Translated by Howard Eiland and Kevin Mclaughlin PREPARED ON TIlE BASIS OF TIlE GERMAN VOLUME EDITED BY ROLF TIEDEM ANN
THE BELKNAP PRESS OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS CAMBRIIlGE, MASSACHUSETTS , AND LONDON , ENGLAND 1999
CONTENTS Copyrigflt 0 1999 by the Praidc:nt and FdIows of Harvard College
Translators ' Forew ord
Allrighu~
Printc:d in lhc: United SuIc:S of Amc:rica
TIm work is a tr:uulation of Wah a Benjamin, Da.s /Wsag<'ll .WtrA:, edited by RoIfTICd anann, copyrigtu o 1982 by Suhrkamp \bUg; voIumc: 5 of \-IhI(c:r Bc:njamin. Gutuuuflt <rjftnt, prepared with the: 00opc:ntion oCTheodor W Adorno and Gc:rshom Schokm, edited by RoIflic:d c:mann and Hc:rm:um Schwq>pc:nhaUKr, copyrigbt 0 1972, 1974, 1977, 1982, 1985, 1989 by Suhrkam p \b'Iag, ~Diakctia at a Standstill." by RolfTICdc:mann. w:u lint published in F.ngIUh by MIT Prest, copyrigh t 0 1988 by the Manac:husc:tu Institute oC1Cchnology. Publication of this book has bern 5Upponc:d by a grant from the: National Endowment for the Humani· ties, an independent fedc:ral agency.
Cover photo: Walter Benjamin, ca. 1932. Photographa unknown. Courtesy of the
Archiv, Frankfurt am Main.
"Vignettes: pages i, 1, 825,891, 1074, Institul Fraoo;:ais d'Arcltitecture; page: 27, Hans Meyu-~; page: 869, Robc:n. Doisnau.
Library of Congress Cataloging.in·Publication Data
99 201 75
Dc:sign«1 by G-n Nefsky Frankfddl
"Paris, the Capital of the Ninete enth Centur y" (1935) "Paris, Capital of the Nineteenth Century" (1939)
1
3 14
Convolutes
27
Overvi ew
29
First Sk etches
827
Theodor W. Adorno
Frontispieo::: Panage:JoulTroy, 1845-1847. Photographer unknown. Courtesy Mus~ Camavalet, Paris. Photo copyrigbt 0 Photothtque des Musles de Ia Ville de Paris.
Benjamin. Walter, 1892- 1940. [Pauagc:n·W:rk. English) The:u-cades projea I Walla Benjamin: translated by Howard Eiland and i«;vin McLaughlin; prepared on the balis of the Gc:rrua.tl m lumc: ediled by RoIfT>edemann. p. ou. Includes index. ISBN ().{j74..()4326-X (alk . paper) I.liedem;uUl. Rolf. IL litle. PT2603.FA55 Pl3513 1999 944' .361081- d.:21 99-27615
Exposes
'"
Early Drafts "Arcades" "The Arcades of Paris" "The Ring of Saturn "
871 873 885
Adden da Expose of 1935, Early Version Materials for the Expose of 1935 Materials for "Arcades"
,
"Dialectics at a Standstill," by RolfTtedema nn "The Story of Old Benjamin," by Lisa F"ittko Transla tors' Notes Guide to Names and Tenus
Ind""
893 899
919
929 946
955 10 16 1055
nIustrations
Shops in the Passage Vero-Dadat
3<
A page of Benjamin's manwcript from Convolute N
457
Glass roof and iron girders, Passage Vivienne
35
A gall")' of the PaIai.-RoyaI
491
The Passage des Panoramas
36
A panorama under colutruction
529
A branch of La Belle Jardiniere in Marseilles
47
A diorama on the Rue de Bondy
534
The Passage de 1'000ra, 1822-1823
49
Self-portrait by Nadar
680
Street scene in front of the Passage des Panoramas
50
Nadar in his balloon, by Honore Dawnier
682
Au Bon Marthe department store in Paris
59
1?te Origin ofPainting
683
I.e Pont de; planete;, by Grandville
65
Rue 1'raJUlIonain, Ie 15 auri11834, by H onart Daumier
717
Fashionable courtesans wearing crinolines, by H onore Dawnier
67
Honore Dawnier, by Nadar
742
Victor Hugo, by Etienne: Catjat
747
Tools used by Haussmann's workers
134
Interior of the Crystal Palace, London
159
La Caue-ttte-omanie, ou La Fureur du j our
164
The Paris Stock Exchange, mid-nineteenth century
165
The Palais de l'Industrie at the world exhibition of 1855
166
I.e 1'riompht du lcaliidOJcope, ou I.e tombeau dujeu ,hinou
169
Exterior of the Crystal Palace, London
185
Charles Baudelaire, by Nadar
229
The Pont-Neuf, by Charles Meryon
232
Theophile Gautier, by Nadar
L'Artiste et l'amateur du dix-neuuiime Jude
~50
L'Homme de ['art daTU I'mbarras de J01I milia-
751
Alexandre Dumas p(n=, by Nadar
752
L'Etrangomanie hlamie, au D 'Elre R-anrou it n} a pas d'tiffronl
783
Aaualiti, a caricature of the painter Gustave Courhet
792
A barricade of the Paris Commune
794
TIle Fourierist missionary JeanJoumet, by Nadar
813
242
Walter Benjamin consulting the Grand Dictionnaire univu.sel
888
The sewers of Paris, by Nadar
413
Walter Benjamin at the card cataJogue of the Bibliothcque Nationale
889
A Paris omnibus, by Honore Daumier
433
The Passage Choiseul
927
Translators' Foreword
T
he materials assembled in Volume 5 of Walter Benjamin's G~.samm t/tt Schriflm, under the: title DflJ pQJ.kJgen-WerA (first publish ed in 1982), repre
sent researc h that Benjam in carried out, over a period of thirteen years, on
e subject of the Paris arcade s-les pa.ssagt.l-whic h he considered the most important archite ctural form of the ninetee nth cenrury, and which he linked with a numbe r of pheno mena charact eristic of that century's major and minor preoc cupatio ns. A glance at the overvie w preced ing the "Convo lutes" at the center of the work reveals the range of these phenom ena. which extend from the literary and philosophical to the political, econom ic, and technol ogical, with all sorts of
intennediate relations. Benjamin's intention from the first, it would seem, was to grasp such diverse materia l under the general categor y of Urgtsdiich/e, signifyi ng the "primal history '" of the ninetee nth cencury. This was someth ing that could be realized only indirectly, throug h "cunning" : it was not the great men and cele
brated eventS of traditio nal historio graphy but rather the "refuse" and "detriru s n of history, the half-<:oncealed, variega ted traces of the daily life of "the collective,n that was to be the object of study, and with the aid of m ethods more akin-a bove all, in their depend ence on chanc e-to the method s of the ninetee nth-cen tury collecto r of antiqui ties and curiosities, or indeed to the m ethods of the nine teenth- century ragpick er, than to those of the modem historia n. Not conceptu..al anruysis but someth ing like dream interpr etation was the model. The ninetee nth century was the collective dream which we, its heirs, were obliged to reenter, as patiend y and minute ly as possible, in order to follow out its ramific ations and, finally, awaken from it_lbis, at any rate, was how it looked at the outset of the project, which wore a good many faces over time. Begun in 1927 as a planned collabo ration for a newspa per article o n the arcades , the project had quickly burgeo ned under the influen ce of Surreal ism, a movem ent toward which Benjam in always mainta ined a pronow lced ambiva lence. Before long, it was an essay he had in mind, "Parise r Passag en: Eine dialekti sche Feerie n (Paris Arcade s: A Dialectical Fairyla nd), and then, a few years later, a book, Paro, die Hauptsladt du XIX. Jahrhunderts (Paris, the Capital of the Ninete enth Centur y). Fo r som e two-an d-a-hal f years, at the end of the Twenties, having express ed his sense of alienati on from contem porary Germa n writers and his affinity with the French cultura l milieu, Benjam in worked inter mittend y on reams of notes and sketche s, produc ing one shon essay, " Der
Sarumring oder Etwas vom Eisenbau" (The Ring of Saturn, or Some Remarks on Iron Construction), which is included here in the section "Early Drafts." A hiatus of about four years ensued, until, in 1934, Benjamin resumed work on the arcades with an eye to "new and far-reaching sociological perspectives." The scope of the undertaking, the volume of materials collected, was assuming epic proportions, and no less epic was the manifest intenninabili~ ~f the task, which Benjamin pursued in his usual fearless way-~tep by step, nskin~ c:ngulfment beneath the ornamented vaulting of the reading room of the Blbliotheque Na tionale in Paris. Already in a letter of 1930, he refers to Tht AraukJ Projtct as "the theater of all my struggles and all my ideas." In 1935, at the request of his colleagues at the Instirute of Social Research in New York, Benjantin drew up an expose, or documentary synopsis, of the main lines of 1M AraukJ Project.. another expose, based largely on the first but more exclusively theoretical, was written in French, in 1939, in an attempt to interest an American sponsor. Aside from these remarkably concentrate~ essays, an~ ~e brief text "The Ring of Saturn," the entire Arcadu complex (WIthout ddininve tide, to be sure) remained in the form of several hundred notes and rdl.ections of varying length, which Benjamin revised and grouped in sheafs, or "con~lutes," according to a host of topics. Additionally, from the late Twenties on, It ~uld appear, citations were incorporated into these materials-passages drawn mainly from an array of nineteenth-century sources, but also from the works of key contemporaries (Marcel ProUSt, Paul Valery, Louis Aragon, Andre Breton, Georg Simmel, Emst Bloch , Siegfried Kracauer, Theodor Adorno). These proliferating individual passages, extracted from their original context like collectibles, were eventually set up to communicate among themsdves, often in a ra¢.er subterra nean manner. The organized masses of historical objects- the particular items of Benjamin's display (drafts and excerpts)-together give rise to "a world of secret affinities," and each separate article in the collection, each entry, was to constitute a "magic encyclopedia" of the epoch from which it derived. An imagt of that epoch. In the background of this theory of the historical image, constituent of a historical "mirror world," stands the idea of the monad-an idea given its most comprehensive fonnulation in the pages on origin in the prologue to Benjamin's book on German tragic drama, Ursprung tks ckulJchen 7Taumpiels (Origin of the German Trauerspiel)-and back of this the doctrine of the re8ective medium, in its significance for the object, as expounded in Benjamin's 1919 dissertation, "Der BegrifT der Kunstkritik in der deutschen Romantik" (The Concept of Criti· cism in Gennan Romanticism). At bottom, a canon of (nonsensuous) similitude rules the conception of the Arcadts. Was this conception realized? In the text we have before us, is the world of secret affinities in any sense perceptible? Can one even speak of a "world" in the case of a literary fragment? For, since the publication of the PasJagen-WtrR, it has become customary to regard the text which Benjamin himself usually called the Passagenarheit, or just the PaJJag~, as at best a "torso," a monumental fragment or ruin, and at worst a mere notebook, which the author supposedly intended to mine for mon: extended discursive applications (such as the carefully outlined and possibly half
work on it in the spring of 1940, when he was forced to Bee Paris before the advancing Genllan army. Did he leave behind anything more than a large-scale plan or prospectus? No, it is argued, '!ht ArcadeJ Project is JUSt that: the blueprint for an unimaginably massive and labyrinthine architecture-a dream city, in effect. This argument is predicated on the classic distinction between research and application, rorschung and Darsttflung (see, for example, entry N4a,5 in the "Convolutes"), a distinction which Benjamin himself invokes at times. as in a letter to Gershom Scholem of March 3, 1934, where he wonders about ways in which his research on the arcades might be put to use, or in a letter of May 3, 1936, where he tdls Scholem that not a syllable of the actual text (tigenllichen 'text) of the PasJagt1lllrbeil exists yet. In another of his letters to Scholem of this period, he speaks of the future construction of a literary form for this text. Similar statements appear in letters to Adorno and others, Where 1k Arauks Projtct is concerned, then, we may distinguish between various stages of research, more or less advanced, but there is no question of a realized work. So runs the lament. Nevertheless, questions remain, not least as a consequence of the radical stants of "srudy" in Benjamin's thinking (see the Kafka essay of 1934, or Convolute m of the Arcades, "Idleness"). For one thing, as we have indicated, many of the passages of reflection in the "Convolutes" section represent revisions of earlier drafts, notes, or letters. Why revise for a notebook? The fact that Benjamin also transferred masses of quotations from actual notebooks to the manuscript of the convolutes, and the elaborate organization of these cited materials in that manu script (including the use of numerous epigraphs), might likewise bespeak a com positional principle at work in the project, and not just an advanced stage of research. In fact, the montage fonn-with its philosophic play of distances, tran sitions, and intersections, its perperually shifting contexts and ironic juxtaposi tions-had become a favorite device in Benjamin's later investigations; among his major works, we have examples of this in EinbaJmslraJJt (One-Way Street), lhrlitw Kiru1hei1 um N'ronuhnhurukrt (A Berlin Childhood around 1900), "Ober den Begriff der Geschichte" (On the Concept of History), and "Zentralpark" (Central Park). What is distinctive about 1k Arauks Projul-in Benjamin's mind, it always dwelt apart-is the working of quotations intO the framework of montage, so much so that they eventually far outnumber the commentaries. If we now were to regard this ostensible patchwork as, de facto, a determinate literary form, one that has effectively constructed itself (that is, fragmented it sclf), like the JOUf'7UlUX inh'mts of Baudelaire, then surrly there would be sig nificant repercussions for the direction and tempo of its reading, to say the least. TIle transcendence of the conventional book form would go together, in this case, with the blasting apart of pragmatic historicism-grounded, as this always is, on the premise of a continuous and homogeneous temporality. Citation and commentary might then be perceived as intersecting at a thousand different angles, setting up vibrations across the epochs of recent history, so as to effect "the cracking open of natural teleology." And all this would unfold through the medium of hints or "blinks"-a discontinuous presentation deliberately opposed to traditional modes of argument. At any rate, it seems undeniable that despite the infonnal, epistolary aIUlouncements of a "book" in the works, an tigenl/jchtn Buch, the research project had become an end in itself.
Of course, many readers will concur with the German editor of the Pauagtn WerA, Rolf TIedemann, when he speaks, in his essay "'Dialectics at a Standstill" (first published as the introduction to the German edition, and reproduced here in translation), of the "'oppressive chunks of quotations" filling its pages. Part of Benjamin's purpose was to document as concretely as possible, and thus lend a "heightened graphicness" to, the scene of revolutionary change that was the nineteenth century. At issue was what he caJJed the "conunodification of things." He was interested in the unsettling effects of incipient high capitalism on the most intimate areas of life and work-espccially as reBected in the work of an (its composition, its dissemination, its reception). In this "projection of the historical into the intimate," it was a matter not of demonstrating any straightforward cultural "decline," but rather of bringing to light an uncanny sense of crisis and of security, of crisis in security. Particularly from the perspective of the nineteenth century domestic interior, which Benjamin likens to the inside of a mollusk's shell, things were coming to seem more entirely material than ever and, at the same time, more spectral and estranged. In the society at large (and in Baude laire's writing par excellence), an unHinching realism was cultivated alongside a rhapsodic idealism. "This essentially ambiguous situation-one could caJJ it, using the tenn favored by a number of the writers studied in 1M Arcades Projut, "phantasmagoricaJ"-sets the tone for Benjamin's deployment of motifs, for his recurrent topographies, his mobile cast of characters, his gallery of types. For example, these nineteenth-century types (Bineur, collector, and gambler head the list) generally constitute figures in the middle-that is, figures residing within as well as outside the marketplace, between the worlds of money and magic figures on the threshold. H ere, funhermore, in the wakening to crisis (crisis masked by habitual complacency), was the link to present-day concerns. Not the least cunning aspeCt of this historical awakening-which is, at the same time, an awakening to myth-was the critical role assigned to humor, sometimes humor of an infernal kind. "This was one way in which the documentary and the artistic, the sociological and the theological, were to meet head-on. To speak of awakening was to speak of the "afterlife of works," something broUght to pass through the medium of the "'dialectical image." The latter is Benjamin's central tenn, in The Arcade; Project, for the historical object of inter pretation : that which, under the divinatory gaze of the collector, is taken up into the collector's own particular time and place, thereby throwing a pointed light on what has been. ~lcomed into a present moment that semlS to be waiting just for it-"'actualized," as Benjamin likes to say-the moment from the past comes alive as never before. In this way, the "now" is itself experienced as preformed in the "'then," as its distillation- thus the leading motif of "precursors" in the text. The historical object is rebonl as such into a present day capable of receiving it, of suddenly "recognizing" it. "This is the fanlous "now of recognizability" a eht tier ErAennharAe-it), which has the character of a Iighming Bash . In the dusty, cluttered corridors of the arcades, where street and interior are one, .historical time is broken up into kaleidoscopic distractions and momentary come-ons, myriad displays of ephemera, thresholds for the passage of what Gerard de Nerval (in Aurilia) calls "the ghOSts of material things." Here, at a distance from what is nonnally meant by "progress," is the ur-histOrical, collective redemption of lost time, of the rimes embedded in the spaces of things.
The German edition of the Pauagen-Werk contains-besides the two exposes we have mentioned, the long series of convolutes that follow, the "Erste Notizen" (here translated as "Flnlt Sketches") and "Friihe EnlWiirfe" ("Early Drafts") at the end-a ....realth of supplementary material relating to the genesis of 17u Arcades Project. From this textual-oitical apparatus, drawn on for the Translators' Notes, we have extracted three additional sets of preliminary drafts and notations and translated them in the Addenda; we have also reproduced the introduction by the German editOr, Rolfiiedemann, as well as an account of Benjamin's last days written by Lisa Fittko and printed in the original English at the end of the German edition. Omitted from our volume are some 100 pages of excerpts from letters to and from Benjamin, docwnenting the growth of the project (the major ity of these letters appear elsewhere in English); a partial bibliography, compiled by TIedemann, of 850 works cited in the "Convolutes"; and, finally, precise descriptions of Benjamin's manuscripts and manuscript variants (see translators' initial note to the "Convolutes"). In an elTon to respect the unique constitution of these manuscripts, we have adopted Tiedemann's practice of using angle brack ets to indicate editorial insertions into the text. A salient feature of the German edition of Benjamin's "Convolutes" ("'Aufzeiclmungen und Materialien") is the use of two different typefaces: a larger one for his reBections in German and a smaller one for his numerous citations in French and German. According to Tiedemann's introduction, the larger type was used for entries containing significant conunentary by Benjamin. (In "First Sketches," the two different typefaces are used to demarcate canceled passages.) This typographic distinction, designed no doubt for the convenience of readers, although it is without textual basis in Benjamin's manuscript, has been main tained in the English translation. ~ have chosen, however, to use typefaces differing in style rather than in size, so as to avoid the hierarchical implication of the German edition (the privileging of Benjamin's re.8ections over his citations, and, in general, of German over French). What Benjamin seems to have con ceived was a dialectical relation-a fonnal and thematic interfusion of citation and commentary. It is an open, societary relation, as in the protocol to the imaginary world inn (itself an unacknowledged citation from Baudelaire's Paradis artificiels) mentioned in the "Convolutes" atJ75,2. As for the bilingual character of the text as a whole, this has been, if not entirely eliminated in the English-language edition, then necessarily reduced to merely the citation of the original titles of Benjamin's sources. (Previously pub lished translations of these sources have been used, and duly noted, wherever possible; where two or more published translations of a passage are available, we have tried to choose the one best suited to Benjamin's context.) In most cases we have regularized the citation of year and place of book publication, as well as volunle and issue number of periodicals ; bits of infonnation, such as first names, have occasionally been supplied in angle brackets. Otherwise, Benjamin's irregu lar if relatively scrupulous editorial practices have been preserved . As a funher aid to readers, the English-language edition of 1"he Arcades Projut includes an extensive if not exhaustive "Guide to Names and TemlS"; translators' notes intended to help contextualize Benjamin's citations and reflections; and cross-references serving to link particular items in the "FIest Sketches" and "Early Drafts" to corresponding entries in the "Convolutes."
r ~-
[
Translation duties for this edition were divided as follows: Kevin McLaughlin translated the Expose of 1939 and the previously unttanslated French passages in Convolutes A-C, F, H , K, M (second half) , 0 , Q-I, and p-r. Howard Eiland translated Iknjamin's German throughout and was responsible for previously untranslated material in Convolutes D, E, G, I,j , L, M (first half), N, P, and m, as well as for the Translators' Foreword. In conclusion, a word about the translation of Kon uolut. As used for the grouping of the thirty-six alphabetized sections of the PaJJagen manuscript, this tenn, it would seem, derives not from Benjaniln himself but from his friend Adorno (this according to a communication from Rolf Tiedemann, who studied with Adorno). It was Adorno who first sifted through the manuscript of the "Aufzeich nungen und Materia1ien," as Tiedemann later called it, after it had been hidden away by Georges Bataille in the Bibliotheque Nationale de France during the Second \r\brld War and then retrieved and delivered to New York at the end of 1947. In Germany, the term Konvolut has a common philological application: it refers to a larger or smaller assemblage-literally, a bundle-of manuscripts or printed materials that belong together. The noun "convolute" in English means "something of a convoluted form." VW:: have chosen it as the translation of the German term over a number of other possibilities, the most prominent being "folder," "file," and "sheaf." The problem with these more common English terms is that each carries inappropriate connotations, whether of office supplies, computerese, agriculture, or archery. "Convolute" is strange, at least on first acquaintance, but so is Iknjamin's projea and its principle of sectioning. Aside from its desirable closeness to the German rubric, which. we have suggested, is both philologically and historically legitimated, it remains the most precise and most evocative tenn for designating the elaboratdy intertwined coUecuons of "notes and materials" that make up the central division of this most various and colorful ofIknjaminian texts.
The translators are grateful to the National Endowment for the Humanities for a two-year grant in suppon of the translation, and to the Dean of the Graduate School of Brown University, Itder Estrup, for a generous publication subven tion. Special thanks are due Michael W. Jennings for checking the entire manu script of the translation and making many vaJuable suggestions. VW:: are funher indebted to Wmfried Menninghaus and Susan Bernstein for reading portions of the manuscript and offering excellent advice. Rolf Tiedemann kindly and promptly answered our inquiries concerning specific problems. The reviev.'t.TS enlisted by Harvard University Press to evaluate the tranSlation also provided much help with some of the more difficult passages. Other scholars who gener ously provided bibliographic information are named in the relevant Translators' Notes. Our work has greauy benefited at the end from the resourceful , vigilant editing of Maria Ascher and at every stage from the for:esight and discerning judgment of Lindsay Waters.
POSES
Paris, the Capital of the Nineteenth Century
The waters aR blue, the plants pink; the evening is SWttt to look on;
One goes for a walk; the (;ramUs damn go for a walk; behind thc:m stroll the petius tkJ~s. - Nguyen Trong ffiep, Pans, Ulpitak tk fa Frail"; Rtctl ffl ck (Hanoi. 1897), poem 25
IJUJ
I. Fourier, or the Arcades The magic columns of these palaces Show to the amateur on all sides, In the objects their porticos display, That industry is the rival of the am. -
){OU IXIJIIX
Tabkau ck Paris (Paris, 1828), vol. 1, p. Xl
Most of the Paris arcades come intO being in the decade and a half after 1822. The first condition for their emcr~nce is the boom in the textile trade. Magasins de nouveau/h, the first establishments to keep large stocks of merchandise on the premises, make their appearance, I They are the forerulUler5 of department stores. This was the period of which Balzac wrote: "The great poem of display chants its stanzas of color from the Church of the Madeleine to the Fbne Saint IXnis.'" The arcades are a center of commerce in luxury items. In fitting them Out, art enters lhe service of the merchant. Contemporaries never tire of admir ing them, and for a long time they remain a drawing point for foreigners. An
llIuJirated Guide /0 Paris says: "These arcades, a recent invention of industrial luxury, are glass-roofed, marble·paneled corridors extending through whole blocks of buildings, whose owners have joined together for such enterprises. Lining both sides of these corridors, which get their light from above, are the most elegant shops, so that the jJaJJage is a city, a world in miniature." The arcades are the scene of the first gas lighting. The second condition for the emergence of the arcades is the beginning of iron construction. The Empire saw in this technology a contribution to the revival of
architecture in the classical Greek sense. The architectural theorist Boetticher expresses the general view of the matter when he says that, "with regard to the art fonns of the new system, the formal principle of the Hellenic mode" must come to prevail.s Empire is the style of revolutionary terrorism, for which the state is an end in itself. just as Napoleon failed to understand the functional naoore of the state as an instrument of domination by the bourgeois class, so the architects of his time failed to understand the functional nature of iron, with which the constructive principle begins its domination of architecture. These architects design supports resembling Pompeian columns, and factories that imi tate residential houses, just as later the first railroad stations will be modeled on chalets. "Construction plays the role of the subconscious.>U Nevertheless, the concept of engineer, which dates from the revolutionary wars, starts to gain ground, and the rivalry begins between builder and decorator, Ecole Polytech nique and Ecole des Beaux-Arts. For the first time in the history of architecture, an arti6cia1 building materia] appears: iron. It undergoes an evolution whose tempo will accelerate in the COUTSC: of the century. 11tis development enters a decisive new phase when it becomes clear that the locomotive-on which experiments have been conducted since the end of the 1820s-is compatible only with iron tracks. The rail be;. comes the first prefabricated iron component, the precursor of the girder. Iron is avoided in home construction but used in arcades, exhibition halls, train Sta tions-buildings that serve transitory purposes. At the same time, the range of architecrural applications for glass expands, although the social prerequisites for its widened application as building materia] will come to the fore only a hundred years later. In Scheerbart's Glasarchitdtur (1914), it still appears in the COntext of utopia. s
trace in a thousand configurations of life, from enduring edifices to passing fashions. These relations are disttmible in the utopia conceived by Fourier. Its secret cue is the advent of machines. But this fa ct is not directly expressed in the Fourierist literature, which takes, as its point of departure, the amorality of the business world and the false morality enlisted in its service. The pha1anstery is designed to restore human beings to relationships in which morality becomes superfluous. The highly complicated organization of the phaJanstery appears as machinery. The meshing of the passions, the intricate collaboration of j>aJJioru miCIJnute; with the j>aJJion ClJhaJilte, is a primitive contrivance formed-on analogy with the machine-from materials of psychology. This mechanism made of men pro duces the land of milk and honey, the primeval wish symbol that Fourier's utopia has 6l1ed with new life. In the arcades, Fourier saw the architectural canon of the pha1anstery. Their reactionary metamorphosis with him is characteristic: whereas they originally serve commercial ends, they become, for him, places of habitation. The phalan· stery becomes a city of arcades. Fourier establishes, in the Empire's austere world of fonns , the colorful idyll of Biedermeier. Its brilliance persists, however faded, up through Zola, who takes up Fourier's ideas in his book Trauai/, just as he bids farewell to the arcades in his 1lztrt;e Raquin. -Marx came to the defense of Fourier in his critique of Carl Griin, emphasizing the fonner's "colossal concep tion of man.") He also directed attention to Fourier's humor. In fact,jean Paul, in his "Levana," is as closely allied to Fourier the pedagogue as Scheerbart, in his GiaJJ Architecture, is to Fourier the utopian.·
U. Daguerre, or the Panoramas Each epoch dreams the ont: to rouow-.
Sun, look out for yoursdf!
-Michdct, "AvaW-! Avenir!'"
