Decadence in literature
"more than a question of style, nor is it, as some suppose, a question of theme. It is in the character of the treatment that we must seek it. In all great vital literature, the theme, great or small, is considered in all its relation to the sum-total of things, to the Infinite, as we phrase it, in decadent literature the relations, the due proportions, are ignored. One might say that literary decadence consists in the euphistic expression of isolated observances. Thus disease, which is the favorite theme of decadents, does not in itself make for decadence: it is only when, as often, it is studied apart from its relations to health, to the great vital centre of things, that it does so. Any point of view, seriously taken, which ignores the complete view, approaches decadence.
To notice only the picturesque effects of a begger's rags as Gautier, the colour-scheme of a tippler's nose, like M. Huysmans, to consider one's mother merely prismatically, like Mr. Whistler--these are examples of the decadent attitute. At the bottom, decadence is merely limited thinking, often insane thinking ..."
- Richard le Gallienne, reprinted in Aesthetes and Decadents of the 1890's
To notice only the picturesque effects of a begger's rags as Gautier, the colour-scheme of a tippler's nose, like M. Huysmans, to consider one's mother merely prismatically, like Mr. Whistler--these are examples of the decadent attitute. At the bottom, decadence is merely limited thinking, often insane thinking ..."
- Richard le Gallienne, reprinted in Aesthetes and Decadents of the 1890's