Who were Jims favorite authors, poets, etc. If Jim could only have 5 books what do you think he would choose.

rimbaud's poetry, william blake's the doors of perception, the marriage between heaven and hell and oscar wilde (poetry). He was also influenced by dionysus the greek god of wine. In ray's book light my fire he gives some titles as well but these are just some of the poets and books I can think of at the top of my head. Hope this helps a bit.

I don't know that Jim was that keen on Oscar Wilde. He moved out of a hotel in Paris - I think that was it - because Wilde had lived there. I personally love Oscar Wilde, though.

The Doors of Perception was a book by Aldous Huxley, btw. 1954. The title came from a Blake poem, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, written in the 1790's. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Marriage_of_Heaven_and_Hell. Huxley also published an essay called Heaven and Hell, in 1956. http://www.butler-bowdon.com/the-doors-of-perception.html. Doors of Perception was a recounting of a mescaline experience Huxley had at that time.

thankyou for that, the author slipped my mind as for oscar wilde was he an alcoholic as well and the marriage of heaven and hell would be an interessting red, did not know it was so old, only a couple of years after the first fllet came to australia and became the settlement we know of today. Interesting.

Among the things he had with him in a knap sack when I knew him, Jim carried On The Road, a history of cinema, a dictionary, a couple of magazines (Time and a small magazine on film), some peotry by Bukowski, and a copy of his own poetry, the tiny book. He asked me to dig out the dictionary, which was at the bottom of the knap sack.

That's interesting Jim carried around a copy of On The Road he must have liked it enough or it was important in his thinking to carry it around.

He said it was something that spoke to his feelings about life at that pre sentencing period. Another book he had was something by Carlos Castaneda, but I don't remember which one.

This is an interesting little anecdote regarding his Paris trip with Jim from Leon Barnard in a short interview he did with my mate Jochen for my old fanzine. Maybe Jim just liked books and maybe he was into pulp fiction as well as high brow stuff.
We dunno cos Leon never looked. It would have been rude
"He bought a handful of books at the airport in L.A. (about five) and carried them in a paper bag...which was the only baggage he had with him; no suitcases, or small bags, no nothing, other than a handful of paperback books. What were they? I do not know. I didn't look in the bag to find out."
Leon interview with Jochen.

Good interview Alex! Thanks for the link.

The Castaneda book was probably the new one - at least for 1971 - A Separate Reality. The first one came out in 1968.

It has always seemed to me that Jim was the embodiment of the character Dean Moriarity from On The Road "the sideburned hero of the snowy west" & based on the real person of Neal Cassady. I wonder if Jim ever met Neal? That would have been an interesting meeting. Cassady was hanging around up in San Francisco with The Dead & the merry pranksters, & Ken Kesey.

The Jim that Leon talks about is the same Jim I knew. I always like to read these interviews with those who knew him well. Wonder what books be bought? Must have been popular reading if they were in paperback and available at LAX. Deliverance was a big book in 1970.

Here's a list - what do you think?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970_in_literature

I have no idea what books Jim would've bought, but I do suspect that "Are you There God, It's Me Margaret".. probably wasn't one of them

I would think not! LOL! But maybe Alvin Toffler, Dee Brown's Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee (that was a big book that year), perhaps Janov's book on Primal therapy, Leon Uris, etc. Likely not Jonathan Livingstone Seagull.

Jonathon Livingston Seagull was cool!

Jim did read Alvin Toffler's Future Shock as well as James Dickey's Deliverance. They were two of the many books we discussed.

BTW, I don't want anyone, including Alex, to think I was rude and snooped in Jim's bag. Jim asked me to dig out the dictionary.

Very cool Salli, Thank you

penthouse!
kidding folks

I don't have a clue as which 5 books Jim would choose but his high school friends said Jim had thousands of books in his room.

