Theophile Gautier

(Image used with the courtesy of
http://www.poesies.net/images/theophilegautier.jpg)

Theophile (pronounced Toe-feel) Gautier (1811-1872) was a French romantic novelist, poet, play write, and literary historian who was co-responsible for the "art for art's sake" movement (Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism p. 750). He resented the notion that art should be a political instrument for either the conservatives or the liberals and thought that's its uselessness was its strongest element. I posted this blog because contrary to most theoretical writings, Gautier's is actually fun to read.

Gautier, in response to the conservative notion that all art should promote virtuous activity wrote the following (printed in his Preface to Mademoiselle De Maupin):

"She [Virtue personified] is a very agreeable grandmother--but a grandmother she is...It seems to me natural, especially when you're twenty to prefer some immoral little thing who is very sprightly, flirtatious and obliging, with her hair somewhat ruffled, her skirt on the short side, her feet and eyes provocative, her cheeks slightly flushed, a laugh on her lips and her heart on her sleeve."

Some more outrageous quotes:

"What is the use of music? What is the use of painting? Who would be mad enough to prefer Mozart to M. Carrel, and Michelangelo to the inventor of white mustard?"

"No, imbeciles, no, idiotic and goitrous creatures that you are, a book does not make jellied soup, a novel is not a pair of seamless boots; a sonnet, a syringe with a continuous spurt; a drama is not a railway...By the bowels of all the Popes, past, present and future, no, and two hundred thousand times no!"

"Let people say after this that novels don't contribute to civilization. I shan't talk about tobacconists, grocers, and sellers of fried potatoes; they have a very great interest in this branch of literature, since the paper it's printed on is generally of superior quality to that of the newspapers." ("Better quality paper made better wrapping for their commodities"--Editor's note).

"I have no wish to disparage the illustrious profession of the cobbler, which I honour as much as the profession of constitutional monarch, but I humbly admit that I should rather have my shoe unsewn than my line ill-rhymed, and that I'd rather do without shoes than do without poetry. As I hardly ever go out, and walk more skillfully on my head than I do on my feet."

"Nothing is really beautiful unless it is useless; everything useful is ugly for it expresses a need, and the needs of man are ignoble and disgusting, like his poor weak nature. The most useful place in a house is the lavatory."

"I should most joyfully renounce my rights as a Frenchman and as a citizen to see an authentic picture by Raphael, or a beautiful woman naked..."

Sometimes he sounds dangerously like your charismatic best friend offering you pot at 13 but it's okay to be a Lotus-eater once in awhile.