An entire day spent trying to get my research back on track and all I have to show for it is the idea that, in my opinion, Walter Benjamin would have enjoyed blogging. And if the man says that 'genius is application' then I have applied for it today and not been well-served. So I am retreating to discuss the artfully posed aesthetics of this photograph of Charles James models. 'J'adore' I wrote on Facebook because the setting evoked a sense of French salon elegance. The muted colours of the shining silk drapery barely clinging to these female forms are a delight to my eyes; they are even echoed in the faded floor coverings.
Such an appealing image deserves an appealing accompaniment and Puccini's Madam Butterfly will provide it in all its Italian eloquence because 'its expression is entirely meaningful', and as Benjamin wrote:
Si Parla Italiano
I sat at night in violent pain on a bench. Opposite me on another two girls sat down. They seemed to want to discuss something in confidence and began to whisper. Nobody except me was nearby and I should not have understood their Italian however loud it had been. But now I could not resist the feeling, in face of this unmotivated whispering in a language inaccessible to me, that a cool dressing was being applied to the painful place.
Ah me but this should only be sung in Italian perché quando si vive per l'arte si può sempre essere salvati.