-A.J. WJatt, (hum IiUirafm (Paris. 1870), p. 374
e:om:spo~ding to the form of the new means of production, which in the begin rung IS still ruled by the form of the old (Marx), are images in the collective ~ns~ousnes~ in which the old and the new interpenetrate. These images are h una.ges; In them the collective seeks both to overcome and to transfigure the unmatunty of the social product and the inadequacies in the social organization of production. At the same time, what emerges in these wish images is the resolute effort to distance oneself from all that is antiquated- which includes, however, the recent past. These tendencies deflect the imagination (which is given impetus by the new) back upon the primal past. In the dream in which t'.ach epoch entertains images of its successor, the latter appears \\-edded to elements of primal history
:ns
just as architecture, with the first appearance of iron construction, begins to outgrow art, so does painting, in its rum, with the first appearantt of the pano as . The high point in the diffusion of panoramas coincides with the introdUC-1 Mn of arcades. One sought tirelessly, through technical devices, to make panoramas the scenes of a perfect imitation of nature. An attempt was made to reprodutt the changing daylight in the landscape, the rising of the moon, the rush of waterfalls. gacques·Louis> David counsels his pupils to draw from nature as it is shown in panoramas. In their attempt to produce deceptively lifelike changes in represented naoore, the panoramas prepare the way not only for photography but for film and sound film. Contemporary with the panoramas is a panoramic literaoore. Le Liure de; cent-et-un [TIle Book of a Hundred-and-One], Le; Franrau peinLJ par eux-mime; [The French Painted by Themselves], Le Diab/e a Pari; [TIle Devil in Paris], and La Grande Ville [The Big City] belong to this. Thcse books prepare the belletristic
r:un
-
collaboration for which Girardin, in the 1830s, will create a home in the feuille ton. They consist of individuaJ sketches, whose anecdotal fonn corresponds to the panoramas' plastically arranged foreground , and whose infonnational base corresponds to their painted background. This literature is also sociaJly pano ramic. For the last time, the worker appears, isolated from his class, as part of the setting in an idyll. Announcing an upheaval in the relation of an to technology, panoramas are at the same time an expression of a new attitude toward life. The city dweller, whose political supremacy over the provinces is demonstrated many times in the course of the century, attempts to bring the countryside into town. In panoramas, the city opens out to landscape-as it will do later, in subtler fashion, for the fi1neurs . Daguerre is a srudent of the panorama painter Prevost, whose estab lishment is located in the Passage des Panoramas. Description of the panoramas of Prevost and Daguerre. In 1839 Daguerre's panorama bums down. In the same year, he announces the invention of the daguerreotype. (Fran~ois) Arago presents photography in a speech to the National Assembly. H e assigns it a place in the history of technology and prophesies its scientific applications. On the other side, artists begin to debate its artistic value. Photogra phy leads to the extinction of the great profession of portrait miniarurist. This happens not just for economic reasons. The early photograph was artistically superior to the miniature portrait. The technical grounds for this advantage lie in the long exposure time, which requires of a subject the highest concentration ; the social grounds for it lie in the fact that the first photographers belonged to the avant-garde, from which most of their clientele came. Nadar's superiority to his colleagues is shown by his attempt to take photographs in the Paris sewer system: for the first time, discoveries were demanded of the lens. Its importance becomes still greater as, in view of the new technological and sociaJ reality, the subjective strain in pictoriaJ and graphic infonnation is called into question. The world exhibition of 1855 offers for the first time a speciaJ display called "Photography." In the same year, Wiertz publishes his great article on photogra· phy, in which he defines its task as the philosophical enlightenment of painting.' This "enlightenment" is understood, as his own paintings show, in a political sense. Wiertz can be characterized as the first to demand, if not actually foresee , the use of photographic montage for politica1 agitation. With the increasing \ scope of communications and transport, the infonnational value of painting di minishes. 10 reaction to photography, painting begins to stress the elements of color in the picture. By the time Impressionism yields to Cubism, painting has created for itself a broader domain into which, for the time being, photography cannOt follow. For its part, photography greatly extends the sphere of commodity \ exchange, from mid-century onward, by Hooding the market with countless im ages of figures, landscapes, and events which had previously been available either not at all or only as pictures for individual customers. To increase turnover, I it renewed its subject matter through modish variations in camera technique innovatioHs that will detemline the subsequent history of photography.
Ill. G r andville, o r the World Exhibitio ns "'lb. when all the world from Paris to China Pays heed to your doctrine, 0 divine Saint-Simon, The glorious Golden Age will be reborn. Rivers will Bow with chocolate and tea, Sheep roasted whole will frisk on the plain, And sauteed pike will swim in the Seine. Fricassttd spinach will grow on the ground, Garnished with crushed fried croutons; The trees will bring forth apple compotes, And fanners will harvest boots and coau. It will snow wine, it will rain chickens, And duds cooked with turnips will fall from the sky. _~
and Vanderburdt, u,uis-Brottu d k Saillt-Sinwnicz (lbUu-e du Pa!ais·Royal, February 27, 1832)10
" "
\r\brld exlubitions are places of pilgrimage to the commodity fetish. "Europe is off to view the merchandise," says Taine in 1855. 11 The world exhibitions are preceded by national exhibitions of industry, the first of which takes place on the Champ de Mars in 1798. It arises from the wish "to entertain the working classes, and it becomes for them a festival of emancipation."12 The worker occupies the foreground, as customer. The framework of the entertainment industry has not yet taken shape; the popular festival provides this. Chapw's speech on industry opens the 1798 exhibition.-The Saint-5imonians, who envision the industriali zation of the earth, take up the idea of world exhibitions. Chevalier, the first authority in the new field, is a student of Enfantin and editor of the Saint Simonian newspaper I.e Globe. The Saint-5imonians anticipated the development of the global economy, but not the class snuggle. Next to their active participa tion in industrial and commercial enterprises around the middJe of the cenmry stands their helplessness on all questions concerning the proletariat. \\brld exhibitions glorify the exchange vaJue of the commodity. They create a framework in which its use value recedes intO the background. They open a phantaSmagoria which a person enters in order to be distracted. The entertain ment industry makes this easier by elevating the person to the level of the commodity. H e surrenders to its manipulations while enjoying his alienation from himself and others.- The enthronement of the commodity, with its luster of distraction, is the secret theme of Grandville's art. This is consistent with the split between utopian and cynica.1 elements in his work. Its ingenuity in repre senting inanimate objects corresponds to what Marx ca1Is the "theological nice ties" of the commodity.13 They are manifest clearly in the spiciaJili--a category of goods which appears at this time in the luxuries industry. Under Grandvill~'s pencil, the whole of nature is transfonned into specialties. He presents them 10 the same spirit in which the advertisement (the tenn ric/arne also originates at this point) begins to present its articles. He ends in madness.
Fashion: "Madam Death! Madam Deathl" - Leopardi, KOialogue: bcl....'CCn Fashion alld Dc:ath~ "
\r\Qrld t:xhibitions propag ate the universe of commodities. Grandville's fantasies confer a commo dity charact er on the universe. They modern ize it. Saturn's ring becomes a cast-iron balcony on which the inhabit ants of Saturn take the evening air. The literary counter part to this graphic utopia is found in the books of the Fourierist naturalist Tousse nel.-Fa shion prescribe! the ritual accordi ng to which the commo dity fetish demand s to be worshipped. Grandv ille extends the author ity of fashion to objects of everyda y use, as well as to the cosmos. In taking it to an extrem e, he reveals its nature. Fashion stands in opposit ion to the organic. It couples the living body to the inorgan ic world. To the living, it defends the rights of the corpse. The fetishism that succumbs to the sex appeal of the inorgan ic is its vital nerve. The cult of the commo dity presses such fetishism into its service . For the Paris world t:xhibition of 1867, Victor Hugo issues a manifes to: "To the Peoples of Europe .n Earlier, and more unequiv ocally, their interest s had been champi oned by delegations of French worker s, of which the first had been sent to the London world exhibit ion of 1851 and the second , numbe ring 750 delegates, to that of 1862. The latter delegation was of indirect importa nce for Marx's foundin g of the Interna tional \r\brkin gmen's Association.- The phantas magori a of capitalist culrure attains its most radiant unfoldi ng in the world exhibit ion of 1867. The Second Empire is at the height of its power. Paris is acknow ledged as the capital of luxury and fashion. Offenb ach sets the rhytlun of Parisian life. The operett a is the ironic utopia of an endurin g reign of capital.
impinge 011 social ones. In the: formati on of his private environ ment, both are kept out. From this arise the phantas magori as of the interior- which, for the private man, represents the universe. In the interior, he brings togethe r the far away and the long ago. His living room is a box in the theater of the world. Excursus on Jugend stil. The shatteri ng of the interior occurs viaJuge ndstil around the tum of the century. Of course, according to its own ideolog y, the Jugend stil movem ent seems to bring with it the co":,wn mation the. inte.n~r. The transfiguration of the solitary soul appears to be Its goal. indIVId ualism IS Its theory. With van de Velde, the house becomes an expression of the personality. Ornam ent is to this house what the signature is to a painting. But the real meanin g of Jugend stil is not expressed in this ideology. It represe nts the last attempt ed sortie of an art besieged in its ivory tower by technology. This attempt mobilizes all the reserves of inwardness. They find their expression in the medi wnistic language of the line, in the Hower as symbol of a naked vegetal nature confron ted by the technologically anned world. The new elements of iron con structio n-gird er forms- preocc upyJug endstil .1n orname nt, it endeav ors to win back these forms for art. Concre te presents it with new possibilities for plastic creation in architecture. Around this time, the real gravitational center of living space shifts to the office. The irrca1 center makes its place in the home. The consequences ofJugen dstil are depicted in Ibsen's MtzJter Buikkr: the attemp t by the individual, on the strengt h of his inward ness, to vie with technol ogy leads to his downfall.
.0:
I be:lieve ... in my soul: the lbing.
IV. Loui8 Philip pe, or the Interio r The head ... On the: night table, like a ranunculus,
Rests. - Baudc:lain:, KUne: Manyn:~l$
Under Louis Philippe, the private individual makes his entranc e on the stage of history. The expans ion of the democr atic apparat us through a new electoral law coincides with the parlian u:ntary comlpt ion organit ed by Guttot. Under cover of this cOmlpt ion, the ruling class makes history ; that is, it pursues its affairs. It funhers railway constru ction in order to improv e its stock holdings. It promot es the reign of Louis Philippe as that of the private individual managi ng his affairs. With theJuly Revolu tion, the bourgeoisie realized the goals of 1789 (Marx). For the private individual, the place of dwelling is for the first time oppose d to the place of "'Ork. The former constitutes itself as the interior. Its comple ment is the office. The private individual, who in the office has to deal with reality, needs the domestic interior to sustain him in his illusions. This necessity is all the more pressing since he has no intentio n of allowing his commercial consi~e rations to
- Uoll Dc:ubc:l, Ont/lffl (Paris. 1929), p. 193
The interior is the asylwn of an. The collector is the true resident of the interior. He makes his concern the transfiguration of things. To him falls the Sisyphe an task of divesting things of their commo dity charact er by taking possess ion of them. But he bestows on them only connoi sseur value, rather than use value. The collector dreams his way not only into a distant or bygone world but also into a better one-o ne in which, to be sure, human beings are no better provide d with what they need than in the everyda y world, but in which things are freed from the drudge ry of being useful. The interior is not just the universe but also the eM of the private individual. To dwell means to leave traces. In the interior, these are accentuated. Coverlets and antimacassars, cases and containers are devised in abunda nce; in these, the traces of the most ordinar y objects of use are imprint ed. In just the same way, the traces of the inhabit ant are imprinted in the interior. Enter the detectiv e story, which pursues these traces. Fbe, in his "Philosophy of Fumiru re n as well as in his detective fi ction, shows himself to be the first physiognomist of the domest ic interior. The criminals in early detective novels are neither gentlem en nor apaches, but private citizens of the middle class.
V. Baudelaire. or the Streets of Paris Everything becomes an allegory for me. -Baudelairc, ~Lc Cygne~ 16
'0
!
Baudelaire's genius, which is nourished on melancholy, is an allegorical geni~. For the first time, with Baudelaire, Paris becomes the subject of lyric poetry. This poetry is no hymn to the homeland; rather, the gaze of the allegorist, as it falls on the city, is the gaze of the alienated man. It is the gaze of ~e Saneur, ~hose way of life still conceals behind a mitigating nimbus the conung desolabOn of the big-city dweller. The Baneur still stands on the threshold~of ~e metropolis as of the middle class. Neither has him in its power yet. In neither 15 he at home. He seeks refuge in the crowd. Early contributions to a physiognomi~ of the ~~d are found in Engels and Poe. The crowd is the veil through which the familiar city beckons to the flineur as phantaSmagoria-now a landscape, now a. ~m. Both become elements of the department store, which makes use of Banene Itself to sell goods. The departtnent store is the last promenade for the San:ur. In the flineur, the intelligentsia sets foot in the marketplace-ostensibly to look around but in truth to find a buyer. In this intennediate stage, in which it still has patrons'but is already beginning to familiarize itself with the market, it appears as the hoMme. To the uncertainty of its economic position corresponds the uncer tainty of its political function. The latter is manifest n:o~t. ~learly in the ~~f~ siona! conspirators, who all belong to the hoMme. ThetT nutial field of aCtlVl~ IS the anny; later it becomes the petty bourgeoisie, occasi0n.a.tIy th~ proletanat. Nevertheless, this group views the true leaders of the proletanat as Its advers.ary. The Communist Manifesto brings their political existence to an end. Baudelarre's poetry draws its strength from the rebellious pathos of this class. He sides with the asocial. He realizes his only sexual corrununion with a whore.
Easy the way that leads into Avemus. -vrrgil, 1M Aroeid' l
It is the unique provision of Baudelaire's poetry that the image of the woman and the image of death intermingle in a third: that of Paris. The Paris o~his poems is a sunken city, and more submarine than subterranean. The chthoruc ~ements of the city-its topographic fonnations, the old abandoned bed of the Serne-have evidendy found in him a mold. Decisive for Baudelaire in the "death-frau.ght idyll" of the city, however, is a social, a modem substrate. The modem 15 a principal accent of his poetry. A:s spl~en.' it fractu~. the i~eal ("~pleen et ideal"1' But precisely the modem, la moderlllti, IS always cIWlg pnmal history. Here, ~ occurs through the ambiguity peculiar to the social relations and products of this epoch. Ambiguity is the manifest imaging of dialectic, the law of dialectics at a standstill. This standstill is utopia and the dialectical image, therefore, dream image. Such an image is afforded by the commodity per se: as fetish. Such an image is presented by the arcades, which are house no less th~ street. Such an image is the prostitute- seller and sold in one.
I travel in order to get to know my geography. - Note of a madman, in Man:cl R~a. Uri ,lin lufous (Paris, 1907). p. 13 1 TIle last poem of U s F/eurs du mal: "Lc Voyage.'" "Death, old admiral, up anchor now." The last journey of the Saneur: death. Its destination: the new. "Deep in the Unknown to find the new!"''' Newness is a quality independent of the use value of the commodity. It is the origin of the illusory appearance that belongs inalienably to images produced by the collective unconscious. It is the quintes sence of that false consciousness whose indefatigable agent is fashion. 'Ibis sem blance of the new is reSected, like one mirror in another, in the semblance of the ever recurrent. The product of this reSection is the phantaSmagoria of "cu1tural history," in which the bourgeoisie enjoys its false consciousness to the full. The art that begins to doubt its taSk and ceases to be "inseparable from <••• ) utility" {Baudelaire)'9must make novelty into its highest value. The arbiter novarum rerum for such an art becomes the snob. He is to art what the dandy is to fashion.-Just as in the seventeenth century it is allegory that becomes the canon of dialectical images, in the nineteenth century it is novelty. Newspapers Sourish, along with magasins de nouveautb . The press organizes the market in spirirual values, in which at first there is a boom. Nonconformists rebel against consigning art to the marketplace. They rally round the banner of ['art pour /'art. From this watchword derives the conception of the "total work of art"-the Gesamtkunstwerk-which wou1d seal art off from the developments of teclmology. The solemn rite with which it is celebrated is the pendant to the distraction that transfigures the com modity. Both abstract from the social existence of human beings. Baudelaire succumbs to the rage for Wagner.
VI. Haussmann, or the Barricades I venerate the Beautiful, the Good, and all things great; Beautiful nature, on which great art restsHow it enchants the ear and channs the eye! I love spring in blossom: women and roses. - Baron Haussmann, OJ'!foJSilJ1l d'un filln dnJrou uirox'llJ
The Howery realm of decorations, The chann of landscape, of architecture, And all the effect of scenery rest Solely on the law of perspective. - Franz BOhle, 'llItal"- Caltchism uJ (Munich), p. 74
Haussmann's ideal in city planning consisted of long perspectives down broad straight thoroughfares. Such an ideal corresponds to the tendency-corrunon in the nineteenth century-to ennoble teclUlological necessities through artistic ends. The instirutions of the bourgeoisie's worldly and spirirual dominance were to find their apotheosis within the framework of the boulevards. Before their completion, boulevards were draped across with canvas and unveiled like monu
ments.-Haussmann's acnvtty is linked to Napoleonic imperialism. Louis Napoleon promotes invesnnent capital, and Paris experiences a rash of specula tion. Trading on the stock exchange displaces the fonus of gambling handed down from feudal society. The phantasmagorias of space to which the Raneur devotes himself find a counterpart in the phantasmagorias of time to which the gambler is addicted. Gambling converts time into a narcotic.
o Republic, by foiling their plots, \bur great Medusa face Ringed by red lightning. - \\brkc:rs' sOllg from about 1850, in Adolf Stahr, Zwei M01U/le ;1I Pam (Oldenburg, 1851 ), vol. 2, p. 1992:1
The barricade is resurrected during the CommWle. It is stronger and better secured than ever. It stretches across the great boulevards, often reaching a height of two stories, and shields the trenches behind it. J ust as the Communist Mani.fos/o ends the age of professional conspirators, so the Commune puts an end to the phantasmagoria holding sway over the early years of the proletariat. It dispels the illusion that the task of the proletarian revolution is to complete the work of 1789
hand in hand with the bourgeoisie. This illusion dominates the period 183 1 1871, from the Lyons uprising to the Commune. The bourgeoisie never shared in this error. Its battle against the social rights of the proletariat dates back to the great Revolution, and converges with the philanthropic movement that gives it cover and that is in its heyday under Napoleon III. U nder his reign, this move ment's monumental work appears: Le Play's Ouun"ers europ(rns [European "\-\brk ers].:lfi Side by side with the concealed position of philanthropy, the bourgeoisie has always maintained openly the position of class warfare.:n As early as 1831 , in the Journal de; dibau, it acknowledges that "every manufacturer lives in his factory like a plantation owner among his slaves." If it is the misfonune of the worke~' rebellions of old that no theory of revolution directs their course, it is also this absence of theory that, from another perspective, makes possible their spontaneous energy and the enthusiasm with which they set about establishing a new society. TIlls enthusiasm, which reaches its peak in the Commune, wins over to the working class at times the best elements of the bourgeoisie, but leads it in the end to succumb to their worst elements. Rimbaud and Courbet declare their suppon for the Commune. The burning of Paris is the worthy conclusion to Haussmann's work of destruction. My good father had been in Paris. -Karl Gutzkow, Briefl aIlS Paro (Leipzig, 1842), vol. I, p. 58
Balzac was the first to speak of the ruins of the bourgeoisie.~8 But it was Surreal ism that first opened our eyes to them. The development of the forces of produc tion shattered the wish symbols of the previous century, even before the monuments representing them had collapsed . In the nineteenth century this development worked to emancipate the fonus of consnuction from art,just as in the sixteenth century the sciences freed themselves from philosophy. A start is made with architecture as engineered consnuction. Then comes the reproduc tion of nature as photography. The creation of fantasy prepares to become prac ticaJ as commercial art. Literature submits to montage in the feuilleton. All these products are on the point of entering the market as commodities. But they linger on the threshold. From this epoch derive the arcades and in/in"eurs, the exhibition halls and panoramas. They are residues of a dream world. The realization of dream elements, in the course of waking up, is the paradigm of dialecticaJ think ing. Thus, dialectical thinking is the organ of historical awakcning. Every epoch, in fact , not only dreams the one to follow but, in dreaming, precipitates its awakening. It bears its end within itself and unfolds it-as Hegel already no ticed-by cunning. With the destabilizing of the market economy, .....e begin to recognize the monuments of the bourgeoisie as ruins even before they have crumbled.
Paris, Capital of the Nineteenth Century Expose
mann and its manifest expression in his transfonnations ofParis.-Nevertheless, the pomp and the splendor with which commodity-producing society surrounds itself, as well as its illusory sense of security, are nOt immune to dangers; the collapse of the Second Empire and the Commune of Paris remind it of that. In the same period, the most dreaded adversary of this society, Blanqui, revealed to it, in his last piece of writing, the terrifying features of this phantasmagoria. Humanity figures there as damned. Everything new it could hope for tums out to be a reality that has always been present; and this newness will be as little capable of furnishing it with a liberating solution as a new fashion is capable of rejuvenating society. Blanqui's cosmic speculation conveys this lesson: that hu manity will be prey to a mythic anguish so long as phantasmagoria occupies a place in it.
Inl rodu ction History is likeJanus; it has two faces. Whether it loolu at the put or at the prc:sc:nt, it sees the same things. -Maxim~
Ou Camp. Pam, vol. 6, p. 315
The subject of this book is an illusion expressed by Schopenhauer in the reUaw ing formula : to sdze the essence of history, it suffices to compare Herodotus and the morning newspaper.l What is expressed hen: is a Ceding of vertigo charac teristic of the nineteenth century's conception of history. It corresponds to a viewpoint according to which the course of the world is an endless series of facts congealed in the form of things. The characteristic residue of this conception is what has been called the "History of Civilization," which makes an inventory, point by point. of humanity's life fonns and creations. The riches thus amassed in the aerarium of civilization henceforth appear as though identified for all time. This conception of history minimizes the fact that such riches owe not omy their existence but also their transmission to a constant effon of society-an elTon, moreover, by which these riches are strangely altered. Our investigation proposes to show how, as a consequence of this reifying representation of civilitation, the new fonns of behavior and the new economically and technologically based creations that we owe to the nineteenth century enter the universe of a phantas magoria. These creations undergo this "illumination" not only in a theoretical manner, by an ideological transposition, but also in the immediacy of their per ceptible presence. They are manifest as phantasmagorias. Thus appear the ar cades-first entry in the field of iron construction; thus appear the world exhibitions, whose link to the entenairuncnt industry is significant. Also included in this order of phenomena is the experience of the £Iineur, who abandons himself to the phantasmagorias of the marketplace. Corresponding to these: phantasmagorias of the market, where people appear only as types, are the phantasmagorias of the interior, which are constituted by man's imperious need to leave the imprint of his private individual existence on the rooms he inhabits. As for the phantasmagoria of civilization itself, it found its champion in H auss
A. Fourier, o r t be Arcad es
I The magic columns of these palau Show to enthusiasts from all pans, With the objects their porticos display, 1bat industry is the rival of the am. - NoUIWQI/It 'T"ableQI/X de PQm (Puis, 1828), p. Xl
Most of the Paris arcades are built in the fifteen years following 1822. The first condition for their development is the boom in the textile trade. Magasiru de nouveoutis, the first establishments to keep large stocks of merchandise on the premises, make their appearance. They are the forerunners of department stores. TIlls is the period of which Balz.ac writes: "The great poem of display chants its stanzas of color from the Church of the Madeleine to the Porte Saint-Denis." The arcades are centers of commerce in luxury items. In fitting them out, art enters the service of the merchant. Contemporaries never tire of admiring them. For a long time they remain an attraction for tourists. An Illustrated Guide to Paris says: "These arcades, a recent invention of industrial luxury, are glass-roofed, marble paneled corridors extending through whole blocks of buildings, whose owners have joined together for such enterprises. Lining both sides of the arcade, which gets its light from above, are the most elegant shops, so that the passage is a city, a world in miniature." The arcades are the scene of the first attempts at gas
lighting. The second condition for the emergence of the arcades is the beginning of iron construction. Under the Empire, this technology was seen as a contribution to the revival of architecrure in the classical Greek sense. The architectural theorist Boetticher expresses the general view of the matter when he says that, "with regard to the art fonos of the new system, the Hellenic mode" must come to prevail. The Empire style is the style of revolutionary terrorism, for which the state is an end in itself. J ust as Napoleon failed to understand the functional
nature of the state as an insuument of domination by the bourgeoisie, so the architects of his time failed to understand the functional nature of iron, with which the constructive principle begins its domination of architecture. Th~ architects design SUppolU resembling Fbmpcian columns, and factories that imi tate residential houses, just as later the firSt railroad stations will assume the look of chalets. Construction plays the role of the subconscious. Nevertheless, the concept of engineer, which dates from the revolutionary wars, starts to gain ground, and the rivalry begins between builder and decorator, Ecole Fblytech nique and Ecole des Beaux-Arts.-For the first time since the Romans, a new artificial building material appears : iron. It will undergo an evolutio n whose pace will accelerate in the course of the cennny. This development enters a decisive new phase when it becomes clear that the locomotive-object of the most diverse experiments since the years 1828-1829-usefully functions only on iron rails. The rail becomes the first prefabricated iron component, the precursor of the girder. Iron is avoided in ho me construction but used in arcades, exhibition halls, train stations-buildings that serve transitory purposes.
II It i.! easy to understand that every IIWS·type "interest" which asserts itsclfhistorically goes far beyond its real limits in the "idea" or "imagination," when it firSt comes on the scene.
Pericles could already have undertaken it.", The arcades, which o riginally were designed to serve commercial ends, become dwelling places in Fourier. The phalanstery is a city composed of arcades. In this ville en pa.uages, the engineer's constrUction takes on a phantasmagorical character. The "city of arcades" is a dream that will Chaml the fancy of Parisians well into the second half of the cenrury. As late as 1869, Fourier's "street-galleries" provide the blueprint for Moilin's Paris en l'an 2000.' H ere the city assumes a structure that makes it- with its shops and apartments-the ideal backdrop fo r the fueur. Marx took a stand against Carl CrUn in order to defend Fourier and to accentuate his "colossal conception of man.") He considered Fourier the only man besides H egeJ to have revealed the essential mediocrity of the petty bour· geois. The systematic overcoming of this type in H egel corresponds to its humor ous annihilation in Fourier. One of the most remarkable features of the Fourierist utOpia is that it never advocated the exploitation of narure by man, an idea that became widespread in the following period. Instead, in Fourier, technology ap pears as the spark that ignites the powder of nature. Perhaps this is the key to his strange representation of the phalanstery as propagating itself "by explosion." The later conception of man's exploitation of nature reflects the actual exploita tion of man by the owners of the means of production. If the integration of the technological into social life failed, the fault lies in this exploitation.
