Course title: City as a Cultural Text10/12/2007

Essay:

Compare and contrast Simmel’s concept of the “stranger” with

Baudelaire’s idea of the flaneur.

Mixing Fl âneur with Stranger

There are many ways to read the city, one of the ways as suggested by Charles

Baudelaire is by being a flaneur, another can be from a sociological perspective,

demonstrated by George Simmel. Both influential scholars in the nineteenth century,

developed their own articulation towards the city, the former artistic, the latter

sociological. In this essay, I would like to discuss the ideas of “flaneur” with reference

to Baudelaire, as well as the concept of the “stranger”, introduced by Simmel. First, I

will briefly explain and define the two concepts, then I will compare and contrast the

two concepts; then I would like to apply the two ideas in the contemporary context,

i.e. the use of Facebook and discuss whether facebookers are contemporary flaneurs

of our city and if yes, how strangers play a role in “flaneuring” our city.

The flaneur, a term understood in the French language as “stroller, idle, walker”. In

the nineteenth century, flaneur is a well-dressed man strolling in the arcades of Paris,

with no intention of purchasing, an intellectual parasite of arcades.1 Baudelaire as one

of the flaneur, observes and strolls in the Parisian streets, he treats any visible things

as a text and articulates his eroticism towards the city via the form of art and

aestheticism. The infamous “Les Fleurs du mal” is an example of Baudelaire being a

flaneur of Paris, responding to the city through the elevation of poetries and short

prose.

While flaneur is associated with artistic connotation, the concept of “stranger” is

much more sociological, due to the fact that Simmel is a German sociologist and thus

focuses more on the social interaction among individuals and the society. Simmel

defines the stranger as, " the man who comes today and stays tomorrow - the potential

wanderer, so to speak, who, although he has gone no further, has not quite got over

the freedom of coming and going.  He is fixed within a certain spatial circle ... but his

position within it is fundamentally affected by the fact that he does not belong in it

initially and that he brings qualities into it that are not, and cannot be, indigenous to

it." (143) In other words, stranger is not common notion of stranger as a tourist, who

come and go, as someone that we do not know, but as someone who we come into

contact with, and will probably stay in our interaction circle, but is not bound up by

1 Crickenberger. H.M. “The Flaneur”. The Arcades Project Project. 2007. <http://www.thelemming.com/lemming/dissertation-web/home/flaneur.html>

the established ties of kinship, occupation, or any particular constituents and partisan

dispositions of group.

Furthermore, the stranger has a paradoxical relationship with us, i.e. both close and

remote in terms of distance within relations (Simmel, 143). For example the security

guard/watcher of our residence, he is close to us as we go in-and-out every day, yet he

is also remote as we do not really know him except he is our residential security

guard/watcher, because he is only partially in our social circle. As stranger is not

bound by roots to the group, he can confront with an “objective attitude” and this

objectivity is what is similar to flaneur.

As explained above, flaneur strolls and observes and treats everything as a text.

During the process of observation, it is necessary for one to use objectivity, just as a

flaneur playing detective. As Benjamin cited from Baudelaire, “an observer is a prince

who is everywhere in possession of his incognito.” To be an objective observer, even

a prince has to be incognito or anonymous and this is what Baudelaire enjoys when

strolling in the arcades of Paris. Indeed, Benjamin goes further to suggest in his

“Some Motifs in Baudelaire” that a flaneur is a detached observer seeking objective

penetration of the urban text from an elevated position (107- 154). One can see that

Benjamin tries to convey that when Baudelaire strolls, he detaches or aliens himself

from the crowd and observes from the side. To Baudelaire, even human being, namely

the crowd is the object of observation. One can see this objectification in one of his

famous poems from his collection “Les Fleurs du mal”. In it, there is a sonnet entitled

“A une passante”. In this poem, Baudelaire assumes the position of a flaneur himself,

addressing the poem to a passer-by, an anonymous stranger, as his “text” of

observation. His gaze to this passer-by, a woman, turns something living into a

glimpse, like a snapshot, with great details, such as “Tall, slender” and “Graceful,

noble, with a statue’s form”, as if he is deciphering hieroglyphic words. Such

objectivity in observing from a detached position is comparable to that of the

objective attitude in stranger.

Likewise, Simmel suggested the stranger ‘s objectivity is “by no means non-

participation…rather a positive and definite kind of participation” (145) which

“signifies the full activity of a mind working according to its own laws, under

conditions that exclude accidental distortions, emphases whose individual and

subjective differences would produce quite different pictures of the same

object.”(146) he implies this objective attitude of stranger is not non-participation, but

rather participation without any prejudice in perception, like “from a bird’s-eye-

view”, using a more general and more objective view to asses, and that his actions are

free from custom, piety or precedent. (146)

Another similarity between the two is that the street is the embodiment of objectivity.

