Morrison and Rimbaud
Jim Morrison's History
Jim had two younger siblings: a brother, Andy, and a sister, Anne. Anne was the youngest of the three. Jim, at an early age, was a fervent reader. Although he exhibited great leadership and intelligence, he also showed a tendency to challenge authority. This disrespect of authority led him to get kicked out of Cub Scouts for tormenting the Den Mother through constant misbehaving.
Because of the position Jim's father had in the military, the family was required to move often due to transfer orders. The family moved from Florida, to New Mexico, and eventually to Alexandria, Virginia in 1958. While in Virginia, Jim continued to clown and heckle in and out of class. He became quite popular amongst his classmates, and eventually met Tandy Martin, his first girlfriend. During this time in Virginia, Jim also continued to read. He found interest in Nietzsche, Plutarch, Ginsberg, Michael McClure, James T. Farrell's Studs Lonigan, James Joyce's Ulysses, Balzac, and the French Symbolists (most important of these poets being Arthur Rimbaud, about who Morrison would write the song Wild Child about). By the time he reached the age of fifteen, Jim was writing poetry, painting, and was identified as having an I.Q. of 149. During this time he also made a habit of sneaking out of his house at night to go to sleazy bars downtown and listen to blues musicians.
1961 brought with it Jim's graduation from high school. Immediately, his parents sent him to St. Petersburg Jr. College in Florida where he was also made to live with his grandparents. During the following year, Jim became tired of living with his grandparents and of life at St. Petersburg and decided to transfer to Florida State University and major in theatre. He lived a mile from campus in a three bedroom house with five other FSU students, only two of whom he had known previously. Due to his same heckling shenanigans, his roommates asked him to move out. This time at FSU was productive, however. It brought about several important events which would greatly influence Jim's life. First, he took Philosophies of Protest and Psychology of Crowds, which he identified later as two of his favorite classes (that would in the future aid him in his role as lead singer of the Doors). He also wrote a research paper on the imagery of heaven and hell in the paintings of Hieronymous Bosch. Finally, he managed to get a part in Harold Pinter's play The Dumbwaiter without having any previous acting experience. By 1964 Morrison had gotten tired of the theater arts department at FSU and transferred to UCLA where he became part of the film school.
During the week, Jim would go to his film classes and participate in school schedules, but during the weekend he went to Venice Beach and wrote poetry (the poems he wrote during this time would be later put together and made into the volume The Lords and The New Creatures.) On the beach of Venice he read Jung and Dylan Thomas, and began to experiment with drugs (primarily marijuana). It was also here on Venice Beach where Jim would run into Ray Manzarek and decide to create The Doors. Jim would graduate in 1965 with a Bachelors Degree in cinematography from UCLA, and begin putting most of his attention into the music of the Doors. During this initial stage of the Doors touring and gig-hunting, Jim met Pamela Courson, one of the two primary women in his life that he would refer to as his "soul mate." The Doors rose to new heights from 1964 to 1970, but as their fame increased, so did Jim's addiction to alcohol and drug experimentation.
This time between 1964 and 1970 not only held trials and tribulations for Jim Morrison - it also held some of his happiest experiences. During this time Jim Morrison came met the second important woman in his life, Patricia Kennealy. It was Kennealy Morrison eventually married in a Celtic pagan handfasting ceremony in June of 1970. Morrison and Kennealy had a relationship away from Jim's addiction. Kennealy wrote in her book Strange Days: My Life with an Without Jim Morrison that Jim stayed with Pamela because she allowed him his addictions. Kennealy also writes that she knew the real Jim, the quiet, reserved trickster and not Jim the addict. Despite Kennealy and Jim's love, however, Jim chose to escape to Paris in 1970 with Pamela.
He retreated to Paris because he had become disenchanted with the fame he had received as The Doors' front man and upset by the lack of seriousness with which he was taken as a poet. Paris offered a sanctuary. It was the home of Arthur Rimbaud, his most powerful literary influence. He hoped that this new atmosphere would allow his to find a sense of himself in the world and provide him with inspiration to create fresh poetry. Unfortunately, this goal was never achieved. Instead, Jim was left uninspired and severely depressed. On July 3, 1971, Jim was found dead in the bathtub of his and Pamela's Parisian apartment. His body was then promptly buried at the Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris.