- Marx and Engels, Die Mi/itt Nmiliil
B. Grandville, or the World Exhibitions
The secret cue for the Fourierist utopia is the advent of machines. The phalan stery is designed. to restore human beings to a system of relationships in which morality becomes superfiuous. Nero, in such a context, would become a more useful member of society than Fenelon. Fourier does not dream of relying on virtue for this; rather, he relies on an efficient functioning of society, whose motive forces are the passions. In the gearing of the passio ns, in the complex meshing of the pa.ssi()TU micanistes with the pa.s.sion cobo.liste, Fourier imagines the collective psychology as a clockwork mechanism. Fourierist hannony is the nec essary product of this combinatory play. Fourier introduces into the Empire's world of austere fonos an idyll colored by the style of the 1830s. H e devises a system in which the products of his colorful vision and of his idiosyncratic treatment of numbers blend together. Fourier's "harmonies" are in no way akin to a mystique of numbers taken from any other traditio n. They are in fact direct outcomes of his own pronouncements-lucubra tions of his organizational imagination, which was very highly developed. Thus, he foresaw how significant meetings 'would becom e to the citizen. For the phalan· stery's inhabitants, the day is organized nOt around the home but in large halls sinlilar to those of the Stock Exchange, where meetings are arranged by brokers. In the arcades, Fourier recognittd the arc.hitecrural canon of the phalanstery. TIils is what distinguishes the "empire" character of his utopia, which Fourier himself naively acknowledges: "111e societarian state will be all the more brilliant at its inception for having been so long deferred . C rttce in the age of Solon and
I 'b, when all the world from Paris to China Pays heed to your doctrine, 0 divine Saint-Simon, "The glorious Golden Age will be: reborn. Rivers will flow with chocolate and tea, Sheep roasted whole will frisk on the plain, And sauteed pike will swim in the Seine. Fricasseed spinach will grow on the ground, Garnished with crushed fried croutons; The trees will bring forth apple compotes, And fanners will harvest boots and coats. It will snow wine, it will rain chickens, And ducks cooked with turnips will fall from the sky. -Langl~
a.nd Vandcrburch, lAuis-Bro"u (I k Sai"I·Sim(l"irn (Thlitrc du Palais· Royal. February 27, 1832)
WOrld exhibitions are places of pilgrimage to the commodity fetis h. "Europe is ofT LO view lhe merchandise," says Taine in 1855.6 The world exhibitions were preceded by national exhibitions of industry, the first of which took place on the C hamp de Mars in 1798. It arose from the wish "to entertain the working classes, and it becomes for thenl a festival of emancipation."1 The workers would consti tute their first clientele. The frame ......o rk of the entertairunent industry has not yet taken shape ; the popular festival provides this. Chaptal's celebrated speech on
industry opens the 1798 exhibition.-The Saint-Simonians, who envision the industrialization of the eaM, take up the idea of world exhibitions. C hevalier, the first authority in this new field, is a student of Enfantin and editor of the Saint Simonian newspaper i.e Globe. The Saint-Simonians anticipated the development of the global economy, but not the class struggle. Thus, we see that despite their participation in industrial and conunercia1 enterprises around the middle of the cenrury, they were helpless on all questions concerning the proletariat. ~rld exhibitions glorify the exchange value of the conunodity. They create a framework in which its use value becomes secondary. They are a school in which the masses, forcibly excluded from consumption, are imbued with the exchange value of conunodities to the point of identifying with it: "Do not touch the items on display." ~r1d exhibitions thus provide access to a phantasmagoria which a person enters in order to be distracted. Within these divertWmlt:TIts, to which the individual abandons himself in the framework of the entertainment industry, he remains always an dement of a compact mass. This mass delights in amusement parks-with their roller coasters, their "twisters," their "caterpillars"-in an atti· tude that is pure reaction. It is thus led to that state of subjection which propa ganda, industrial as well as political, relies on.-The enthronement of the conunodity, with its glitter of distractions, is the secret theme of Grandville's art. Whence the split between its utopian and cynical elements in his work. The subtle artifices with which it represents inanimate objects correspond to what Marx. calls the "theological niceties" of the conunodity.' The concrete expression of this is clearly found in the spiciaJiti-a category of goods which appears at this time in the luxuries industry. WOrld exhibitions construct a universe of spiciaJitiJ. The fantasies of Grandville achieve the same thing. They modernize the uni verse. In his work, the ring of Sarum becomes a cast-iron balcony on which the inhabitants of Saturn take the evening air. By the same token, at world exhibi· tions, a balcony of cast·iron would represent the ring of Sarum, and people who venture out on it would find themselves carried away in a phantasmagoria where they seem to have been transformed intO inhabitants of Sarum. The literary counterpart to this graphic utopia is the work of the Fourierist savant Toussenel. Toussenel was the narural-sciences editor for a JX>pular newspaper. His zoology classifies the animal world according to the rule of fas hion. H e considers woman the intemlediary between man and the animals. She is in a sense the decorator of the animal world, which, in exchange, places at her feet its plumage and its furs. "The lion likes nothing better than having its nails trimmed, provided it is a pretty girl that widds the scissors.'"
narure. It couples the living body to the inorganic world. To the living, it defends the rights of the corpse. The fetishism which thus succumbs to the sex appeal of the inorganic is its vital nelVe. The fantasies of Grandville correspond to the spirit of fashion that Apollinaire later described with this image: "Any material from narure's domain can now be introduced into the composition of women's clothes. I saw a channing dress made of corks.... Steel, wool, sandstone, and files have suddenly entered the vestmentary arts. . . . They're doing shoes in Venetian glass and hats in Baccarat crystal."l!
C. Louis Philippe, or the Interior I I believe ... in my soul: the 1lUng. -Uon Deubel, CInnnu (Paris, 1929). p. 193
Under the reign of Louis Philippe, the private individual makes his en~ into history. For the private individual, places of d...."Clling are for the first rune op- posed to places of work. The former come to constirute the interior. Its comple· ment is the office. (For its part, the office is distinguished clearly from the shop counter, which, with its globes, wall maps, and railings, looks like a relic of the baroque forms that preceded the rooms in taday's residences.) The private indi vidual, who in the office has to deal with realities, needs the domestic interior to sustain him in his illusions. This necessity is all the more pressing since he has no intention of grafting onto his business interests a clear perception of his social function. In the arrangement of his private surrounding!, he suppresses both of these concerns. From this derive the phantasmagorias of the interior-which, for the private individual, represents the universe. In the interior, he bring! together remote locales and memories of the past. His living room is a box in the theater of the world. The interior is the asylum where art takes refuge. The collector proves to be the true resident of the interior. He makes his concern the idealization of objects. To him falls the Sisyphean task of divesting things of their conunoclity character by taking possession of them. But he can bestow on them only conno~ur value, rather than use value. The collector delights in evoking a world that 15 not just distant and long gone but also better-a world in which, to be sure, h~ beings are no better provided with what they need than in the real world, but m which things are freed from the drudgery of being useful.
II Fashion: "Madam Death! Madam Death!"
II
- Leopard!, ~Dialoguc between Fa.d uon and Ocalh~!'
The head . On the night table, like a ranunculus,
Fashion prescribes the rirual according to which the commodity fetish demands to be worshipped. Grandville extends the authority of fashion to objects of everyday use, as well as to the cosmos. In taking it to an extreme, he reveals its
""~.
The interior is not just the universe of the private individual; it is also his eM. Ever since the time of Louis Philippe, the bourgeois has shown a tendency to compensate for the absence of any trace of private life in the big city. He tries to do this within the four walls of his apartment. It is as ifhe had made it a point of honor not to allow the traces of his everyday objects and accessories to get lost. Indefatigably, he takes the impression of a host of objects; for his slippers and his watches, his blankets and his umbrellas, he devises coverlets and cases. He has a marked preference for velour and plush, which preserve the imprint of all con tact. In the style characteristic of the &cond Empire, the apartment becomes a sort of cockpit. The traces of its inhabitant are molded into the interior. Hue is the origin of the detective story, which inquires into these traces and follows these tracks. Poe-with his "Philosophy of Furniture" and with his "new detectives" becomes the first physiognomist of the domestic interior. The criminals in early detective fiction are neither gentlemen nor apaches, but simple private citizens of the middle class ("The Black Cat," "The Tell-Tale H eart," "Wtlliam Wtlson") .
III This seeking for my home ... was myafBiction.... Where is nry home? I ask and seek and have sought for it; I have not found it. -Nicwdle, AiH Jprad! ,Qrath/I.Jtra1 3
The liquidation of the interior took place during the last years of the nineteenth century, in the work ofJugendstil, but it had been coming for a long time. The art of the interior was an art of genre.Jugendstil sounds the death knell of the genre. It rises up against the infatuation of genre in the name of a mol du Jude, of a perpetually open·armed aspiration. Jugendstil for the first time takes into consid eration certain tectonic forms. It also strives to disengage them from their func tional relations and to present them as natural constants ; it saives, in shon, to stylize them. The new elements of iron construction-especially the girder command the attention of this "modem style." In the domain of ornamentation, it endeavors to integrate these fonus into an. Concrete puts at its disposal new potentialities for architecture. With van de VeJde, the house becomes the plastic expression of the personality. Ornament is to this house what the signature is to a painting. It exults in speaking a linear, mediumistic language in which the 80wer, symbol of vegetal life, insinuates itself into the very lines of construction. (Ibe curved line ofJugendstil appears at the same time as the title U J Fll!llrJ du mal. A SOrt of garland marks the passage from the "Flowers of Evil" to the "souls of flowers " in Odilon Redon and on to Swann's ./airt: talleya. )'4-Henceforth, as Fourier had foreseen, the true framework for the life of the private citizen must be sought increasingly in offices and commercial centers. The 6ctiona1 framewo rk for the individual's life is constituted in the private home. It is thus that The Ma.;ler Builder takes the measure ofJugendstil. The attempt by the individual to vie with tecllllology by relying on his ulller Sights leads to his downfall : the architect SohlesS kills himself by plunging from his tower. IS
D. Baudelaire, or tbe Streets of Parie I
Everything for me becomes aUegory. - Baudelaire. MLc CygneWl6
Baudelaire's genius, which feeds on melancholy, is an allegorical genius. With Baudelaire, Paris becomes for the first time the subject of lyric poetry. 1hls poetry of place is the opposite of all poetry of the soil The gaze which the allegorical genius turns on the city betrays, instead, a profound alienation. It is the gaze of the 8aneur, whose way of life conceals behind a beneficent mirage the anxiety of the future inhabitants of our metropolises. The 8aneur seeks refuge in the crowd. The crowd is the veil through which the familiar city is rransfonned for the 8aneur into phantasmagoria. This phantasmagoria, in which the city appears now as a landscape, now as a room. seems later to have inspired the decor of department stores, which thus put Binerie to work for profit. In any case, department stores are the last precincts of 8anerie. In the person of the 8!neur, the intc:lligentsia becomes acquainted with the marketplace. It surrenders itself to the market, thinking merely to look around; but in fact it is already seeking a buyer. In this intennediate stage, in which it still has patrons but is starting to bend to the demands of the market (in the guise of the feuilleton), it constirutes the bohnne. The uncertainty of its economic position corresponds to the ambiguity of its political function. The latter is manifest especially clearly in the figures of the professional conspirators, who are reauitc:d from the hohhM. Blanqui is the most remarkable representative of this class. No one else in the nineteenth cenrury had a revolutionary authority comparable to his. The image of Blanqui passes like a Bash of lightning through Baudelaire's "Litanies de Satan." Nevertheless, Baudelaire's rebellion is always that of the asocial man: it is at an impasse. The only sexual communion of his life was with a prostirute.
II They were the same, had risen from the same hell, These centenarian twins. -Bauddaire, MLes Sqx Vic:illanh RI7
The 8aneur plays the role of scout in the marketplace. flu such, he is also the explorer of the crowd. Within the man who abandons himself to it, the crowd inspires a sort of drunkenness, one accompanied by very specific illusions: the man 8atters himself that, on seeing a passerby swept along by the crowd, he has accurately classified him, seen straight through to the innermost recesses of his soul-all on the basis of his external appearance. Physiologies of the time abound in evidence of this singular conception. Balzac's work provides excellent examples. The typical characters seen in passersby make such an impression on
the senses that one cannot be surprised at the ~ultant curiosity to go beyond them and capture the special singularity of each person. But the nighunare that corresponds to the illusory perspicacity of the aforementioned physiognomist consists in seeing those distinctive traits- traits peculiar to the person-revealed to be nothing more than the elements of a new type; so that in the finaJ analysis a person of the greatest individuality would turn out to be the exemplar of a type. TIlls points to an agonizing phantasmagoria at the heart of fiinerie. Baudelaire develops it with great vigor in "Les Sept Vieillards," a poem that deals with the seven·fold apparition of a repulsive·looking old man. TIlls individual, presented as always the same in his multiplicity, testifies to the anguish of the city dwcller who is unable to break the magic circle of the type even though he cultivates the most eccentric peculiarities. Baudelaire: describes this procession as "infernal" in appearance. But the newness for which he was on the lookout all his life consists in nothing other than this phantasmagoria of what is "always the same." (The evidence one could cite to show that this poe:m transcribes the reveries of a hashish eater in no way ""'eakeflS this interpretation.)
III Ikep in the Unknown to find the new! - Bauddain:, ~Lc \byage"ll
The key to the allegorical fonn in Baudelaire is bound up with the specific signification which the commodity acquires by virtue of its price. The singular debasement of things through their signification, something characteristic of sev· entttnth-century allegory, corresponds to the singular debasement of things through their price as commodities. TIlls degradation, to which things are subject because they can be taxed as commodities, is counterbalanced in Baudelaire by the inestimable value of novelty. La nouveauti represents that absolute which is no longer accessible to any interpretation or comparison. It becomes the ultimate entrenchment of art. The final poe:m of Le; Flnm du mal: "u Voyage." "Death, old admira.l, up anchor now."I' The final voyage of the flineur: death. Its destina· tion: the new. Newness is a quality independent of the use value of the commod· ity. It is the source of that illusion of which fashion is the tireless purveyor. The fact that art's last line of resistance should coincide with the commodity's most advanced line of attack-this had to remain hidden from Baudelaire:. "Spleen et ideaJ"-in the title of this first cycle of poems in UJ FleurJ du mal, the oldest loanword in the French language was joined to the most recent one. ~ For Baudelaire, there is no contradiction between the two concepts. He recog· nizes in spleen the latest transfiguration of the idea.! ; the ideal seems to him the first exp~sion of spleen. With this title, in which the supremely new is presented to the reader as something "supremely old," Baudelaire has given the liveliest foml to his concept of the modem. The linchpin of his entire theory of art is "'modem beauty," and for him the proof of modernity seems to be this: it is marked with the fatality of being one day antiquity, and it reveals this to whoever
witnesses its birth. Here we meet the quintes~nce of the unforeseen, which for Baudelaire is an ul.alienable quality of the beautiful. The face of modernity itself blasts us with its immemorial gaze. Such was the gaze of Medusa for the Greeks.
E. Hausslllntm, or tJle Barricades I I venerate the Beautiful, the Good, and aU thinV great; Beaurifulnalure, on which great an restsHow it enchant.! the ear and charms the: eye! I IO\-"C: spring in blossom: women and rosa. -Baron Hauumann, DmfiMion d'Il" liqn dnJ.nt1l tI~l
Haussmann's activity is incorporated intO Napoleonic imperialism, which favon investment capital. In Paris, speculation is at its height. Haussmann's expropria· tions give rise to speculation that borders on fraud. The rulings of the Coun of Cassation, which are inspired by the bourgeois and Orleanist opposition, in· crease the financial risks of Haussmannization. H aussmann tries to shore up his dictatorship by placing Paris under an emergency regime. In 1864, in a speech before the National Assembly, he vents his hatred of the rootless urban popula· tion. TIlls population grows ever larger as a result of his projects. Rising I"C:nts drive the proletariat into the suburbs. The quartim of Paris in this way lose their distinctive physiognomy. The "'red belt" forms. Haussmarm gave himself the title of "demolition artist." He believed he had a vocation for his \'lOrk, and empha sizes this in his memoirs. The central marketplace passes for Haussmann's most successful construction-and this is an interesting symptom. It has been said of the De de la C ite, the cradle of the city, that in the wake of Haussmann only one church, one public building, and one barracks remained. Hugo and Merimee suggest how much the transformations made by Haussmann appear to Parisians as a monwnent of Napoleonic despotism. The inhabitants of the city no longer feel at home there; they start to become conscious of the inhuman character of the metropolis. Maxime Du Camp's monumental work Paris owes its existence to this daw'uing awareness. The etchings of Meryon (around 1850) constitute the death mask of old Paris. The true goal of Haussmann's projects was to secure the city against civil war. H e wanted to make the erection of barricades in the streets of Paris impossible for all time. With the same end in mind, Louis Philippe had already introduced wooden paving. Nevertheless, barricades had played a considerable role in the February Revolution. Engels studied the tacties of barricade fighting. H aussmann seeks to forestall such combat in two ways. 'Widening the streets will make the erection of barricades impossible, and new streets will COiUlect the barracks in straight lines with the workers' districts. Contemporaries christened the opera tion "strategic embdlishment."
II The flowery rnlm of decorations, TIle chann of landscape, of architecture,
And aIIlhc: effect of scenery rest $oldy on the law of perspective. - Franz Bohle, Tlltaler'-Catu hismus (Munich), p. 74
Haussmann's ideal in city planning consisted of long straight streets opening onto broad perspectives. This ideal corresponds to the tendency-common in the nineteenth century-to ennoble technological necessities through spurious artistic ends. The temples of the bourgeoisie's spiritual and secular power were to find their apotheosis within the framework of these long streets. The perspec tives, prior to their inauguration, were screened with canvas draperies and un veiled like monuments; the view would then disclose a church, a train station, an equestrian statue, or some other symbol of civilization. With the Haussmanniza cion of Paris, the phantasmagoria was rendered in stone. Though intended to en dure in quasi-perperuity, it also reveals its brittleness. The Avenue de l'Optra - which, according to a malicious saying of the day, affords a perspective on the port~r 's lodge at the Louvre-shows how unrestrained the prefect's megaJo marna was.
III Reveal to these depraved,
o Republic, by foiling their plots, \bur great Medusa face
Ring
The barricade is resurrected during the Commune. It is stronger and better d~igned than ever. It stretches across the great bouJevarcis, often reaching a height of two stories, and shidds the trenches behind it. Just as the Communut Man/u fO ends the age of professional conspirators, so the Commune puts an end to the phantasmagoria that dominates the earliest aspirations of the proletariat. It dispels the illusion that the task of the proletarian revolution is to comple~ the illusion had marked work of '89 in close collaboration with the bourgeoisie. the period 1831-1871, from the Lyons riots to the Commune. The bourgeoisie never shared in this error. Its battle against the social rights of the proletariat dates back to the great Revolution, and converges with the philanthropic move ment that gives it cover and that was in its heyday under Napoleon III. Under his reign, this movement's monumental work appeared: Le Play's Oullrial etJropicu [European \\brkers]. Side by side with the oven position of philanthropy, the bourgeoisie has aJways maintained the covert position of class struggle.n As early as 1831, in the Journal del tlibats, it acknowledged that "every manufacturer lives in his factory like jl
nus
plantation owner among his slaves." If it was fatal for the workers' rebellions of old that no theory of revolution had directed their course, it was this absence of theory that, from another perspective, made possible their spontaneous energy and the enthusiasm with which they set about establishing a new society. TIlls enthusiasm, which reaches its peak in the Conunune, at times WOIl over to the workers' cause the best clements of the bourgeoisie, but in the end lcd the 'w orkers to succumb to its worst d ements. Rimbaud and Courbet took sides with the Commune. The burning of Paris is the worthy conclusion to Baron Hauss mann's ,",,'Ork of destruction.
Conclusion Men of the nineteenth century, the hour of our apparition5 is fixed foro.'CJ', and always brings w back the vcry same ones.
- Auguste 8lanqui, L'EI~ili par kJ lJJlTtJ (Paris, 1872), pp. 74-75 During the Commune, Blanqui was hdd prisoner in the fon:ress of Taureau. It was there that he wrote his L'Etmli/i par leJ a.stm (Etemity via the Stars). This book completes the century's constellation of phantasmagorias with one last, cosmic phantasmagoria which implicitly comprehends the severest critique of all the others. The ingenuous reflections of an autodidaa, which form the principal portion of this work, open the way to merciless speculations that give the tie to the author's revolutionary ,Han. The conception of the universe which Blanqui develops in this book, taking his basic premises rrom the mechanistic natural scicnces, proves to be a vision of hell. It is, moreover, the complement of that society which Blanqui, near the end of his life, was forced to admit had defeated him. The irony of this .scheme-an irony which doubtless escaped the author himself-is that the terrible indictment he pronounces against society takes the fmm of an unqualified submission to its results. Blanqui's book presents the idea of eternaJ return ten years before
write throughout all eternity-at a table, with a pen, clothed as I am now, in circum stances like these. And thus it is for everyone ... . The number of our doubles is infinite in time and space. One cannOt in good conscience demand anything m OTe. -nlese doubles exist in Oesh and bone-indeed. in trousers and jacket, in crinoline and clugnon. They are by no means phantOJl1!l ; they are the present eternalized. Here, nonethdcs.s, lies a great drawback: there is no progress.... \lVhat we call "progress" is confined to each panicular world, and vanblhcs with it. Always and everywhere in the terresoial arena, the same drama, the same setting, on the same narrow stage-a noisy humanity infantated with its own grandeur, believing itself to be the universe and living in its prison as though in some immense realm, only to founder at an early date along with its globe. which has bome with dccpcst ~ the burden. of human arrogance. The same monotony, the same immobility, on other heavenly bodies. The universe repeats itself endlessly and paws the ground in place. In infuuty, eternity perfonru-imperturbably-the same routines.'l3
1bis resignation without hope is the last word of the great revolutionary. The century was incapable of responding to the new technological possibilities with a new social order. That is why the last word was left to the errant negotiators betv.-een old and neW who are at the heart of these phantasmagorias. The world dominated by its phantasmagorias- this, to make use of Baudelaire's tenn, is "modemity.n Bianqui's vision has the entire universe emering the modernity of which Baudelaire's seven old men are the heralds. In the end, Blanqui views novelty as an attribute of all that is under sentence of damnation. Likewise in Ciel et mItT" [Heaven and H ell], a vaudeville piece that slightly predates the book: in this piece the tonnents of hell figure as the latest novelty of all time, as "pains eternal and always new." The people of the nineteenth century, whom Blanqui addresses as if they were apparitions, are natives of this region.
Overview
t\. B C
Arcades, Magasins dt NrJUutQutiJ, Sales Clerlu 3 1 Fashion 62 Ancient Paris, Catacomb5, Demolitions, Decline of Paris 82
o
Borroom, Eternal Return 101
E F G
H I ~
K
o q R
Marx 651
Y
Photography 671
Z a b
The Don, The Automaton 693 Social Movement 698
H,us,n""",,,uon, s.rr;"d,
C
d
Jung 388 L Dream House, Museum, Spa 405 M TIle Flancur 416 N On the Theory of Knowlcdgt, Theory of Progress 456 Prostitution, Gambling 489 1hc Strtcts of Paris 516 Panorama 527 Mirron 537 Paintjng, Ju~ndst.il, No...dty
543
Modes of Lighting 562 Saint-Simon, Railroads 57 1
V
Conspiracies, Compagnonnagt! 603
Daumier 740
Literary History, Hugo 744
e I
g
The Stock. Exchange, Economic Hiuory 779
h
I k I JD
Reproduction Technology, Lithography 786 The Commune 788 The Seine, The Oldest Paris 196 Idleness 800
D
o P
q r
S T U
Fourier 620
X
Fighting 120 lIon Construction 150 Exhibitions, Advertising. Grandville 171 The CoUector 203 TIlclntcrior, ThcTracc 212 Baudclaire 228 Dream City and Dream House, Dreams of the FUNre, Anthropological Nihilism,
p
'"
•
• u
.' . '
Anthropological Materialism, History of Sects 807
Ecole Polyteclmique 818
A [Arcades, Magasins de Nouveaules, Sales Clerks1 The: magic columns ohhe5e palaces
Show [0 the amateur on aU sides, In the: objecu their porticos display, TItat industry i.'J die rival o r the arts. _MChanson nouveUe,ft Ciled in NouIXa ux rahlra ux dt Paris, Oil ObKTVll h"tm.J sur Its m«urs t l ujagtJ tkJ Parisims au rommrnumrol du XlX' s;jcu (ParU, 1828), vol. 1, p. 27
For sale the bodies, the voices, the tremendous unquestionable wealth, what will ne\~r be sold. -Rimbaud 1
"In speaking of the inner boulevards," says the JIluJtrated Guide to Paris, a com plete picture of the city o n the Seine and its environs from the year 1852, "we have made mention again and again of the arcades which open o nto them. These arcades, a recent inventio n of industrial luxury, arc: glass-roofed, marble-paneled
corridors extending through whole blocks of buildings, whose owners have joined together for such enterprises. Lining both sides of these corridors, which get their light from above, arc: the most elegant shops, so that the arcade is a city, a world in miniarure Flaneur 0, in which customers will find everything they
o
need. During sudden rainshowers, the arcades are a place of refuge for the unprepared, to whom they offer a secure, if restricted, promenade-one from which the merchants also benefit." 0 "'bther 0 This passage is the locus classicus for the presentation of the arcades; for not only do the divagations on the 8aneur and the weather develop out of it, but, also, what there is to be said about the construction of the arcades, in an eco nomic and architectural vein, would have a place here. [AI ,I) Nallle, of mag a sin s (Ie 1I0U Vetlllles; La Fille d · HOllncuc. La Vcsl ule, Le Page Incon stant , I.e Masque de Fer . Le Pdit Chapcron Houge , Petite Na nette. La ChaumiCr.:: allemande
"Tim nUIllC or the jeweler sltl nds over the shop door in large i,I'«id letrer. - inla id with fin c illlilUlion gems." Eduanl Kroloff, Scllil
As business increased , the proprietor would purchase stock fOT a week and , to make room for the goods being stored, would withdraw 10 the en tresol. In this way, the boutique became a magaJin.
[AI ,31
It was the time in which Balzac could write: "The great poem of display chants its stanzas of colo r fro m the C hurch of the Madeleine to the Pone Saint·Denis." Le Diahle Ii Paris (Paris, 1846), vol. 2, p . 9 1 (Balzac, "Les Boulevards de Paris"). [AI ,' ) "'fhe da y Ihe won! . pecinlty was discovered by Her Majesty Intlustry, queen of France li nt! of neighboring regiolls: on that da y, it is said, Mercur y, . pecial god of merehallts alld of several other social 'pec ialtie" knocked three time8 with his ciuluccul 011 the front of the Stock Exchange and swore by the beard of Proserpine that the wortl was fllle with him ." 0 Mythology 0 The word is used initially, how· ever, only for luxury itcllis. La Grande Ville: NOUIJe(1Il Tableml de Paru (Pa ris, (844), vol. 2, p . 57 (Marc f'our nier, " Les Specialih~s pariiliennes"). [A I,5]
Names of arcades: Pau age des Panorillllils, Pa8liage Vero-Dodat , Passage dll Desir (leading in ea rlier d aYI 10 II house of iU repu te). Punge Colbert , Pauage Vivi eline, Passage du Pont. Neuf, Pallage du Caire , Passage de la Reunion, Panage de J'O,.er a , Passage de la Trinile, Passage dll Cheva l. Blanc, Passage Pressiere , Pauage du Bois de Boulogu e, Piluage Grosse-tete. (The Passage dee Panoramas was known at lirst as the Pan age Mirel.) [Ala,2] The Passage Vero-Dada t (built between the Rue de Bouloy and the Rue Grenelle Saint-Honore) " owes its na me to two rich pork butchers, i\feuieurs Ver o and Dodat, who in 1823 undertook iu construction together with that of the adjace.nt buildings-an immense d evelopmcnt . This led IIOmeone at the time to describe thi8 arcade a8 a ' lovely work of art franletl by two neighborhoods. ,,, J . A. Dula ure, lliltoire physique, civile et momie de Pari! depuil 1821 j wqu 'o no.jours (Paris, 1835), vol. 2 , p . 34. [Ala,3] The Passage Vera-Dod at had marble flooring. The actress Hacbellived there for a [Ala,4) while. No. 26, Galerie Colbert : "There, in the guise of a female glover, shone a beauty that was approachable but that, in the matter of youth, attached importance only to its own; she required her favo ritel to supply her with the linery from which she hOI.w to make a fortun e . ... This young and beautiful woman under g1aSi was called ' the Ab80lute'; but phil080ph y would ha ve wasted its time pursu ing her. Her maid was the one who 80ld the gloves; 8he wanted it that way." 0 DaDs o Prostitutes 0 Lefeuve, Ancienne. lJ1oisoru de Pam, vol. 4 (Paris, 1875), p . 70 . [Ala,S)
u.