The street is where commodity culture takes place, where human interacts and thus

where objectivity is embodied. The multiplicity of economic activities, which brings

along the crowd, all these objective elements inspired the flaneur and in returns he

articulate his eroticism towards the city. As Benjamin comments, “the street becomes

a dwelling for the flâneur” (37), the street is where flaneur gets inspirations and ideas.

At Baudelaire’s time, the Boulevard of Paris was phantasmagoria, it had undergone an

architectural change, this change involved the creation of arcades, which were

passageways through neighborhoods, covered with glass roof and marble panels, like

an interior-exterior vending place. This market place which economic activities took

place was therefore a “flaneur space” for Baudelaire.

To Simmel, the street is where economic activity takes place and so where stranger

like trader made his appearance. Not only by the fact that stranger, like vendors, are

not bounded by roots of group, and so having an objectivity, but also the city grows in

size and population where the division of labor and money economy is expanded to

the greatest that everything in the metropolis is rationalized into calculation,

precision, thus objective attitude towards others.2 As the streets are where money

economy and commodity activity take place under the interaction among strangers,

therefore it is where objectivity is embodied.

Nevertheless, when talking about the existence of flaneur, one should note that as a

whole or as in macroscopic view the act of flaneur is actually a subjective response to

the city. Although it is mentioned that flaneur objectifies the subject of observation,

treating everything, including human as a text, In “Metropolis and Mental life” the

interpersonal relationship among inhabitants in city caused by money economy results

in alienation, distant and objective attitude towards each others (338), also division of

labor reduces everyone to be the same. To protest this fleeting speed brought by the

industrial revolution and to leave a lasting impression, to stand out from the crowd,

some developed defense mechanism to protect themselves from the speed and the

“atrophy of subjectivity”3, one example would be to be eccentric, such as the

flamboyant Dandies.4

As a matter of fact, Benjamin reveals that the “leisurely appearance as a personality is

his protest against the division of labour which makes people into specialists.” and

that “the flâneurs liked to have the turtles set the pace for them.” this suggested that

2 Simmel mentioned in “Metropolis and Mental life” that relationship among people in city caused by money economy results in alienation, distant and objective attitude towards each others, contrasting to the people from small towns. (338)

3 Atrophy of objectivity - Shrinking of subjectivity and individuality against the augmentation of objective forces of the society brought by the speediness and money economy in the metropolis.

4 Dandies Highly self-aware, and to a certain degree flamboyant and theatrical, dandies of the mid-nineteenth century created scenes through outrageous acts like walking turtles on leashes down the streets of Paris.

this active participation of turtle walking as well as the leisure strolling in a slow pace

in the street” is not only a protest against the city’s pace and industriousness, but also

an act out of defense mechanism so as to avoid the “atrophy of individual” and the

“hypertrophy of objectivity” (Simmel 338).

In order to avoid of “atrophy of individuality”, Baudelaire asserts his subjectivity in

his work, such as in “Les Fleurs du Mal”. In Baudelaire’s “A une passante”, he

conveys the idea that in a speedy city, lasting impression matters and by writing this,

while as a flaneur, a slow stroller, is a kind of protest against the speediness of the city

he articulates at the same time, his love towards the city. In this poem Baudelaire, as a

flaneur addresses to a passer-by, a widow, as judged from her “deep mourning” and

“gown”.

In a large city as Paris, it is difficult and almost impossible to encounter a person more

than once; thus each street encounter is precious. The beauty of this passing stranger

throwing a "swift glance," to Baudelaire, underpins an ephemeral element that pulls

the observer closer to death, thus “suddenly reborn”. The woman, as part of the

crowd, an element of the city, reflects Baudelaire’s passion and love (eroticism)

towards Paris. His eroticism towards this woman and thus the city, is further evident

by the line “And I drank, trembling as a madman thrills, from her eyes, ashen sky

where brooded storm, the softness that fascinates, the pleasure that kills.” Baudelaire

loves the woman as much as he loves the city, as Baudelaire drinks her blood as a

vampire and so she became part of his source of inspiration and creative process, one

finds the parallel of finding inspiration by acting as a flaneur, strolling slowly to get

inspiration from the city and then articulate his eroticism, like writing this poem as a

response to the city.

