Previously in the Worst Boyfriends in Literary History Series: Lord Alfred Douglas.
hey
are you home rn
yes
can i come over
who is this
rimbaud
who
the poet?
i sent you like
a bunch of my poems
and you said i should come to Paris
anyhow im in Paris
and i dont really know anyone here so idk where to sleep or live or eat or anything
look don’t worry about it just like
can i come over
oh
all right
great
you can come pick me up the Gare du Midi police station
sorry?
well i cant come over until someone pays this fine
and its sort of your fault that im even in Paris in the first place
for telling me i should come to Paris
so like not to put any pressure on you but this fine is really technically sort of ‘on you’ if you look at it a certain way
why are you at the police station
i mean
a lot of reasons
maybe a better question is
why aren’t YOU at this police station
who are all these little gremlins
where
the beasts that live on the floor
with the little human faces
the children?
my children?
i dont know what you call them
but its impossible to write great poetry with them clawing about underfoot
i’m sorry to hear that
lets run away
where would we go
how would we make a living
lets go to London
itll be perfect
I can steal pens from the British Museum
and your mother can send us money
what?
or my mother
im not particular
as long as somebodys mother sends us money
what about the children
i dont think they have any money to send us
but i welcome whatever support you think they can provide
we can’t keep living like this
we’ve got to go back to Paris
and live like sensible people
oh is that what you want
for me to like
cut my hair?
and only
only do my drugs INDOORS
like some kind of bourgeoise lamp, or whatever?
that’s not what i mean
i told you i’m trying to become as scummy as i can
i need to finish all my poems about asses
to become immortal
yes, but —
i’m going to piss straight into heaven
how’s that for sensible
piss right up into Heaven
or join the Army
I honestly havent decided
Tags: arthur rimbaud, dirtbags, poetry, some of these are ACTUAL QUOTES from his ACTUAL POEMS, teenage dirtbags, verlaine wasn’t great either let’s be honest
I simultaneously realize my destiny to be a bourgeoise lamp and scorn it.
(beautiful.)
I love how you draw such a magnificent character portrait with just a small collection of short texts. (I know, you kinda wrote a book with the same device.)
Please tell me I can’t be the only person who thinks that Arthur Rimbaud looks like Ben Affleck?! I’ve showed that picture to many friends and they’ve all disagreed with me, but COME ON. LOOK AT THAT.
TOTALLY.
THE EXPRESSION IS SO SIMILAR
Yeah, but would you read a single one of Ben’s poems? I mean Rimbaud retired at nineteen, or whatever, to go and be even more of a dirtbag in ways that are lost to history….
It’s the expression AND the giant chin. Good grief.
Wow, yeah. But visiting Clay Aiken’s hairstylist.
The dirtiest bag of them all.
I discovered Rimbaud when I was looking up the lyric in “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go” [*] (thanks to the Miley Cyrus cover, because it’s unironically awesome), and based on Wikipedia I’d be hard-pressed to pick between the two of them for dirtbaggery.
[*] “Situations have ended sad
Relationships have all been bad
Mine’ve been like Verlaine’s and Rimbaud”
When I had to memorize some Verlaine and read some Rimbaud, I kept thinking “FINALLY I KNOW WHAT DYLAN AND MILEY WERE TALKING ABOUT”, because really, I do love the Cyrus version too, but I always assumed Dylan was talking about some ancient myth I’d never heard about.
I had to study both of the little fuckers for my degree. DIRTBAGTASTIC.
wait WHAT
I always heard that line as “Mine are like the lanes I’ve rambled.”
I….think that’s even more of a Bob Dylan-y line than the real one? Total dirtbag line, though. “nah babe, can’t stay in one place for long, that’s just how all my relationships go, I’m very tortured and brooding about it, anyway, laters.”
C&p’ed from Dylan’s official site! (And I interpret the rest of the song as expecting dirtbaggery in other people — which often leads to dirtbaggery in one’s self, no question! — so the official line works for me.)
Haha, I’m listening to it and trying to undo 15 years of mis-hearing. How many more Dylan lyrics have I completely misheard? Probably like 90% of them, to be honest.
I dunno I think Verlaine was just about as bad
“come back to Paris my love”
“Oh yes! yes! . . . are you drunk?”
“Fuck you!” *FIRES PISTOL IN ABSINTHE FUELED RAGE*
Verlaine was a total monster, I just love that Rimbaud SHOWED UP AT HIS HOUSE and was like “ditch your family and pay me to live with you” so he edged Verlaine out by a bit
also Rimbaud LITERALLY WROTE “I am trying to become as scummy as I can” in a letter, so
The amazing thing is Oscar Wilde as a young man met Verlaine as an old wreck in Paris and actually wrote something to the effect of “Oh my my my such a ruin, such greatness wasted over one boy! That’s won’t happen to me no siree”
omgggg. I have been planning to read the collected works this year but thought I might cheat and skip the letters . . . but now I am SO LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS MOMENT.
(edit whoops that was supposed to be in reply to mallory above- sorry!)
http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/…
p.s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P96cFKd4irY
Let me endorse the film “Total Eclipse” starring Leonardo di Caprio as Rimbaud and David Thewlis as Verlaine — worth at least a hate-watch! A a great stinking mess of a failed “prestige picture,” directed by Agnieszka Holland, screenplay by Christopher Hampton, with di Caprio and Thewlis, and WHAT WERE THEY ALL THINKING? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114702/
man though was he history’s most glorious little twink, right down to the broken personality
As I was reading Mallory's post, it kept popping into my head that Arthur Rimbaud was rather nice-looking and that I could be tempted to let him live with me for a little while before sending him on his scummy way. As I read that quote you just posted, I realize I already have. For two years. I hear he lives in Queens these days and is still working on his novel, if anyone is looking for him or trying to avoid him.
Mallory, he is so awful and you are so wonderful. I am in awe of you.
wait WHAT
I always heard that line as "Mine are like the lanes I've rambled."
I….think that's even more of a Bob Dylan-y line than the real one? Total dirtbag line, though. "nah babe, can't stay in one place for long, that's just how all my relationships go, I'm very tortured and brooding about it, anyway, laters."
Haha, I'm listening to it and trying to undo 15 years of mis-hearing. How many more Dylan lyrics have I completely misheard? Probably like 90% of them, to be honest.
This article made me check out Rimbaud’s Wikipedia page, and oh man, five out of five stars for dirtbaggery. He really put his all into it.
Rimbaud can still get it though
i’m going to piss straight into heaven
how’s that for sensible
piss right up into Heaven
That part is brilliant! Would’ve loved to read the exchange before Paul Verlaine finally shot him.
Rimbaud definitely did become immortal though. Anyway, bravo! Funny peom!