Although the circumstances of Morrison's death have been debated, it is now believed (as reported in Patricia Kennealy's book, as well as Jerry Hopkin's book The Lizard King: The Essential Jim Morrison) that Jim's death was indirectly caused by Pamela. Whether doped up herself or not, Pamela reportedly allowed Jim to snort up a large quantity of heroin, which he believed to be cocaine. This sudden ingestion of such a large quantity of a drug he had never used before led him to hemorrhage internally, which sent his body into a state of shock, and eventually led to the heart attack which killed him. Jim Morrison died at the age of 27.
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French Symbolism
Realism had become a strong literary and artistic movement in the early 19th Century. "Realists" sought to write or paint their subjects based on empirical fact. The observer expressed reality as it occurred. During the mid- to late 19th Century, primarily in Paris, there came forth a group known as Symbolists who challenged the Realist thought process. Responding to the Realist movement, these poets believed that words cannot adequately express reality, thus, the artist must recreate reality through symbols to express what is seen or felt. These symbols were not made to be entirely cohesive, the focus was more on the pattern which the words together created. This construction of ideas not only described the world through new eyes, but also uncovered the complex layers of darkness and light in everyday life. The technique known as synesthesia was a technique used by the Symbolist poets as a way to uncover these complex layers. Through synesthesia, the poet describes a single stimulus through multiple sense responses, i.e. a bell of pink fire and cool blue note.
These Symbolists retained thematic commonalties in their work which included: life as an artist, questioning authority, life in Paris,primal lust, darkness, Vampirism and blood, death, urban life, poet as a painter or musician, and the view that language is flawed, but a necessary poetic device in recreating "reality" and communication.
Although Morrison seemed to gravitate more specifically to Arthur Rimbaud due to their similar backgrounds, he used many of these more general symbolist themes in his own works poetry. This influence is sometimes not only thematic, but also structurally obvious. On-line users can click on individual Symbolists in order to see thematic similarities between their poems and Morrison's.
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Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891) - A History.
Rimbaud, his brother Frederic, his sisters Vitalie and Isabelle, and his mother were abandoned by their father, Frederic Rimbaud, when Arthur was six. Having only the compensation of military checks from her husband's service in the French army, Rimbaud's mother moved herself and her children into the slums of Paris to adequately raise them on the fixed income. "Rimbaud - Revised Edition" states that Madame Rimbaud was very fervent in the academic and Catholic upbringing of her children, because they were all that she had left after her crumbled marriage. She forced Arthur and his three siblings to study and separate themselves from the slum life just outside their doors.
Rimbaud was accepted into College de Charleville in 1862. This would be Arthur's first and last bit of formal schooling. He received acclaim as one of the smartest students in his class. In January of 1870, Rimbaud met George Izambard, who immediately recognized Rimbaud's gifts and attempted to hone them the best he could. Unfortunately the tutelage was short because in the same year Izambard joined the French Army to fight in the Franco-Prussian War.
Rimbaud, again upset of the feeling of abandonment, jumped train to Paris to find Izambard, but was detained upon his arrival for not having a ticket. Izambard heard of the incident and sent Rimbaud the money to get out of prison and to travel to Douai where Izambard's "aunts" lived. Rimbaud's mother searched for him and had Izambard send him home. During this time at home Rimbaud socialized with acquaintances and began to read Paul Verlaine, a new and upcoming poet in France.
A year later Rimbaud again ran to Paris. Enid Starkie surmises that while in Paris Rimbaud experienced much of the poverty and devastation of the war on that section of Paris and may have even been sexually attacked by the soldiers there. His mother pleaded with Izambard to track him down and find him. He was again located in Douai, and sent back to his mother. This second return brought with it a changed Rimbaud: he renounced his religion, women, and society at large.
