26 October 2019

Flanerie in Bold Monochrome

Un flâneur a Paris





The crowd is his domain, just as the air is the bird's, and water that of the fish. His passion and his profession is to merge with the crowd. For the perfect [flâneur], for the passionate observer it becomes an immense source of enjoyment to establish his dwelling in the throng, in the ebb and flow, the bustle, the fleeting and the infinite.....
Charles Baudelaire
The Painter of Modern Life





Paris. L'Être et le Néant: Being and Nothingness....  Benchmarks of life and the living.....








The destiny of every walking man is to immerse himself in the panorama surrounding him, to the point of becoming one with it and, ultimately, to vanish.
Federico Castigliano
Flâneur: The Art of Wandering the Streets of Paris




....the city’s modernity is most particularly defined for him by the activities of the flâneur observer, whose aim is to derive ‘l’éternel du transitoire’ (‘the eternal from the transitory’) and to see the ‘poétique dans l’historique’ (‘the poetic in the historic’).

Christopher Butler 
Early Modernism: Literature, Music and Painting in Europe 1900 – 1916




In Les Galeries nationales of Le Grand Palais, Resolutely Modern Toulouse-Lautrec entertains the shadows. Deep absences of colour stand before the being, and the nothingness.....






Encouraged by his photographic passion [and the success of Degas], electrified by the world of modern dancers and inventions, Lautrec never ceased to reformulate the space-time of the image. 



While on the street, optical illusions abound....



And in contrast a limo passes by, with all the sparkle and the grandeur of a leaping salmon, almost obscuring the eyes of wonder.....




In a quiet bar, a quiet un-american sits, confident that his golden era is to come.....




On the Île de la Cité work proceeds apace to restore Notre Dame in time for President Macron's 21st birthday.....




While in the nearby Sainte Chapelle, something of the medieval survives..... 




And so, walking on, for ever in search of magic.....




Looking for that indefinable something we may be allowed to call 'modernity'.....




The photographer is an armed version of the solitary walker reconnoitering, stalking, cruising the urban inferno, the voyeuristic stroller who discovers the city as a landscape of voluptuous extremes. Adept of the joys of watching, connoisseur of empathy, the flâneur finds the world "picturesque."
Susan Sontag
On Photography




And in that picturesque world, we find fleeting forms of beauty, the ephemeral, the characteristic traits of modernity.....



Ahhh!  The blessed saints....


Sssshhh!


There are reasons to be optimistic.....


Reasons to try to distil the bitter or heady flavour of the wine of life....




To be away from home and yet to feel at home anywhere; to see the world, to be at the very centre of the world, and yet to be unseen of the world, such are some of the minor pleasures of those independent, intense and impartial spirits, who do not lend themselves easily to linguistic definitions.....

Charles Baudelaire 
The Painter of Modern Life




The pleasure we derive from the representation of the present is due, not only to the beauty it can be clothed in, but also to its essential quality of being the present.....

Charles Baudelaire
The Painter of Modern Life


Jeff Koons
Bientôt nous plongerons dans les froides ténèbres; 

Adieu, vive clarté de nos étés trop courts!

Charles Baudelaire
Les Fleurs du Mal


*    *    *

The term flâneur has the basic meanings of “stroller”, “lounger”, “saunterer”, “loafer”—which itself comes from the French verb flâner, which means “to stroll”.


The term was used by Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) to refer to someone who observes the city or their surroundings, experiencing physical strolling but also thinking and seeing philosophically. Walking for walking's sake and not in a hurry just to get from one place to another.



20 October 2019

Fruits of the Forest

If you go down to the woods today....






Worrying.  Isn't it?






I met this spider (four-spotted Orb Weaver - Araneus quadratus) the other day, crossing the pavement,






And just wished we could talk.


And on another afternoon I met this chap [the larva of the Pale Tussock moth (Calliteara pudibunda)] bristling towards some pupatory spot, and thought it would be real nice to chat.....







Aw but, honey.....







I don't got the time for fun, Gus, these days.....








But if you just give my champignons a ring some time,








We'll see what an ass I can make of myself.....