" T he narrow I trt.-cts surrounding the Opera and the hazartlli to which pedestrianl were exposcd on emcrging frolll tlus theater, which is always besieged by ca rr iage8. gave a group of speculators in 1821 the idea of u8ing lome of the st.ructu res sepa r ating the new theater from the boulevard . I This enterprise, a sou rce of riche8 for its originators, WilS lit the same time of great benefit to the public. I By way of a small , lIarrow covered arcade built of wood , one had , in fact , dil"C(:t access, with all the security of the O,.era's vestibule, to these gallerie8, and from there to the houlevard . . . . Ahove the entablatu re of Doric pilasters di viding the shops rise two floors of apartments , anti above the apa rtment!J-rulining the length of the galleries-reigns all enurmolls g1ass-panetl roof. " J . A. Dulaure, HiMoire ph y . it/lle, civile el morllie de Pu ri. (Ielmi., 1821 jllJqll '(I nO$j our. (Puris, 1835). vol. 2, pp .28- 29 . [AI ,6) Until 1870, the cAr rillgc ruled Ihe stn..'CU. On t.he narrow sidewalks the PC(!t:~ tri a n Will cxtrcmely crumpet!' 111111 ilO ~ Irolling look place principally in Ille arcade!!, which off,'fj·tI prot e.·tion frum bllli weather li nd from the traffic. " O ur lurgcr stn...'ts HIlII our willer ~ i . l cwHlk 8 a rc suitetlto the sweel fl iincrie that ftlr our fat her s wa$ im po8~ ibl e cxcept in the :trcatles." 0 l-1ant:ur 0 Edmond Ueaurepairc, Puri. d 'Mer et d 'ulljolird'llIli : l,.t. CI, roflilJll e de. rile. (Paris, 1900), p . 61. [Ala . I]
Cour du Commer ce: " Here (using sheep) the Srs t experiments were conducted with the r;uilIotine; its inve.ntor lived at that time on the Cour du Commerce and the Rue de I'Ancienue-Comedie." Le.feuve, Les Ancienne. lJ1auoru de Pam, vol. 4 , p . 148. [Ala,6) ''The Passage du Caire ,t where the main business is lithogra phic printing, must ha \'e decked itself out ill lightl when Na poleoll III abolished the stam p duty 011 Commercial cir cula rs; this emuncipation made the arcade rich , and it showed its app reciation with eltlH:nditlires for bcautjlicatioll . Up to that point , when it rained , II1nbrcllA8 had been neelled in its gallerics , which ill several plAces lacked glass covering. Lefeuve, Les Ancien"es MlIi.ons de P«ru, vol. 2, p . 233. 0 Drea m [Al a. 71 Houses 0 Weather 0 (Egyptian ornamentatiun). It
Impasse Ma uOOrt . former ly d ' Amboise. Around 1756, at Nos. 4-6, a IJoisoner resided wilh her two assistants . AU three were found dead one morning-killed through inhalation of loxic fUlll cs. [Ala,8)
Shops in the Passage Vbo-Dodat. Counesy of the Musee Camavalet, Paris. PhOto copyright o PhOtOth~ue des Mustes de la Ville de Paris. See Ala,4.
Years of reckless financial speculation under Louis XVlII. With the dramatic signage of the magasiru de nouueautis, art enters the service of the businessman. [A l a,9) "After t.he Pu nge de Panoramas , which we nt back to the year 1800 and which had an esta blished rep utation in society, there was. by way of example. the gallery that was opened in 1826 by the butchen Vero and Dodat and that was pictured in t.he 1832 (jthograph by Arnout. After 1800 we must go all the wa y to 1822 to meet wi th a new arcade: it is between this date and 1834 that the majority of these l ingular pal8agewaya are cons tnJCled. The most important of them are grouped in
Glass roo~ and iron girders, Passage VivicIUlC. Photographer unknown. Collection of Joharul Fnw.ridl Gein; courtesy Prestel Verlag, Munich. See Ala,2.
an area bounded by the Rue Croix-des· Petitl.Cbamps to the south , the Rue de la Grange·Bateliere to the north, the Boulevard de Sebastopol 10 the eaSI, and the Rue Ventadour 10 the west ." Mal"1:e1 Poete , Une vie de cite (Pam. 1925), pp . 373 374. (Ala, IO] Shops in the Pal8age des Panoramas: Restaurant Veron, reading room, music shop, Marquis, wine merebanu, hosier, haberdashen. tailon. bootmakera, ho- siers. book.shops, caricaturist, Theiitre des Varietes. Compared with this, the Pas. sage Vivienne was the " solid" ar cade. There. one found no luxury shops. 0 Dream Houses: arcade as nave with aide chalKls. 0 (M ,l ]
People associated the "genius of the J acobins with the genius of the industrials," but they also attributed to Louis Philippe the saying: "God be praised, and my shops too." The arcades as temples of commodity capital. (A2,2] The newest Paris al"1:ade , on the Champs·Elysoos , built by an American pearl (A2,3] king; no longer in businel8. 0 Decline 0 " Toward th~ end of the ancien regime, there were attempts to establish bazaar--like shops and fixed· price stores in Paris. Some large magwiIU de nouveoutU--euch as Le Diable Boitew;, Lea Dew; Magotl, Le Petit Ma telot, Pygmalion-were founded during the Restoration and during the r eign of Louis Philippe; but these were husinenes of an inferior sort compared to today's establishments . The era of the department stores da tes, in fact, only from the Second Empire. They have undergone a great deal of d evelopmenl aince 1870. and they continue to develop. " [(mile> Levasseur, Hutoire du commerce de la France. vol. 2 (Paris, 1912), p. "9. [A2.4]
Arcades as origin of department stores? Which of the magasiru named above located in arcades? [M ,S]
Wett
The regime ofspecialties furnishes also-this said in passing-the historical-mate rialist key to the 80urislUng (if not the inception) of genre painting in the rortics of the previous cemury. With the growing interest of the bourgeoisie in matters of an, this type of painting diversified; but in confonnity with the meager artistic appreciation initially displayed by this class, it did so in terms of the content, in terms of the objects represented. There appeared historical scenes, animal stud ies, scenes of childhood, scenes from the life of monks, the life of the family, the life of the village- all as sharply defined genres. 0 Photography 0 (A2,6]
TIle Passage des Panoramas. Watercolor by an unknown artist, ca. 18 10. Counc.sy of Agcnce Giraudon. Sec M ,I .
The in8uence of commercial affairs on Lautreamont and Rimbaud should be looked into ! (A2,7] " Arlolher cha racteristic deriving ducHy rrom the Dire<:lor y [ presumably until ar ound 1830??] would be the lightncu or rabrics; on even the coMest da y~, olle was
lieen only ra rel y in furs or warm overcoats. At the rilik of losing their skin , women ciotilctl themselvcs us though the hars hness of wi nter no longer existed , as though nuture II ad limldcnl y htlC n tl'unsfonned into an eternal paratlilie."
land credit, Ie gros Erne.!t; the Italian revenue, k paul.!1"e VICtor; the credit for movables, k petit Julu." In Rodenberg (Leipzig, 1867>, p , 100. [A2a,3] Range of a stockbroker 's fee: between 2,000,000 (si,> and 1,400,000 fran cs.
[A2a,4j
In other respeCts as well, the theater in those days provided the vocabulary for articles of fashion. H ats la Tarare, la Theodore, it la Figaro, la Grande Pretresse, ::\ la IphigCnie, la Calpren ade, ::\ la Victoire. The same niaiserie that seeks in ballet the origin of the real betrays itself when-around 1830-a news' paper takes the name Sylphe. 0 Fashion 0 [A2,9]
a a
a
a
u
Alexandre Dumas at a dinner purt y given by Princess Mathilde. The verse is aimed at Na poleon lH . In their impcrial splendor, The uncle anrlnephew are Cllual: The uncle sei7.c~1 the capitals, The nephew 8ci
Icy silence fo llowed . Reportc(1 in Memoires rlu cornIe fiora ce de Viel-Castel5l1r Ie regne de Nnpo/eon Ill , vol. 2 (Paris, 1883), p . 185. [A2, IOj " The cOlliisse b"u anllllccd the ongoing life of the Stock Exchange. Here there was never closing time; tlu:re was almos t never night. When the Cafe Tortoni filially closet! its tloors, the columll of stock jobbers would head across the adjacent boulcvards a mi mea nder up and down there, collecting in front of thc Passage de l'Opera." Julius Hodcnberg, PlJris bei Sonnenschein wltl LmnpenUcht (Leipzig, 1867), p. 97. [A2 ,ll j S peculation in railroad s tocks under Louis PhiliplH!·
IA2, !2]
" Of the same extraction , furthermore [thai is, from the house of Hothschild], iJl the amazingly e!olluent Mires, who necds only to speak in order to convince his cr editors that losses are profits- but whose name , afte r the scandalous trial agains t him , was noncthel us ohliterated from the Passage l\lires, which there upon bt-"1:amc the Passage Ilcs Princes (with the famous Ilining rOOIllS of Petcrs restau rant)." Hot/cnbcrg, PtJris bei S01lnenschein und L«IIIpen/ichl (Leipzig, 1867),
p. 98 .
" The arcades, nea rly all of which date from the Restoration. "" Theodore Muret , /.. 'HiMOire par k theatre (Paris, 1865), vol. 2, p. 300. [A2a,S) Some details concerning Avant, pendant, e l «pres , by Scribe and Rougemont. Premier on June 28, 1828. The first part of the trilogy represents the society of the ancien regime, the second part depicts the Reign of Terror, and the third takes place in the society of the Restoration JH!riod. The main character, the General, has in peacetime bl!i:ome an indus trialis t and indeed a great manufacturer. "Her e manufacturing replaces, at the highest level, the field worked by the soldier-laborer, The praises of industry, no less than the praises of warriorJ and Mureates, wer e sung by Restoration vaudeville, The bourgeois class, with its various levelli, was placed opposite the class of Dohles: the fortune ac quired by work was opposed to ancient heraldry, to the turrets of the old manor house. This Third Estate, having become the dominant power, reeeived in turD its [A2a,6j flatt erers ." Theodore Muret, L 'Histoire par I.e theatre, vol. 2, p . 306. The Galeries de Bois, " which disappeared in 1828-1829 to make room for the Galerie d ' Orieans, were made up of a triple line of shops that could hard1y be called luxurious, There were two parallel lanes covered by canvas and plaDks, with a few gJass panes to let the daylight in. Here one walked quite liimply on the packed earth , which downpours sometimes transformed into mud, Yet people came from all over to crowd into this place, which was nothing short of mag nificent , and stroll between the rows of shops that would seem like mere booths compared to those that have come after them. These shops were occupied chiefly by two industries, each having its own appeal. There were, first , a great many milliners, who worked on large stools facing outward, without even a window to separate them; and their s pirited expressions were, for many strollers, no small part of the place's attraction. And then the Galeries de Bois were the ceuter of the new book trade." Theodore Muret, L 'Histoire par Ie theatre, vol. 2, pp . 225--226.
[A2a,7]
[A2a,l j
Cry of the vendors of stock-exchange lists on the sh'eel: In thc cvenl of a ri ~e in pl'ices, "ni~e in the stock market! " In Ihe cvenl uf a fa ll. -'Va l'ialions ill the stock market!" Tile tcrm " fall " wus forhilldell hy the police. [A2.a.2]
In its importance for the affairs of the couli.!.!" the Passage d e l'Opera is compara ble to the Kranzlcrecke. Speculator's argot "in the period preceding the outbreak of the Gcnna.n war [of 1866]: the 3-percent intercst was Q.llcd Afph07lJille; the
Julius Hodenberg on the snlall reading room in the Passage de l' Opera: ';What a cheerful air this small, half-darkened room has in my memory, wilh its high book shelves, its green ta bles, its red-haired gar,
readers will be dis turhed b y this), it I)D Ue~ from lips to ear, paslles almost imlM!r. (·t'p ti hly f rOIll pen to pape r. and finally from wriling del!k to nearb y lellerhox. The good (la me till IJllrflflll ha ~ II fri elldl y ~ milc for 11 11 . a lU! pupers alUl enveiolH!Hfor .·orrc ~ pollde ll u . The earl y mail is digpate hed . Cologn e D IUJ Augslmrg have their news; and now- it is noolltime!- to the tave rn ." Rodcnbc r,;. Puris bei So nne n 5clleill llrul Lampell/icill (Leipzig, IS(7), pp. 6-7. [A2a,8j
"' Even wome u, who were forbidden 10 enter the Stock Exchange, allsemhletl at the door in o nlcr 10 glea n sOllie indications uf ma rket price~ allli to relay their orders lu brokers through tile iron gr itting. " 1.-£1 'fnlll s/o rlllfllioll de PariJ 50118 Ie Scco /u l f~ mpire (a lilhor8 l)oCle . CIOlizot , lIt' nriot) dlari8. 1910). on the occasion of the I'xllihitioll uf tilt' lilll·a ry and the historica l work,. of the ci ty of Pa ris, p . 66. IA3, ' ]
" The I'uuage t!u Caire is highl y reminiscent , 011 a smaller sca le, of the Passage du Saumon , which in the IJasl existed on the Rue Montmartre, 0 11 the site of the present-d ay Rue Bllchullmont. " PIIIII L.eaullllld , " Vie ux Pa ris," Mercure de Fnlllce (October 15. 19"27), p. 503. [A3, l !
-\<\e have no specially"-lhis is what the well·known deaJer in secondhand goods, Fremin, "the man with lhe head of gray," had written on the signboard advertising his wares in the Place des Abbesses. H ere, in antique bric-a·brac, reeme rges the old physiognomy of trade !.hat, ill the first d ecades of the p~ous century, began to be supplanted by the rule o r the spicia/ili . This "s uperior scrap--yaJ"d n was called Au Philosopht by its proprietor. What a demonstration and demolition of s toicism ! O n his p lacard were the words : "Maidens, do not dally u nder the Icaves!n And: "Purchase nothing by moonlighl." [A3,8!
" Shops on the old modd , devoted 10 tralles fOli lld nowllere d se, s urmounted by a s ma U, old· fa shiOIlt..'11 meuanine with windows tha t ellch bea r a number, 0 11 an esculcilt..'OIl , COrreSI)omlillg 10 a particular shop . From ti me to ti me, a doorwa y giving 01110 a corridor; at Ihe elld of the corridor. a s mall ~ t a irw ay Icadillg to these mezzanines. Near the knob of one of the,.e d oors, this handwritten !!ign :
The worker next door would 1M! obliged if. ill dOijing the door. YOIl refrainc(1 from 81alllming it. IA3~]
Ano ther sib'll is cited ill the same place ( U:a utaud , " Vieux Paris," Mercu re de f'rclllce [1927] , pp . 502-503):
ANGELA 21111 H OOf, to the right
IA3)] Old name for d,'pa l·tment slol·es : dock! (I bOIl marcile-that i8, " discount duc ks."
E"idcntly people s moked in the a rcades at a tinle when it was not yet eustonlary 10 slIIoke in the s treet . " I IIlust say a word here abo ut life ill the arcades, favored hllunl of stroller!! 1I lid s mokers, theater of operations for every killd of snlal! husineu. In each a rcade Ihere is a t leas t one cleaning establis hment . In a saloll t.hllt is as elega ntly fu rnis hed 8 S its intClided use permits, gentlemen sit upon high ~ t ool s a nd comfortably peruse a new ~ pape r while someone busily hrushes the dirt off their clothing IIl1d boots. I I ~'erdin a nd VOli Gall . PlIri$ IHid Jeine Salom, vol. 2 ~O ld cnhurg , 1845), PI). 22-23. [A3,9! A first wintel· gardclI- a g1aue.i-in s pace with fl ower beds. esp alier s. and foun lains , in pa rt ulltl e rgro und~ n the spot where , in the garden of t.he Palais-Royal in 1864 (ami tod ay 3 S well?). the reservoir was located . Laill out in 1788. [A3,l O)
" It is at the cnd of the Restoration thai we see the first mag tlsins de nou tJellute.: Les Ve pres Siciliellllc8, Le Solitaire . La Fille Mal Gardee, Le Solds t Laboureur. 1,,(:8 Deux l\1H go t~, Lc Petit SlIinl-Thomas, Le Gagne·Denier
-
In 1825 . opening of the " Pa 88ag~. Dauphine, Suucede, C hoiseul" auti o f t he Cite He rger t:. ;' 111 1827 ... the Passage8 Colbert , C ru n o l, de I'lnduSlric .... 1828 s aw the oll,enillg ... of Ihe Pa881lgCIJ Brady a nd de8 GraviUie rs alltlthe l)eginnillji\:8 of the Gale ri c d 'Orieans a l the Pa lai ~- R oya l , which re pla ced t he WO<.)j ll~1I galleries thai 11 10111 IlIIrncd dowli that year.... Dubech li nd ,fEs l>t:zd , lIi.uoire cle Paris.
For the first time in history, with the establishment of department stores, consum ers begin to consider themselves a mass, (Earlier it was only scarcity which taught them that.) Hence, the circus·like and theatrical clement of conunerce is quite extraordinariJy heightened, [M,l]
pp. 357-358.
With the appearance of mass·produced anides, the concept of specialty arises. Its relation to the concept of o riginality remains to be explored, 1A4,2)
[A3a,2)
" The allccilor of the d e pa rtme nt slores, La Ville d e Puris, ap l>t:u r cll lit 174 Rue Montmartre in 1843:' Dubech alld d ' Espezel, Ili.uoire de Pari$, p. 389. [A3a,3) " Rainshowcn a lill oy me, 80 I g U\' e o ne the slip in a ll a rcad e. The re a re a great ma n y of these g1uss-covercd walkwa ys, whic h often c ross through the bloc ks of
buildings and make several hranehings, thlls affording welcome shortcllts. Uere and there they a re constructed with great elegance, alltl in bad weather or aft er dark , wilen they are lit up br ight as da y, they offer promenades-a nd \'ery popu lar they are-past rows of glitter ing sho" s." Eduard De\-rient , Briefe au.s Pa ris (Berlin , I8
The Passage du Caire adjoining the rormer Cour de8 Miracles. Built in I i99 on the [A3a,6] site or the old ga rden of the COllvellt or the Daughten orCod.
Trade and traffic are the two components of the street. Now, in the arcades the second of these has effectively died out: the traffic there is rudimentary. The arcade is a street of lascivious commerce only; it is whoUy adapted to arousing desires, Because in this s[teet the juices slow to a standstill, the conunodity proliferates along the margins and elUers into falUas tic combinations. like the tissue in tumors.-The Haneur sabotages the traffic. Moreover, he is no buyer. He is merchandise, [A3a.7]
" 1 gr ant that husmeu at the Pubis- Royal has h ad il8 da y; but I believe tha t this should be attributed uot to the absence or streetwalkers but to the erection of new a rcades, allilto the enlargement and rerurbis hing or sever al others, I will mention the Passages de l' Oper a, du Gra nd-Cerf, dll Saulllon , de Vero-D(Hlat, Delorme, de Choiseul , and des Panoramas." E F. A. Beraud , Le5 f"ille5 pltbfuJlle~ de Pari.s et Eo. police qui le5 regit (Paris and I..cipzig, 1839), VI) I. I , P, 205. [A4,3] " I do not know lfbusines8 at the Palais-Royal has really sufrered rrom the absence of femme5 tie debauche; but what is certain is that public d«ency there has im proved enormously.. , , It seems to me, furthermore, that res pet:table women now willingly do their shopping ill the shops of the galleries , , . ; this has to be an ad vantage for the merch allts. For when the Palais-n oyal was invaded by a swarm or practically nude prostitutetl, the gue or the crowd was tumed towa rd them and the peo"le who enjoyed this llpet:tacle were never the oneil who patronized the butinelllle8. Some were already ruined by their ilisorderly life, while other l, yield ing to the allure orlibertinism, had no thought then or purch asing any goods, even necessities. I believe I can affirm , .. that, during those times of inordinate toler ance, sever al shops at the Palnis-Royal were closed , a nd in other s buyer s were rare. T hus, busines8 ilid nol at all prosper there, and it would be more accurate to say that the stagnation or hllsine811 at that time was owing rather to the free cir cu lation or Ihe ftlles publique.s than to their absence, which today has brought back into the galleries and the garden of this palace lIumerous strollen, who are fa r nlore ravor able to busineu than pr08titutes and libertinell." F. F. A. 8 era ud , Le5 Fi/les publiques tie Pari5 (Paris and I..cipzig, 1839), vol. 1, pp. 207- 209, [A4,4]
iocal
The care. are fill ed With gourmeu, with 8moke ....; T he thealen are Ilac ked With c heerfuI 8~t a t on . The a ru dcBar e 8warminl! With I!lIwken. with enthusiast8, Ami pickpockel-f wriggle Uchind th e flineur•.
Ennery II lId I..cmoine, Pa ris hI nuit, cited in H , Gourllon de Genoui.llac. 1£5 Re f ruin.s de la rue lie 1830 a 1870 (Pa ris . 1879). PI), 46-47.-'1'0 be cOllipa red with Baudelaire's "Crcpuscule till -foir." lA4a. l]
" And those who cannot pay for ... a s helter ? They deep wherever they filul a place, in pa ss age~. arcades, in corners where Ihe police and the oWllers lellve them IIl1diSHlrlled. ·· F'riedrieh Engel", Die Ltlge der (lrlJeitcmien KltlS se in Eng /mid , 2nd cd. ( Leipzig. 1848), p . 46 (" I)ie grossen Stii{lte").5 [A4a .2] " III all the shops, like II uniform , the oak countel' is adOl' ned with counterfeit coins, in ever y kind of melal and in ever y formal , me rcil es~ l y nailed in place like Lirds of prey 011 a door- unim peachable evidence of the proprietor's scrupulous hOllesty." Nadar, QlIllllcl j 'et(li$ photogmphe (Paris ( 1900) , p . 294 C " 1830 et enl'i rons"). [A4a,3] Fotlrier 0 11 the s treet-galleries: "To speud a winter's da y in a Phalanstcry, to visit all parts of it without ex posure to lilt: e1t:mellls, to go to the theater and the opera in light clothes and colored s hoes wit hout worr ying about the mud and the cold, would he a charm so novel tlial it alone wo uld s nffice to make our cities and castles St..'C1II detestable, If the Pllalanstery wer e put to civilized uses , the lIIer e conven ience of its sheltered, heated , and ve ntilated passageways wo uJd make il enor mously ,·alua ble. b Its pro pel'l y value . .. would be double that of another huilding [A4a,4) its size." E. Poisson , Fourier [Anthology] ( Paris, 1932), p, 144. " The stn:e t-gllllerieli ar e u mode of internal cOlUmtlu.ication which would alone be sufflcicnt to inspire disdain for the p alaces and great cities of civilization .... The ki ng of France is one of thc leading mona rchs of civilization ; he d oes nol even have a porch in his Tuilcries palace. The king, the quccn , Ihe royal famil y, when they get into or out of their carriages, are forced 10 get as wet as a ny lH! tt y hourgt:ois who s ummons a cab befol'c Ius shop. Doubtless the king will have on hand , in Ihe event of rain, a good lIlany foolmcn and courtier s to hold an uillb rella for him . .. ; hut he will still he lacking a porch 0 1' a roof that wouM shelter his party.... Let us descrihe the sll't..oel-galleries which a l'e one of the mosl cha r ming and precious features of a Palace j)f Ha rmony.... The Phalanx has 11 0 OUlside streets or open road wllYs exposell to the elements. All portio ns of the central edifi ce can be tra l'ersed b y mea ns of a wide galler y which r uns along the second floo r of the whole building. At each extremit y of this spacious corritlor there a re elevated passages, sUI'Porte{1 by COIUlIIIIS, and also attractive ulUler ground passages which connect all the pal·ts tlf Ihe Phalanx and the adj oining builtlings. Thus, ever ything is linked hy 11 series of passageways which a re sheltered , elegllllt , ami comforta ble in wi nter tlmn ks to the hell' of heaters alltl \·entilators.... The street-galler y, or contil/uous peristyle, extends alollg the second stOI')'. It could not be piliced O ll tile ground fl oor, since the lower par i of the huilding will be trllversetl by ca lTi llge en trances .... T he street-galler ies of a Phalanx wimlliiong just one side of ti m cell tl'al ed ifice ami s tl'etch to the elltl of elldl of its willgs. All of thesc wiu j9> eOlltllin a tlouble row of 1'001118, Thus , 011" row of n XJIIIS looks Ollt upon the field s and gur tl"ns. a nd the ot her looks outupOIl the street-galler y. '1'1... stl'L't:t-gallt:r y. then . will be 11'1'1;" Slot'i" s high witll will{lows on olle side .... The kitchens 11 1111 some of tl..:
puhlic han... will be located on the ground Roor. There will also be trap doors in the Roors of the dining rooms on the second story. Thus, the ta bles may be set in the kitchells below and simply raised through the trap doors when it is time to eat. These Irap d oon will be particularl y nseful during festivities, such as the visils of traveling caravans and legions, when there will he too man y people to eat in the ordinar y dining rooms. Then double rows of tables will be set in the street-galler ies, alld the food will be passed up from the kitchen . I The principal public halls should not be situated on the ground floor. There are two r eaSOns for this. The first is that the patriarc hs and children , who have difficulty climbing stairs, should be lodged in the lower parts of the building. The second is Ihat the children should be kept in isolation from the nonindustrial activities of Ihe adults." Poisson , Fourier [Anthology J (Paris, 1932), Pl" 139-144. 7 (AS) Yes, JHlrbleu ! You know the power of Tibet . Implacable enemy of proud innocence, Hardly does it appear than it carries away The bookkeeper's wife and the burgher's daughter, The 8tern prude a nd the frigid coquette: It signals the victory of lovers; For fashion tolerate8 no usistance, And not to have it puts one to shame. Its fabric. hraving the current bon mot, Softens in its folds Ihe arrows of ridicule; Seeing it . you think of a magicaltaliJJman: It braces the spirits and subjugates the heart; For it 10 appear is already a triumph, ill coming a cont[Uest; It reign~ U contlueror, as If()vereign, as mU leI'; And trealing iu quiver as a hurden quite useleu, Love has fashioned its handeau of cashmere. Edouard [d'Anglemont] , Le Cuchemire, one-act comedy in verse, performed for the first time in Paris at the Theatre Royal de l' Odeon , on December 16, 1826 (Paris, 1827) , p. 30 . [A5a,l) Delvau on Chodruc-Duclos: " Under the reign of Louis P hilippe , who owed him nothing, he ... did what he had done under the reign of Charles X, who in fa ct owed him something.... His bones took more time to 1'0 1 Ihan his name took to erase itself from the memory of men ." AUred Delvau , Les Lions dlt jour (Paris, 1867), pp . 2&-29. [A5a.2)
" I t was IIOt until after the expedition to Egypt ,~ when l)CUple in France gave thought to expanding the u se of precious cas hmere fabric, that a womun , Greek by hirth , introduced it to Paris. M. Ternaux ... conceived the admirable project of raising Hindustani goats in France. Since then , . . . there h ave been plcnty of wor kers to train and trades to establis h , in order for us to compete s uccessfull y against prod ucts renowned through so llIany centuries! Our manufaetllf't:rS arc
.5
1
f..
beginning to triumph ... over wome n '~ prej udice against French shawls.... We have managed to muke wOlllen rorgct ror a moment the ridiculous rabric-d esigns or the Hindus by h uppil y re producing the vividness and brillia nt harmony or the fl O""ers roulIIl in our own ga rdens. There is a book in wbich alltheae interestillg ~ ubj ect s are discussed both knowledgea bly and elegantl y. L 'lIi$,oire de, ,chail$ , by l\1 . Rey. though written ror the shawl manufacturers or Paris, is guaranteetl to ca ptivate women .... This book, together with its author's magnificent manufac tured good s, will undoubtedly help to dissipate French people's infatuation with the work or ro reign ers. M . Rey, manurac tu re r or sh awls made or wool, casbmere, etc . ... has br ought Ollt several cas hmeres ranging in price (rom 170 to 500 (rancs. We owe to hinl , umong other improvements , ... tbe graceful im.itation o( native grown fl owers in 1>lace or the bizarre palms of the Orient . Our praise would not be t:{lual to the benefits he has bestowed , ... nor could it render the high honor that this litteruteur-manwactll rer d eserves for his long r esearch and his talents. We must be conlent merely to name him." Chenoue and H. D ., Notice lur l'eXp6!ilion de, proolliu eie l'induMrie el deJ urU qui a lieu Douai en 1827 (Douai , 1827),
a
pp.24-25.
