CHAPTER 31 — The Modern ASPASIA

Chap­ter 31 of “The Ways of Men” enti­tled “The Mod­ern Aspa­sia” gives a reflec­tive and con­trast­ing view of Paris com­pared to oth­er his­toric Euro­pean cities. It paints Paris as a unique enti­ty that pos­sess­es an allur­ing charm capa­ble of cap­ti­vat­ing a diverse audi­ence rang­ing from the friv­o­lous to the pro­found­ly intel­lec­tu­al. Unlike the aus­tere Bruges or Ghent, the sen­su­al Naples, or the cul­tured Flo­rence and Venice, Paris is depict­ed as a city that seduces all man­ner of peo­ple with its dynam­ic per­son­al­i­ty. From its abil­i­ty to ensnare the hearts of art lovers and schol­ars with its his­tor­i­cal and cul­tur­al depth, to its com­mand over fash­ion that dic­tates the trends fol­lowed by women world­wide, Paris’s influ­ence is unpar­al­leled.

The nar­ra­tive describes Paris as engag­ing var­i­ous types of indi­vid­u­als: those seek­ing plea­sure, stu­dents aim­ing for high stan­dards, dream­ers fond of the past, and even those indif­fer­ent to the arts or study, all find them­selves under Paris’s spell. This enchant­ment is likened to a reli­gious pil­grim­age, with Paris cater­ing to each vis­i­tor or resident’s deep­est yearn­ings, embody­ing not just a city but a liv­ing, breath­ing muse that inspires and demands trib­ute.

How­ev­er, beneath the roman­tic imagery and ado­ra­tion for the city’s bewitch­ing nature, there is a crit­i­cal exam­i­na­tion of Paris’s fick­le­ness and insin­cer­i­ty, par­tic­u­lar­ly towards its inter­na­tion­al admir­ers. The chap­ter delves into the city’s his­tor­i­cal promis­cu­ity in alle­giances, shift­ing pas­sions, and loy­al­ties based on whim rather than prin­ci­ple, com­par­ing it to the clas­si­cal fig­ure Aspa­sia. Paris is shown to be a city that drains its devo­tees of their vital­i­ty and wealth, only to dis­card them once they have served their pur­pose, encap­su­lat­ing this nature with the phrase “AIME A BRISER SES IDOLES!”

A sig­nif­i­cant por­tion of the chap­ter also reflects on the dis­il­lu­sion­ment of Amer­i­cans with Paris dur­ing a par­tic­u­lar cri­sis that revealed the city’s super­fi­cial affec­tion towards its for­eign lovers, favor­ing Spain over the U.S., despite the lat­ter’s long­stand­ing enchant­ment and gen­eros­i­ty towards the French cap­i­tal. This reeval­u­a­tion prompts a reassess­ment of the nature of Paris’s allure and the depth of its com­mit­ment to those it ensnares, sug­gest­ing a com­plex love-hate rela­tion­ship between the city and its glob­al devo­tees.

Ulti­mate­ly, the chap­ter con­veys a lay­ered por­trait of Paris, acknowl­edg­ing its unmatched beau­ty and cul­tur­al rich­ness while also cri­tiquing its capri­cious­ness and the tran­sient nature of its affec­tions. It presents Paris as a city that embod­ies the heights of human artis­tic and cul­tur­al achieve­ments, yet also cau­tions against the intox­i­ca­tion of its allure, warn­ing of the poten­tial for dis­il­lu­sion­ment and heartache amidst its ephemer­al embrace.