I borrowed a copy of "The Lizard King Was Here - The Life & Times of Jim Morrison in Alexandria, Virginia"
by Mark Opsasnick. I really enjoyed reading this book and I have to say it was insightful as it answered alot of questions.
Check This Out:

Page 157

Jim Merrill

“He had tons of books over there in his basement room and I’d go over there and look at them and I didn’t have a clue as to what most of that stuff meant. Morrison devoured that stuff when he was a teenager and he was in another world and you have to wonder how that affected him. The whole point is that he was so far advanced in terms of literature he took in and he really seemed to become what he read sometimes.”

Nietzsche:

“The Birth Of Tragedy” (1872) – The primary theme of which was the recognition of the interplay between two primary artistic impulses, the Apollonian and the Dionysiac, in what he considered to be the highest form of art, Greek tragedy. Nietzsche in contrasting the two elements, explained Apollonian thought as emphasizing discreet limitation, self control and freedom from all extravagant urges, while the Dionysiac state emphasized physical intoxication and celebrated the eternal desire of existence. Nietzsche’s conclusion was that European culture had been heavily dominated by Apollonian thought since the time of Socrates and had suffered as a result. As a solution he encouraged a fill release of Dionysian thought and activity that emphasized artistic creativity, a celebration of human existence and a search for truth.

In “Beyond Good and Evil” (1886) & “On The Genealogy Of Morals” (1887), Nietzsche divided up his loosely connected philosophical rants into 9 chapters dealing with a number of topics including the religious nature, morals, virtues, and nobility of man. His basic blueprint included the pronouncement of a new kind of philosopher that would emerge in the future, a free spirit compelled to find the greatness of man and determined with overcoming conventional morality through a life promoting system of thought based on the individual’s will to power and profound faith in opposite values.

“The philosopher will betray something of his own ideal when he posits: He shall be greatest who can be loneliest, the most concealed, the most deviant, the human being beyond good and evil, the master of his virtues, he that is over rich in will.” And “Whatever is profound loves masks…Might not nothing less than the opposite be the proper disguise for the shame of a god?” “All credibility, all good conscience, all evidence of truth come only from the senses” “Poets treat their experiences shamelessly; they exploit them.” “Measure is alien to us…our thrill is the thrill of the infinite, the unmeasured” “We reach our bliss only when we are most – in danger.”

“On The Genealogy Of Morals” was Nietzsche’s critique of all the moral values and was divided into three separate essays that questioned the very intrinsic worth of such ideas: “Good and Evil, Good and Bad;” “Guilt Bad Conscience and Related Matters,” and “What Do Ascetic Ideals Mean?” His first essay delved into how the terms “good” and “bad” acquired their meaning, the second put forth the basic notion that “guilt” and “bad conscience” were created as natural inclination by man out of a need for self torture, and the third essay stated that ascetic ideals function as a way for man to give meaning to his will, even if it represents a will to nothingness.

“Man would sooner have the void for his purpose than be void of purpose.”

Rimbaud: Letter From The Seer #2 (written to Paul Demeny on May 15 1871)
“The poet makes himself a seer by a long, gigantic and rational derangement of all the senses.”

Page 164

Many Doors fans have cited this philosophical proclamation as Morrisons’ inspiration for a life of intoxication after his rock star persona had been cemented. Morrison was also no doubt enamored with Rimbaud’s romantic life adventures which courted the unknown.

James Joyce - Ulysses (1922)

Chronicled events of three main characters on a single day, June 16 1904. Many intellectuals hailed it as the greatest book of the 20th century. Many other claimed it was indecipherable. One character, Stephen Dedalus, a young, self loathing intellectual who disliked everyone and everything around him, argued incessantly about art and literature, and ended up on a drunken bridge in a brothel.

Dubliners 1907
A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man 1916
Exiles 1918
Finnegan’s Wake 1939

Franza Kafka – “Kafka’s Diary” 1910-1923

Voluminous entries by the author on his friends, associates, and fellow writers, along with details on his various observations, dreams and personal conflicts, and anxieties. Kafka was born in Prague and throughout his life was torn between feelings of love and resentment for his parents. He also cited for his belief that sex was repulsive, an odd situation and a devotee of one night stands. Best of all Kafka’s peculiar feelings towards his own creations, as he wanted all of his life’s writings burned upon his death ( a request that was ignored.)

