Arthur Rimbaud: The Teenage "Seer," The Scandalous Affair, and The African Desert
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Show Notes
In this episode of pplpod, we explore the explosive and contradictory life of Arthur Rimbaud, the French poet whose transgressive themes prefigured surrealism and modern literature. We trace his journey from a brilliant but rebellious student in Charleville, where he chafed under the rule of his strict mother, to his days as a vagabond in Paris during the Franco-Prussian War.
Join us as we discuss:
• The Philosophy of the Seer: How a teenage Rimbaud sought visionary power through a "long, immense and rational derangement of all the senses".
• The "Domestic Farce": His violent, absinthe-fueled affair with fellow poet Paul Verlaine, which scandalized the Parisian literary scene and ended with Verlaine shooting Rimbaud in Brussels.
• The Great Silence: Why Rimbaud completely abandoned literature at the age of 20 after writing his masterpieces A Season in Hell and Illuminations.
• The Merchant Explorer: His second life as a coffee trader and gun runner in Ethiopia and Yemen, where he became the first European to oversee the export of Harar coffee.
From his "drunken boat" to his tragic death from cancer at age 37, discover why this "meteor" of a man remains a counter-culture icon for artists ranging from the Surrealists to Bob Dylan.