Path: ...!news.misty.com!weretis.net!feeder9.news.weretis.net!news.quux.org!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Ross Clark Newsgroups: sci.lang Subject: =?UTF-8?Q?Re:_While_Baudelaire_did_not_invent_the_notion_of_the_fl?= =?UTF-8?B?w6JuZXVyLCAuLi4=?= Date: Thu, 9 Jan 2025 13:00:35 +1300 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 60 Message-ID: References: Reply-To: r.clark@auckland.ac.nz MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Date: Thu, 09 Jan 2025 01:00:45 +0100 (CET) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="8e1f4fc0798bba9b66ccd34d69b46084"; logging-data="3183306"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1+/8xQQThLJr8/h28yVWDqfVGxkSg8X+Sk=" User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.0; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/52.9.1 Cancel-Lock: sha1:hKS0qds78724i5LZwQQYYkSjk7w= Content-Language: en-GB In-Reply-To: Bytes: 3679 On 6/01/2025 9:04 a.m., HenHanna wrote: > i'm a huge fan of the C.Nolan film [Following] > > > flâneur -- was the notion invented by Baudelaire? > > > [Post-Baudelaire Development] > >         After Baudelaire, the concept of the flâneur continued to > evolve: > > Walter Benjamin, in the 20th century, further developed the idea in his > work "The Arcades Project," using Baudelaire's flâneur as a starting > point. > > The concept spread beyond Paris to other European cities, particularly > Berlin. > > >          In conclusion, while Baudelaire did not invent the notion of > the flâneur, his work was instrumental in shaping and popularizing the > concept as we understand it today. The flâneur's origins can be traced > back earlier, with significant development occurring during and after > the French Revolution. > > > > On Sat, 4 Jan 2025 9:17:49 +0000, occam wrote: >> >> A flâneur (FR) is apparently "... an ambivalent figure of urban >> affluence and modernity, representing the ability to wander detached >> from society" >> >> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fl%C3%A2neur >> >> Wiki:  A near-synonym of the noun is boulevardier. >> >> As there are not many boulevards in London, the synonym is not much >> help.  The other suggestions - urban male "stroller", "lounger", >> "saunterer", or "loafer" - also miss the mark somewhat. >> "Lounger" and "loafer" for me are /indoor/ terms. A "saunterer" >> describes a far more energetic activity than "stroller". >> >> Is this one of those terms (like Schadenfreude) that we have to resign >> to as eternally foreign? I first heard/read this word as a youth; the phrase "flâneurs and dilettantes" sticks in my mind to this day. I had some idea what a dilettante was -- not a good thing to be called -- so flâneur was probably similar. But I did have to look it up. Since then it has lived in a quiet suburb of my vocabulary, not getting out very often. Probably a little later I heard about Baudelaire. And then again in the 1980s some friends of mine were very excited about Walter Benjamin.... But not until today did I bother to look into its etymology. According to Dauzat, "flâner" is not terribly old (1645), and comes from Norman dialect, and thither probably from Scandinavian -- Norwegian flana 'to go here and there'. Like what the Vikings did.