Albert Camus – Novelist 1913-1960

He relocated to Paris France during WWII. He worked for COMBAT ( a resistance network concerned with intelligence and sabotage), editing the organizations newspaper and formulating his own person philosophy. Camus’ work featured his recurring doctrine of the absurd – a belief that life is meaningless because of the inevitability of death and that it is impossible for man to make rational sense of his own existence.

Camus Works In Morrison’ bookcase:

The Stranger 1942
The Plague 1947
The Fall 1956 (which one a Nobel prize of literature in 1957 as an influential work on human rights)

Page 166

Plutarch of Chaeronea (Greek Historian) - The Lives Of Nobel Grecians A.D. 100

James T. Farrell – Stud’s Lonigan Triogoly
1. Young Lonigan 1932
2. The Young Manhood Of Studs Lonigan 1934
3. Judgment Day 1935

Norman O. Brown – Life Against Death 1959
Provided a history of the human race based on Freudian concepts.

Colin Wilson – The Outsider 1956

A work that advanced the notion that the well being of society can be evaluated by how it treats it’s outcasts.

French Poets, Essayists and Novelists

Antonin Artaud
Charles Baudelaire
Honore de Balzac
Louis Ferdinard Celine
Jean Cocteau
Jean Baptiste Moliere
Jean Genet
Jean Paul Sarte

Brendan Behan (Irish Playwright and Novelist)
William Blake (British Poet/Artist)
Aldous Huxley (British Writer)

American Poets

T.S. Eliot
Kenneth Patchen
Kenneth Rexroth

Jack Kerouac
1. The Town and The City 1950
2. On The Road 1957
3. Dharma Bums 1958
4. The Subterraneans 1958
5. Doctor Sax 1959

Kerouac’s “The Town & The City”

The real significance of The Town & The City for Jim Morrison fans was the stunning character portrayal of Francis Martin, who was the second son of the family and was introduced as being fifteen as the story began in 1935. A careful reading of Kerouac’s descriptions of Francis through out the entire work revealed what must be considered a possible blueprint for the personality and life interests of Jim Morrison himself, as the similarities between the two were downright eerie! As the story opened Francis was described as having a sullen and sour manner in high school – he preferred keeping to himself and spent most of his time reading and staring out his bedroom window. Although dour, gloomy, and aloof he displayed brilliance in his schoolwork, was curiously respected by his peers and family members, and was well aware of the power of his own secretiveness. His own mother described him as a “strange boy” and explained to family members that he was his own boss and that his siblings just didn’t understand him. As he worked his way through school, he displayed poetic tendencies and an air of discontent ness, and embarked on solitary walks at midnight. He spent time at the local library reading biographies and French novels and believed he was the only person in town to understand the meaning of life and death. As he left for Harvard he counted among his favorite writers Franz Kafka, James Joyce, and Aldous Huxley. In one of the book’s more striking passages, Francis returned to his house in Galloway and reflected back on his life, remembering himself as a child given to long solitudes during which time he imagined himself as several different entities including a hero, a warrior and a god. In the books final stages, Francis cut off communication with his parents, gravitated towards Greenwich Village (where he explored the neighborhoods bookstores), championed Balzac and Nietzsche, and in the end relocated to Paris, France.’

The notion of Francis Martin, as presented in the pages of Kerouacs’ first novel, served as a model for Jim Morrison’s existence can be presented with great believability. Morrison undoubtly was absorbing every literary morsel the Beat Generation artists offered and may have consciously or unconsciously adopted the mannerisms, behavior, and attitudes of his favorite fictional characters.

Corso – Gasoline 1958

William Burroughs – The Naked Lunch 1959

John Clellon – “Go” 1952

He also read Mad magazine, as I recall!

I wonder if Jim ever read anything that wasn't 'heavy.' It seems that his biographers always want to emphasize the weighty intellectual stuff that Jim consumed, but very seldom, if ever, talk about what he read for amusement. Biographies? Mysteries? Novels?

Is Mark Opsasnick's book still commercially available? I know he claims that he had an odd encounter after Jim passed on.