[M ,l ]
Mter 1850: " It is durillg these years that the department stores are crealed : Au Bon l\1urciui, Lc Louvre, La HeUe J ardiniere. Total sales ror Au Bon Marche in 1852 were only 450,000 rrancs; hy 1869 they had risen to 21 miUion ." Gisela .' reulIIl . LeI Ph otog rapllie aris, Ilrinters ... were dispersed 10 aU parts o( the city.... Alas! A glUI or printers! Today workers corrupted by the spirit of speculation ought to remembe r thai . .. between the Rue Saint-Denill a nd the Cour des a.fir acle~ there stiU exists a long. smoke-filled gallery where their true household gods lie (orgotten ." Edoua rd Foucaud , Pa ru inventellr (Paris, 1844). p . 154. [A6,3] Descri ptioll o( the Passage !lu Saumon , " which , by way of three stolle steps, ol)Cnml onto the Rue l\1onlorgueil. It was a lIa rrow corridor decorated with pilas ters supporting a ridged gla ss roof, which was littered with garbage th rown (rom ncighhOl'iug houses. At the ent rance. the signboard-a till salmon indicating the mllill (·hllructel'istic or till' place: lhe air was filled with the IIlIIell o( fish ... and also the smell or ga rlic. It was here, ultove all , that those a rriving in Iluris (rom Ihe south of fo'ru nce wo uld urru ngt: to meet ... , Through the doors or the shop8, one "pie(1 (hl ~ k y alcoves where sometimes II piece or mahogany rurnitu re, the cla8sic furniture or the periOlI. would ma nage to catch a ray or ligll! . Further 0 11 , a Slllall IJa r hazy wil h the smoke of to bllcco pipes; a shop selling prO(luCIS rrolll the colonies 111111 emittin!, II CllriOllil frllgra llce of exotic J>lant~, s pices, lind rruits; a ballroom 01H!1I ror (Iuucing on Sundays a nd workduy eveniugB; flllllU y the reudillg room or
u Month illUJIri, March 28, 1863. See A6,2.
Sieur Ceccherini. who offered to patrons his newspapers and his books." J . Lucas Dubreton , L'AJJaire Alibaud. Oil Loui!-Philippe troque (1836; rpt. Paris, 1927). PI' · 114-115. [A6a,l ] On the occasion o( disturbances associated with the hurial o( General Lamanlue 011 June 5, 1832 , the Passage du Sallllloll was the scene o( a battle waged on barricades, in which 200 worker s confronted the troops. [A6a.2]
" Martin : Business, you see, sir, ... is the ruler or tile world!- DeJgena u: 1 am or your opinion, Monsieur Martin , hul the ruler alone is nol enough; there mllst be suhjects. And that is where painting, sculptu re, mllsic come in ... .- M(lrti'l : A liltle or thai i ~ necessary. surely• ... olul ... I myselr have encouraged the a rts. Why, in my last establishment , the Ca fe de France, I hu{1 lIIa ny paintings on allegorical s ubjects .... Whal is 1II0re, I engaged mll s i ciO Il ~ for the evenings .. Finally, ir Imay in vile YOlilo accompany lIIe ... ,you will see under my peristyle Iwo ve r y la rge. scan til y attired statues. each wit.h a light fixture 011 ils head.- DeJ gerlU U: A light fi xture?-Murtill: That is my idea ur sculpture: it mllst serve some Jlurpose .... All those statues with a ll arm or a leg ill tile air- what a re tbey good
for, sinee they've had no pipe installed to carry gael ... What are they good for?" Theodo re Barrier e. Les Parisiens, produc ed at the Theatre du Vaudev ille on De cember 28, 1854 (Paris. 1855). p . 26. [The play is eel in 1839.} [A6a3] There WaR a Pa8sage du Desir.
[A6a,4]
Chodru c.Duclos--a aupernu merary at the Palais·Royal. He was a royalist. an oppone nt of the Vendee , and bad ground s for complaining of ingratit ude under Charlea X. He proteAted by appeari ng publicly in rags and letting hia beard grow. {Ma,5] Apropoa of an engraving that picturea a ahopfro nt in the Pallage Vero-Dodat: "One cannot praise this arrange ment too highly -the purity of its lines; the pictu.... esque and brillian t ef£~ t produc ed by the pelight globes . which are. placed be tween the capital l of the two double column. borderi ng each shop; and finally the shop partitio ns. which are eet off by reflecting plate glall... Cabine t de.tl Enamp e.t (in the Bibliotheque Nationa le, PariS). (A7,I] At No. 32 Pauage Brady there WaR a dry·c1earungeetablishment , Maison Donnier. It waa aamouS ) for its "giant workro oms" and its " numero us pertlonn el. " A con tempor a ry engraving showe the two-no ry building crowned by small mansar d.; female workertl in great numbe rt are visible through the window s; from tbe ceil ings hangs the linen . [A7,2] Engraving from the Empire: TM Dance of fM Shawl among the Three Cabinet des Estampes.
Sulla~.
[A7,3]
Sketch and floor plan of the ar cade at 36 Rue "auteville, in black, blue, and pink, from the year 1856. on. stampe d paper. A hotel attache d to the arcade i. like- wise represe nted. In boldface: " Proper ty for lease." Cabine t des Estamp es.
[A','[ The firSt departm ent stores appear to be modeled on oriental bazaars . From engravings one sees that, at least around 1880, it was the fashion to cover with tapestries the balustrades of the staircases leading to the atrium. For example, in the stOrt called City of Saint-Denis. Cabine t des Estampes. (A7,S] "The Pau age de I'Opera . with ita two galleries. the Galerie de I'Horlo ge and the Calerie du Barome tre.... The opening of the Opera on the Rue Le Peletier. in 182 1. brough t this arcade into vogue, and in 1825 the ducheu e de Berry came in ))enon to inaugu rate a •Europ ama' in the ealerie du Barometre.... The grisetle.tl of the Restora tion danced in the Idalia Hall . built in the basement. Later. a cafe called the Divan de POpera was establis hed in the arcade. ... Also to be found in the Pauage de POpera waa the anna manufa cturer Caron. the music puiJJjsher
The Passage de I'~ra , 1822-1823. Courtesy of the Music Camavalet, Pam. Photo copyright Photothcquc des MUKes de la Ville de Pam. See A7,6.
t)
"The Pauage del Panoramas, 80 named in memory of the two l)anOramas that etood on either litle of itll entranceway and lhal disappea red in 183 1. " Pa ul [A7,7] d 'Anl te, La Vie et Ie mOllde tlu boulevard (Parie), p. 14. T he beautiIuJ apotheosis of the " marvel of the Indian Ihawl," in the section on Indiall art in Michc.let's Bible de l'hwtltwite (Pa ris, 1864). [A7a,l] And Jehuda ben tb lery, In her view, would hal'e been honored Quite enough by being kept in Any pretty box of cardboard With lOme very Bwanky Chineee ArllbeBIIU6 to decorale ii , Like a bonbon box from Marq uis In the Pa8U!;e Panorama. Heinrich Heine , Hebrauche Melodien , " J ehuda bell Halevy," part 4, in Ro man::ero, book 3 (cited in a letter from Wiesengrund).' [A7a,2) Signboa rds. Mter the rehue style came a vogue for literary and military aUwionl. " If an erUI)tion of the hilltop of Montmartre happened to awallow up Paril , al Ves uvius swaUowed up Pompeii, olle would be able to reconstruct from our I~" boardl, after fifteen hundrml years, the history of our military triumph, and of our literature." Victor Fournel, Ce qu 'on 110il datU Ie$ rue, de Po";" (Pam, 1858), p. 286 ("Enseignes et affiches"). [A7a,3]
Chaptal, in his speech on protecting brand names in industry : "Let us not asswne that the oonswner will be adept, when making a purchase, at distinguish ing the degrees of quality of a material. No, gentlemen, the consumer cannot appreciate these degrees ; he judges only according to his senses. Do the eye or the touch suffice to enable one to pronounce on the fastness of colors, or to detenn.ine with precision the degree of fineness of a material, the nature and quality of its manufacture?" ~ean-Antoine-Claude) Chaptal, Rapport au nom d'une commission .spicitJlt! charget! dt! l 't!xamt!71 du projd dt! loj rt!latifaux a/tiration.s t!l JUp/JOSitioIU dt! nonu .sur It!J produjt.s fabn"qui.s [Chambre des Pairs de France, ses sion of July 17, 1824], p. 5.-The importance of good professional standing is magnified in proportion as consumer know-how becomes more specialized.
Strttt scene in front of me Passage des Panoramas· Bibliotbeque Nacionale de France. See A7,7.
Lithograph by Opitz., 1814. Counesy oftbe
U t and fin aUy the perfume shop of the Opera .... M.arguen e . the p alltry chef Ro e • . . hevetu-which is to say. manu . th e wae Lemonnler. artute en c .. p ul In ad
[A7a,4] " What shall I s uy 1I0W of that couliue which , lIot con lent with ha rboring a two hour illegal sessioll 0 1 the Stock Excha nge. s pawned once again nOllong ago, in the open air, two demonstrations IJCr day on Ihe Boulevard des ltalien8, acr Ol8 from the POsluge de l' Operu. where five or 8ix hUllflrcl1 market 8lJCculators, forming a compact mass, follo",'oo dumsily in Ihe wake of lome forl Y unlicensed brokers, aU the while 8peaking in low voices like eOllspirator8, ...·hile Iw lice office ... prodded
them from behiml to g.:t them to move on , as one prods fat , tired sheeplH:ing letlto the slaughterhoulie.·' 1'11. J . Ducos (de Cond rill), COmmellt on .fe rnille (i III BOline (Paris , 1858), p . 19 . [A7a.5]
the comed y of ca.d IlJlCres. It (Clou:r,ot and ValclIsi, Le Paris de " 'AJ Comedie hit mCiine, ,0 p . 37.) {A8,4] Passage dll Commerce-Saillt -Arl(lre: a reading rOUIII.
II was at 27 1 Rue Saint-Martin , in the l'assage du Cheval l{ouge, thul Lucenaire commined his murders. [A7a,6] [A7a,7] From a prospectus: '1'0 the inhabitants of the Rues Beauregard , Bourbon-Ville neuve, du Caire, and de la Cour des Miracles .. , . A plan for two covered arcades running from the Place du Caire to the Rue Beauregard , cnding directly in front of the Rue Sainte-BarlH:, and linking the Rue Bourbon-Villeneuve with the Rue lIau teville, , .. CentJemen. for some time now we ha\'e been concerned abou t the future of this neighborhood, and it I'ainij us to see that properties so close to the boulevard carry a value so far helow what they ought to have . This state of affairs would change if lilies of communication were opened. Sinee it is iml)t)ssiblc to constroclnew streets in this area, due to the great unevenness of the ground , and since the only workable plan is tile one we h ave the honor of lIubmitting to you here, we bope, CentJemen , that in your capacity as ownerll ... yo u will in turn honor us with YOllr cooperation and affiliation .... Every partner will be retluired to pay an installment of 5 frlln cs on each 2S0-fran c share in the future company. As soon as a capital sum of 3,000 francs is reali;,;ed , this provisional subscription will bec:ome final--uid s um being judged at p resent sumcienl. .. , I'aris, this 20th of October. 1847." Prillted pros pectus inviting suhscriptions. (A8,I) " In the Passage ChoiseuJ , 1'11 , Comte, ' Physician to the King,' presents his cele brated troupe of child actors extruorclinaire& in the interval between two magic shows ill which he himself performs." J.-L. C roze, " Quelques s pectacles d e Paris pendant I'ete de 1835" (Le Temp.f, Augu 8l22, 1935). (A8,2) "'At this tu rning point in histor y, the llarisian shopkeelH!r makes two discoveries that re\'olutionize the ....orld of lu nOlweaute: the display of goods and tile male employee. The display, which lead s him to deck out his sllOp from Iloor to ceiling and to sacrifice three hundred ya rds of material to garlalld his fa\,atl e (jke a flag shil); and the male employee. ""ho replaces the seduction of man h y WOlllall something conceivetl by the shopkeepers of the a ncien regilll~with the selluctioll of womall by lIIall , which is psychologically more ustute , Together with these cOllies the fuc ell price, the kno ....n allli nOllnegotiuble cost. " H, Clouzol a nd n.-II . Valefllli, Le Paris de "'/AJ Comedic Iwmuine"; Hllizll c et .fCS jOllrniU(!lIrS (Ila ris, 1926) , PI', 31- 32 ("MagasiIl8 lie nouvl:uutcs" ). [A8,3) " ' Ilell a flllI8 u sin de nOIlVelJllleS rent.:tlthe splice form erly oct'upicd by !! etzel. the ctlitor of '~(j Comedill IUUlmillll , Buh:ac wrote: " TI/f~ IIwlHw Comet' )' !mil yicitlcd to
[A8a.l ]
"Once the sociali ~ t go\'er'lIIl1cnt had "Ileome the !egilimute owner of 1111 the hOll8CS or Paris, it handed them over to the arc hitectll with the ortler . . . to establish .f freet-gllilerie.f. .. , Tbe architects accompli.shed the mission enlrusted to them as \\'ell as could be I!llpected . On the sccond story of e\'ery hou se, they took all the rooms that facetl the streel and demolished the intervellillg partitions; they thell openetl up large bays in the dividing walls, tllereb y obtaining street-galleries that Ilad the height and width of an ordinary room a nd that occupied the entire Icngth of a block of buildings. III the newer (1IUlrtiers. where neighboring houses have their fl oors at approxi ma tely the stille height , the galleries could be joined to gether on a fairl y evcn level. . . . But on older streets .. , the floors had to be carefully raised or 10wcl'ed , and often the builders had to resign themselves to giving the floor a r ather steel' slant . or brea king it up with stairs. When aU the blocks of houses were thus traver sed b y galleries occup ying ... their second story. it remained only to connect these isolated sections to olle another in order to constitute a network ... embracing the whole city. This was easily done by erect ing covered walkways across every street , . , . Walkways of the same sort , but much longer, were likewise put up over the vario us boulevards, over the squares, and over the bridgeg that cross the Seine, so tha t in the cnd ... a person could u roll through the enti re city without e\'er being exposed to the elements . . . . All SOOIl as the Parisians had got a taste of the lIew galleries, they lost all desire to set root in the streets of old- which , they often said , were fit only for dogs." TOllY Moilill , Pam en l'an 2000 (paris , 1869), I'P. 9-11. [A8a,2] "The second floor cont ains the street-galleries. , , . Along the lellgth of the great a\'enucs, . , . they form stree t-salons .... The other, much less s pacious gaUeriea are decorated more mooeslly, They have been resened for retail businesses that here display their merchandise in sllch a way that passer sby circulate no longer in front of the shops but in their interior," Ton)' Moilin. "(lris en l'an 2000 (Paris. 1869), pp. 15-16 ("Maisons-modeles" ), (A8a,3] Sales clerks: " There are al lclI8t 20,000 ill Paris .... A great numbe r of sales clerks ha \'e bcell etlucated in the classics, .. ; olle even find s alllollg them painters /.I nd lI rehitects ullaffiliuted with ully workshop , who u ~e a great Ileal of their knowlellge .. , of these two branches of arl in eunstructing dis plays, in Ilcterlllining the d esign of new items, in tlire<:ting tile creation of fa shions." Pierre Laro uue , Grund Dic tiOn/wire uni ver.fe! du X IX' siecie, \ ' 0 1. 3 (Paris. 1867). p . 150 (a rticle on "Cali l'Ot" ) ,
[A9, 1)
'-Wh y tli,l the author of Btlllies de mocu rs u ~S hl(lies of Mallncrs) choose 10 pre Sellt , in a work of fiction , lifelike porlra its of the notables or hi;; da y? Doubtleu for
his own amo,eme nt fir" o f a U.... This expla ins the d escriptio"S_ Fo r the direct citatiOIlS, a no the r reason must be fo und- and we see none better than his unmis taka ble aim of providing Imblicily. Balzac is one of the fir81 10 have divined the powe r of the IIclverti&ement and, above aU, the disgui8ed advertisement . In lho8e days •... the newspapers were unawa re of such power . . . . At the very most,
around midnight . 8 S workers were fin ishing up the layout . advertising writers might slip in at the bottom of a column 80m e lines on Pite de Regnault or Brazilian Blend. The newspaper advertisement 8S such was unknown . More unknown still wal a proceu 88 ingenioul 81 citation in a novel. ... The tradesmen Darned by Balzac ... are clearly hi, own .... No one understood better than the author of Ce,ar Birolleau the unlimited potential of publicity.... To confirm this, one need
j "
onl y look a t the epithe ts ... he attaches to his manufacturers a nd their products. Sha melessly he dubs the m : the renowned Vict orine; Plaisir, an iUwtriow hair d resse r ; Sta ub, the mOlt celebrated tailor of his age; Gay, a/amow ha berdasher ... on the Rue de la Michodie.re (even giving the a ddress!); ... ' the cuisine o f the Roche r d e Cancale, ... the premie r restaurant in Paris ... , which is to 8ay. in the entire world .... H. Clouzot and R.-H . Valenti, Le Paris de "w Comedie hu maine": Ba~ac et JeJ!oltrnuJeur, (Pa ris, 1926), pp . 7-9 and 177-179. IA9,2) The Passage vero-Dodat connects the Rue C r oix-d es-Pe til8-C ha mps with the Rue J e an-lacquel- Rounea u . In the latter, a r ound 1840, Cabet held his meetings in his r ooms . We ge t a n idea o f the t one of these gatherings from Martin Nadaud's Memoires de Leonard, ancien gar-;on mo-;on: " He was still holding in his hand the towel and razo r he had jUl t been using. He seemed filled with joy at seeing us l'eslJec ta bly a ttired , with a seriOUI air: 'Ah , Messieu rs,' he said (he did no t say 'Citizens'), ' uyour adversaries could only see you now! You would dilarm the ir criticisms. Your dress and your bearing are those of well-bred men ...' C ited in C harles Be nois t, " L ' H o mme de 1848," part 2, Revue deJ deux mondeJ (February I , 1914), PI)' 64I--642.-h was c haracte ristic of Cabet to believe that workers need not busy the mselves with writing. IA9,3) S tred-salo ns: "The largest and most favora bly aituated amon g these ( street galle rie8] were tastefully d ecorated and l umptuous ly furni shed. The waUl a nd ceilings wer e covered with .. . rare marble, gildin g, ... mirror s, and paintinga. The windows were adorned with splendid hangings and with c urtain8 e mbroid e red in marvelo us pattem8. C ha irs, fa uteuils, 1I0fa s ... o ffe red comfortable seating to tired strollers. Finally, there were a rtis tically designed o bjects, a ntique cabi nets, .. . gla n cases full of c uriosities, ... porcelain vases containing fresh flow ers, a (IUariumll full of live fish , a nd aviaries inhabited b y r a re birds. These completed the d ecor a tio n of the st reet-galleries, which lit up the evening with ... gilt candelabra8 a nd crySlaJ lamps. The governme nt had wanted the st reets be longing 10 I.he pe ople of Paris to surpasll in magnificence the drawin g rooml of the most powerful sovereigns . . . . Firs t thing in the morning, the s treet-ga llc ries are lurned over to a tte nda nts who air the m out, sweep them carefully, bru8h , dust , a nd polis h the furniture , a nd everywhe re impose the mosl scrupulous c1eanlinen. The n , d epending on the seallon , the windowil are e ither opened or closed , 8.nd
either a fire i8 1il or the blinds urc lowered .... Be lwL'C1i nine and le n o'clock Ihi8 cleaning is nil cOlUple le(l. alld ,," s~e rs b y, unlilthe n (e w li nd far be lwL"eIl .l.oegili to n ppe nr ill grea le r numbe rs . I<: utl'llllce to th l.\ galll.\ ri l.\~ i ~ strictl y fo l'i)idde ll 10 IIny o lle who is dirty o r 10 carrie rs of hellv y 10u{ls; s moking ami s pitting lire likewise p rohihited he re." To n y Moilin. H./riJ en I'an 2000 ( PliriS, 1869). pp. 26-29 ("As [A9a, I) pect d es rues-ga lcricH"). Tlltl magcuills de nOlwealites o we their ex iste nce 10 the frct,.'
In the r.UlIllfl Delorme I've Jlut .. hundred Iho" ,"nll f rllllc•. ( 1'". 5-6)
" I heRr they WD III 10 roof a U the Sireel! of Puns wilh glass . Thai will make for lovely hothou ses; we wiU live in the m like melolls " (p. 19 ). [AlO.3} From Gira rd . De! Tombea ux, ou De "' nfluence de! irutitut ioru fun ebres .mT Ie, moeurs (Parill. 1801 ): " The new Punge du Caire, lIear the Rue Saint.Denis, ... is paved in pa rt wilh (uner a r y slo nes, o n which the Gothic inscript ions and the emblenlS have nol yet been effaced ." The author ",;,heli 10 draw a ltelltio n here to the decline of piety. Cited in Edouar d Four nier, Chroniques et lkgende s des rues de Pari.1 (Paris. 18(4). p. 154. lA10,4]
Brazier, Gabr iel, and Dumen an , Le, Prusoge s e' Ie, rues. OIL La Gue rre va udeville in one acl , per(ornu!tl (or the fi rs t time. in Paris, at the Theatr e del Variele8 on March 7, 1827 (Paris, 1827). -The party of a rcade8adver saries is compos ed of M. Duperron , umb rella merch ant; !'tIme. Duheld er, wife of a carriage provide r ; M. Mouffe tard . hailer ; M. Bla ncmant eau . mer ch ant a nd manufa cturer o( clogs; and Mme. Dubac. rentier- -each one coming (rom a differen t part of town . M. Dulingo t . who has bought stock in the arcade8. has champi oned their cause. His lawye r is M. Pour; that of his oppone nts, M. Contre. In the second to las t (fourtee nth) 8cene, M. Contre ap pears at the head of a column o( streets, which are decked with banner s proclai ming their names. Among them are the Rue aux Ours. Rue Ber gere. Rue du Croin ant , Rue du Puits-Q ui-Parle , Rue du Grand- Hurleu r. Likewis e in the next scene-- a process ion of arcades with their banner s: Passage du Saumon , Passage de I'Ancre . Passage du Gr and-Ce n , Pas sage du Pont-New . Passage de l' OI.era. Pauage du Panora ma . In the follow illg scene, the last (sixteen th), Lutece l ! emerges from the bowels of the earth, at fi rs t in the guise of an old woman . I.n her presenc e, M. Contre takes up the d efen~ of the streets against the a rcades. " One hund red forty -four arcade8 open thell" mouths wide to devour our custom ers, to siphon off the eve.... rising Aow of our crowds . both active and idle. And yo u want us stret!ts of Paris to ignore this clear infringe ment of our ancient rights! No . we demand ... the interdic tion of our one hUlldre d fort y-four oppone nts and. in additio n , fifteen million . fi ve hund red thou sand francs in damages and interest " (p . 29). The argume nt by!'tt. Pour in favor of the arcades takes lhe form of ver se. An extract :
decwree,
..
We whom they would bani! h--we are nlore than u&tful . Have we not, by virtue of our cheerful upect. Encouraged all of Pam in the fashion Of hnaan , thollf! maru 110 famou! in the Eut? And what are the1lf! wall. the crowd admi ree? Theile ornamcnU. the&t column. above all? YOII'd think YOll were in Athene; and thi' temple I. erecled to commerce by good lu te. (I'p. 29--(0)
Lutece arbi trates the differen ce8: "'The affair is settled . Genies of light , hea rken 10 my voice. ' (At this 1lI0mcn t the wllOle ga ller y is l!IItJden ly illumin ated b y gas ligll!. )" (I" 3 1). A ballet of streeu ami arcades conclm les the va udeville . [Al Oa, I]
" I 110 not at all hcsitate to wrilll-a s monstro us liS this llIay seem to serious writers on a rl- that it was the salc$ clerk who laul1che tl lithogra ph y.... Condem ned to imita tions of Ruphad , to Briseises by RegnlluJt . it wouM IHlrliap s have died; the sales d erk saved il ." Hcnri Bouchot , La LitllOgr ffp hie (Paris ( 1895», pp . 50--5 1. [All ,l ] In the 1'a88~ge Vivienne She told me: ""I'm from Vienna: · Alltl , he added : ~ llil·e with my uncle, The hrother of l~a lJal I take care of hie furuncl e It h88 ils charms. thi. fale:· I promised to meet the Ilamselagain In the Panage Honne- Nouvelle: !Jul in the l'anage Brady I waited in vain. '\ And there )·ou have it : arcade amouN! Na rcisse Lebeau . cited by l..eon-P aul Fargue . "Cafes de Paris," part 2 (in Vu , 9, no. 4 16 (Ma rch 4, 1936)]. [AII ,2] "'There seems no reaSOll , in particu lar, at the first and IlIOSt literal glance, why the story should be called aft er the Old Curiosity Shop . Only two of the charact ers have a nything to do with such a shop, and they leave it for ever in the fi rs t few pages.. .. But when we feel the situatio n wilh llIore fid elity we realize that this title is someth ing in the lIature of a key to the whole Dicken s romance. His tales always started from some s plendid h.int in the streets. Ami shops, per haps the most poeti cal of all things. often set his fa ncy gallopin g. Ever)' shop , ill fa cl , was 10 him the door of romanc e. Among all the huge serial schemes ... it is a matter or wonder that he never started an endless periodi ca l called tile Th e Street. and divided it into shops. lie could have written an exquisite r omance called The Buker 's S hop ; another called TIl e CI, emis t $ Shop ; ano ther called Til e Oil 51101), to keel' compan y with Th e Old Curiosi t), Shop ." G. K. Chcster lon . DickenJ . tra ns. Lauren t and Martin- Dupont (paris, 1927), I'p . 82--83 .'3 [A II ,3] ·'One may womlcl· to what extent Four ier himself helievCl I ill his fanta sies. In his ma nuscr ipli he 50meti111 e~ comp lai ns of critic" wllO ta ke literally what is mea nt as fi gurativ e, and who insisllll oreover 0 11 sl)t:akin g of his '"Iudici l whims. ' There may have lHlt!n at Icast II modicu m of deliher ale charl nta llism al work in 11 11 this-a ll attempt to launcll hi. system by mea nS of the tactic. of comme rcial advertising,
wnu:h had begun to develop ." F. Arman d and R. Ma ublanc. Fourier (Paris, 1937), vol. l . p . 158. 0 Exhibit ions 0 (Alla,l) P roudho u 's confe88ion near the end of his life (in his book De ill j utllice" --com pare with Fourier 's vieion of the p hala llstery): " It has been nece88a ry for me to beconle civili1.oo. But need I approve? T he little bit of civilizin g I've rt!(!eived d isgusts me.... I hate houses of more than one stor y, houses in which, by contras t with the social hierarc hy, the meek are raised on h i~h while tile ~reat are &euled ncar the groun d." Cited in Armand Cuvillie r, /ltar:e el ProuclllO n : Ala lumiere (/u /lta rxU me. vol. 2, part I (P ari8, 1937), p. 211 . [Al l a,2] B1an« ui: "' I wore,' he says, ' the first tricolor ed cock ade of 1830, made by Ma d ame Bodin in the Passage du COmme r ce. ", Gustav e Geffroy, L'Etifer me (Parie, 1897), p . 2,10. [Alla,3] Baudelaire can 8till write of " a book as daulin g as an Indian handke rchief or shawl." Baudelaire, L 'Art r omantiq llC (Parie), p . 192 ("Pierr e Dupont ") . 1 ~
[A lla,4] The Crauu t Collecti on poueue s a beautif ul rep roducti on of the Passage des Panor amas from 1808 . Al80 found ther e: a p ro8pe<:l ue for a bootbla cking shop , in which it ie a que8tio n mainly of P uss in Boots. [Al i a,S) Baudelair e to his mothcr on December 25 , 1861, concern ing all altemp t to pawn a shawl: " I wae told that , with the app roach of New Year'e Day, there was a glut of cashme res in the atoree, and that they were tryi ng to d.ist:our age the p ublic from br inging any mor e in. " Charles Baudelaire, i..eUreJ ti , a mere (Paris, 1932),
~m ,
~ II ~
" Our epoch will be the link between the age of isolated fo rces ric h in oripnal creative ne88 and that of the uniform but leveling for ce which gives monoto ny to its produc ts, casting them in ma88Ci, and followin g out one unifyin g idea-t he ulti mate exp ression of social communities." U . de Balzac, L '/Uwtre Gaudu$ art. cd. Calma nn-Levy (Pa ris, 1837), p. l. 1~ [Al la,7)
Sales at Au Bon Marc.he, in the years 1852 to 1863, rose from 450,000 to 7 million francs. The rise in profits could have been considerably less. "High turnove r and small profits" was at that time a new principle, one that accorded with the two domina nt forces in operati on: the m ultitude of purcha sers and the mass of goods. In 1852, Boucicaut allied himself with Vidau, the proprie tor of Au Bon Marche, the magaJill tk lI(JuueauliJ. "The originality consiste d in selling guarant eed merchandise at discount prices. Items, first of all, were marked with fixed prices, another bold innovacion which did away with bargain ing and with 'process sales'- that is to say, with gaugin g the price of an article to the physiog nomy of the buyer; then the 'return' was instituted, allowing the custom er .to
Au Bon Marche department store in Paris. \r\bodcut, ca. 1880. See A12,1.
