Style is the man 9130

Aziz Daouda, 2 y.

- History - Society - Lifestyle -

1.9 min read.

The particular imprint of exceptional humans has marked history, if not made history. Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon, French naturalist and mathematician and member of the Académie Française, undoubtedly marked by the rigor of the exact sciences, stated in his reception speech: ‘Style is the man himself’. Even if Buffon only spoke of literature and science, style thus becomes an objective constant of each of those who mark history with a particular legacy. Foreshadowing what the Crown Prince would grow to be when King, the late His Majesty Hassan II of Morocco will take up the notion of style, precisely quoting Buffon. He said in a notorious interview : ‘Style is the man’. No one wanted to announce that the reign of His Majesty King Mohammed VI of Morocco was going to be different from his own, although in the logical continuity of history. Today the trend is to confuse style with a more modern notion of ephemerality: the look. If the look, which will summarize an outfit, a haircut, colors, is circumstantial and therefore contingent on the moment, style is a constant of the person and accompanies him throughout his life. Style will experience an evolution but in a logical continuum. If style ends up being validated and confirmed by history’s objective appreciation, the look is not necessarily in symbiosis with style. The look is tainted by subjectivity. It depends on each person’s perception, image and imagination. It is marked by the appreciation we have of the person we meet in a particular circumstance, a particular environment. The look is a subjective composition which can be modeled simply through a photograph which falls into your hands, a video viewed on a train or on a plane, so many images that forcefully invite themselves into the intimacy of the onlooker by forcing the screen from a phone or a tablet, through advertisements and social media. The look can go so far as to contrast with the style. It is the subjective assessment that we make of the person being scrutinized; and will be even more biased if it is accompanied by a comment even if it is the antipode of objectivity. A film actor can thus be stuck by his look and his acting, the personality traits of a character, when all he has done is succeed in restoring them to us for the duration of a film. The look is appreciated as long as it coincides with the image we have of the person at the very moment of meeting. It depends on the success of the approach and the reaction of the person encountered. It is conditioned by the circumstances of this encounter, the degree of surprise and the emotional level it arouses. The first glance will be decisive here. The look generates admiration: everyone will form an idea of the person they meet based on their own appreciation, their emotions and their state of mind at the moment. The degree of sympathy expressed or shared can thus lead to idolatry. The style commands respect and generates love and appreciation. It is a constant that evolves slowly, surely, and becomes significant. It is assessed on rather objective and verified criteria. Style is indelible and is linked to action through art and manner. Style leaves a mark forever. It is this imprint that allows us to judge and define its contours. History is judge of style. Aziz Daouda

THE MEDITATIONS - Book I.[1/3] 5473

Bluwr X Commons: Marcus Aurelius, 2 y.

3.7 min read.