I think I read in some biography or another that Jim supposedly modeled his own personality after Dean Moriarty's character from On the Road.

I've said that a few times in various posts over the years. Maybe Morrison not so much modeled himself after Francis Martin as saw his reflection in the characterization.

Morrison may have taken pieces from other people's lives and made a collage to create himself,ON THE ROAD for instance but let's not forget his famous pouting pose comes directly from James Dean. Also once you incorporate other ideas and personalities into your own they essentially become yours,this is the foundation to education,child rearing and self actualization.TS

this is a weird question for anyone--erm not Jim to answer, but ill bite.

1. on the raod, kerouac
2. the town and the city, kerouac again
3. the birth of tragedy, nietzsche
4. the theater and its double, artaud
5. bukowski anything


i hate how doors fans only talk about nietzsche nietzsche nietzsche, i read somewhere that jim was greatly influenced by antonin artuad (makes sense, theater classes at FSU, film at UCLA right?) and if you look at his stage persona it is, well, obvious.

Jim was so much more widely-read than just Kerouac, Nietzsche, etc. He came from a generation that didn't have a lot of television, radio wasn't too wonderful either. The big escape was books and the movies - books, you could get them for free from the library, just for starters. Movies - you could sneak into them through the back door. One friend paid and the rest waited in the alleyway.

Good catch on Artaud, who also influenced the work of the Living Theater - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_of_Cruelty.

Jim greatly admired Brecht also - at least so I was told by Peggy Green, when I mentioned to her that the documentary was airing in Berlin. She felt Jim would approve, because. as she said,"Brecht."

Quotes here - http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/...olt_brecht.html

Still timely: "“Unhappy the land that is in need of heroes.”
"Everyone needs help from everyone.”
“Whenever there are great virtues, it's a sure sign something's wrong.”
"Why be a man when you can be a success?”
"What is the robbing of a bank compared to the FOUNDING of a bank?'”

And his most famous work, written with Kurt Weil, immortalized by Bobby Darin. Mack The Knife.

"Oh, the shark has pretty teeth, dear
And he shows them pearly white
Just a jack-knife has Macheath, dear
And he keeps it out of sight

When the shark bites with his teeth, dear
Scarlet billows start to spread
Fancy gloves though wears Macheath, dear
So there's never a trace of red

On the sidewalk, Sunday morning
Lies a body oozing life
Someone's sneaking 'round the corner
Is that someone Mack the Knife?

From a tugboat by the river
A cement bag's dropping down
The cement's just for the weight, dear
Bet you Mackies's back in town

Louis Miller disappeared, dear
After drawing out his hard-earned cash
And Macheath spends like a sailor
Did our boy do something rash?

Sukey Tawdry, Jenny Diver
Lotte Lenya, Miss Lucy Brown
The line forms on the right, dear
Now that Mackie's back in town."

Here ya go http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Qrjtr_uFac

Would Rimbaud's A season in hell have been thrown into that mix? I find some of Jim's poetry (just some stanzas) seem to be a direct response or allusion to pieces of Une Saison En Enfer...it would make sense in some ways, if that was the main piece from Rimbaud that caught his eye...seeing as Rimbaud wrote it before denouncing poetry altogether at the ripe age of 21.

you're right. jim most def. would of had a copy of rimbaud, infact he said so. im not sure if you've heard of this book http://www.amazon.com/Rimbaud-Jim-Morrison...t/dp/0822314452 but its pretty interesting. jim wrote fowlie a letter thanking him for his wonderful translation of rimbauds work saying he had trouble reading french and that fowlies book traveled around with him





you're right, if jim had been borna few years later he would have been part of the first "TV generation" television is def. a theme in his work tho, it seems to be something he regards w/ extreme caution

i dont know much about the living theater, virtually nothing except the miami connection. it makes sense that they'd have some influence from artaud tho.

i think mack the knife is from threepenny opera, along w/ whiskey bar. i have it on record and its fun to listen to every now and then.

