In the inventor of the "Point of irony"
I had the privilege of meeting Mr. Alcanter of Brahm in a performance of the Work, and I immediately guessed that this should not be an ordinary man. The shape of his hat, cut and detail of her dress, ornament countless metal buttons, betrayed on his part, a keen love of the picturesque and contempt for common use which are distinguished by the aesthetes. It looked like a Mexican farmer that the vicissitudes Life would have evolved into a writer. I was therefore only half surprised to learn that the poet had invented the point of irony. His innovation seems to have been favorably received and has been, as they say, good news. The newspapers were quick to spread, but they have not sufficiently explained. It seemed that additional information was needed. And I thought that Mr. Brahm Alcanter not averse to providing the public. He put the most enjoyable eagerness to meet me and gave me without delay the appointment I sought him for his kindness.
I confess that I, at first, felt a disappointment ? The house where I received the author's point of irony, I was not as surprised as I expected. I just find it filled with unusual objects or symbols. The ones I've seen did not have these characters. A large oak desk, chairs devoid of style, chairs covered in imitation of Karaman, a coke fire in the fireplace, a few prints on the walls ... I do not I'm wrong floor and introduced inadvertently to the home of a respectable round of leather? But no ... Alcanter Mr. Brahm is before me ... He no longer countenance the romantic that I have known, nor the sumptuous coat was the admiration of Montmartre ... However, once he opens his mouth, he regains his prestige. True originality consists not in vain appearance of the decor, but in sublimity or subtlety of mind ...
I told Mr. Brahm Alcanter:
"Before me into the arcana of the Point of irony, would you, please, show me your face? "He draws
once, on a sheet of vellum, a sign which said nearly faithful reproduction:
And while running his pen, he shows me the meaning of the curves it describes. He tells me they represent the handle and the thong of a whip wielded by a strong hand. It is the weapon used by the moralist to punish human folly. I look carefully at this picture, and me being deeply penetrated:
"Now, my dear fellow, I'm listening ... "
Alcanter of Mr. Brahm has accommodated in his chair, arm on his table, his head in his hand ... He is thoughtful for a moment, his eyes vague and as lost in the infinite. Then he drops these words slowly:
"Undoubtedly the point of irony is the modern punctuation ... This gap compels most men to develop serious efforts to the perception of different forms of chleuasme, of antiphrasis, mime, charientisme of maieutics, astéisme and humor prevalent among the artists works, except to deny this feast lettrise ... "
silence follows the beginning of enlightenment. Mr. Alcanter, seeing that I do not interrupt, continues:
"That's why I took the opportunity to not like (at the time of the launch of my new book of ironies monstrance, exposed boorishness to contemporary) to give our language a necessary signal, sometimes flagellator of Stupende respectful of prejudice, sometimes suitable to put on, by applying the Socratic method, in contradiction with itself, with conclusions similar to those of the bourgeois unconscious reflector named in the opinion of everyone ... I am among those who claim that Pecus entitled to disregard our fleece indulgence ... "This speech contains
presumably meaning clear. But whether I do not ale listened carefully enough, or that my intellectual disability prevents me from discerning the nuances, I think I see some obscurity. I am ashamed to confess to Mr. Brahm Alcanter of this misunderstanding that expose me to contempt. And hide my embarrassment, I use a delaying tactic:
"Can I ask you to support one or two examples of your theories? "
Alcanter of Mr. Brahm does not misunderstands the scope of the question that I address. He resigns himself to descend to my level, and to use words easily intelligible
"When thick player eats a fine chronicle of Anatole France, a chapter of the Elm mail or Mannequin of osier , most of these delicious pieces whose intentions are imbued him escape. If the writer had taken pains to emphasize the point with irony it would make them accessible, and the worst fool successfully seize them. And if they do not taste the salt, at least his curiosity would it be awake, and he would come by a gradual introduction to rob his rudeness. "I
good mind to oppose Mr. Brahm Alacantí it is perhaps not necessary for the hydrocephalic and goitrous appreciate its value to the talent of M. Anatole France. This is not, I suppose, that their intentions graces unfold. And would not it make them more stringent than to add some sort of label and highlight them as a gesture too expresssion? The peculiarity of the mind Ironically, being winged fugitive, to touch, not to hit objects, wrapping the malice implied in the caress of a half-smile. It is a butterfly that is played among the ideas. If you tear a sharp pinprick, you kill his flight can never be enough light. And the irony of Anatole France nor that of Renan and Lemaître, was not clearly in sentences, it floats around them and is, so to speak, an atmosphere. Where does one put the famous "point"? At the beginning or end of paragraphs? At first page of a book or the last? I beg Mr. Alcanter Brahma get me out of these doubts and destroy these objections. It is not otherwise touched.
"I confess," he says, that some geniuses, rare, do not need to resort to artifice which I am advised. But it will make for outstanding services to the spirits of middle order. So I sleep on a sheet these simple words: Parliamentary system or the School of Fine Arts . These terms have by themselves no color. But as I sharpen the "point of irony, and suddenly you are attached to the sense I intend. We know, without doubt, that the School of Fine Arts and the Parliamentary system inspire equal contempt! "While Mr.