1. I learned from my grandfather, Verus, to use good manners, and to put restraint on anger. 2. In the famous memory of my father I had a pattern of modesty and manliness. 3. Of my mother I learned to be pious and generous; to keep myself not only from evil deeds, but even from evil thoughts; and to live with a simplicity which is far from customary among the rich. 4. I owe it to my great-grandfather that I did not attend public lectures and discussions, but had good and able teachers at home; and I owe him also the knowledge that for things of this nature a man should count no expense too great. 5. My tutor taught me not to favour either green or blue at the chariot races, nor, in the contests of gladiators, to be a supporter either of light or heavy armed. He taught me also to endure labour; not to need many things; to serve myself without troubling others; not to intermeddle in the affairs of others, and not easily to listen to slanders against them. 6. Of Diognetus I had the lesson not to busy myself about vain things; not to credit the great professions of such as pretend to work wonders, or of sorcerers about their charms, and their expelling of Demons and the like; not to keep quails (for fighting or divination), nor to run after such things; to suffer freedom of speech in others, and to apply myself heartily to philosophy. Him also I must thank for my hearing first Bacchius, then Tandasis and Marcianus; that I wrote dialogues in my youth, and took a liking to the philosopher’s pallet and skins, and to the other things which, by the Grecian discipline, belong to that profession. 7. To Rusticus I owe my first apprehensions that my nature needed reform and cure; and that I did not fall into the ambition of the common Sophists, either by composing speculative writings or by declaiming harangues of exhortation in public; further, that I never strove to be admired by ostentation of great patience in an ascetic life, or by display of activity and application; that I gave over the study of rhetoric, poetry, and the graces of language; and that I did not pace my house in my senatorial robes, or practise any similar affectation. I observed also the simplicity of style in his letters, particularly in that which he wrote to my mother from Sinuessa. I learned from him to be easily appeased, and to be readily reconciled with those who had displeased me or given cause of offence, so soon as they inclined to make their peace; to read with care; not to rest satisfied with a slight and superficial knowledge; nor quickly to assent to great talkers. I have him to thank that I met with the discourses of Epictetus, which he furnished me from his own library. 8. From Apollonius I learned true liberty, and tenacity of purpose; to regard nothing else, even in the smallest degree, but reason always; and always to remain unaltered in the agonies of pain, in the losses of children, or in long diseases. He afforded me a living example of how the same man can, upon occasion, be most yielding and most inflexible. He was patient in exposition; and, as might well be seen, esteemed his fine skill and ability in teaching others the principles of philosophy as the least of his endowments. It was from him that I learned how to receive from friends what are thought favours without seeming humbled by the giver or insensible to the gift. 9. Sextus was my pattern of a benign temper, and his family the model of a household governed by true paternal affection, and a steadfast purpose of living according to nature. Here I could learn to be grave without affectation, to observe sagaciously the several dispositions and inclinations of my friends, to tolerate the ignorant and those who follow current opinions without examination. His conversation showed how a man may accommodate himself to all men and to all companies; for though companionship with him was sweeter and more pleasing than any sort of flattery, yet he was at the same time highly respected and reverenced. No man was ever more happy than he in comprehending, finding out, and arranging in exact order the great maxims necessary for the conduct of life. His example taught me to suppress even the least appearance of anger or any other passion; but still, with all this perfect tranquillity, to possess the tenderest and most affectionate heart; to be apt to approve others yet without noise; to have much learning and little ostentation. 10. I learned from Alexander the Grammarian to avoid censuring others, to refrain from flouting them for a barbarism, solecism, or any false pronunciation. Rather was I dexterously to pronounce the words rightly in my answer, confining approval or objection to the matter itself, and avoiding discussion of the expression, or to use some other form of courteous suggestion. 11. Fronto made me sensible how much of envy, deceit and hypocrisy surrounds princes; and that generally those whom we account nobly born have somehow less natural affection. 12. I learned from Alexander the Platonist not often nor without great necessity to say, or write to any man in a letter, that I am not at leisure; nor thus, under pretext of urgent affairs, to make a practice of excusing myself from the duties which, according to our various ties, we owe to those with whom we live. 13. Of Catulus I learned not to condemn any friend’s expostulation even though it were unjust, but to try to recall him to his former disposition; to stint no praise in speaking of my masters, as is recounted of Domitius and Athenodorus; and to love my children with true affection. 14. Of Severus, my brother, I learned to love my kinsmen, to love truth, to love justice. Through him I came to know Thrasea, Helvidius, Cato, Dion, and Brutus. He gave me my first conception of a Commonwealth founded upon equitable laws and administered with equality of right; and of a Monarchy whose chief concern is the freedom of its subjects. Of him I learned likewise a constant and harmonious devotion to Philosophy; to be ready to do good, to be generous with all my heart. He taught me to be of good hope and trustful of the affection of my friends. I observed in him candour in declaring what he condemned in the conduct of others; and so frank and open was his behaviour, that his friends might easily see without the trouble of conjecture what he liked or disliked.