haha i have a bit of a rimbaud obsession (i even have tattoos based on some of his poetry)...so i've read that book. i was just curious if a season in hell was his favorite or not out of all of rimbaud's books..as there are several.
fowlie's translation is actually one of the best i've read as a french/english speaker...its quite a beautiful edition with french on one side and english on the other...it even has some of rimbaud's letters to his teachers and friends where he discusses his theories on disordering the senses (although he later denounced these theories.)

hm thats interesting, what have you got tattooed?

i have no idea which book morrison would have preferred from what i can recall biographers (riodan & Prochnicky ithink) seem to mention a season in hell, idk if thats because they researched it or simply because it was rimbauds best known work.

the trnslation i have is wyatt mason, it has both french and english too as well a mini bio and a couple of pictures and drawings. whats most interesting (to me) is it had a couple maps of rimbauds "youthful" and "adult" terrain, where exactly he traveled and in what year/month. i think it would be cool to see some of his letters though, i cant remember ever reading any of those

oh his letters are really quite cool! they even have feminist statements in a few...i'll dig some up. he was such a profound thinker for one so young.
what makes rimbaud even more interesting is that the illuminations he actually wrote in english himself, he was really gifted with linguistics and was even able to pick up the koran and translate it when he was living in absynnia, or what is known today as ethiopia...

my first tattoo was a direct stanza from a season in hell..i write about them on my blog...i have a lot of tattoos..that i designed myself...
but anyways, yea the link is on my profile, i don't know if posting my own links on the forum is permitted or not.

i read one biography about jim that really infuriated me because they got a bunch of facts about rimbaud's life wrong when discussing his influence on jim....and seeing the author get so many facts about such a famous poet incorrect (simple facts too, like age he died and where etc) that i found i couldn't take the rest of the biography seriously....especially since the author made some pretty bold claims about jim's life...
i'll see if i can find that biography in a bit...

alrighty ill take a look at your blog then. i dont want to speak for jim/diane but i dont think anyone would mind you posting links to your blog as long as you aren't spamming

it would be nice if you posted a couple of the letters. i wasn't aware that he wrote illuminations in english, i really like that one. probably my favorite.

id be interested to know which Morrison bio you're talking about ive made a guess and i want to know if im right lol

Yes, I actually have a translation question for Mika,

This verse gets very warped through the various translations, can you please tell me a good translation for this?


In French,



Le loup criait sous les feuilles
En crachant les belles plumes
De son repas de volailles:
Comme lui je me consume.



A.S. Kline's English translation:


The fox howled in the leaves
Spitting out bright plumes
From his poultry feast:
Like him I self-consume.



A translation from Google which is not as good, I shouldn't think:


The wolf cried under the sheets
In the beautiful spitting feathers
His meals in poultry:
As I consume him.



I was just reading Une Saison en Efer again, and while I found it great inspiration to write, I was not as enthralled with the person of Rimbaud as was Mika. I found the story of him and his mentor/lover, very sad, but I am not as drawn to him. For these reasons, why did he turn Verlaine over to the police? He still loved him, that was so very sad; while I was angry at Verlaine for stabbing Rimbaud, I was more angry at Rimbaud for turning Verlaine in, for this reason, the whole of France found out about their affair in this way. I can't help but wonder what was the true story, and why Verlaine stabbed him? Was Rimbaud trying to blackmail Verlaine by using the secret of their affair?
I think there is more to the story than Rimbaud is telling us. He knows he is damned, and why? He leaves Europe full of self pity, and to me self-pity is a highly unattractive trait.



Let me say one thing for Rimbaud, he writes beautifully. But I would rather liked to have seen the older Rimbaud's writing (if he had continued to write) without the youthful drama, and self-pity. He discontinues his self study and poetry, just as he was certainly gaining wisdom, and that's a shame.

What he says about the poet making himself a seer in The Voyant Letter, is true, and that the poet makes a study of himself and his soul, the poet being the thief of fire. I think he has much good to say in this regard, and this Jim Morrison also learned from. I like this portion of his writing much better than I do his drama over his lover.