Even if I be a bit sluggish....








But....  What abundance!  This wet autumn has given rise to untold multitudes of mushrooms....






And as the saying goes.....






All fungi are edible.....





Once.....


Though some may be toadstools....







What'll give you a Grimm time, seeing goblins perhaps? Though some, like the brown birch bolete (Leccinum scabrum) are ok to eat, even if they ain't as good as their cousins the Cep....








There's so many to choose from, some good, like this mosaic puffball (Lycoperdon utriformis),






And some not so good, like these Lilac Bonnets (Mycena pura) which contain muscarine, C9H20NO2+) which ain't that nice......





Yep, if you go down to the woods today, you might be surprised by the wonder. Here's a neat looking Magpie fungus (or Magpie ink cap) (Coprinus picaceus)








And perhaps that's what this squirrel ate?








(Or is he just resting?)

But, if you don't try.....









You'll never fly.....








I have been down to the woods, 





and I just wished we could talk.....



9 October 2019

Opium of the Masses

Bread and Circuses.....





Standing room only in St Michael's Church, Amberley, West Sussex, where we have gathered to give thanks for the life of a dear friend.

Let all the world in every corner sing,
My God and King!

I sing George Herbert's words as lustily as I can, given a certain rustiness and a catch in my throat.....  

But I am an infidel. I don't really fit in this congregation.  The Reverend Gerry Burgess speaks prayers, and though her words fly up, my soul remains below....

From the back of the nave, the Chancel Arch is magnificent, tall and bold, its chevrons catching the eye. It has stood for over 900 years, abiding the festivities and lamentations of generations of the faithful.

And of the faithless.




Some fifteen hundred years before the church of St Michael was raised, stone workers pieced together the Arch of Janus from spolia - bricks and shards and materials from earlier buildings, just as St Michael's in Amberley grew, using stones from all over (including Bath and Caen stones, as well as local flint) .  

Despite a bomb attack in 1993, this arch now stands beside the church of San Giorgio in Velabrio, by the Roman cattle market.  Although we commonly think of Janus, from whom we get the name for January, as having two faces, his full name was Ianus Quadrifons; and he sometimes faced in four directions, as here.


Italy is full of churches, abbeys, icons, memorials - the paraphernalia and the trappings of religion, from pre-christian times to the present day.  




Many of these are now in ruins.  Some, like Siena Cathedral, never achieved their aspirations (Il Duomo di Siena was never finished because the Black Death decimated the population, reducing the workforce and presumably the coffers to pay for materials and construction).





Many years ago, when preparing to write a book on monasteries, I travelled 100 kms south of Rome to visit the Abbey of Fossanova, one of the finest Cistercian Abbeys in Italy.  It was built in the twelfth century, and it was here that St Thomas Aquinas died, on March 7th, 1274.  

My visit, then, was disappointing.  On a grey day, the place was deserted.  Lead peeled from the octagonal campanile, and the stone walls seemed cold and unloved.  Worse still, the bar, in the tiny cluster of buildings around, was firmly closed, its sign swinging creakily like something from a Sergio Leone film.

The death of Thomas Aquinas didn't seem surprising.  Nor did it surprise me that there was no one there to mourn him.

But hey!  What a difference a lifetime makes? This September the place was open, and bright, and clean and smiling....  Voluminous German frauen brightened the scene, 






A brightly refurbished Madonna stood proud in the crossing, her gorgeous blue gown a jewel against the plain stone walls,






And the windows in the apse glowed splendidly through the tracery of the onyx alabaster slivers, letting in the light but protecting the faithful from the devilish cold and rain.....






The Friars Minor Conventual (Franciscans) have been in charge here, despite its Benedictine/Cistercian history, since 1936.  Today they are welcoming, and allow visitors at any time of day.  

(The bar, too, is excellent, and well stocked.....)

But not so very far away, at Casamari, the Benedictines close their doors in the middle of the day, 





And although this too is a seriously beautiful Cistercian Abbey, there is no welcome in a closed door, however fine that door may be....






