When I hear the word romanticism I immediately think of one man. And no it’s not Rousseau.
This all stems from A Level English Literature, when we had the privelege of studying ‘Lyrical Ballads’ by Wordsworth and Coleridge. My friend (who will remain unamed) claimed that just like the poets whose work we were studying, he was himself a traditional‘romantic’. This made me laugh at first, but I can see where he’s coming from in a way. He is forever talking about love, enjoys living a nice chilled out life of studying the arts, holidaying in Cornwall and smoking cannabis in the summer time. He also drives an original VW Beatle!
Hilariously the Rousseau lecture enabled me to draw upon even more comparisons to my pal. Rousseau gave each of his five children up for adoption, but strangely went on to write a book on how to educate children.
This strange hypocrisy is also shared by my friend, who frequently spoke about the importance of love, and the significance of losing ones virginity… before losing his own in a seedy brothel in Amsterdam. (Possibly a tragic case of choosing aesthetic over utilitarian standards...therefore romantic in a sense maybe?!!).
In fact I have seen arguments amongst this friend and another, which resemble a modern day battle between John Locke and Rousseau!
Locke, a man who strongly believed in the ‘state of nature’, and the importance of property reminds me very much of a chap who used to throw very frequent house parties. These parties would often come to an abrupt end because of damage or disrespect to ‘his property’. This would often lead to guests like my Beatle driving mate saying things like ‘The Earth belongs to no-one man’ before passionately kissing the sister of the host. This is exactly how I’d expect a man like Rousseau to react to such Locke-like hostility!
All of the above is of course strictly comment, and therefore technically bullshit. However Rousseau did direct the following quote at Locke when he said that 'Taking men as they are and laws as they might be' was an important factor in life.
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As someone coming from the general strand of Suffolk life experienced in the Woodbridge area, it isn't hard for me to understand who both of these people you're speaking of are, and I think you've got a rather good analogous perspective going on there Mikey - I like your sense of humour here
ReplyDeleteYeah - bang on. You've got it.
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