-
cancel his pu rchase at will; and , finally, employees were paid almost entirely by conunission on sales. These were the constitutive elements of the new organiza tion." George d~vend, "Le Mecanisme de la vie modeme : Les Grands Maga sins," Revue de; tkux mow;, 124 (Paris, 1894), pp. 335-336. [AI2 ,t]
The gain in time realittd for the retail business by the abolition of bargaining may have played a role initially in the calrulations of department Stores. [A 12,2) A chapter, "Shawls, Cashmeres," in BOTne', lndwtrie-Au"teUung im Louvre
The physiognomy of the arcade emerges with Baudelaire in II lentence al the beginning of "Le J oueur genereux": " It seemed to me odd that I could bave passed this enchan ting haunt so often without suspecting that here was the entrance."
Specifics of the department store: the OlSlOmers perceive themselves as a mass ; they are confronted with an assortment of goods; they take in an the floors at a glance; they pay fixed prices ; they can make exchanges. (A12 ,5] " In those parts of the city where the theaters and public walks ... are located, where therefore the majo rity of foreigner s live and wander, there ie h ardly a building without a shop. It takes onl y a minute, only a step, for the forces of a tt ractio n to gather ; a minute later, a . tep further on , and the passerb y i.e . tanding bef ore a different shop .... One's attention i.e spirited away .. though by violence. alld one has no choice but to stand there and remain looking up until it returns. The name of the shopkeeper, the name of his merchandise. inecribed a dozen times 011 placards that hang on the d oors and above the windows. beckon from all , ides; the exterior of the archway rese mbles the eJ.:ercise book of a schoolboy who writes the few words of a paradigm over and over. FabriCi are not laid out in samples but are hung before door and window in completely unroUed bolts. Often they are attached high up on the third story and reach down in sundry folds all the way to the pa\'emenl. The shoemaker has painted different-colored shoes, ranged in rows like battalions, across the entire fa~ade of his building. The sign for the locksmiths is a six-foot-high gold-plated key; the giant gates of heaven could require no larger. On the hosiers' shops are painted white stockings four yards high, and they will startle yo u in the da rk when they loom like ghosts . . . . But foot and eye are arrested in a 1I0bier and more channing fashion b y the paintings displayed before many sto refr onts. . . . T hese paintings are, not infrequently, true worka of art. a llli if they were to ha ng in the Louvre, they would inspire in connoi88eur. at least pleasure if not a,lmiration.... The shop of a wigmaker i. adorned with It picture Ihili. 10 be sure, is poorly exec:uted but distinguished by an amusing conception . Crown Prince Absalom hangs by his hair from a tree and i. pierced by the lance of all enemy. Underneath runs the "erse: ' Her e you ace Absalom in. his hopes quite
debunked , I Had he worn a peruke. he'd not be defuDct.' Another ... pictu re. representing a village maiden a. she kneels to receive a garland of rosell-token of her virtue--from the hands of a chevalier, ornamcnt8 the door of II milliner'. sho p." Ludwig Burne. Schiidenlflsen «u.s Pr.lri.s ( 1822 "lid 1823), ch . 6 ("Die Laden" (Shops»), in Ge.s(lm melte Schriften (Hamburg and Frankfurt am Main , IAI2a) 1862), vol. 3. pp . 46-49. On Baudelaire's "religious intoxication of great cities":" the department stores arc: temples consecrated to this intoxication. (AI3]
loutish, measures the century by the yard, ~rves a& mannequin himself to save costs, and manages single-handedly the liquidation that in French is called rivolu lion. For fashion was never an . other than the of the mot! cadaver, rovocation of death throu the woman and bitter colloquy with deca w pertd between shrill bursts of mechanical laughter. t IS as on. And that is w y S e changes so quickly; she titillates death and is already something differ em, something new, as he casts about to crush her. For a hundred years she holds her own against him. Now, 6nalJy, she is on the point of quitting the fidd . But he erectS on the banks of a new Lethe, which rolls its asphalt Stream through arcades, the annature of the whores as a battle memorial. 0 Revolution 0 Love 0
B [Fashion} Fashion: Madam Death! Madam Death! -Giacomo Leopardi, "Dialogue: bctwccn Fashion and Death ~I
[Bl ._]
Nothing dies; all is transfonncd. -Honor.! de Balz.ac., /tnsitJ, JujelJ,.JTar;r-ts (Paris. 1910). p. 46
SquareR, 0 squa re in Pari., infinite 8howplace, where the modi8le Madame Lamort windt a nd bind. lhe mile.. way. of the world,
IhOle endJeq ribbon" to ever- new creationa of how, (rill , flower, cockade. a nd (ruit-
R. M. Rilke. Duineser Elegien (Leipzig, 1923). p. 23.2
And boredom
DEnnui D
IS
the grating before which the courtesan teases death. [Bl .l ]
Similarity of the arcades to the indoor arenas in which one learned to ride a bicycle. In these halls the figure of the woman assumed its most seductive as~: as cyclist. 'TItat is how she appears on contemporary posters. Cheret the pamttt of this feminine pulchritude. The costume of the cyclist, as an early and uncon sciow prefiguration of sportswear, corresponds to the dream proto~ that, a little before or a lilde later, are at work in the factory or the automobile. Just as the first factory buildings cling to the uaditional form of the residential dwelling, and just as the first automobile chassis imitate carriages. so in the clothing of the cyclist the sporting expression still wresdes with the inherited pattern of degance. and the fruit of this souggle is the grim sadistic touch which made this ideal image of elegance so incomparably provocative to the male world in those days. oDream H ouses 0 [Bl,2} " In these year . [around 1880). not only does the RenainaDee fa shion begin to do mischief, but on the other side a new intel"e8t in sport.-above all , in equelitrian sport8-arises among women , and together thelie two tendencieli exert an influenee on fashion from quite differeDt directions. The attempt to ~oncile these senti ments dividing the female sou) yieldli results that . in the years 1882-1885, an: original if not always beautiful. To improve matters, dreu deliigners simp)jfy and take in the waill ali much as pon ihie, while allowing the likirt an amp)jtude all the [BI ,3) more rococo." 70 Jahre deutJche Mode (1925), pp. 84-87 .
Here fashion has opened the bwiness of dialectical exchan between wom~ and ware between ure and the corpse. The clerk, death, tall and
[B1.5]
" Nothing has a place of itli own , save fa shion appoints that place." L 'Esprit d 'Al phon&e Karr;
With Karr, there appears a rationalist theory of fashion that is closely related to th~ rationalist theory of the origin of religions. The motive for instituting long
skirts, for example, he conceives to be the interest certain women would have had in concealing an un.J.oveI.y
For. ~e ~hilosopher, the most interesting thing about fashion is its extraordinary anlJopalJons. It is wdl known that art will often- for example, in picrures-pre cede the perceptible rnlity by years. It was possible to see streets or rooms that s~one in all sorts of fiery colors long before technology, by means of illuminated Signs and other arrangements, actually set them under such a light. Moreover, the sensitivity of the individual artist to what is coming certainly far exceeds that
of the grande dame. Yet fashion is in much steadier, much more precise contact with the coming thing, thanks to the incomparable nose which the feminine collective has for what lies waiting in the future. Each season brings, in its newest creations, various secret signals of things to come. Whoever understands how to read these semaphores would know in advance not only about new cum:nts in the arts but also about new legal codes, wars, and revolutions.s-Here, surely, lies the greatest chann of fashion, but also the difficulty of making the charming fruitful. [B1a,1)
"Whether you translate Russian fairy tales, Swedish family sagas, or English picaresque novels-you will always come back in the end, when it is a question of setting the tone for the masses, to France, not because it is always the truth but because it will always be the fashion." Gutzkow, Briefi aus Paris, vol. 2
A definitive perspective on fashion follows solely from the consideration that to each generation the one inunediately preceding it seems the most radical anti aphrodisiac imaginable. In this judgment it is not so far wrong as might be supposed. Every fashion is to some extent a bitter satire on love; all sexual perversities are suggested in every fashion by the most ruthless means ; every fashion is filled with secret resistances to love. It is worthwhile reflecting on the following observation by Grand-Carteret, superficial though it is: "It is in scenes from the amorous life that one may in fact perceive the full ridiculousness of certain fashions. Aren't men and women grotesque in these gesrures and atti rudes- in the rufted forelock (already extravagant in itself), in the top hat and the nipped-waisted frockcoat, in the shawl, in the grande; pamela;, in the dainty fabric boots?" Thus, the confrontation with the fashions of previow: generations is a
I.e Pont des planetes (Interplanetary Bridge). Engraving by Grandville, 1844. See Bla,2.
matter of far greater importance than we ordinarily suppose. And one of the most significant aspects of historical cosruming is that-above all, in the thea ter-it undertakes such a confrontation. Beyond the theater, the question of cosrume reaches deep into the life of art and poetry, where fashion is at once preserved and overcome. [Bla,4] A kindred problem arose with the advent of new velocities, which gave life an altered rhythm. 1bis lauer, too, was first ttied out, as it were, in a spirit of play. The loop-the-loop carne on the scene, and Parisians seized on this entertainment with a frenzy. A chronicler notes around 1810 that a lady squandered 75 francs in one evening at the Pare de Montsouris, where at that time you could ride those looping cars. The new tempo of life is often announced in the most unforeseen ways. For example, in posters. "These images of a day or an hour, bleached by the elements, charcoa1ed by urchins, scorched by the sun-although others are sometimes collected even before they have dried-symbolize to a higher degree even than the newspapers the sudden, shock-filled, mulrifonn life that carries us away." Maurice Talmeyr, La GIlt du sang (Paris, 1901 ), p. 269.ln the early days of the poster, there was as yet no law to regulate the posting of bills or to provide protection for posters and indeed from posters; so one could wake up somc mOrning to find one's window placarded. From time inunemorial this enigmatic need for sensation has found satisfaction in fashion. But in its grolUld it will be reached at last only by theological inquiry, for such inquiry bespeaks a dcep affective attitude toward historica1 process o n the part of the human being. It is tempting to connect this need for sensation to one of the seven deadly sins, and it is not surprising that a chronicler adds apocalyptic prophecies to this connection
effects of too and foretdls a time when people will have been blinded by the cques FromJa g. much dectric light and madden ed by the tempo of news reportin [B2, I) Fabien, Paris ~ J()1Igt: (Paris, 1863). Lu Toi "On Octobe r 4, 1856, the Gymnasium Theate r preM:nted a play entitled e, and crinolin the of heyday the lette, Tapagc wes . It waa bavin& role, puffed-out women were in fashion . The actres. playing the leading exagger · gra. ped the satirica l intentions of the a uthor, wore a drell whOM: skirt, Ui. The day ated by design , bad a fullnell that wa. comical and almolt rimculo to lend her lamea fine twenty than more by after opening night, . he wa. a.ked Maxime ize." . in doubled had e crinolin drell8 as a model, and eight day. later the [B2,2) Du Camp, PoriA , vol. 6
e Haute· "She was everyb ody's contemporary."
[B2a,3)
Du h., d'u de~m.iI"ll.t~u. 'tllli.j.,u .
Fashionable courtesa ns wearing . lin Lith~ph by Honoli Daumier, 1855. 'The cs. f the caption reads' "LaW ucm·monde, but havmg no demi·skiru." See 82,2. es 0 .
.J_cr:no
men. A knit 'ca rf-a brightly striped mufBer - worn also, in muted colors, by [B2a,4)
~ Th. Vischer on the men'. fa shion of wide sleeves that faUbelow the wrist: " What
"" ~ have here are no longer arms but the rudime nts of winp Slumps of penguin g les the ~s. :n , s, .6. h fins. The movement of these shapele n .ppendage~ resemb r ddli jerkin sliding -the cu abon& ng--o a fool or simpleton ." Vischer , pa ,g, . .. erniinftlge Gedank en fiber die jet%ige Mode," p. 111 .
" V;
~rtant
[B2a,5J
political critique of fashion from the standpo int of the bourge ois: . en the author of these reasona ble opinion s first saw• bo--l: cu Ulng a traIn, a . th young he was I ~ weann~ e new~t st>:le of shin collar, he honestJ y though t that height same the at neck the s encircle band white ooking at a pnest; for this was "', th",e we1J.kno~ ~llar of the Catholi c cleric, and moreov er the long smock ' b a . On recogruzmg a 'ayman in the 'hio n, he urunedi ,atest,a5 ately under· very " " stood all tha . _ .,,_ ;~g, ~_ shirt collar Signifies: '0 , for us eve"'''h t this 'glSon e ....... _·-., ....., ., . cI rd co like enment enlight ~co au m uded ! ~d why not? Should we clamor for a by effected Ie you~? Is ~ot hi~y more distinguished than the leveling pleas. the ing disturb hallow sptntua lliberal Jon, which in the end always aims at . " tracmg a neat little l.:_ ure of refined people ?'-It may be added that .uu:. coUar, m
;0
line around the neck, gives its wearer the agreeable air of someone freshly be headed, which accords so well with the character of the blaX." To this is joined the violent reaction against purple. Vucher, "Vemiinfcige Gedanken fiber die jetzige Mode," p. 112. [B2a,6) On the reaction of 1850-1860: ''1'0 8how one'8 color! ia considered ridiculous; to be strict is looked on as childish. In . uch a aituation, how could dress not beeome equally colorless, flabby, and, at the aame time, narrow?" Vi.cher, p. 11 7. He thUI bringw the crinoline into relation with that fortified "'imperialism whicb . preads out and puff. up exactly like its image here, and which, al the last and s tron~t expression of the reflux of all the tendencies of the year 1848, &ettlel its dominion like a hoop skirt over all 88pet!ts, good and bad, justified and unjustified. of the [B2a,7) revolution" (p. 119). " At bottom, the.e thinp are l imultaneou. ly free and unfree. It i. a twilight zone where necessity and humor interpenetrate . . . . The more fantastic a form , the more intensely the clear and ironic consciousness worka by the side of tbe servile will. And this consciousnen guarantees that the foUy will not la8l; the more con sciousness grow., the nearer comes the time when it acts, when it turns to deed , when it throws off the fetters." Viacher. pp . 122-123. [B2a,8)
One of the most important texts for elucidating the eccentric., revolutionary, and surrealist possibilities of fashion-a text, above all, which establishes thereby the connection of Surrealism to Grandville and others-is the section on fashion in Apollinaire's PoUe assassini (Paris, 1927), pp. 74ff.6 [B2a,9) H ow fashion takes its cue from everything: Programs for evening clothes ap- ...... peared, as if for the newest symphonic mwic. In 1901, in Paris, Victor Prouvt: exhibited a formal gown with the title, "Riverbank in Spring." [823,10] Hallmark of the period's fashions : to intimate a body that never knows full nakedness. [83 ,1 ) "'Around 1890 peol)le discover that . ilk i. no longer the most elegant matefal for street clothes; henceforth it is aUotted the previously unknown function of linin,. rrom 1870 to 1890, clothing is extraordinarily expensive. and changes in fa shion are accordingly limited in many C88es to prudent alterations by which new appa rel can be derived from remodeling the old ." 70 Jahre deuts che Mode ( 1925), p. 71. [83 ,2) " 1873 . . . • when the giant skirt. that Itretched over cushions attached to the derriere, with their gathered draperies. theiTI)leated frilil. their embroidery, and their ribbons. seem to have iS8ued lesl from the workshop of a tailor than from
that of an upholsterer." J . W. Samlon, Die Fraue,.mode tier Cegenwar, (Berlin [B3,3J and Cologne, 1921), ,)p . 8-9.
No inlfllonalizing so unsettling as that of the ephemera and the fashionable (onus preserved for w in the wax museum. And whoever has once seen her must, like Andre Bremn, lose his heart to the female 6gun= in the Musee Grevin who adjwts her garter in the comer of a loge. Na4Ja
The impression of the old·fashioned can arise only where, in a certain way, reference is made to the most topical. If the beginnings of modem architecture to 'some extent lie in the arcades, their antiquated effect on the present generation has exact1y the same significance as the anciquated effect of a father on his son. [83,6)
In my fonnulation : '"'The eternal is in any case far more the ruffie on a dress than some idea."· 0 Dialectical Image 0 [83,7)
In fetishism, sex. does away with the boundaries separating the organic world from the inorganic. C lothing and jewelry are its allies. It is as much at home with what is dead as it is with living Hesh. The lauer, moreover, shows it the way to establish itself in the fanner. Hair is a frontier region lying between the tv.ro kingdoms of sexus. Something different is disclosed in the drunkenness of pas sion: the landscapes of the body. These are already no longer animated, yet are still accessible to the eye, which, of course, depends increasingly on touch and smell to be its guides through these realms of death. Not seldom in the dream, however, the re are swelling breasts that, like the earth, are all apparded in woods and rocks, and gazes have sent their life to the bottom of glassy lakes that slumber in the valleys. These landscapes are traversed by paths which lead
-
~:w~ inl,O the world of the inorganic. Fashion itself is only anomer medium entlcmg It still more deeply into the universe of matter. [83,8] '''Thi, yea r,' laid ~ri'tOU8e, ' (u lJions are biza r re a nd common, simple Bnd fu ll of fantasy. Any ma te rial from natu re', do main can 110100' be introduced into the com position of · r . . women . . ', clothes. J 8a w a channing dress made of "~o,k8.... A lllaJo designer 18 thinking about launching tailor-made outfiu made of old bookhindings
done in calf.... Fish hones are being worn a 101 on hals. One often sees delicious yo~ng girls dreued like pilgrims of Saint Jametl of Coml)olIlella; their outfits. as is fitun g, are studded with coquille! Saint-Jacques. Steel, wool, sandstone, and files have suddenly entered the vestmentary arts.... Feathen now decorate not only hata b,ut shoes, and gloves; and next year they'll be 0 11 umbrellas. They're doing shoos 10 Venetian glass and hats in Baccarat crystal. ... I forgot to tell you that last Wednesday I saw on the bouleva rds on old dowager dressed in mirrors stuck to fabri c. The effec:t was sumptuous in the sunlight . You 'd have thought it was a gold mine out for a walk. Later it starled raining and the lady looked like a silver mine.... Fashion is becoming practical aDd no longer looks down on anything. It ennobles everything. It does for materials what the Romantics did for words. 'tt Guillaume Apollinaire, Le Poete anau ine, new editiOn (Paris, 1927), pp . 75-77.~ (B3a,l ] A caricaturisl--eirca 1867-representll the frame of a hoop slUrt as a cage in which a girl imprisons hens and a parrot . See Louis Sonolet , La Vie parnumne sow I.e Second Empire (Paris, 1929), p. 245. (B3a,2]
quickly altering, but also quickly n::insta ted, nuance!: the length of the train , the height of the coiffure , the shonness of the sleeves , the fuLLl en of the skin , the placement of the nediline and of the waist. Even radical revolutions Like the boy i.s h haireul8 fa shionable today are only the 'eternal return of the same.'" Egon Friedell , Kuilrlrgelchichle l/er Neu:.eil. vol. 3 (Munich , 1931), p. 88. Women 's fa shions are thus distinguished , according to the author, from the more diverse a nd more categorical fashions for mCII . (B4,I] " Of all the promises made b y Cabet'e novel Voyage en l earie , at least one has been realized . Cabet had in fact tried to prove in the novel, '>'hich contains his system, that the communist state of the future could admit no product of the imagination and could suffer no change in its institutions. He had therefore balllled from l caria all fashion- particularly the capricious prienes8ea of fa shiOll , the modistes---as well as goldsmiths and all other professioll' that serve luxury, and had demanded that dress, uteruils, alld the like should never be altered ." S i~lIlUnd Engliinder, Gelchichte der jr-an:ol u chen A.rbeiter Auociationen (Hamb urg, 1864), vol. 2, pp. 165--166. [B4,2]
In 1828 the first perfonnance of La Muette fit Portia' took place.IO lt is an undulat ing musical atravaganza, an opera made of draperies, which rise and subside over the words. It must have had its success at a time when drapery was begin· ning its triumphal procession (at first, in fashion, as Turkish shawls). 'Ibis revolt, whose premier task is to protect the king from its own effect, appears as a prdude to that of 1830-10 a revolution that was indeed no more than drapery covering a slight reshuffie in the ruling circles. [B4,3]
" It was bathing in the sea ... that struck the first blow agaillst the 80lemll and cumbersome crinoline. " Louis Sonolet , La Vie pariJienne JOW Ie Second Empire (Paris, 1929), p . 247. (B3a,3]
Does fashion die (as in Russia, for example) because it can no longer keep up the tenlpo-at least in certain fields ? [B4,41
"Fashion ~nsists ~nly ~ atremes. Inasmuch as it seeks the atremes by narure, there re~ for It nothing more, when it has abandoned some particular form, than to glVe Itself to the opposite form." 70 Jahre deutJche Mode (1925), p. 5 1. Its uttermost atremes: frivolity and death. (B3a,4]
Grandville's works are nue cosmogonies of fashion . Pan of his oeuvre could be entitled "The Snuggle of Fashion with Narurc:." Comparison between Hogarth and Grandville. Grandville and Lautr6unont.-What is the significance of the [B4.5] hypertrophy of captions in Grandville?
" We took the crinoline to be the , ymbol of the Second Empire in Fra nce-of itll ~verblown lie• • i18 hollow and purse-proud impudence. It toppled ... , but ... J~ st be~ore the fall of the Empire, the Pari8ian world had time to indu lge a nother ' Ide of Its temperament in women's fashions , and the Republic did not disd ain to follow ils lead ." F. Th. Vischer, Mode lind Cynumw (SIuttgart, 1879), p. 6. Tile new fashion to which Vischer alludes is explained : " The dress is cut tliagonally across the body and stretched over ... the belly" hI. 6). A little later he sl)Ca ks of the women thus a ttired as " naked in their clothes" (p. 8). [B3a.5J
" Fashion ... is a witness, hut a witness to the histor y of the great world only, for in C\'ery country ... the poor people have fa shionl al little as they have a history, Il llt! their ideas , their tastes, even their lives barely change. Without doubt .... IJuhlic lire is hcginning to penetrate the poorer households. but it will take time." Eugene Montrue, Le XIX' Jiecle veell par deux jra"{lliJ (Paris). p. 241 . [84 ,6]
Friedell explains, with regard to women , " that the history of their drcu sllOws surprisingly few variations. It is not milch more thall a regu lar r.otation of 11 few
The foUowi.ng remark makes it possible to recognize how fashion functions as camou8age for quite specific interests of the ruling class. "Rulers have a great aversion to violent changes. They want everything to Stay the same- if possible, for a thousand years. If possible, the moon should stand still and the sun move no farther in itS course. Then no one would get hungry any more and want
] J!
•
dinner. And when the rulers have fired their sho t, the adversary sho uld no lo nger be pennitted to fire ; their own shot should be the last." Ben oit Brttht, "FUnf Schwierigkeiten beim Schreiben d er W ahrheit," Urum: Zeit, 8, nos. 2-3 (paris, Basel, Prague, April 1935), p. 32. (B4a,I) MacOrlan , who emphslu es the analogies to Su r realism in Grand ville', work, dra ws attention in lhi, connet:tion to the work of Walt Dislley. OD which he com menta: " It ie Dot in lhe leallt morbid . In \hi, it di ver~1 from the hUDIor of Grand ville. which alwaYI bore within itself the leed, of death ." MacOrlan , "Gr andville Ie precurHeur," Aru et metier. graphique., 44 (December 15, 1934), , (B4a,2)
"The presentation of a large couture collection lasts two to three hours. Each time in accord with the tempo to which the models are accustomed. At the close. a veiled bride traditionally appears." Helen G rund, Vom ~jen der Mode (Mu nich : Privately printed, 1935), p. 19. In this practice, fashion makes reference to propriety while serving notice that it does not stand still before it. [B4a,3} A contemporary fashion and its significance. In the spring of 1935, something new appeared in women's fashions : medium-sized embossed m etal plaquettes, which were worn on jumpers o r overcoats and which displayed the initial 1etters of the bearer's firs t name. Fashio n thus profited from the vogue for badges which had arisen amo ng m en in the wake of the patrio tic leagues. O n the other hand, the progressive restrictions on the private sphere: are here given expressio n. The name-and, to be sure, the first name-of persons unknown is published on a lapel. That it becomes easier thereby to make the acquaintance of a stranger is of [B4a,41 secondary imponance. " The creaton of fas hions ... like to frequent society and ext ract from its grand d o in~ an imprel8ion of the whole; they take part in its a rtistic life, are present at premieres and exhibitions, and read the books that make a sensation . In other words, they are inspired by the ... ferment ... which the b usy presc nt day can offer. But since no prelCnt moment is ever full y cut off from the pas t , the lalter also will offer a ttrac tions to the creator, ... though onl y that which h armonizes with the r eigning tone can be u sed . The toque tipped forward over the forehead , a style we owe to the Ma net exhibition , demonstrates q uite simply our new readiness to confront the end of the previous century." Helen Grund . Vom WeJen de r Mode.
