Melissa Thornton

Both in reading and writing, artists and audiences alike participate in art, whether it be
through the act of creation or the experience of the work itself. As exemplified by Georges Poulet
in his essay Criticism and the Experience of Interiority, the phenomenon of participating in art
as an experience occurs especially with works of literature, which bring readers into the work as
if they are its subject despite their inherent existence outside the world of the text: I often have
the impression, while reading, [] [that] I am a consciousness astonished by an existence which
is not mine, but which I experience as though it were mine (Poulet 47). In Virginia Woolfs
essay A Room of Ones Own, the author expands on this effect by describing the act of reading
as perform[ing] a curious couching operation on the senses that enables one to se[e] more
intensely afterwards (Woolf 110). Reading transports the reader into the work of literature,
taking the readers mind into that of the works subject, while also bringing the work to life
within the readers mind and thereby enabling them to transcend both self and reality: a paradox
thus emerges of being both within and without at the same time. In Charles Baudelaires poem
Crowds, the transformative effects of art on the self become clear through breaking down the
speakers statement multitude, solitude: identical terms, interchangeable by the active and fertile
poet, which reveals how art creates transcendence for both artists and the audience through the
displacement of the self (lines 5-6).
Locating readers in a paradox by juxtaposing the words multitude and solitude as
identical terms, the line introduces readers to the central elements necessary to understand
transcendence. The comma dividing the two states, despite its overall effect of combining them
into one idea, exemplifies the edge between existing as a mass rather than a lone entity; an
inherent contradiction coalesces in the space constructed by a single comma. Readers learn that
poets possess the capability to traverse that space if they are both active and fertile by way of
interchang[ing] these irreconcilable ideas as if they are one and the same. The use of the word
fertile implies that, for poets, being able to manipulate the paradox arises from their imaginary
and productive nature. Expounding on the attributes of a poet, the speaker adds to the notion of
moving between multitude and solitude that [t]he man who is unable to people his solitude is
equally unable to be alone in a bustling crowd (6-7). Poets can therefore transport from one
state to the other by way of their fertile minds; like two sides of the same coin, their fertility
allows them to both people [their] solitude and be alone in a bustling crowd. Manipulators of
reality, poets can equally exist as individual beings in the midst of plurality and produce
abundance out of nothing.
Coupling the poets ethereal essence with transcendence of the self, the subsequent
stanzas opening line establishes the paradox of multitude and solitude to also be one of self and
other, as the poet enjoys the incomparable privilege of being able to be himself or someone else,
as he chooses (8-9). Not only does the fertility and vitality of poets allow them to shape their
environments, but it instills in them an agency over be[ing] [themselves] or someone else in
any given moment. Here, poets become shape-shifters, masters of their own forms, since the
power of a strong imagination connotes control over the surrounding environment as well as
control over the self. The poets act of transcending the self is explicated by the next sentence:
[l]ike those wandering souls looking for a body, he enters as he likes into each mans
personality (9-10). In using the words wandering and enters, the speaker communicates the
necessity of movement of the self for ones being to transcend. Further, the image of being like
wandering souls seeking a vessel, whether it be a body or a mans personality, emphasizes