Alcanter Brahm continued his dissertation, I leafed through a volume under my hand and who happens to be by chance, his recent work, the monstrance of ironies. On the cover page listing the author's previous works with this statement: already delivered food to the pack , and those forthcoming, announced as follows: to sacrifice shortly. I see no "point" falls stew sarcastic these indications, which the Boeotian could be mistaken: and I reported this oversight ...
"It is true," he said. But I doubt that the crowd feasted on my book which is mainly designed for the elite. I described my metacritical . These are the principles of a philosophy of arts and letters ... "
courtesy - and amateurish - I asked my host to give me some light on this philosophy. He did not languish:
"The metacritical implies the intervention of Pure Reason. The most apparent parvula short pieces can attract his attention. In any work, poetry, prose, prose, painting, symphony, it succeeds in relating the contingency character universality, to reconstruct the sphere in which this work represents a tiny segment, or else it covers its two hemispheres universal symbols of the eternal dualism, the smaller sphere, represented by the work of its complete essence will be in his presence ... "
I did not insist further. I was set ...
therefore maintain our subjects drifted more modest. I knew that Mr. Brahm Alcanter was involved in some small literary circles that divide the last fifteen years of youth and are the scene of relentless war and fratricide. He started at once Revue de Paris and St. Petersburg , and since that time, the comrades who worked together side by side dispersed. Some have become almost glorious, others have disappeared into indifference, others have persevered in their dark and patient effort ... Ors, it is noteworthy that when these wrestlers emerge and win the laurel of success, all his less fortunate brothers in arms unite to diminish his victory, they oppose it, they cheapen the price, they affect assuming it is due to concessions and shameful that the artist has ceased to be an artist when material success crowned his task and was consecrated. There is, in these environments overheated by the fierce ambition of reaching the fearsome outbursts. Envy, jealousy, hatred, pride bubbling in the souls of these lads and poison their writings ... I am convinced that Mr. Brahm Alcanter is free from these hateful passions, and this puts him at ease to talk. First, it resists my investigations. He does not agree ... he can not admit that poets have the heart hard enough to tear, but are not determined by reasons other than aesthetic reasons. And he insists on this argument specious:
"There are artists who are committed to their early days by the love of art and that, if bordering on notoriety, limit the pomp of their imagination to public preferences and leveled at his whim. "
I am determined to push its limits.
"Suppose," I said, that Mr. X. .. publish a novel. This novel, good or bad, has an intrinsic value beyond its commercial value. If it does not sell, it will be warmly praised by the author's friends in their journals. And if he finds buyers and seems to please the crowd, he will be sorely harassed by the same friends and in these same journals. Which feelings do you attribute these changes? ... "A faint smile
wanders on the lips of Mr. Brahm Alcanter:
" Do not ask us, poor creatures, too great a sum of virtues! ... "
You may have noticed that Mr. Brahm Alcanter of one of a vocabulary that is special and moving away phrases which the common people and people of the world are accustomed to use. These are phrases that precious abstractions quintesence, brilliant and learned how to translate general truths and to hide under the glare of the verb, the undisputed evidence. After complimenting on its rich instrumentation, I asked him if he did not feel any fatigue to impose this constraint and to complicate his native language, so naturally sweet and mild, infusing it into the marrow of the Latin and Greek ...
"But no, I swear, this elegant natural to me. There are such cases where the speech can not remain naked, without betraying the thought which it reflects. I'll submit a short passage from my Reviews Ibsen and tell me if the sharpness is not perfect. "He opened
page 40 of Ibsen's Reviews and he read this fragment:
"Why this conclusion dealer with a requirement of femininity, summarized in these words of the consul experience taught me that it's you women who are the pillars of society , while his own wife does no sign of life since Bernick felt caving under its feet the median of its official repute. "Driven by an irresistible impulse and before I could recover my composure, Mr. Brahm Alcanter concluded:
" You judge too hastily artists whose cerebral you is unknown. Seemingly frivolous actions often have Mobile severe. You laugh to see some resort to disguises as ordinary wisdom condemns as bizarre. They escape by them to the banality room. They serve, or believe they facilitate the emergence of their dreams! And if it is an illusion, and beneficent agree it is - certainly - harmless. When I created this tie, as fashion has adopted and popularized, I thought to live for a few days in the phalanx heroic Victor Hugo. "I
means a copious tie - becomingly and elsewhere - which inflates his crop ...
"1830? "I said.
- No, he corrects, - 1833! ... "
It remains for me to take leave. Escorting me to the threshold of his home, the very distinguished metacritical me his ultimate confidence. And they are imbued with a melancholy that I'm touched:
"For six years I fight relentlessly. In 1892 I published my Songs Millionaire . In 1893, I made my first published novel, pushy, and launched into circulation this term, which would have such a handsome fortune and which I can legitimately claim authorship. I also produces philosophical essays, profiles, dialogues, poems. These attempts I have not led to great fame. And it happened to me today by the creation of Point of irony that is not, you will admit, the largest of my works! ... "I
comforted as best I could, Mr. Brahm Alcanter. But he did not need to be comforted. Whatever the focus of where they originated ... rays of glory are welcome.
Adolphe Brisson, Portraits intimate , 5th series. A. Colin, 1901.
Alcanter Brahm in Livrenblog : Alcanter Brahm Criticism . A survey on the right to criticize. 1896. Aesthetics of the French language by Alcanter of Brahm. Emile Straus Alcanter by Brahm . Alcanter Brahm at Black Cat .
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