~ U
most important magazine. ... have their own photo , tudios, which ar e equipped with all the latesl technical and artilltic r efinementi! , and which employ highly talented 81)CCialized photogr apllers .... But the publication of these documelltt it not pennilted until the customer ha, made her choice, and tllat mean. us uaUy (our to six weeks after the initial . howing. T he reaso n for thi. measu re?_The woman who appear s in society wearing these new clothes will her.elf oot be denied the effect of surpri.e." Helen Grund . Vom WeJen der Mode , pp. 21-22. [85,11 According to the summa ry of the firt t six issue., the magnine publi. hed by Stephane MaUarme. La Dernikre MO
[115,21 A biological theory of fa. hion that taket iti! cue from the evolution of the zebra to the hor se, as described in the abridged Brehm (p. 771): 11 " This evolution spanned millions of yean.... The tendency in horses it toward the cr eation of a first-<:Iau ru nner and courier.... The mru t ancient of the existing animal types h ave con spicuously llriped coati!. Now, it is very remarkahle that the external stri pes of the Ilebra display a certain cor respondence to the arrangement of the ribs and the vertebra inside. One can auo determine very clearly the arrangement of these parte from the uniq ue striping on the upper foreleg and up per hind leg. What do these stripet signify? A protective function can he ruled out .... The stri pes have been ... p reser ved detpite their 'purpose:leuneu and even unsuitablene88,' and therefor e they must ... have a particula r significance. bn' t it likely that we are dealing here with outward stimuli for internal responses, such as would be espe cially active during the mating season ? What can th.it theory contribute to our theme? Something of fund amental importance, I believe.-Ever since humanity passed frOm nakedneu to clothing, 'senseless and nonsent ical' fa shion has played the role of wise nature.... And insofar as fashion in iu mutatiOOt ... p re.cribes a constant revision of all elemenu of the figure, ... it ordains for the woman a continual p reoccupa tion with her beaut y." Helen Grund , Vom WeJen der Mode. PI'· 7-8. [115,31 At the Parit world exhibition of 1900 there was a Palais du Costume, in which wax dolls arr anged before a painted backdrop displayed the costumes of various peo ples a nd the fas hions of variout ages. (B5a,l)
~~
On the publicity wa r between the f&8h ion house a nd the fas hion columnists: "The fashion writer 's task is made easier b y the fact that our wishe8 coincide. Yet it ill made more difficult b y the fact that no newsp alH!r or magalline may rega rd as new what another h as alread y published . From this dil emm ~, we a nd t.he fashion writer a re saved onl y by the photogr ap her! and de8igneril. who manage through the pose and lighting to bring out different aspecU of a single p iece?f clothing. The
" Out 88 for U8, we see ... around us ... the effects of confusion and waste inflicted I, y the disordered movement of the world today. Art know. no comp romise with hur r y. Our idealt a re good for ten years! The ancient and excelleut relia nce on the judgment of IJOsterity h as been stupidl y re placed b y the ridiculous superstition of 1/ovel,y. which assignt the most illusor y ends to our enterpr ises. condemning them to the creation of what is most perit haLle. of wha t must be perit hable by its natu re: I.he sensation of newness .... Now, ever yt hing to be seen here has Lt!ell
enjoyed, hal char"led a nd delighted through the centuriel, and the whole glory of it ca lmly telll u ~: ' I AM NOTIIING NEW. Time may weU spoil the material in which I exist ; hili for "0 10llg as il lloes nol de!!troy me, I cannot be deltroyed by the indifference or COli tempt of ally mall worthy of the name." Paul Valery, " Pream hule" (preface 10 the catalogue of t.he exhibition " Italian Art from Cimabue to [B5a,2) Tiepolo," at the Petit Palais, 1935), pp . iv, vii.': "The ascendancy of the bourgeoi!!ie work!! a change in women's wear. Clothing and hair8lyles ta ke on added dimension!! ... ; , houlders are enlarged by leg-of-mutton deeves, a nd ... it wal not long before the old hoop-petticoats came b ack intO favor and fuU skirts were the thing. Women , thus accoutered , appeared destined for a !iedent ary Iife---famil y Iife-since their manner of dress had about it nothing that cowd ever IlUggest or &eem to further the idea of movement . It was just the opposite with the advent of the Second Empire: family ties grew slack , and an ever-incr eas ing luxnry corrupted morall to such an extent that it became difficult to distin guish an honest woman from a courtesan on the basil of clothing alone. "~eminine attire had thus been transformed from head to toe.... Hoop skirts went the way of the accentuated rear. Everything that could keep women from remaining seated was encouraged ; anything that could have impeded their walking wal avoided. They wore their hair and their clothes as though they wer e to be viewed in proftle. For the profile is the silhouette of !!omeone ... who passes, who is about to vanish from our sight . Orcss became an image of the rapid movement that carries away the world ." Charles Blanc, "Considerations sur Ie vetement del femmes" (Institut de Fra nce. October 25, 1872), pp . 12- 13. [B5a,3] " In order to grasp the essence of contemporary fashion , one need not recur to motives of an individual nature, such as ... the desire for change, the sen se of beauty, tile panion for dressing up , the drive to confono. Oouht1eu such motive. have, at various times, ... played a part ... in the creation of clothet .... Never theless, fal hion , as we understand it today, has 110 individual motives but only a social motive, a nd it is an accurate perception of this social motive that detenoinea the fun a ppreciation of fa shion 's essence. This motive is the effort to distingui.!!h the higher classes of society fronl the lower, or more eSIJeciaUy from the middle classel.... Fashion is the ha rrier--continuaUy raised anew because continually torn down-by which the fa shionahle world seeks to segregate itself from the middle region of society; it is the mad pursuit of that clan vanity through which a single phenomcnon endlcssly repe ats itself: the endeavor of one group to establish a lead , ho",·ever minimal . over its pursuers, and the ellIleavor of the other group to make III' the llistallce b y immcdiately adopting the newest fa shions of the leaders. Tbe characteristic features of contemporary fa shion a rc thus explained : ahove all , itl origins ill tilt: upper circles and its imitation in the middle strata of society. Fa ~ hio n moves from top to 1,0110111 , not vice versa .... All attcmpt b y the middle c1a 8se~ to introduce a new fa shion ","oultl ... never succeed , though Ilothing would suit the "Pller cla sscs l.letter than to see the form er ",;tli t.heir own set of fa shiolll. ([Note:] Whi.:h does nut detcr them fro m looking for new d esign.!! in the sewer of
the Parisian deoti-monde and bringing out fashionB that clearly bear the mark of their unseemly origins, III Fr. Vi.cher ... has pointed out ill his ... widely cen sured but , to my mind , ... highly meritoriou. essay on fas hion.) 1:lence the UII ceasing variation of fll8bioll . No sooner have the middle classes adopted a newly introduced fll8hion than it ... 10lCa its value for the upper classes . . . . Thus. novelty is the indispensable condition for aU fa shion .... The duration of a fa sh ion is inversely proportional to the swiftnen of its diffusion; the ephemer ality of fashion. has increased in our da y all the means for their diffusion have expanded via our perfected cODllDuniu tiona techniques.... The social motive refer red to above explains, fi.naUy, the third cha racteril tic feature of contemporary fa shion : its . .. tyranny. Fal hion comprisel the outward criterion for judging whether or not one ' belongs in polite aociety. ' Whoever does not r epudiate it ahogether must go along, even where he ... firmly refu.!!eJ Jome new d evelopment.... With this , a judgment is passed on fashion .... H the clane. that are weak and foolith enough to imitate it were to gain a sense of tbeir own proper worth •.. . it would be aU up with fa shion, and beauty could once again aSBume the position it has had with aU those peoples who . . . did not feel the need to accentuate class differences through clothing or, where this occurred, were lenswle enough to respect them." Rudolph von Jhering, Der Zweck im Recht. vol. 2 (Leipzig, 1883), pp. 234--238 . IJ (B6; 86a,I) On the epoch of Napoleon III : " Making money becomes the object of an almost sensual fervor, and love becomes a financial concern . In the age of French Roman ticism, the erotic ideal was the working girl who gives herself; now it is the tart who sells herself.... A hoydenish nuance came into fa shion : ladies wore coUars and cravats, over-coala , dresses cut like tailcoatl, ... jackets 1.11 Zouave. dolmans, walking sticks, monocles. Loud, harshly contrasting colors are preferred-for the coiffure as weU: fiery red hair i. very popular.... The paragon of fa shion is the grande dame who playa the cocotte." Egon FriedeU. Kulturgeschichte der Nerueit, vol. 3 (Munich , 1931 ), p . 203 . The " plebeian character" of thill fal hion represents , for the author, an "invasion ... from below" by the nouveaux riches. (B6a.2)
a
"Cotton fabri ca replace brocades and satim , ... and before long, thanks to ... the r evolutionary spirit, the dreu of the lower classes becomes more seemly and agreeable to the eye." Edouard Foucaud, PU,.U inventeu,.; Physiologie de l'i,ld"s trk/ram.aue (Paris, 1844), p . 64 (referring to the Revolution of 1789). (B6a,3)
An assemhlage which, on closer inspection , proves to he composed entirely of pieces of clothing together with anorted dolls' head •. Caption: " OoUs on chain , mannequins with fal se neckl, fal se hair, fal se attractions-voila Longchamp! " Cabinet des Euaml)es. [86a,4) " If, in 1829. we were to enter the shops of Odisle. we would find a multitude of diverse fabrics; Japanese, Alhambresque, coarse oriental , 8tocoline, meotide,
s ilc nian , zin'loliue , Chinese Dagazinkoff, , .. With the Revolution of 1830, .. , the <"<1111' 1 offas hiOIl had cl'o~8ed Ihe Seine and the ChaUlIlIce d 'A.Jllin hall replaced the IlI'iSlocrlltie fllubo ll rg." Paul,J"Arisle, La Vie e l k mOflt/e
"T he well-to-do bourgeois. as u fri end of o rder, pays his suppliers ut least once a y,'u r ; hul tile man or rashion , Ihe so-called lion , pay&his tailor e \'e ry ten years, if he pays him at all ," Adu Tage in Pa riJ (Paris, July 1855), p . 125. [B7,1]
" It i ~ I who iu\'c nted licl. At present , the lorgnoll has replace<1 the m, , .. TIle tic illvlJlvcs dosing the eye with a (:e rt ui n move me nt of the lIIo uth uud a certain Inove IIIt'nl of tilt' coal . , .. Tile ruet' of a n elegant man s ho uld a lways have. , . something irrit uted and convuls ive a bollt it . One can attrib ute these fa cial agi tations eithe r to a na tllral sata nis m , to the fever of the p assions, or filially to a nything o ne likes!' l'uriJ-Vi ue ur. by the a uthorl! of the memoirs of BilbO
18!J4). "" . 25-26.
The following analysis of fashion incidentally throws a light on the significance of the trips that "''Crt fashionable among the bourgeoisie during the second half of the century. "The accent of attractions builds from their substantial center- to their inception and their end. 'Ibis begins with the most trifling symptoms, such as the ... switch from a cigar to a cigarette; it is fully manifest in the passion for traveling, which, with its strong accentuations of departure and arrival, sets the life of the year vibrating as fully as possible in several short periods. The ... tempo of modem life bespeaks not only the yearning for quick changes in the qualitative content of life, but also the force of the formal attraction of the bound ary-of inception and end." Georg Simmel, Philruophisdu Xulfur (Leipzig, 1911), p.4-1 ("Die Mode")." [B7a,1]
[B7,2]
"The vogue for buying one's .....a rdrobe in London took hold o nl y amo ng men ; the fll ~ h io ll II1110ng wOllle n . e ve n foreigne rs, has always been to be outfitted in Paris." Chudes SeignoLos . l1istoire sillcer e de ia natiolljra1l(iaiJe ( Puris. 1932), p. 402.
IB7,' 1 Ma r celin , the founder of UI Vie PariJJienne, has set fo rth " the four ages of the c rinoline." [B7,4} The crinoline i5 " tile ulIlIlistakalJle s ym.hol of reaction o n the part of an imperial is m tlmt s preads out and pUff8 "I) ... , and that ... sellles its dominion like a hoop skirt o\'\' r ull aspt.'CU, good ali(I Lud , justified and unjustified , of the revolu tion , . , , It st:erned II caprice of the mome nt , and it hus established itself as the \'lIIhlelil of u pel·iod . like the Second of December. "1-' F. Th . Vische r, cited in £ 111131'11 Fuc hs, Die Kurikutllr der europaischell Vijlker (Mullic h <1921» , vol. 2, 1" 156. (B7,5J In the t'a d y 18
been condenllled for the greater pari or history derive8 their intimate relatio n with all thai i5 'elitluctle. '" GeorgSimmel, PhiloJophische Kli/tur(Leipzig, 1911 ). p. 47 (" Die Mode") .'" (B7,8]
(B7,6)
Sirnmcl calls attention to the fact that "the inventions of fashion at the present time are increasingly incorporated into the objective situation of labor in the economy. . , . Nowhere docs an article first appear and then becomc a fashion; rathcr, articles are imroduced for the express purpose of becoming fashions." '111C contrast put forward in the last sentence may be conelated, to a certain extent, with that bctween the feudal and bourgeois eras. Georg Sinmlel, PhilruQ phiJdu: Kullur (Leipzig, 191 1), p. 34 ("Die Mode'V ) (B7,7J Sillln".1 I''' pluin!! " wh y WulIIl' lI ill ,;em·ral a r e Ihe s t a u,l\chc~ t adherents or fa sh io n . , , , S pecifi ca ll y: rrom tlw wt' ukllr"ss of the SOCilllllO!Oitioll to w.hich wome n ha ve
Simmel asseru tha t "'fashions differ for different claS&e&--the fas hions of the up per st rat um of socie ty are never identical with those of the lower; in fact , they are aballlloned by the forme r as soon as the latter prepares to appropriate them ." Georg Simmel, PIu'1050phiJche Kuhur (Leipzig, 1911). p . 32 ("Die Mode")." [87.,2] The qwck c hangi ng of fas hio n means " that fuhion l can no longer be so ex.pensive ... a. the y we re in earuer times.... A peculia r circle ... arises here: the more an article becomes subject to rapid c hange!l of fa shion , the greate r the demand for cheap products of its ki.nd ; and the c heaper they become. the more they invite cons umers and constrain producers to a quick change of fa shion." Georg Simmel, PhilosophiJche Kultur ( Leipzig, 1911 ). pp. 58-59 ("Die Mode").'~ {B7a,3] Fuchs 0 11 Jhering's a nalys is of fashion: " It mus t, .. be reiterated that the concern ror segrega ting the classes is only one cause of the frequent variation in fu hione, and lhat a second ca use--the private-capitalis t mode of production, whic h in the inte resu of its profit margin mUSI continually multiply the possibilitie8 of lum o\'e r- is of equal importa nce. This cause has escaped Jhering entirel y, as hu • third : the fun ction of e rotic stimulation in fa shion , which operatetl most effectively whe n the erotic a ttrac tions of the man or the woman . ppea r in ever new set tillgs. ., Friedrich Vische r, who wrote a bout fashion, .. twenty years befo re Jhc ring, did not yet recognize. in the genesis of fas hion , the tendencies at work to keel' the clan cs di vitled ; . .. on the other hand, he was fully aware of the erotic problellls o r tlre u. ,. Eliuanl .' uc hs, lllUJ lrierfe S iftengeJchichte 110m !tfiuelailer bis zlI r Ce,genlUurt : Da J biirgerliche Zeilailer. enlarged edition (Munic h
PI'· 53-54.
[B7a,4]
Eduard Fuc hs ( Illll.slrie rfe Sitlen,geJchichle lI()m Mitlelaller bis ::ur Gegenwart: Da J biirge rliche Zeila iler, e nla rged ed ., "" . 56-57) cite&--without reference&--a
remark by F. T h . Vifu::her, according to which the gray of men ', clothing ,ymbol. ize, the " utterly blase" character of the masculine world , its d ullneu IIIItI inertia. [BS.I[ " One of the l urest and moU deplorable symptollll of that weakne88 and frivo lity of character which marked the Romantic age was the childu h and fa tal notion of rejecting the deepest undentandin~ of technical procedures, ... the cOQlcioul ly 8Ul tained and orderly ca rryin~ through of a work . . . -aU for the l a ke of the l pontaneous impulses of the individual sensibility. The idea of creatin~ works of laltin~ value lost foree and ~ave way, in most minds, to the del ire to astonish ; art was condemned to a whole series of b reaka witb the past . There arose a n automatic audacity, which became as obligatory as tradition had been . Finally, that switch in~-at high frequency--of the tastes of a given public, which il called Fashion, replaced with iu e8&ential changeableness the old habit of slowly formin~ uyles, schools, and reputations . To say that Fashion took over the destinies of the fine arn is as much a8 to say that commercial interests were creeping in." Paul Valery, (88,2] P ieces sur l'art (Paria), pp. 187-188 (..Autour de Corot"). to ''The great and fundamental revolution has been in cotton prints. It has rt!quired the combined efforts of science and art to force r ebellioul and ungrateful cotton fabrics to undergo every d ay so many brilliant transformation l and to I pread them everywhere within tbe reach oftbe poor. Every woman used to wea r a hlue or black dreu that she kept for ten yean without walhing. for fear it might tear to pieces. But now her husband , a poor worker, coven her with a robe of Hower a for the price of a day ', labor , AU the women of the people who display an iris of a thousand colon on our promenadel were formerly in mourning." J . Michelet, Le Peuple (Paris, 1846), pp. 80--8 1.21 (B8,3]
" It il no lon~e r art , al in earlier times , hut the clothing husw eaa that furnishes the prototype of the modem man and woman. . .. Mannequinl become the model for imitation , and the soul becomes the image of the body. " Henri Pollea, " L'Art du commerce," Vendredi. ( 1 2~ (February 1937). Compare tics and English fa ahions for men . [88,4J "One can estimate that, in Harmony. the ch anges in fu hion . .. and the impe rfec:: tions in manufacturing would occasion an aoouaiiosl of 500 fran cs per pe rson , since even the poor eU of H armonian s haa a wardrobe of c10thea for every sea· SOil . • . • As fa r as clothing and furniture ar e concerned , ... Harmony . . . aims for infinite variety with the least poslihle consumption .. . . The excellence of the products of societa ry industry .. . entail perfection (or euch and every manufac' tured obj ect . so that furniture and clothing ... become eternal. " (Four ic r. ~ cited ill Arnllmd and Maubhm c, Fourier (Paris , 1937), vol. 2 , pp . 196 , 198. [B8a. 1J "This tal te for modernity is devel0IJed to such an extent that Baudelaire. like Balzac, extends it to the most lrifting details of fa shioll and dre88. Both writers
stud y theae thinp in themselves and turn them into moral and philosophical ques tion s, for thele thinp repres.ent immediate r eality in iu keenest, most aggreuive, and perhapa most irritating gW8C. but alao al it is mOlt generally experienced." [Note: } " Besides, for Ba udelaire . these matters link up with hil important theory of dandyism, wher e it is a question , precis.ely, of mor ality and modernity." Roger CaiDoil , " Paris, mythe moderne," Nouveik Revuefra rn;aue, 25, no. 284 (May 1, 1937), p. 692. [B8a,2] " Sensation al event! The belle, damu , one fine d ay, decide to puff up the derriere. Quick , by the thousands, hoop factoriea! ... But what is a aim ple refilU!menl on illustrioul coccyxes? A trumpery, no more. . . . 'Away with the rump! Long live crinolines! ' And suddenly the civilized world turns to the production of ambula. tory bells. Why haa the fair sex forgotten the delighu of hand bells? ... It u not enough to keep one's place; you must make some noise down there. ... The quar. tier Breda and the Faubour~ Saint-Gennain are rivals in piety, n o leu than in plasters a nd chignons. They might as well take the church aa their model! At vespers, the organ and the clergy ta ke tUrDa intoning a verse from the P salms. Tbe fine ladies wilh their little bells could follow this example, words and tintinnabula_ tion by turna spurring on the conver sation ." A. Blanqui, CrilUJue 'ociale (Paris, 1885), vol. I , pp. 83--84 ("Le Luxe,,).- uLe Luxe" is a polemic against the luxury (B8a,3] goods industry.
Each generation experiences the fashions of the one i.mmediatdy preceding it as the most radical antiaphrodisiac imaginable. In this judgment it is not 50 far off the mark as might be: supposed. Every fashion is to some extent a bitter satire on love; in every fashion, perversities are suggested by the most ruthless means. ~v~ry fashion stands in opposition to the organic. Every fashion couples the livmg body to the inorganic world. To the living, fashion defends the rights of the corpse. The fetishism that succumbs to the sex appeal of the inorganic is its vital nervt. (B9,l ] Where they impinge on the present moment, birth and death-the former tJu:ough natural circumstances, the latter through social ones-considerably reo SlOct the field of play for fashion. This State of affairs is properly elucidated through two parallel circumstances. The first concerns birth, and shows the nanual engendering of life "overcome"
~e detailing of feminine beauties so dear to the poetry of the Baroque, a process ~ which each single part is exalted through a trope, secretly Ii.nks up with the unage of the corpse. This parceling out of feminine beauty into its noteworthy COnstituents resembles a dissection, and the popular comparisons of bodily pans to alabaster, snow, prtciow stones, or other (mostly inorganic) foonations makes
the same point. (Such d ismemberment occurs also m Baudelaire : "Lc: Beau Navirc:.") [B9.3) Lipps on the somber c~s t of men's clothing: He thinks th at " our general aversion to bright colors, especiall y in dothillg for men, evinces very clearly a n oft -Doted peculiarity of our character. Gray is all theor y; green-and not only green but abo red , yellow, blue--is the golden tree of life.:: In our predilection for the varioul 8 1H~d e8 of gray ... running to black, we find an unmistakable social reAtttion of our tendency to privilege the theory of the formation of intellect above aU else. Even the beautiful we ca n no longer just enjoy; rather, ... we must fi rst subject it to criticism, with the consequence that ... our spiritual life bttomcs ever more cool and colorless.'" Theodor Lipps, "Ober die Symbolik unserer KJeidung," Nord und Sud, 33 (Breslau and Berlin, 1885), p . 352 . [B9,4] Fashions are a collective medicament for the ravages of oblivion. The more short (B9a,I] lived a period, the more: susceptible it is to fashion. Compare: K2a,3. Foeillon on the phantasmagoria of fa shion: " Most often ... it creates hybrid!; it imposes on the human being the profile of an animal. ... •"ashion thus invents an artificial humanity which is lIot the passive decoration of a formal environment , but that very environment itself. Such a humanity- b y turns her aldic, theatrical, fantastical , a rchitectural- ta kes, as its ruling pri.nciple , the poetics of ornament, and what it caUs 'line' ... i8 l)Crhal)s but a subtle compromise between a certain physiological canon . .. aud imaginative design .'" Henri Focillon , Vre des forme, (Puris, (934), p. 4 1.:3 [89a,2) There is hardly another article of dress that can give expressio n to such divergent erotic tendencies, and that has so much latitude to disguise them, as a woman's hat. Whereas the meaning of male headgear in its sphere (the political) is strictly tied to a few rigid pattcrns, the shades of erotic meaning in a wo man's hat are virtually incalculable. It is not so much the various possibilities of symbolic reference to the sexual organs that is chieBy of interest here. More surprising is what a hat can say about the rest of the o utfit. H
case, the woman would have been the four-footed companion of the man, as the dog or cat is today. And it seems only a step from this conception to the idea that the frontal encounter o f the two partners in coitus would have been originally a kind of perversion; and perhaps it was by way o f this deviance that the " 'oman would have begun to walk upright. (See note in the essay "Eduard Fuchs: Der Sammler und d er Historiker.,,)21 [BIO,2]
" It would . . . be interesting to trace the effects exerted by this disllOsition 10 upright posture on the structure and function of the rest of the body. There is no doubt that aU the particulars of an organic entity are held together in intimate cohesion, but with the present sta te of our scientifiC knowledge we must maintain that the extraordinary influences ascribed herewith to sta nding upright canllot in fact be proved .... No significant repercu88ion can be demonstrated for the "rue· lure and fun ction of the inner organa, and Herder's hypotheses-according to which aU force. would react differently in the upright posture, a nd the blood ltimulate the nerves differently-forfeit aU credibility as 800n as they are r eferred 10 differences manifestly important for behavior." Hermann Lotze, Mikroko,trIo. (BIOa,I] (Leipzig, 1858), vol. 2, p . 9O. !S A passage from a cosmetics prospectus, characteristic of the fa shions of the Second Empire. The manufacturer r ecommends " a cosmetic ... by means of which ladies, if they 80 desire, can pve their complexion the gloss of rose taffeta ." Cited in Ludwig Borne, Cesommelte Schnften (Hamburg and Frankfurt am Alain , 1862), (510a,2) vol. 3, p. 282 (" Die Industrie·AussteUung im Louvre").
this tiny spot on the earth's surface. Authentic guides to the antiquities of the old Roman city-Lutetia Parisorum- appear as early as the sixteenth cenrury. The catalogue of the imperial library, printed during the reign of Napoleon III, con· tains nearly a hundttd pages under the rubrie "Paris," and this collection is far from complete. Many of the main thoroughfares have their own special litera· ture, and we possess written accounts of thousands of the most inconspicuous houses. In a beautiful nun of phrase, Hugo von Hofmannsthal called
[Ancient Paris, Catacombs, Demolitions, Decline of Paris] Easy die way that leads into Avt:mw. _Vrrgil' Even the automobiles have an air of antiquity here. -Guillaume ApoLIinaire2
o
How gratings- as allegories-have their place in hell. In the Passage VivielUlC, sculptures over the main entrance representing allegories of commerce. [CI ,I] Surrealism was born in an arcade. And under the protection of what muses!
lel ,2] The father of Surrealism was Dada; its mother was an arcade. Dada, when the twO first mel, was already old. At the cnd of 1919, Aragon and Breton, out of
antipathy to Montpamasse and
Mon~,
transferred the site of their meet
ings with friends to a cafe in the Passage de 1'0pera. Construction of the Boule vard H aussmaml brought about the demise of the Passage de 1'000ra. Louis Aragon devoted 135 pages to this arcade; in the sum of these three digits hides lhe number nine-the number of muses who bestowed their gifts on the new born Surrealism. They are named Luna, CoUlltesS Geschwitz, Kate Greenaway, Mors, Cleo de Merode, Dulcinea, Libido, Baby CaduOl, and Friederike Kemp ner. (Instead of Countess Geschwiu: 1ipsc?)3 IC I ,3] Cashici' as Danuc.
Balzac has secured the mythic constirution of his world through precise topa grapruc contours. Paris is the breeding ground of his mythology-Paris with its two or three great bankers (Nucingen, du Tillet), Paris with its great physician H orace Bianchon, with its entrepreneur cesar Birotteau, with its four or five great cocottes, with its usurer Gobseck, with its sundry advocates and soldiers. But above all-and ~ see this again and again-it is from the same streets and comers, the same little rooms and recesses, that the figures of this world step into the light. What else can this mean but that topography is the ground plan of this mythic space of tradition , as it is of every such space, and that it can become indeed its key-just as it was the key to Greece for PawarUas, and just as the history and siruation of the Paris arcades are to become the key for the underworld of this century, into which Paris has sunk. [Cl ,7]
leI ,. ]
Pallsa nia,. ,1I·o.ilu;C(i his topogra phy of Grt.'ct:tl around ,\ .0. 200. al a lillltl whcll the "1I1t silo', aluilllllll Y oll,cr JI1OI1I1IlU'nU had bcgullto full into ruin . IC I ,S]
rew things in the history of humanity arc as well knO\Vll to us as the history of Paris. lens of thousands of volumes are dedicated solely to the investigation of
To construct the city topograpruca1ly-tenfold and a hundredfold-from out of its arcades and its gateways, its cemeteries and bordellos, its railroad stations and its ... , just as formerly it was defined by its churches and its markets. And the more secret, more deeply embedded figures of the city: murders and rebellions, the bloody knots in the network of the streets, lairs of love, and conflagrations. FJaneur 0 [C l ,S]
o
Couldn't an exciting film be made from the map of Paris? From the unfolding of its various aspects in temporal succession? From the compression of a cenruries long movement of streets, boulevards, arcades, and squares into the space of half an hour? And does the Bineur do anything different? 0 Flineur 0 [Cl ,9] ''1'wo 8teps from the Palais-Royal, between thtl Cour des FontaintlS and the Rue Neuve-d ~.Bons- Enfants , there i, II dark a nd tortuous Little arcade adorned by II public scribe and a greengrocer. It could resemLie the cave of Cacu8 or or Tro
phonius, but it could l1t!ve r resemble an arcade--even with soot! will and gu lighliug." (A]fn:d) Delvau . Le, Denolu de Parit (Paris, 1860), PI" 105-106.
