The Flâneur- Benjamin Arcades

From this piece, I took a guide to Paris. How to really see and understand the city. Arcades pieces together this piece by comparing pieces of literature, plays, quotes, anything really, and comparing them, talking to them. The majority of the piece is excerpts from other things, with limited commentary intertwined. I think Arcades point is that the flâneur lives in the way that he writes. Always seeing, observing everything, and questioning the inconsistencies. In the second paragraph, Arcades states "Nevertheless, it always remains the time of a childhood." Children are constantly questioning. (If you babysit, you understand the pain of trying to answer "but whyyyyyyy does the bird's chirp sound like that). 

"Just as waiting seems to be the proper state of the impassive thinker, doubt appears to be that of the flâneur"

Furthermore, he explains that Paris is the birth place of the Flaneur because Paris was a city built by people simply living. There are layers upon layers of city to be understood, all yelling their own truths; this is what makes the flaneur able to be a flaneur, and living in this city gives the first opportunity to discover in this way. 

Arcades speaks about as one observes and learns to really see and understand the city, in a way that is by no means superficial, one is no longer concerned with the superficial shops, bakeries, and people, and one returns home only when absolutely necessary, as time spent at home is time that can not be spent absorbing paris. 

Another phrase that really spoke to me was "social wilderness." This line, to me, was an encouragement to go to places that are untamed in your imagination, that have not been discovered in your way, by you, ever before.

As for why the flaneur is important, Arcades points out that tourists are people who look simply at the current culture, the superficial. He explains that everything is somewhat personify-able, and as people, we are always trying to find a way to be unique as the basic traits of everything are more or less the same. Because of this need to be different, you can always find, in everything, something of each extreme. It is up to the flaneur, then, to take from this the truth, the history, to understand the city as a whole, looking past the ever-changing superficial. 

One of the pieces that Arcades uses to piece together his piece, was that of a little boy who was not able to leave his room, and vacationed in his imagination (page 422). Arcades compares the flaneur to this boy, using his imagination. I dont understand how the flaneur can be compared to the boy. Yes, the boy is able to see what he wants, but the boy is imagining things. Isn't the job of the flaneur to see, not imagine? Then how can the two be compared at such length?

Furthermore, on page 423, the flaneur is described as someone who plans. Wouldn't this go against the definition of the flaneur that Arcades so delicately fabricated earlier? As the flaneur is someone that gets lost in the what was and the now, not someone who plans. 

By following the guidelines of the flaneur, one learns to understand PEOPLE, the city, as a whole, not just the current people. You understand the actions and the things that are timeless, and you understand the reasons for the differences throughout time. 

Thus, I leave you with my favorite line:

"For the perfect flaneur, it is an immense joy to set up house in the hear of multitude, amid the ebb and flow... To be away from home, yet to feel oneself everywhere at home; to see the world, to be at the center of the world, yet to remain hidden from the world- such are a few of the slightest pleasures of those independent , passionate, and impartial."