5 - Overturning reality

Summary

My discussion in chapter 1 of what Sartre means by the ‘aesthetic’ or ‘imaginary’ attitude showed that it involves the adoption of a different mode of consciousness whereby what is real is derealized – that is, experienced as if it were being imagined. I noted that there is a problem for Sartre over the evaluation of the aesthetic attitude, since it suggests an unhealthy preference for a particular way of life, yet is the ‘normal’ way of experiencing a work of art. Looking at Flaubert's behaviour in the Orient we found a good example of the two possible attitudes which might be taken. Maxime Du Camp describes Flaubert as being permanently in a daze and ‘not quite there’, and Flaubert himself admits to a habitual state of mind resembling that of somebody who has had too much to drink. While for the former this state is negative, for the latter it is clearly something positive, involving a conscious enjoyment of the ability to experience life as a dream.

Those fictional characters whose relationship to reality is abnormal have instant access to the realm of the unreal, and an evaluation of the status of reality in Flaubert's works will reveal another area in which supposedly pathological characters become aesthetically privileged. A dogged undermining of success in the practical world parallels the debunking of superficial eloquence and intelligence already discussed, and sets in relief the preference for extreme passivity that Sartre has analysed so impressively and which is certainly woven into Flaubert's fictional world-view.