~Sheri

I read the lastest biography of Rimbaud, Rimbaud: A Biography by Graham Robb, well, awhile ago, but there is some conjecture that on his way back to France Rimbaud had a manuscript of some sort in his possession but it seems to have disppeared when he got to Marseille. Whether it was lost or if Rimbaud's sister took possession of it and put it somewhere. That may be the most famous lost manuscript in literature next to the short stories lost by Hemingway on a train trip.

Thanks Jym,

This is very intriguing, because I did get the feeling there was more to this story. It's like a 19th Century gossip column. To me it has the same sensational feel to it. Le Enquêteur, lol!


~Sheri

Some useless information for you lot:

Lotte Lenya was Brecht's wife, well-known in musical theater, but American film-goers may know her best as the Russian villainess in "From Russia With Love."

"Whisky Bar" was a song she performed often.

GG M, Do you know who Miss Lucy Brown was? I don't.

Also as far as Morrison's reading material,he liked Playboy magazine and he wasn't just looking at the pictures,it had some good articles in it!

Brown rhymes with town?

Lotte Lenya's name got into the song when Louis Armstrong was recording his version, and Lotte happened to be in the studio at the time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mack_The_Knife. She's stayed there ever since. The original last verse was

Suky Tawdry, Jenny Diver
Polly Peachum, Lucy Brown
Oh, the line forms on the right, dears
Now that Mackies back in town.

I was going to mention that! But I got caught up with the Rimbaud angle.

grate minds!

That used to be the catch-phrase about Playboy, as I recall, but the truth is that it did have terrific writers and articles. I used to read it, and as for the rest of the content, obviously for what it was it was the top of the line. I nearly took a job at the Playboy Club in London, btw. That was a VERY tough interview. I visited the Playboy Club here in L.A. a few times, and it was professional and the women were very high class. It wasn't like Hooters. The men didn't mess with the Bunnies or behave like they do in these dance joints nowadays. If they did, the men would be tossed out on their ears and forever. They had a Bunny Mistress on duty at all times, to whom the Bunnies could go with customer problems.

They all sound like ladies of the evening!

And speaking of seedy characters, why are all you refugees from the Lizard Lounge lurking?
Show yourselves, you chickens!

Funny!!

Omg! I read that when I was a pre-teen, it was passed around between all my friends. Ha ha!

I have to say, I am soooo curious and badly wanting to get my hands on a copy of On the Road. It sounds great, I just read that Kerouac wrote it on one scroll of japanese paper he taped up, cause he didn't want to keep putting paper in the typewriter (thank god for the computer, huh?)


~Sheri

Hey yeah!

I was wondering why there was a sudden influx of Lizard Lounge refugees?? Was there a big fight?? Ooh all the juicy details please??? Was it cause we sent Salli right over??

~Sheri

No, lol, the forum has just been down due to technical difficulties.

Oh ok, thanks Violent...

I was only joking about Salli, she may need a place to crash though...

~Sheri

Jeff finally snapped

loup means wolf, not fox...so yes that translation is incorrect...
for me fowlie's translation proved best-

the wolf cried under the leaves
as he spat out fine feathers
of his meal of fowl:
like him i consume myself


as far as rimbaud's life there is a lot more to it than that.
this was my understanding-

rimbaud was an exceptional prodigy. a fine student, he grew up in a strict household under a mother that was suppressing her own shame and despair at a failed marriage (she often told people his father was dead, this was not the case.) rimbaud did not grow up in a place of culture. he grew up in charleville, his accent was apparently one to be laughed at...
for many reasons rimbaud was a seeker. in his writings on poetry he proves that he was always seeking a mentor of sorts.
verlaine started out as that mentor. you MUST keep in mind rimbaud was a mere 15! 15! when he ran away to paris.
he had run away sooner than that, at 14, where he was thrown in jail for a night and apparently molested, there was a poem that actually alluded to this very incident. im sorry, but if that weren't cause for some kind of angst i don't know what would be.

verlaine had a history with young boys. even after rimbaud he taught a school filled with them after his divorce from his wife, who he often abused and hit in fits of drunken rage from the notorious absinthe which was so often shared amongst bohemians of that period.

