I mentioned Verlaine and Rimbaud earlier today, without seeing this. Weird. Did not know it was his birthday, either. I know what I'm reading before bed now.
Lectures on Rimbaud are noticeably absent here in my tiny corner of France though I am an eager advocate... a favorite poet and album (a bonus) thank you for sharing.
There is an rock album that came out in the 90s based on Rimbaud's poems called "Sahara Blue." It is killer, featuring Dead Can Dance, Bill Laswell, John Cale, and many others.
Poor beautiful gay boy, raised by a mother who tried so hard to make him not be like his father! Just ended up imbued with ideas of Satan and hell, turning off his genius in a spasm of self-hatred. Too bad he did not have a chance to read some Whitman, and seen another path. Plus, I wonder if there are any journals or letters from all those years he spent being a businessman in the colonies. Such an odd story.
In 2012 author Elizabeth Hand released a spec. fict. novel called "Radiant Days" about Rimbaud and a 20th century, time-traveling, teenage girl from Appalachia in her first year of art school. She is a painter and he is, of course, a poet. The story is driven by their encounters, which stem from their respective arts. That and the exploration of creative expression, truncated by frustrated ambitions and poverty in both the late 19th and 20th centuries, made it one of the few books I've ever read that left me wishing it had been published decades earlier so that I could have read it for the first time as a teenager.
I named my son after Rimbaud: Vincent Rimbaud Romano Locke! Always, always, Rimbaud inspired me. Haunted me. And, I feel, embraced me.
Happy birthday, Rimbaud. You will always be young, dancing in the sun.
Well said my friend!
I mentioned Verlaine and Rimbaud earlier today, without seeing this. Weird. Did not know it was his birthday, either. I know what I'm reading before bed now.
And listening to Dylan's "You gonna make me lonesome when you go"
Lectures on Rimbaud are noticeably absent here in my tiny corner of France though I am an eager advocate... a favorite poet and album (a bonus) thank you for sharing.
I'm honored to share the same birthday with him
Awesome, happy birthday!
Thank you!
There is an rock album that came out in the 90s based on Rimbaud's poems called "Sahara Blue." It is killer, featuring Dead Can Dance, Bill Laswell, John Cale, and many others.
Poor beautiful gay boy, raised by a mother who tried so hard to make him not be like his father! Just ended up imbued with ideas of Satan and hell, turning off his genius in a spasm of self-hatred. Too bad he did not have a chance to read some Whitman, and seen another path. Plus, I wonder if there are any journals or letters from all those years he spent being a businessman in the colonies. Such an odd story.
That kind of wild, insane energy predates Kerouac by 100 years. The Victorians must have been terrified by him.
I know how he feels / either tomorrow and/ or/
frigate now...
thank you for this attention to Arthur Rimbaud
In 2012 author Elizabeth Hand released a spec. fict. novel called "Radiant Days" about Rimbaud and a 20th century, time-traveling, teenage girl from Appalachia in her first year of art school. She is a painter and he is, of course, a poet. The story is driven by their encounters, which stem from their respective arts. That and the exploration of creative expression, truncated by frustrated ambitions and poverty in both the late 19th and 20th centuries, made it one of the few books I've ever read that left me wishing it had been published decades earlier so that I could have read it for the first time as a teenager.
Where did he go!
Africa.
ahhh yes the tiny little country of Africa
Looking for a worthwhile biography of Rimbaud for a friends birthday. Any suggestions?
Rimbaud: A Biography by Graham Robb. It's well written and highly researched. I read it a few years ago and it still sits at my desk close by.
Thanks very much.
It’s not a day
When I’m not myself
But this day I’m more
I only think of one thing
The window that frees me
Of my eternal life
Imagined limit
By the Arthur Rimbaud