The fleeting speediness is also revealed in the poem, as Benjamin said in “The

Flaneur”, “The delight of the city-dweller is not so much love at first sight as love at

last sight”. (45) In the last paragraph, the first line “Somewhere, far off! Too late!

never, perchance!” expresses Baudelaire’s feeling towards the speediness of the city,

the love at last sight suggested by the deliberate italic word “never” further highlights

the beautiful side of this speediness, i.e. love at last sight. To sum up the above,

Baudelaire’s act of flaneur and his articulations via his artistic poetries are responses

to the city, and this response is a protest or an act against the “atrophy of individual”.

Unlike flaneur, the existence of strangers is entirely different. Strangers in the streets

are not there to respond to the city by means of artistic elevation or articulation,

neither are they there to project subjectivity. Strangers exist simply because they are

intrinsic elements in social interaction. According to Simmel the introduction of a

stranger is bound by a commonality, for example traders who provide the group goods

they do not have and those goods become the commonality that bounds up the

stranger and the group.

If we apply “stranger” and “flaneur”, these two seemingly different concepts in

contemporary context, Facebook, for example, provides an insight of how strangers

appear in our life and how we as strolling observer attempts to find meaning in the

crowd of strangers in portraying and participating in our city. The Facebook is a

platform on the Internet which allows user to connect with “others who work, study

and live around them. People use Facebook to keep up with friends, upload an

unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people

they meet.”5 Facebook is thus a social interaction tools that connect people by their

commonalities. To a large extent, many users of Facebook are strangers in Simmel’s

definition as many of them are linked up by mere general similarities as cited from

Simmel’s chapter on stranger in “Social Types”, “The commonality provides a basis

for unifying the members…but it does not specifically direct these particular persons

to one another” (147) it is so true that Facebook links up friends, even intimate

couples together based on commonality, for example user A maybe linked up to user

B under the same commonality entitled “College”. However, the broader these

similarities or commonalities extend, the more remote among the users, because these

5 “About facebook”. facebook. 2007. <http://www.facebook.com/about.php>

general similarities are so universal that it only adds coolness to the relationship,

bringing what Simmel calls a “centripetal character” (147) among strangers, such as

there may be only a lot more people connected under the network of “Hong Kong”

than under the network of “University of Hong Kong”.

At the same time, if we treat the Facebook as one the streets on the Internet, and by

means of “strolling” the daily “News Feed” section and observing the “strangers”

(acquaintance, friends and intimate partners alike) via applications like “wall”,

“super-wall” and any blog-like applications, we are actually doing an active

participation on studying the “text” of our city. When responding to the comments of

the “strangers” and in creating our own comments of our daily life in the ever

changing city, we are actually portraying the city in a creative, thus artistic way.

Though, it lacks Baudelaire’s idea of nostalgic elements, and it is not exactly the idea

of “slow strolling” through the real street, Facebook, to a certain extent, in my

opinion, can be viewed as a contemporary way of “flaneuring”, interestingly with the

involvement “stranger”.

To conclude, there are certain similarities and differences between the two concepts,

i.e. “flaneur” and “stranger”. Both are similar because they both include the elements

of objectivity, yet they are different in terms of their existence, namely the cause of

existence of flaneur is a response to city, to maintain one’s subjectivity, whereas

stranger arises due to commonality. Lastly, from my perspective, Facebook is where

one gets united with strangers by commonalities, and by observing them as a text like

a flaneur does, one gets to be the contemporary flaneur to some extent.

Bibliography

Books

Benjamin, Walter. The Arcades Project . Trans. Howard Eiland and Kevin . McLaughlin.

Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999.

----. Charles Baudelaire: A Lyric Poet in the Era of High Capitalism. Trans. Harry

Zohn. London: Verso, 1969.

Simmel, Georg. “The Metropolis and Mental Life”. On Individuality and Social Forms : Selected

Writings. Ed. Donald N. Levine. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971. 324-329.

---. “The Stranger”. On Individuality and Social Forms: Selecte Writings. Ed. Donald N. Levine.

Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971, 143-149.

Baudelaire, Charles. The Flowers of Evil. Eds. Marthiel and Jackson Mathews. New York: New

Directions, 1989.

Websites

Crickenberger. H.M. The Arcades Project Project. 2007. University of South California. 27 June

2007 < http://www.thelemming.com/lemming/dissertation-web/home/arcades.html>

“Flaneur.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 3 Dec 2007.

<http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/09/>

“Notes on Simmel: ‘The Problem of Sociology’ and ‘The Stranger’.” Sociology Theory

Homepage. 6 Oct 1998. < http://www.unc.edu/~lpalmer/notes/june10.html>