why wouldn't he turn him in? he got shot in the hand! their relationship was not very romantic, but one that was pretty insane....for rimbaud it was a voyeuristic push, an exploitation of many kinds....i do not think he loved verlaine. even if one is in love though, if someone makes an attempt to take your life (which is what verlaine was doing) and is abusive, you would probably get the fuck away from that person too.

or you should if you have the means and strength to do it.

rimbaud saw poetry as one of many ways to explore, i found his abandonment of writing to go and seek experiences was not him giving up on anything, nor of any failure on his part. he said what he wanted to say and he moved on. this pragmatic approach was common for him....he was a cunning linguist, picking up and picking apart languages where ever he went. he actually passed for an arab in absynnia, where he was one of the first frenchmen to go into the bush and survive. there is a book about his days in africa, where he made many discoveries that are worth noting. he even befriended what became the king of absynnia on one of his many desert excursions.

another reason his relationship with verlaine didn't work out-rimbaud was a genius. most in that literary circle were not, his work really challenged the perceptions of poetry during that time. verlaine recognized and understood this, but most did not take him seriously because of his age and his boyish demeanor.
by a boyish demeanor i am discussing the simple fact that rimbaud tested people. yes he was unpleasant to be around, he was also a joy when he wanted to be....cunning, as i have said, and an adventurer.
in a sense i see a lot of jim's dionysian characteristics in rimbaud--similarities in the sense that both were people of extreme promise....very smart and challenging in the ideas of their time...but also with a darker side-they both tested the people closest to them...
i think this is normal of those who are very intelligent and very young...and perhaps sensitive to the world around them.

the affair with verlaine was not a huge deal for rimbaud...the disasterous ending that so many paint really didn't happen. the two met again in germany years later, rimbaud being a man at this time.....they talked and realized they had nothing to talk about.
this is quite different from the dramatic stories and gossip that was so often recorded.

if you want further readings on a more accurate portrayel i can give you some.

i do not think his poetry was angsty though...especially if you look at the time he was in, and how very young he was.

what enchants me about rimbaud, besides the beauty of his words and the brutal honesty in so much of his work....is the fact that it seems he predetermined his future ventures and years within his writings....
and he was always challenging himself, pushing himself to the brink.
there is something extremely brave to me about an artist who does that.

oh and he did not leave europe in a bout of self pity--here's the deal.
by saying he was damned in a season in hell...rimbaud is talking about many things....one being where he is from, the time he is upon, *yes the drama with his lover--who im sorry, it takes two to tango here*, and because rimbaud wrote a season in hell after verlaine---
FACT a season in hell and the illuminations were written AFTER verlaine.
yes.
he wrote it when he was very poor and sick...he went back to his mother's and wrote a season in hell in a very short amount of time, it was very cathartic.

verlaine was very obsessed with rimbaud, and later happened upon his mother's where his mother gave him a season in hell...during this time rimbaud was either in scandinavia or england, i am not sure of which.

when he stopped writing poetry he did not stop his self study.
he said what he had wanted to say, with a season in hell he closed a chapter.

he did, however, continue his pursuit in linguistics, picking up many languages....he even lived in java for a period of time, and joined a russian circus! before living in africa. his pursuit of travel and seeing everything he could was pretty remarkable for his time. in abssynia he even took up photography.
and if you read his writings, it was always something he intended to do.
to be the ultimate seer.
this was simply another stage.

all of france knew about his affair with verlaine before the gun incident! (it was a gun not a knife.)
they were often gossiped about amongst poetic circles in paris. everyone called rimbaud verlaine's cat. his wife called rimbaud "that despicable boy".

they had run away together when the gun incident happened and it happened in a fit of drunken rage when rimbaud tried to leave verlaine....why? for a lot of reasons.
their relationship was always unstable, it was built on little to no foundation.

when rimbaud left europe it was to seek strange new landscapes...
not in a bout of self pity.
that was very unlike his character.

i am curious where you got these facts?
i have read almost every book on his life...and can definitely give you references that should paint a clearer picture.

ahh yes i read about this....
to be honest i could see his sister destroying it. *sighs*

ja ja