africa, quero contrapor uma frase do adolescente em carta a Izambard de 1870, queixando-se do isolamento e da pobreza de espirito de sua cidade natal: "on est exile dans sa patrie!!!", exilado na propria patria!
One thinks, especially, of 'Royaute' reimagined as a fait divers on the front page of The Sun and of the calligrammatic version of 'Antique', both fitting in with Scott's broader sense of
Rimbaud's anities with Cubism and other art movements.
But let us take a second example, historically and aesthetically close to Baudelaire:
Rimbaud's Illuminations.
With a few possible exceptions, including synesthetic passages in
Rimbaud's poetry and Vincent van Gogh's use of color, Adams puts little stock in the idea that absinthe-tinged perceptions helped inspire the work of artists who drank the stuff.
'The poet,' wrote
Rimbaud in 1871 (when he was all of 17) 'becomes a visionary by long, immense and reasoned unsettling of all the senses.' And if
Rimbaud gave free rein to his sensual desires turning them into art, then Picasso did so, too, creating a kind of osmosis between violent sexuality and a kind of clamorous creativity which demanded an outlet either on canvas or on a drawing board.
Director and CEO, TIFFG (in chronological order) Pour la suite du monde Le Chat dans le sac Wavelength La Vraie Nature de Bernadette Rejeanne Padovani Between Friends Le Vieux Pays oh
Rimbaud est mort Life Classes Calendar Crash
Structurally, the book has academic tones--sections with Latin titles, a dozen epigraphs by authors as varied as Arthur
Rimbaud, Louise Gluck and Quincy Troupe--but fortunately Kocher maintains a balance between her obvious intellect, command of poetic craft and her ability to express an intangible sense of flesh and soul.