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2 von 2 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
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Alors, There is Such a Thing as Over-Cultivation, 1. Februar 2000
AGAINST NATURE, or AGAINST THE GRAIN as it is sometimes translated from the French "A Rebours," is a seminal work in the Decadent literary movement of the last decade of the nineteenth century. This is the book that helped corrupt Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray. The main character Des Esseintes, a wealthy French dandy, grows bored of society and shuts himself up from the world. He soon bores himself, and I am sorry to say, too often bores the reader. One cannot say it is not a creative boredom, however. Artifice reigns supreme for Des Esseintes: "Nature...has had her day." Our anti-hero is exactly the type who would decide after a visit to EPCOT's international pavilion in Florida, that there was no longer any need to visit Europe: "After all, what was the good of moving, when a fellow could travel so magnificently sitting in a chair?" Des Esseintes is the prototypical couch potato--if they had had television in 1884, we wouldn't have this book.Virtually alone in his villa, Des Esseintes tries to cultivate every possible sensation artificially--in art, liqueurs, books, interior decoration, food, perfumes--he even tries to enjoy his illnesses. Huysmans seems to show, by the nature of his game, Des Esseintes cannot succeed. His desires always surpass his capacity for enjoyment; his constitution is weak and his nerves grow frail. Huysmans gives us an overwhemingly detailed picture of why we aren't all decadents given up to the pleasure principle today--sheer tedium. There are flashes of brilliance and insight, to be sure, but they are dulled by the intimate picture of over-satiety. No more than three random chapters will be enough for the interested aesthete to get the point.
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