User:Jacobisq/Nostalgie de la Boue

Nostalgie de la boue is the attraction to low-life culture, experience, and degradation, found at times both in individuals and in cultural movements.

The phrase was first coined in 1855 by Emile Augier.

Classical

 * Tacitus records the emperor Nero's liking for roaming the streets of his capital in a slave disguise, stealing and assaulting passers-by in the company of his friends.


 * Petronius highlights the kind of Roman lady who "looks for something to love among the lowest of the low...heated up over the absolute dregs".

Modern

 * The 1890s was notable for a mix of high culture and low experience, as seen in figures like Joris-Karl Huysmans.


 * The youthful Bob Dylan would claim that "The only beauty's ugly, man...the hard filthy gutter sound".


 * Jonathan Ames described himself as drawn to prositutes and the gutter by nostalgie de la boue.