“He who has not seen the glory and pose of a soldier sleeping in the shadow of a wall, with his face towards the enemy, cannot understand the glory and pose of a man sleeping in front of a book which he can no longer read.”Charles Baudelaire · Inima mea dezgolită · 1887 · XII
The reader who falls asleep over a book hasn't fled the fight: they were defeated by it, face still turned toward the enemy.
Baudelaire defends laziness and reading failure with a heroic comparison. The sleeping soldier has not given up; he is simply overwhelmed by exhaustion before an enemy he has not abandoned. Likewise, the reader who falls asleep has not abandoned the book but fought it and lost because of its power. The gesture has a pose, an attitude: the body gives way, but the face stays turned toward the object of the struggle. It is an ironic defense of inertia as a form of honor.
Why it matters An amusing consolation for anyone who falls asleep over a difficult book: you are not lazy, you are a combatant honorably defeated.