And there is something more disturbing about Casamari than immediately meets the eye.



Not many miles up into the hills, near the town of Collepardo and at 825 metres above seas level, is the Carthusian Monastery of Trisulti. Founded as a Benedictine Abbey in 1000, it became a Charterhouse in 1204. Time and decline led eventually to it being taken over by the Cistercians from Casamari in 1947, where, as the Casamari website explains, The small group of monks, a simple priory directly dependent on the abbey of Casamari, gave life to the old charterhouse, welcoming tourists and, above all, offering their services to parish priests in the neighbourhood.



So far, so good.



However, religion is not just about God.  It is also about the people.  The populace....


[Please forgive this diversion into many words, but for a change I cannot put this into pictures.....]

Around Christmas (sic) of 1843, Karl Marx wrote, in his introduction to:

A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right,

Religion is, indeed, the self-consciousness and self-esteem of man who has either not yet won through to himself, or has already lost himself again. But man is no abstract being squatting outside the world. Man is the world of man – state, society. This state and this society produce religion, which is an inverted consciousness of the world, because they are an inverted world. Religion is the general theory of this world, its encyclopedic compendium, its logic in popular form, its spiritual point d'honneur, its enthusiasm, its moral sanction, its solemn complement, and its universal basis of consolation and justification. It is the fantastic realisation of the human essence since the human essence has not acquired any true reality. The struggle against religion is, therefore, indirectly the struggle against that world whose spiritual aroma is religion.

Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.







So, hear this.....



The Dignitatis Humanae Institute is delighted to announce that the historic Abbey of Trisulti  has been formally handed over to the DHI, the final legal papers having been signed on 29 January 2019.....








And who, pray, are The Dignitatis Humanae Institute?

Perhaps this might help.....


The first major education and formation project that the DHI will be launching is the Academy for the Judaeo-Christian West, an initiative defending the Judaeo-Christian foundations of Western Civilisation based on the recognition that every single person without exception is made in the image and likeness of God. The defence of the Judaeo-Christian West over recent years has been significantly advanced by Stephen K. Bannon, whom the DHI is deeply honoured to welcome to its Board of Trustees.



You got it.



Steve Bannon.


Former executive chairman of Breitbart News. Also CEO of Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and senior counsellor to the 45th president. Friend and supporter of Nigel Farage and Matteo Salvini.


And, for a while at least, the ancient charterhouse of Trisulti, so lovingly watched over by the Cistercian Benedictines of Casamari, was to be a training establishment for extreme right wing populists from all over Europe, and the world.



I quote from the Globe and Mail...


Welcome to the site for Steve Bannon’s new school of populism, formally called the Academy for the Judeo-Christian West. It is here that Mr. Bannon .... is building his next populist, nationalist, anti-establishment, Judeo-Christian propaganda machine.

While the school’s launch was planned before populist parties formed the Italian government, their victory has convinced Mr. Bannon that his concept is arriving at the right place at the right time. The school [is intended to be] a key component in spreading his hoped-for populist revolution across Europe, not just now, but for decades. His effort already includes The Movement, his Brussels group that provides data and advice to populist parties.....






I am an infidel.  I have no religion.  And I am naive when it comes to politics.  But there are times when it seems obvious that something ain't right. And the scent of wrong that exudes from Bannon and his associates makes me feel seriously disturbed.


On June 26th 2019, The Catholic Herald reported:



A senior churchman supportive of traditional Catholic liturgy and often cast as a leader of opposition to Pope Francis, has resigned the honorary presidency of a controversial think tank, the Dignitatis Humanae Institute founded by British conservative Benjamin Harnwell, and distanced himself from a major political agitator with strong ties to the Institute, the former chief strategist in the Trump administration, Steve Bannon.


Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke issued a statement on Tuesday, explaining his reasons for becoming involved with the Dignitatis Humanae Institute, outlining the extent of his involvement, and resigning the honorary presidency of it. “I have been involved with the Dignitatis Humanae Institute for some years because of its work to support Christians in public life who act with respect for the moral law and, therefore, promote the common good,” Burke said in the statement. 

