Comments on: Morgan Friedman, turning flaneurs into planners http://cultureby.com/2008/09/morgan-friedman.html This Blog Sits At the Intersection of Anthropology and Economics Wed, 23 May 2012 20:32:12 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Robert Sawyer http://cultureby.com/2008/09/morgan-friedman.html/comment-page-1#comment-1288 Robert Sawyer Thu, 18 Sep 2008 12:04:51 +0000 http://localhost/wp_culture/?p=203#comment-1288 Interesting and enjoyable but apropos of Flâneur from Baudelaire it's important to keep in mind that the definition or characteristics of the Flâneur has never been static. Benjamin himself takes the "concept" from the Dandy, to the Flâneur, to the Journalist, to the Rag picker and finally the Sandwich man. As for engagement, this practice would have been an abomination to the original Flâneur, who kept an "aristocratic or aesthetic distance from the object he, originally only he, observed. Observation is a wonderful thing and engagement is a wonderful thing. The problem, I believe for Benjamin and other is that when the Flâneur takes his/her observations to the marketplace and turns them into a commodity for sale. The implication is that the marketplace will then determines the value of this or that observation, encouraging greater production of and competition to acquire for a "type" of observation. The Flâneur, a product of the 19th Century Parisian Arcades and Boulevards and finally, department stores, can be reimagined, I imagine on freeways and even on the web—bouncing from blog to blog. The danger to consider here at least to my mind is not the poseur and his or her self-regard, who is basically harmless, but the ignorant observer who confuses his or her understanding of the object, with the object itself and then project his or her limited or confused or simply wrong interpretations out into the world. As for the list it is nice, but in offering a guide for Flaneurie, Mr. Friedman merely provides another kind of consumerism, which is, at its heart, the enemy of true Flaneurie, which is enriched by spontaneity and accident and discovery of the incidental, etc. In closing, where did you find that lovely quote of Sontag: "landscape of voluptuous extremes." Interesting and enjoyable but apropos of Flâneur from Baudelaire it’s important to keep in mind that the definition or characteristics of the Flâneur has never been static. Benjamin himself takes the “concept” from the Dandy, to the Flâneur, to the Journalist, to the Rag picker and finally the Sandwich man. As for engagement, this practice would have been an abomination to the original Flâneur, who kept an “aristocratic or aesthetic distance from the object he, originally only he, observed.
Observation is a wonderful thing and engagement is a wonderful thing. The problem, I believe for Benjamin and other is that when the Flâneur takes his/her observations to the marketplace and turns them into a commodity for sale. The implication is that the marketplace will then determines the value of this or that observation, encouraging greater production of and competition to acquire for a “type” of observation. The Flâneur, a product of the 19th Century Parisian Arcades and Boulevards and finally, department stores, can be reimagined, I imagine on freeways and even on the web—bouncing from blog to blog. The danger to consider here at least to my mind is not the poseur and his or her self-regard, who is basically harmless, but the ignorant observer who confuses his or her understanding of the object, with the object itself and then project his or her limited or confused or simply wrong interpretations out into the world.

As for the list it is nice, but in offering a guide for Flaneurie, Mr. Friedman merely provides another kind of consumerism, which is, at its heart, the enemy of true Flaneurie, which is enriched by spontaneity and accident and discovery of the incidental, etc.

In closing, where did you find that lovely quote of Sontag: “landscape of voluptuous extremes.”

]]> By: Eamon http://cultureby.com/2008/09/morgan-friedman.html/comment-page-1#comment-1287 Eamon Thu, 18 Sep 2008 10:55:51 +0000 http://localhost/wp_culture/?p=203#comment-1287 Hi. Just to let you know that added 3 of your blog posts to spotlightideas.co.uk Top 250 Blog Posts - Advertising, Marketing, Media & PR. - Branding brilliance from Apple. - How social networks work - Blogging: what's if for? Hi.
Just to let you know that added 3 of your blog posts to spotlightideas.co.uk Top 250 Blog Posts – Advertising, Marketing, Media & PR.
- Branding brilliance from Apple.
- How social networks work
- Blogging: what’s if for?

]]> By: Darren http://cultureby.com/2008/09/morgan-friedman.html/comment-page-1#comment-1286 Darren Wed, 17 Sep 2008 23:13:52 +0000 http://localhost/wp_culture/?p=203#comment-1286 For further reading, I quite enjoyed Edmund White's "The Flaneur". For further reading, I quite enjoyed Edmund White’s “The Flaneur”.

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