Sunday, August 20, 2006

Misanthropic gift


Advice from Charles Baudelaire for young writers:

"En effet, la haine est une liqueur précieuse, un poison plus cher que celui des Borgia, - car il est fait avec notre sang, notre santé, notre sommeil, et les deux tiers de notre amour! Il faut en être avare!"

For Baudelaire, hatred is a gift, a gift as precious as myrrh, incense and gold, because the hater gives his self to the hated. The violence of hate, directed outwards, is mirrored by a violence directed inwards, towards the blood of the hater, the health of the hater, the sleep of the hater, two thirds of the hater's love. Hatred is sacrifice of both other and self.

Baudelaire advises us to be greedy with hatred - out of self-preservation. Black metal's hatred however is recklessly generous and universal - misanthropy is it's name. It's generosity is exactly it's appeal. Those cases where Black Metal is less than generous - where it's hate is only directed towards certain races, or towards religious social or political groups - it loses all charm immediatly.

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