"Walter Benjamin remarked that 'Friedrich Schlegel often remained incomprehensible even to his friends.'"

meades on the picturesque as willful denial of the realities of rural work by the fastidious inhabitants of subtopia (aka suburbia). very much in agreement. also furthers my sense that this cultural moment is one that falls for / seems to want an aesthetic of the post-industrial picturesque. (via danched)

pretty perfect encapsulation of the post-industrial picturesque aesthetic: "I’m just like every other guy he’s seen roll through town to take a picture of what has come to symbolize the pain that is his town’s history. To him and everyone else in the rust belt, there’s nothing beautiful about empty buildings and the jobs that were abandoned along with them. But the guys like me . . . keep driving in from nearby St. Louis or Chicago because we’re looking for something historic and romantic on our cross-country road trips . . . People who hear about these ghost towns from the internet and come to see for themselves that which is strangely beautiful so they too can have their own pictures to post . . . But [they] never spend a dollar . . . [n]ot a dollar at the car wash or the thrift store, or even at the lemonade stand run by the industrious little girls and their mangy dog. Instead they just get out to snap a quick pic of something ugly and drive on to greener pastures."