Talk:Decadence

Truncated Paragraph

In the following sentence, either the author or a subsequent editor has left the resolution hanging in the air, or "who" is entirely redundant. Anybody know which it is?

These "decadents" who relished artifice over the earlier Romantics' naive view of nature (see Jean-Jacques Rousseau). --Thurble 23:23, 8 September 2006 (UTC) Thurble

Decline due to moral weakness

Neo Nazi concepts of decadence????

Ironic, isn't it. I assume the previous contributor was not particularly serious; it would be surprising for them to be unaware of the incredible hypocrisy they were committing by writing four paragraphs of high pretension where a single paragraph of normal prose would have sufficed. ‣ᓛᖁᑐ 15:45, 29 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Rome

"Few bother to mention that Rome collapsed after generations of Christian rule. The really naughty emperors (Nero, Caligula, etc) were often hundreds of years before the end of the empire."

Anyone else think this should be reworded? Sethoeph 01:15, 9 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I came to the talk page for precisely that reason. Though I'm guessing that you, like I, couldn't think of the appropriate words to replace it with. But it does need to be replaced. sheridan 00:04, 2004 Dec 24 (UTC)

Manet

I don't think of Manet as a Decadent; I've never seen him listed as one before; and I can't think of anything, including Olympia and Le déjeuner sur l'herbe, that would make him one. Would anyone object to my removing his name from the list of Decadent artists? Physicist 23:28, 14 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Maybe he was included because he illustrated the French translation of Poe's "The Raven?" However, the bulk of his work does not fit the decadence profile. --sparkit (talk) 01:33, May 20, 2005 (UTC)

Definition

In modern use, decadence is often defined as a decline in or loss of excellence, obstructing the pursuit of ideals. It is typified by the elevation of cleverness, education, and intellectual pretension over experience and tradition, and is often considered materialistic.

The above doesn't make sense. There would be no tradition with out education, and cleverness is a form of excellence! So I rephrased.

The Essence of Decadence.

Decadence is a hot bubble bath(clean). A box of chocolate with wine and champagne.

Newspaper in tow.

Glistening women's skin.

Basking sun.

Considering 2PM to be too early of a wakeup time.

Occasional orgasm. That orchestral, sacred glandular cosmic crunch.

Woman! That deviled and defiled egg.

Bemusement at the community's earnestness in regards to work.

And an awareness of the world; however glazed.

See: happiness.

--Scroll1 21:31, 28 November 2005 (UTC)

This mode of human reality is best captured by Wilde's "Dorian Gray". Man, with physical and psychological interests secured(however temporarily), but not dealing with the hard questions of ontological interests(possible en masse, only by the late 19th Century) nurtures a fairly destructive impulse, and is alleviated only by this.

This, short of hazardous materials, is a central problem for the 1st World nations, America in particular. An obsession with comfort and convenience; an addiction to stimulation. Of course, the society is hardly unitary. Elements that are not of this often operate under the burdens of myth and hypocracy. They are stewards and vanguards for a Weltanshung that is obsolete.

Gibbon: "That which is human, must retrograde, if it does not advance."