in its analogy that the poet possesses the ability to enter into paradoxes as a result of a self that
is both porous and transient nature, retaining its inherent identity while exploring that of others.
Concretizing the relationship between art and an unbounded self, the opening lines of the
poem establish the barrier to transcendence to be overcoming the edge between self and other
through the immersion of oneself in the experience of art: enjoying a crowd is an art; and only
he can relish a debauch of vitality at the expense of the human species on whom, in his cradle, a
fairy has bestowed the love of masks and masquerading, the hate of home, and the passion for
roaming (2-4). Due to the connection of the ideas with a semi-colon, the act of enjoying a
crowd becomes a debauch of vitality for the person who knows how to do so properlyas an
art. As a debauch involves submerging the self in sensual pleasures, and vitality signifies the
essential life force, the idea of being surrounded by others becomes one that enables an artistic
mind to lose itself in an all-consuming sensory experience that subsequently produces a moment
of concentrated life. The use of multiple independent clauses all listed together with semi-colons
connects the discussion of an immersion of the self and the paradox of multitude and solitude by
making the units of ideas interchangeable, as the single clauses can be rearranged yet retain their
same meaningjust as an artist can view multitude and solitude as identical terms. Further, to
reach a state in which such an engulfing experience can take place, one must have a love for
masks and masquerading, [a] hate for home, and [a] passion for roamingwhen combined,
these qualities can achieve the dissipation of self in a moment as they suggest resisting any
permanent, unchanging notion of self in favor of the ephemeral feeling of life that comes from
losing oneself in the surrounding environment.
The link between poets transcendence and its effect on their work becomes more explicit
by examining Virginia Woolfs declaration at the end of her essay on women and fiction that
writers [have] the chance to live more than other people in the presence of [] reality, calling
it [their] business to find it and collect it and communicate it to the rest of us (Woolf 110).
Baudelaires construction of the poet as someone whose self can exist as a sensory experience
becomes more clear considering Woolfs idea of writers as liv[ing] more than other people in
the presence of [] reality. To be able to lose oneself in a moment and thus transcend, a poet
must be more in touch with what is real than other people. In light of this ability, it becomes a
writers duty to impart this knowledge to readers through his or her work; the writer must find,
collect, and communicate reality to those who cannot see it for themselves. The preceding
description of reality as something very erratic, very undependablenow to be found in a dusty
road, now in a scrap of newspaper in the street, now in a daffodil in the sun illuminates how
reality exists in moments and can therefore be found and collected by writers (110). Jumping
from image to image with the enumeration of where reality exists and using the anaphora of
now at the beginning of each clause transports readers from place to place, one present time to
another, in order to show them what constitutes reality, just as Woolf believes writers should.
Further, the listed images and their variety emphasize the momentary nature of reality,
connecting the idea to the temporal selves of writers, while the definition of reality as erratic
and undependable relates to writers almost intangible forms of self.
A deeper understanding of how transcendence, reality, and the self all intertwine comes
with a closer look into Woolfs illustration of where reality can be found: it overwhelms one
walking home beneath the stars and makes the silent world more real than the world of speech
and then there it is again in an omnibus in the uproar of Picadilly (110). The juxtaposition of the
scene of walking home beneath the stars and an omnibus in the uproar of Picadilly brings to
light how reality as well as transcendence encompass paradoxes. Like the artist, reality can

navigate opposites and superimpose one upon the other, mak[ing] the silent world more real
than the world of speech. Just as with transcendence through the saturation of the self in its
surroundings, reality overwhelms one and moves the individual from one level of existence to
another in making one world seem more real than another. Finally, the transition from a
silent state to one of uproar mirrors the artists ability to interchange solitude and multitude,
as being alone often indicates being in silence, and an uproar similarly suggests a crowd of
people. By constructing two opposing images in order to fashion her idea of reality, Woolf
connects writers abilities to convey the real world to their propensity to both create and exist
within paradoxes.
Bringing the examination of transcendence through art and readers experiences full
circle, Woolf concludes her discussion of reality and writers by explaining how the reading of
[] books seems to perform a curious couching operation on the senses; one sees more intensely
afterwards; the world seems bared of its covering and given an intenser life (110). In describing
the act as a couching operation on the senses, Woolf makes an interesting allusion to an earlier
version of cataract surgery couchingwhich would remove the cloudiness from the eye. As
a result, Woolf generates an image of once cloudy senses becoming clear due to the effect of
reading a book. Before reading the book, the world possessed a covering unknown to the
reader, yet the act of reading itself perform[s] an operation on the senses; like a doctor
enabling the patient to truly see, the writer enlivens the readers senses and hence their
knowledge of the world. Calling to mind the debauch of vitality of Baudelaires subject, the
reader undergoes a heightening of the senses, see[ing] more intensely and viewing the world as
having an intenser life. By encapsulating reality in their art, writers create a transcendent
experience for readers reflective of their own.
In capturing the essence of reality in writing, books become the product of artists
transcendence and simultaneously enable writers to create transcendent moments for their
readers. While reading, a reader transcends the self because part of it enters into the book and
experiences reality within the book, so after finishing the book, the reader has gained life
experience through that of anotherthe subject of the work. In entering the book, the reader
both exists as the self who is reading the book and the subject within the book, therefore within a
paradox, thus paralleling how artists enter into other beings and moments in order to transcend
the self and experience realitya debauch of vitalityall while maintaining their identities.
Experiencing a work of literature therefore involves transcendence since readers take on other
identities by allowing their consciousness to take on that of the books subject and consequently
see the world through other perspectives and know the feeling of leaving the self behind to exist
in a moment. Due to writers ability to move between solitude and multitude, interchanging them
for both themselves and readers, art creates transcendence of the self by providing a variety of
experiences for individuals, even ones that involve existing in a paradox.
Bibliography
Baudelaire, Charles. Crowds. Paris Spleen. 1869.
Poulet, Georges. Criticism and the Experience of Interiority. Reader-Response Criticism:
From Formalism to Post-Structuralism. Ed. Jane P. Tompkins. Baltimore: John Hopkins
UP, 1980. 41-50. Ebook file.
Woolf, Virginia. A Room of Ones Own. New York: Harcourt, 1981. Print.