Ennui: the Culture of Boredom

            On Friday morning I worked out the first verse and half the chorus of  “L’amour en privé” by Serge Gainsbourg. The music for this song is actually by Jean-Claude Vannier.

            I finished my translation of “Au lecteur” by Charles Baudelaire. I found some recordings of various people reciting the poem and read along with it out loud. Then I read my translation out loud while listening to the French to hear if it fit. I made some adjustments throughout the day.

            In the afternoon I did some exercises while listening to Amos and Andy. In this story Andy borrows a navy uniform because men in the service get into the Harlem canteen for free. He just wants to go in and dance with some girls without drawing too much attention to the fact that he is impersonating a man in uniform. The problem is that when he tries to enter he turns out to be the millionth customer, which wins him a week at a swanky Harlem hotel and access to lots of big parties. It also draws a lot of publicity that he can’t afford because he has to be interviewed by an official from the canteen who turns out to be an ex-Navy man. When asked about his war experience Andy tells him that he took down three Japanese planes with a ten millimetre machine gun. The man says that he would hit nothing with that kind of a gun. Andy explains that he was shooting at Zeros. Andy ends up in jail.

            I started working on my short essay on “Au lecteur” beginning with my hand written stream of consciousness thoughts on the poem. I transcribed what I’d written into a document of 206 words. The essay word limit is 300 words and on the same day I have to do a presentation with a maximum of 150 words. I’ll just write the paper first and then amend it for the presentation.

            I grilled nine pork loin centre and rib chops and had two with a potato and gravy for dinner while watching Wanted Dead or Alive starring Steve McQueen. Josh comes to the town of High Mesa with a private wanted poster for a man named Dr Matt Conners. The person that posted the reward of $500 is Matt’s wife, Ruth Conners. She tells Josh she still loves her husband and just wants him to find him. Josh said he might have seen him playing cards in another town but he doesn’t say where. After Josh leaves we see that Ruth really wants Matt dead and she sends her boyfriend Victor to follow Josh. In the town of Twin Oak people are evasive and say they don’t know the man in the picture but there is a little too much emotion in the denials of a saloon girl named Dora. While trying to talk with her a third time he follows her down an alley and gets beaten up by three men. A kind man named Miguel helps Josh but when Josh asks him about the man he is looking for he becomes evasive as well. Victor has been following Josh and beats up Miguel for the information of Matt’s location. Finally Josh is able to convince Dora to tell him where Matt is so he can save him from Victor. He busts into the shack where Matt is holed up just before Victor can shoot him because he needs to be dead for Ruth to get possession of his ranch. Josh wounds Victor and after hesitating Matt begins to act like a doctor again to save Victor’s life.

            Ruth was played by Barbara Eiler, who started in radio as a teenager and then as an adult worked a bit in television and films.

            By the end of the day this was what I had so far toward my essay:

In “Au lecteur” Charles Baudelaire addresses the reader of his poem and charges him with a list of the darkest thought crimes. He guides him on a journey to the nether region of his self at the bottom of the poem where he is exposed as the embodiment of ennui. As a “reader” could be any literate person and as literacy is widespread the reader as what other beast has made a culture out of boredom? We descend willingly to a hell of our own making and invent the devil to pass on the blame. We indulge, we overdose, we pay a tithe and then continue on. The poet’s use of enclosed rhyme reflects our captivity. The couplet that is our dual nature is sandwiched by another rhyme of heaven and hell above and below us. The rhyme above an almost forgotten connection that tries to remind us that there is order in the chaos but there are dark patters which we must also accept. The rhyme also serves to lift the dark weight of the poem to convey that even our descent into death is a type of flight. He lightens the message with rhyme to show that beneath it all it is not as heavy as the words convey. The rhyme creates spirited buoyancy so we are not drowned in the slimy morass of our own dark selves.