This new Rimbaud, returned to Charleville, took to drugs and alcohol, and became unkempt. Long-haired and reveling in his renegade behavior, Rimbaud wrote poetry that had begun to take on a more scattered style. This style, now identified as 'Synesthesia' is a technique where the writer uses one type of sense to describe another. It is a blending of senses which creates a surreal aspect to the writing style. This technique was later used as a basis for the Surrealist movement in art and literature. Rimbaud also became more interested in the occult and the illuminist literature that had become popular. He wrote his very much talked about "Seer Letters" during 1871 to Izambard and his friend Paul Demeny. These letters discuss the initial idea of synastheia and separation of the writer from his senses when writing. He was sixteen years old.
Also in 1871, Rimbaud was writing to the poet Paul Verlaine and was given an invitation to visit him in Paris. This visit was another very severe incident in the life of the young and turbulent Rimbaud. Verlaine became infatuated with Rimbaud. He left his wife and his newborn child to run freely through Paris with his newly acquired lover, Rimbaud. Through this acquaintance Rimbaud was introduced to much of the French literary society. The two were together solidly until the end of 1872, and sporadically through most of 1873.During some of their time apart Verlaine told Rimbaud's mother and several acquaintances that he was contemplating suicide. Rimbaud was called to his aid. Seeing that it was just a ploy to get back together with him, Rimbaud said that he would be leaving again soon. Verlaine, being drunk and irritated at the time of the announcement, shot at Rimbaud three times and hit him once - in the wrist. Rimbaud received attention for the wound, and in a later incident where he felt that Verlaine was again going to shoot him, called on the services of a nearby policeman who took Verlaine into custody. Although Rimbaud recalled his complaint against Verlaine, Verlaine was put in prison for two years. During this time Rimbaud wrote A Season In Hell. Because of the lack of solace about himself that literature brought him about the incidents of his life, it is theorized after this composition Rimbaud turned away from all literary workings and began delving into pursuits as far away from literature as possible.
From 1873 until his death in 1891 Rimbaud held jobs like explorer, coffee exporter, construction worker, gun-runner, and it has been said, possibly slave-trading. At the end of 1891 Rimbaud had to take a trip to Arden to have a painful swelling in his knee looked at. The diagnosis took him to Marseilles where he had to have his leg amputated. Later, his condition got worse, and paralysis began to overtake him. Kunitz and Colby add in an parenthesis that this ending condition of paralysis "was diagnosed as carcinoma, though it may have been syphilis in the tertiary stage." Rimbaud died in 1891 at the age of 37.
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Wild Child
Chuck Crisafulli, in his book Moonlight Drive: The Stories Behind Every Doors' Song, calls the Morrison-written song a "tribute to a creature untouched by the constraints of civilization" due to Morrison's extensive reading on "primitive cultures"(84). This interpretation, however, lessens the impact of Jim's final line "You remember when we were in Africa?" Although Crisafulli does attribute the line to Rimbaud, the rest of the song contains the same degree of influence, which is merely brought neatly together by the final line. If the listener pays attention to the words carefully, there is much more going on than one might expect.
Arthur Rimbaud, in his early stages of writing, found interest and inspiration in alchemical texts. Interest in alchemy is quite blatantly discussed in the lyrics of Morrison. Enid Starkie explains the importance of alchemy best in her biography Arthur Rimbaud. Her text reveals that Rimbaud was not seeking actual gold when he dealt with alchemy, he was seeking metaphorical gold. "His aim is not to attain moral perfection for himself alone, but to procure the mysterious essence and to create the incorruptible (161)." The goal in uncovering this metaphorical goal is essentially "reconciling Christ and Satan and of cutting down the tree of good and evil in order to bring in universal love and brotherhood (161)." By achieving this goal, Rimbaud believed he would reach a God-like position in the cosmos.
Wild Child/Full of grace/Savior of the human race/Your cool face/Natural child/ Terrible child/ Not your mother's or your Father's child/ You're our child/ Screamin' wild
Morrison conjures up the image of Rimbaud and congratulates him on reaching the position he sought after so diligently. He refers to Rimbaud as the "savior of the human race" and "full of grace." This iconoclastic position has kept him uncontained by worldly restraints and made him universal.