“In recent time,” the statement continued, “the Institute has become more and more identified with the political program of Mr. [Steve] Bannon.” 

“While I have urged the Institute to return to its original purpose, it has not done so, as is evident in its involvement with this latest initiative of Mr. Bannon,” Cardinal Burke continued. “I have, therefore, effective immediately, terminated any relationship with the Dignitatis Humanae Institute.”

This statement came not long after the Italian government stated that it was revoking the agreement on leasing the abbey following non payment of rent and failure to work on the maintenance of the fabric of the site.  They also had come to the conclusion that the proposed activity was incompatible with the history and nature of the site.....

A conflict of ideologies.  A conflict between centuries of religious perseverance and a passing flurry of inflamed prejudices.

Populism becomes the opium of the people.....







However, this story has not yet finished.  Bannon, and his right arm man Benjamin Harnwell, a clone, if it were possible, of Dominic McKenzie Cummings, are actively holding on to the potential to turn the Abbey of Trisulti into a forcing house for extreme right wing populism.  Apparently they have already had 1500 applicants for places on their courses.....


One love (so shall it be in the end)
One heart (alright)
Give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel alright
Let's get together and feel alright




As I stood in St Michael's Church, Amberley, singing, with many others, the hymn Teach Me, My God And King, by George Herbert, I did not feel hypocritical, although I have no faith.  I felt a sense of community and hope.  I wanted the sound of our voices to lift our souls for good, for love, whatever those words may mean.


That's how I grew up.  

And in that growing up I was influenced by others who had common cause to wish for good.








I envy those who have faith.  I wish I had something to live for, to die for.  I love the brilliant aspiration of church buildings, great and small.  I treasure the culture I was enveloped in as a child, sitting on my mother's knees in Portsmouth Cathedral during incomprehensible sermons.  I do not question the value others place on their adherence to religious practice or belief.







I marvel at the art and architecture of the masters who created cathedrals with all their features and details:






Not just in the cities of Western Europe, 






But also in the remote countryside,







And, across the world; please take this to include the temples, mosques and places of worship that all human beings have designed to help them understand the mystery of life, whether in ancient times or in the dark future....


But also understand me that the strong fumes of opium give cause to be wary. Morpheus (Please, sister Morphine, turn my nightmares into dreams) does us no good, and the universal basis of consolation and justification derived from the controlling power of the curia should make us question what this new opium of the populace is trying to achieve.  







As I stood in St Michael's Church, Amberley, singing, with many others, the hymn Thine be the Glory by Edmond Budry, I did not feel uncomfortable, although I have no belief.  I felt a sense of love, and of sadness.  I wanted the sound of our voices to lift us up to an experience of heaven, whatever that may mean.


That's how I was brought up.  

And in that bringing up I was taught by some whose selflessness scattered fear and gloom.


Thine be the glory, risen, conquering Son;
Endless is the victory thou o'er death hast won!


*********



On August 17th this year, in response to a piece I sent concerning the Feast of the Assumption, my late friend John wrote:



I have never underestimated the power of prayer.


All the best,

John




All the best to you, John.....


*****



Stop press: October 9th, 2019: Dario Franceschini, Italian Minister per i Beni culturali e il Turismo, confirmed that the concession granted in 2018 to Steve Bannon and his organisation has been revoked.

Stop Press 2!
COMUNICATO STAMPA 
MiBACT, annullata l’aggiudicazione della Certosa di Trisulti
Il Ministero per i beni e le attività culturali e per il turismo ha annullato il provvedimento di concessione della Certosa di Trisulti all’associazione Dignitas Humanae Institute.
Il provvedimento è giunto al termine del procedimento avviato nell’agosto 2019 dal quale è emerso che, contrariamente a quanto dichiarato al momento della candidatura, l’associazione non risultava in possesso dei requisiti richiesti dal bando per la concessione a privati di immobili del demanio culturale dello Stato.
Roma, 10 ottobre 2019

Which is definitively a No! to any activity of Bannon and his cronies in any Italian State Property.