Not your mother's or your/ Father's child/ You're our child/ Screamin' Wild
The song then turns to Rimbaud's poetic device - the method of achieving ultimate bliss:
(An ancient lunatic reigns in the trees of the night)/ With the hunger at her heels/ And freedom in her eyes/ She dances on her knees/ Pirate prince at her side/ Staring/ Into/ The hollow idol's eye
The recurring images of the forests at night, the freedom and comfort of the unnamed nature woman, and the sinister undercurrent present in joy, are all referred to here. The fourth stanza acts as a by-line to the listener as a way to notify them who created this world - the "Wild child," the "Savior of the human race."
Morrison then turns the concluding line personal; he asks Rimbaud if he remembers when they were in Africa. Morrison had been quoted many times as saying one day he was going to disappear and return to society as a businessman in a suit or run off to Africa, never to be heard from again. This last question gives him the freedom of escape. Just as Rimbaud sought to erase the world and rebuild it through poetry, so here does Morrison follow in the footsteps of his influence and escape into words to find a safe haven away from society. Through this the song not only becomes one of tribute to a literary influence, but also one of admiration for his ability to escape.
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Morrison and Rimbuad : Personal Discoveries
Arthur Rimbaud (19th century photograph)
Through my research, I have compiled a list of personal findings which are invaluable when considering the influence Arthur Rimbaud had on the life of Jim Morrison. More than just a literary icon, Arthur Rimbaud became a pattern for Morrison to draw from at a very early age. This deepened interest Morrison had in Rimbaud and his life may be derived from the biographical similarities the two shared. Simply put, Morrison was infatuated with Rimbaud because the two shared similar life traumas.
Rimbaud and Morrison were both essentially abandoned by their military fathers and left to the highly religious strong-arm of an overbearing mother. For Rimbaud, this abandonment included a systematic sheltering from the outside world, while Morrison was also left socially undeveloped due to the constant uprooting and replanting of the family required by the military. This space left by a lack of male influence would later be filled by the admiration of a male teacher. Rimbaud would be influenced by George Izambard, a professor at the College Charleville. Izambard had a love of poetry, especially modern poetry, which was shared by his star pupil Rimbaud. This commonality began a friendship between the two. For Morrison, his male influence would be found in Ed Brokaw, a film teacher at UCLA, who frequently found merit in his cinematic doings. These influences, however, would again lead to heartache due to abandonment. Izambard decided to go to war July 24, 1870, and Brokaw became disenchanted by Jim's film class final and reportedly told him that he had been very disappointed. The rejection of Morrison's film by Brokaw got him dismissed from the school's film festival, as well as earned him a D for the piece. For Rimbaud and Morrison, this second percieved abandonment led to the creation within themselves of a natural distrust in authority and distaste for male superiors.
Another similarity between the two poets is the possibility of a physical or sexual abuse encounter in their past. For Rimbaud, it manifested itself in his poem of "The Stolen Heart" (or "Le Coeur volé") dated June 1871, in which the sixteen-year-old Rimbaud describes a sexual encounter, most likely one of sodomy which he was subjected to, probably, when he went to enlist in the military. For Jim Morrison, little more is known about the severity or nature of his abuse, but it is referred to in Patricia Kennealy's book Strange Days: My Life With and Without Jim Morrison. Here she writes: "Shadowy references have been made over the years to an episode in his childhood of an adult whom he trusted (nature of abuse and identity of adult unspecified by sources), and his subsequent rejection and angry dismissal by the parent to whom, in his shame and pain and bewilderment, he had turned to for help (38)." Morrison's alcoholism, womanizing, and drug use as well as his return to the Oedipus myth in his lyrics, may all be attributed to this unspoken incident.
Finally, the song "Wild Child" has not been used by scholars to make a connection between Morrison and Rimbaud. But in fact,Morrison's lyrics inject him into the life of Rimbaud. The line "You remember when we were in Africa?" lyrically connects Morrison to Rimbaud, and contains a sense of yearning to escape with him into the depths of another land -- far away form L.A. and the rest of the world. "Wild Child" stands as a testimony to escapism. Morrison's voice inflection and chant-like vocals seem to summon Rimbaud through a sort of musical seance and ask permission for entrance into the spirit world. The vision quest Morrison begins here is a rampant theme in much of the Doors' lyrics and Morrison's poetry. By acknowledging how this song and the biographical similarities play deeply into Morrison's interest in Rimbaud the poet and the person, we as readers begin to uncover more and more similarities between the two literally.
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