(C h ,l] One knew of places in ancient G~ece whe~ the way led down into the under ·world. Our waking existence likewise is a land which, at cenain hidden points, leads down into the undernrorld-a land full of inconspicuous places from which dreams arise. All day long, suspecting nothing, we pass them by, but no sooner has sleep come than we are eagerly groping our way back to lose ourselves in the dark corridors. By day, the labyrinth of urban dwellings resembles conscious· ness; the arcades (which are galleries leading into the city's past) issue unre marked onto the stret:ts. At night, however, under the tenebrous mass of the houses, their denser darkness protrudes like a threat, and the nocturnal pedes trian hurries past-unless, that is, we have emboldened him to rum into the narrow lane. But another system of galleries runs underground through Paris: the Metro, whe~ at dusk glowing red lights point the way into the undetworld of names. Combat, Elysee, Georges V, Etienne Marcel, Solferino, Invalides, Vaugirard they have all thrown off the hwniliating fetters of street or square, and here in the lightning·scored, whistle-resounding darkness are transfonned into misshapen sewer gods, catacomb fairies. This labyrinth harbors in its interior not one but a dozen blind raging bulls, into whose jaws not one Theban virgin once a year but thousands of anemic young c:mssmakers and drowsy clerks every morning must hurl themselves. 0 Street Names 0 H ere, underground, nothing more of the colli· sion, the intersection, of names-that which aboveground fonus the linguistic network of the city. He~ each name dwdls alone; hell is its demesne. Amer, Picon, Dubonnet are guardians of the threshold. (Cla,2) " Doesn ' t every quartier have il.s true apogee some time before it is full y built up? At Ihal point it. planet detlcri.bes a curve iii! it draw. near businesses, fir&( the large and then the small . So long as the street is still somewhat new, it belongs to the. common IH!Ople ; it gets clear of them only when it is smiled on by fashion. Without naming price., the interes ted parties dis pute among themselves for the right. to the small housel and the apartments, but onl y so long as the beautifuJ women , the ones with the r adia nt degance that ado rnl not only the lalon but the whole house and eve n the I treet , continue to hold their receptions. And should the lady become a pedestrian , s ht! will want some s hops. and often the street must pay not a litlle for acceding 100 quickl y 10 thiH WiHh . Court ya rds are made sDlaUer, and many are entirely done aWIlY wilh ; Ihe houses draw closer logether. In the eud . there come. a New Yellr'. Day whcn it is considered bad form to have s uch an address 011 one'. visiting ca rd . By tllcn t1u~ majority of tenants are businesses only, and the gateways of the neighborhood no longer have lIIuch to 10ije if now Illld agai n they furnis h asylulII for one of the slIlaU IradeSIH!Ople whose misera ble 8Ialls have replaced t.hc s ho p ~ .'·
Ie is a sad testimony to the underdeveloped amour-propre of most of the great European cities that so very few of them-at any rate, none of the German cities-have anything like the handy, minutely detailed, and durable map that exists for Paris. I refer to the excellent publication by Taride, with its twenty-two maps of all the Parisian arro"disstmenlJ and the parks ofBoulogne and Vmcennes. Whoever has stood on a street comer of a strange city in bad weather and had to deal with one of tho~ large paper maps- which at every gust swell up like a sail rip at the edges, and soon are no more than a little heap of dirty colored soa~ with which one tonnents oneself as with the pieces of a puzzle- learns from the srudy of the PIa" Tande what a city ma p can ~. People whose imagination does not wake at the perusal of such a ttxt, people who would not rather dream of their Paris experiences over a map than over photos or travel notes, are beyond help. [CIa,4] Paris is built over a system of caverns from which the din of Metro and railroad mounts to the surface, and in which every passing onmibus or truck sets up a prolonged echo. And this great tedUlological system of tunnels and thorough fares interconnects with the ancicnt vaults, the limestone quarries, the grottoes and catacombs which, since the early Middle Ages, have time and again ~en reen te~d and traversed. Even today, for the price of two francs , one can buy a ticket of admission to this most nocrumaJ Paris, so much less expensive and less hazardous than the Paris of the upper world. The Middle Ages saw it diffe~ntly. Sources tell us that there we~ clever persons who now and again, after exacting a considerable sum and a vow of silcnce, undertook to guide their fellow citizens underground and show them the Devil in his infernal majesty. A financial ven tu~ far less risky for the swindled than for the swindlers : Must not the church have considered a spurious manifestation of the Devil as tantamount to blas phemy? In other ways, too, this subtemmean city had its uses, for those who knew their way around it. Its streets CUt through the great CUStoms barrier with whi~ the F~ers General had secured their right to receive duties on impons, and m the sIXteenth and eighteenth cenruries smuggling operations went on for the most part bdow ground. we know also that in times of public commotion mysterious rumors traveled vcry quickly via the catacombs, to say nothing of the prophetic spirits and fortunctellers duly qualified to pronounce upon thcm. On the day after Louis XVI Bed Paris, the ~volutionary goverrunent issued bills ordering a thorough ~arch of these passages. And a few years later a rumor SUddenly spread through thc population that certain areas of town were about to
-~
~.I)
1'0 I'ecollstrllct tht! city ulso fro m its jotlfCIine,
-
Adam-I'Hennitc h ad dug in I.he quartier Saint-Victor. We ha ve known the Rues de Pllil8· Malico nseil . du Puil~-de- Fer. du Puita·du-Chs llilre, dll Puils·Certain , du BOIl-Puiu , and fin ally the Rue dll Puil8, which, after heing the Rue dll Bout-du Monde, became the l.mpa88c Saint-Claude-Montmartre. T he marketplace wells, the buckel-drawn wells. the water carners li Te aU giving way 10 the public weUI, and our children , who will easily d raw waler even on the top Ooon of the tallest buildings in Paris. will be amazed that we have preserved for 80 long these primi tive meallS of supplying olle of humankind ', most imper ious needs." Maxime
[C' ,')
A different topography, not architectonic but anthropocc=ntric in conception, could show us all at once, and in its true light, the most muted quarrier: the isolated fo urteenth ammdis.ument. 1bat, at any rate, is how Jules Janin already saw it a hundred years ago. If you were hom into that neighborhood, you could lead the most animated and audacious life without ever having to leave it. For in it are found , one after another, all the buildings of public misery, o f proletarian indigence, in unbroken succession : the birthing clinic, the orphanage, the hospi tal (the famous Sante), and finally the great Paris jail with its scaffold. At night, one sees o n the narrow unobtrusive benches-not, of cou rse, the comfortable ones found in the squares-men stretched out asleep as if in the waiting room of [C2,3} a way station in the course of this terrible j ourney. There are arcruteaonic emblems o f commerce: steps lead to the apothecary, whereas the cigar sh op has taken possession of the comer. The business world knows to make use o f the threshold. In from of the arcade, the skating rink, the swimming pool, the railroad platfonn, stands the tutelary of the threshold: a hen that automatically lays tin eggs containing bonbons. Next to the hen, an autO mated fo rruneteller-an apparatus for stamping our names automatically on a tin band, which fixes our fate to our collar. [C2,4)
the boundary stone wlUch, although located in the heart of the city, once marked the point at which it ended.- On the other hand, the Arc de Triomphe, which today has become a traffic island. Out of the field of experience proper to the threshold evolved the gateway that transfonns whoever passes under its arch. The Roman victory arch makes the returning general a conquering hero. (Ab surdity o f the relief o n the inner wall of the arch? A classicist misunderstanding?) IC2a,3] The gallery that leads to the M o thers 5 is made o f wood. Likewise, in the 1arge scale n:novatiorlS of the urban .scene, wood plays a constant though ever shifting role: amid the modem traffic, it fashions, in the wooden palings and in the wooden planking over open sUbStructiOrlS, the image of its rustic prdlistory. DIron D [C2a,4]
..It is the obscur ely rising dream of northerl y , treet! in a big city-not only Pari" perhap s, b ut al, o Berlin and the largely unknown London--obscurely rising, in a rainless twilight that is nOnethele88 damp. The streets grow n arrow a nd the houses right and lert draw closer to~ether; ultimately it becomes an arcade with grimy , hop windows , a gallery or glass. To the right and left : Are those dirt y bi81ros, with waitresse, lurking in black-and-white , ilk blouses? It stink, of cheap wine. Or i, it the garish vestibule or a bordello? As I ad vance a IittJe further. however, I see on both sides smaU , ummer-green doon and the rustic window shutten they caU volets. Sitting there. little old ladies are spinning, and through the windows hy the somewhat rigid flowering plant , 88 though in a country garden , I see a rair-skinned yo ung lady in a gracious apartment , and , he sings: 'Someone i, 'pinnin~ silk .... '" Franz Hes,el, manuscript . Compare Strindberg, "The Pilot', Trials .... [C2a,5] AI the entrance, a mailbox: last opportunity to make some sign to the world one is leaving. [C2a,6]
In old Paris, there were executions (ror examl)le, by hanging) in the open street . [C' ,5)
Underground sightseeing in the sewen. Preferred r oute: Ch iltelet- Madeleine. [C2a.7J
Rodenberg SIH:aks or the "stygian existence" of certain worthless securitie8---8uch as shares in the Mires fund - which are sold by the "small-time crooks" of tbe Stock Exchange in th e hOIH: or a " rulure res ur~ tion brought to pass by the day's market (I uotation,." Julius RodenlH:C!h Pa n.. be; Son nenJchein lind Lampenlicht (Berlin , 1867), PI" 102- 103. [C2a,1)
"1'he rui ns of the Church and of the a ristocracy, or reudalism, of the l\liddle Ages, are sublime-they fill the wide-eyed victo rs of today with admiration . But the ruins of Ihe bourgeoisie will be a n ignoble detrilu, or pa' ieboard , "laster, and coloring. ,. (Honore de Balzac and other authors,> Le Diable a I'liru (Paris, 1845), vol. 2 , p. 18 (Balzac, " Ce qui w sparail de Paris"). 0 CoUector 0 (C2a,8)
Conservative tendency of Parisian life: as late as 1867, an entrepreneur conceived lhe plan of having fivc hundred sed an chairs circulate throughout the city. [C2a,2J
... All this, in ou r eyes, is what the arcades are. And they were nothing of all this. "It is only today, when the pickaxe menaces them, that they have at last become the true sanauaries o f a cult of the ephemeral, the ghosdy landscape o f damnable pleasures and professions. Places that yesterday were incomprehensible, and that tomorrow will never know." Louis Aragon, Paysan tk Pari; (Paris, 1926), [C2a,9] p. 19.'D CoUeClor O
Concerning the mythological topography of Paris : the character giv~n it by its gates. Important is their duality: border gates and triumphal arches. Mystery of
u
Sudden past of a city: windows lit up in expectation of Christmas shine as though their lights have been burning since 1880. [C2a,lO) The dream- it is the earth in which the find is made that testifies to the primal history of the nineteenth century. 0 Dream 0 [Cl a, ll )
.~
]
11 ] '"
Reasons for the decline of the arcades : widened sidewalks, dectric light, ban on prostitution, culture of the open air. [C2a, 121 The rebirth of the archaic drama of the Greeks in the booths of the trade fair. 111e prefect of police allows only dialogue on this stage. "1b.i.s third character is mute, by order of Monsieur the Prefect of Police, who pennits only dialogue in theaters designated as nonresident." Gerard de Nerval, Cabaret dt fa M'm : $aguet (Paris <1927)), pp. 259- 260 ("Lc Boulevard du Temple autrefois et aujourd'hui"). [C3, I)
u
AI.. the entrance to the arcade, a mailbox: a last opportunity to make some sign to the world one is leaving. [ca,l ) The city is only apparently homogeneous. Even its name takes on a different sound from one district to the next. Nowhere, unless perhaps in dreams, can the phenomenon of the boundary be experienced in a more originary way than in cities. To know them means to understand those lines that, running alongside railroad crossings and across privately owned lots, within the park and along the riverbank, function as limits; it means to know these confines, together with the enclaves of the various districts. As threshold, the boundary stn=tches across streets; a new precinct begins like a step into the void-as though one had unexpectedly cleared a low step on a flight of stairs. [ca ,3)
AI.. the entrance to the arcade, to the skating rink, to the pub, to the tennis coon: proa/eJ. The hen that lays the golden praline-eggs, the machine that stampS our names on nameplates and the other machine that weighs us (the modem gnathi ;eau/on),' slot machines, the mechanical fortuneteller- these guard the threshold. They are generally found, it is worth noting, neither on the inside nor ttuly in the open. They protect and mark the transitions ; and when one seeks out a little greenery on a Sunday afternoon, one is turning to these mysterious pena/(J as well. 0 Dream H ouse 0 Love 0 [ca,4) The despotic terror of the hand bell, the terror that reigns throughout the apart ment, derives its force no Jess from the magic of the threshold . Some things shrill as they are about to cross a threshold. But it is strange how the ringing becomes melancholy, like a knell, when it heralds departure-as in the Kaiserpanorama, when it starts up with the slight tremor of the receding image and announces [C3,5] another to come. 0 Dream H ouse 0 Love
a
These galeways-the entrances 10 the arcades-are thresholds. No stone step serves to mark them . But this marking is accomplished by the expectant poSture of the handful of people. Tightly measured paces reflect the fact, altogether unknowingly, that a decision lies ahead. aD rean} H ouse 0 Love 0 [C3 ,6) Other cour ts of miracles besides the one in the Passage du Caire that is celebra ted ill Notre-Dame de Pari,
\\bod an archaic element in street construction : wooden barricades.
[GJ,IO]
June lns urr(!(:tion . " Most of the prisoners were tra nsferred via the qua rries a nd subter r a nean paS8age8 which are located under the forts of Pa ris, and which are so extensive Ihat haU the population of the eity could be con tained tbere. T he cold in these underground cor r idors is 80 intense that many had to run continually or mo ve Iheir a rms a bout 10 keep from freezing, and no one d aretllo lie down on the col ~ 1 stones ... . The prisoners gave all the passages na mes of Pari8 streets, and whenever Ihey met one another, they exchanged add resses." Englander,
-
II etollc slab in which the re is II s mall hole some six millimetcn in diame te r. Through lhill hole, the dayLighl ll hincs into the gloom below like II pule s la r." J . F. Benzcnberg. Briefe gClIchriebe fl auf eine r Reise noch Pam (Dortmund . 1805), vol. 1, 1'11 .207-208. (C3a,2]
" A thing which 8oJOked and clacked on the Seine, making the noisc of II 8wunming dog, we nl and came heneuth the wind ows of the Thileries, from the Pont Royal to the Pont Louis XV; il was a pi~e of mechanism of no great value, a l o rt of toy, the d aydream of II visionary. a Utopia- a steamboat . The Parisians looked upon the usele8B thing with indifference," Victor Hugo, Les Miserable., p art I ,' cited in Nada r, Quondj'elois photographe (Paris d90(b), p . 280. [eJa,3)
"As if an enchanter or II stage manager, at the first peal of the whistle from the fi rs t locomotive, gave a signal to aU thiugs to awake and ta ke flight ." Nadar. Quand j'etais photoS rcll,he (Paris). p. 281 . [C3a,4]
Characteristic is the birth of one of the great documentary works on Paris namely, Maxime Du C amp's Paris: &J {JTganeJ, m fanctioru et sa vie dam Ifl seconde moitie du XIX' siecieJ in six volumes (Paris, 1893-1896). About this book, the catalogue of a secondhand bookshop says: "It is of great interest for its documentation. which is as exact as it is minute. Du Camp, in fact, has no t been averse to trying his hand at all sorts of jobs-performing the role of omnibus conductor, street sweeper, and sewerman- in order to gather materials for his book. His tenacity has won him the nickname 'Prefect of the Seine in partibwJ ' and it was not irrelevant to his elevation to the office of senator." Paul Bourget describes the genesis of the book in his "Discours academique du 13 juin 1895: Successio n Maxime Du Camp" (Antlzologie de l'Acadimie Frallfdue [Paris, 1921J, vol. 2, pp. 191- 193). In 1862. recounts Bourget, after experiencing problems with his vision, Du Camp went to see the optician Seaitan, who prescribed a pair of spectacles for farsightedness . H ere is Du Camp: "Age has gotten to me. I have not given it a friendly welcome. But I have submitted. I have ordered a lorgnon and a pair of spectacles." Now Bourget: "The o ptician did not have the prescribed glasses on hand. H e needed a half hour to prepare them. M. Maxime Du Camp went out to pass this half hour strolling about the neighborhood. He found himself on the Pont N euf. .. . It was, for the writer, one of those moments when a man who is abo ut to leave youth behind thinks of life with a resigned gravity that leads him to find in all things the image of his own melancholy. The minor physiological decline which his visit to the optician had just confirmed put him in mind of what is so quickly forgotten: that law of inevitable destruction which governs everything human.... Suddenly he began-he, the voyager to the Oriem, the sojourner through mute and weary wastes where the sand consists of dust of the dead- to envision a day when this town, too, whose enonnous breath now filled his senses, would itself be dead, as so many capitals of so many empires were dead. 111e idea came to him that it would be extraordinarily inter esting for us to have an exact and complete picrurc of an Athens. at the time of
a
Pericles, of a Carthage at the time of Barca, of an Alexandria at the time of the Ptolemies, of a Rome at the time of the Caesars ... . By o ne of those keen intuitions with which a magnificent subject fo r a work Hashes before the mind, he clearly perceived the possibility of writing about Paris this book which the histo rians of antiquity had failed to write about their towns. H e regarded anew the spectacle of the bridge, the Seine, and the quay.... The work of his mature years had announced itself." It is highly characteristic that the modem administrative technical ,",,'Ork on Paris should be inspired by classical history. Compare further, conceming the decline of Paris, U on Daudet's chapter o n Sam Coeur in his Paris vicu
"The cd lltrs of the Cafe Anglais ... extend quite a distance under 1111: LH,Iulevltrds. forming the most comJllicl'ted (Iefil es. The management took the truuble to tlivide the.m into slret:ts .... You hl've the Rue du Bourgogne, the Rue du Bonit:a u" , the Rue. du Beanne, the Rue de l' Ermitage, the Rue du Chamberlin , the crossroads of . Tonnel'u" . You cOllie 10 a cool grotto ... rilled with shellfish ... ; it is the grotto for the willee of Champagne . ... The greal lords of bygone d aye conceived the idea of dining in their stablet.... Bul if you want to dine in a really e.cCClllriC fa shion : vivent k s co lJf!s!" Tuile Delord , PariJ-viveur (Pa ris, 1854), I)P' 79-81 , 83--84. IC4a,6] " Resl assured Ihal when Hugo saw a beggar on the road , . .. he saw him for what he is, for wha t he really i, in reality : the a ncient mendicant , the ancient suppli ca nt , ... on the ancient road . When he looked at a marble slab on one of our mantlepil.."(;es , or a cemented brick in one of our modern chimneys, he saw it for what it is: the stone of the hearth . The ancient hearthstone. Wilen he lookt.-d at a door to the "reet , and at a doorstep , which is usually of cut stone, he distinguished clearly 011 this stone the ancient line, ,he sacred threshold, for i, is one and the same line ," Charles Peguy, Oeuvres compli~tes, 1873-1914: Oeuvres de prose (Paris, 1916), pp . 388-389 (" Victor-Marie, Comte Hugo" ). [C5, 1) "The wille shops of tile Fa ubourg Antoine resemble those taverns on Mount Aventine, above the Sibyl's cave, which communicated with the det:p and sacred afflatus; taverns whose tables were almost t ripods, and where men dra nk what Ennius calls ' the sibyWne wine.·.. Victor Hugo, Oeuvres completes, novels, \' 0 1. 8 [CS,2) (Paris, 1881 ), IlP. 55-56 (i.es fttis erabks . pa rt 4). II "Those who have traveled in Sicily will remember the celebrated convent where, as a res ult of tbe earth ', capacity for drying and preterving bodiet , the monb at a cer tain time of year can deck out in their ancient rt'galia aU the ~a ndee, to whom they have accorded the hospitality of the grave: ministers, popes, cardinals , war riors, a nd kings. Placing them in IWO rows within their spacious catacombs, they allow the Imblic to pau between these rows of skeletons .. . . Well , this Sicilian cOllvent givcs us an image of our society. Under the pompous garb tha t adorns our art and liter a ture, 110 hear' beats-there a re only dead men , who gaze at yOIl with staring eyes, lusterleu and cold , when you ask the century where the inspiration is , where the arts, where the litera ture:'
discovered between Cal)e Horn and the southern territories in the year 2500" IC5.4] (p.347). " There was, at the Chitdet de Paris, a broad long cellar. This cellar was eight feet deep below the level of the Seine. It had neither windows nor ventilators .. . ; men could enter, but air could not . The cella r had for a ~iLing a stone arch , and for a Roor. ten inches of mud . . . . Eight feet above the floor, a long massive beam crossed this vault from side to side; from this beam there hung, at intervals , chains ... and at tbe end of these chains there were iron collars. Men condemned to the galleys were put into this cellar until the da y of their departure for Toulon . They were pushed under this timber, where each had his iron swinging in the darknets, waiting for him... . In order to eat , they had to draw tbeir bread , which was th rown into the mire, up their leg with their heel, within reach of their band .... In this hell-sepulcher, what did they do? What can be done in a sepulcher: they agonized. And what can be done in a hell : they sang.... In this cellar, almost all the argot songs were born . It is from the dungeon of the Gr and Chatelet de Paris that the melancholy galley r efrain of Montgomery comes: 'Timaloumisaine, timou lamison .' Most of these 80ngs are dreary; some are cheerful." Victor 8ugo, Oeuvres completes novels, vol . 8 (Paris. 1881 ). IJP. 297- 298 (i.es Miserabks).lt Subterranean Paris 0 [CSa,l !
o
On the theory or thresholds: '''Between th03e who go on foot in Paris and those who go by carriage, the only difference is the running board,' as a peripatetic philosopher ha, u id. Ah , the running board ! ... It is the point of departure rrom one country to another, from misery to luxury, from thoughtleu ne8s to thoughtIuI nellS. It ill the hyphen between him who i, nothing and him who is all . The question is: where to put one', foot." Theophile Gautier, Etudes philosophiques : Paris et ks Parisien! au XIX' sieck (Paris, 1856), p. 26. [CSa,2) Slight fOTellhadowing of the Metro in this d escription of model houses of the future : " The basements , very spacious and well lit , are all connected . forming long galler ies which follow the course of the " reet,. Here an underground railroad has been built-not for human travelers, 10 be l ure , but exclusively for cumbersome mer chandise, for wine, wood , coal, and so forth , which it delivers to the interior of the home . . . . These underground trains acquire a steadily growing importance." Tony Mollin , Parios en l'an 2000 (paris, 1869), pp. 14-15 ("Maisons-mode:les'"'). IC5a,3] Fragments from Victor Hugo's ode " A l' Arc de Triomphe" :
" Alwa ys Parill cries li nd muU eu. Who ca n tell- unfathomable (IU ell ljolt What would be 10" fro m the univerllal cla mor On the day lhal Paril fell ll ilent !
III Silent it will be nonethelesl!-Alter 80 mllDy dawn,. So many mo nthf and yean_ 80 m a ny played-out « nlurie.. Wh en lhill bank, where the , Iru m breaklll!ain,t the ech oin~ bridges. b relurn ed 10 the modelll and murmuring reed.;
When the Seine , hall flee th e obstructing I tonel, Consuming l ome old dome coll.pied into illl depth •• lleed rul of the sentle breeze thai u n ite to the cloud. The rul tling of the leavel a nd the 8On! of bird.; When il , h.1l ftow, at night. pale in lhedarkneM. Happy. in the drowsing of ils lons,u'ouhled courte. To Ii l ten al last to the countle.. voice. Pan ing indillinctly beneath th e atarry Iky; When thi. city, mad and churlith OUllnen!', Thai h.,lenl the rate reKrved for iu And, (Urning to dUll under the blow. of its hammer, Convertl bronte to coinl! and marble to ftaptonet;
w.u.,
When the roo£" the bell., the tortuOUS hiVfll, Porchel, pedimente, archei fu11 of pride That make up this city, many. voiced Ind twnu1luous, Stiftinfll, inextricable, and I« milll to Ihe eye, When from the wide pllin aU lhe.e thlnp bave pined, And nothing remains of pyramid Ind plntheon Bultwo granite tower. built by Charlemagne And a bronze column raised by Napoleon, You, Ihen , will complete the sublime triangle!
IV Thill, arch . yo u wiUloom eternal and inlact When aJllhal the Seine now mirron in ita surfa ce Will have vanished for ever, When oflhat city-the equ I I. yet. of Rome Not hing will be lefl except . n .tlfIlfll. an e.pe. a man Surmounting thn:e . ummi"!
V
No . lime takel nothing away from thinp. More Ihan one portico wrongly vaunted In il8 protracted metamorpho.e. Cornel to he.uty in the end . On the monuments we ~vere Time casu I IIOmber SI)flU. Stut ching from fa f,ade to 111!!fl. Never, though it cracks a nd rul t • •
It the robe which time JI'flf!'ls from them Worth the one it puts back on .
It is time whochiseu a Voove In an indigenta n:h.,tone. Who rllhs hi, knowing thumb On Ihe corner of a harren marble 8lab ; h i. he who , in correcting Ihe work, Introduce. a living . nake Midsllhe knOb of a vanile hydra. I think I tee a Cothic roof start laughing When. from ite a ncient !riue, Time r emovflS I stone and Jluts in a nest.
VUI
No, everythi ng will be dead. Not hinfll le!t in this camJlIgna But a vani,hed popuiation .llill around, But the dull eye o! man and Ihe living eye of God, But a n arch , and a column. and ther e, in the middle or thit silvere
Victor Hugo. Oeuvre. comple,e• • Poetry, vol. 3 (Pans , 1880), pp. 233-245. IC6; C6a,lj Demolition sites: sources for teaching the theory of construction. " Never have cir cumstances been more favorabl e for this genre of stud y than the epoch we live in today. During the past twelve yean, a multitude or Luildings--among them, churches and cloister8--have been demolished down to the first layers or their foundations ; they have aU provided . . . useful instruction. " Charles-Fran~oil Viel , De l'lmpuiuunce de. matllematiques pour aUllrer la solidile des batimena (Paris, 1805), pp . 43-44. (C6a,2] Demolition sites: "'The high walls, with their bister-colored Lines around the chim lIey fiues, reveal , like the crosa-seclion of an architeclUra l p lan , the myster y of intimate distributions. . . . A cu rious 81)fl(;tac1e, these open houses, with their fl oorboards suspcnded over the aLyn . their colorful fl owered ....·allpapcr still Showing the shape ofthe rooms, their staircases Icading 1I0where now, their cellars 0llen to the sky. their bizarre collapsed interiors and battered ruins. It all resenl' bles, though withou t the gloomy tOile, those uninhabita ble structures wbich Pin· nesi outlined with such fe\'ensh intensity in his etchings." TheophiJe Ga utier, Mo.m ique de rllines : Pa ri. e t leI I'liriaien. au XIX' .ieck. by Alexandre Dumas, Thcophile Gautier. ArseJlc Houssaye, Paul de Mu s~ct , Louis Enault, and 011 Fayl (Paris, 1856), pp. 38-39. IC7,1]
Condu,.ion of , 126- I27. On the triumphal arc h : " The triumph was aD institution of the Roma n state and was conditioned on tile l)Ossession of the fi eld-eommander 's right- the right of the military imperium-which , however, was extinguished on the day of the tri umph .... Of the various provisions attaching to the right of triunlph , the m08t important was tha t the territorial bounds of the city ... were not to be crossed prematurely. Otherwise the commander would forfeit the rights of the a uspices of wa r-which held only for operations conducted outside the city- and with them the claim to triumph .... Every defil ement , all guilt for the murderous battle (and perhaps originally tltis included the danger posed b y the spirits of t he slain), is removed from the commander and the arm y; it r emains ... outside the sacred ga leway. ... Such a conception ma kes it clear ... that the porto triumpllalu was nothing less than a nlOIlUment for the glorification of victory." Ferdinand Noack , Triumph lind Trillmphbogen. Warburg Library Lectures, vol. 5 (Leipzig, 1928), pp. 150-1 5 1, 154. [C7,4) "Edga r Poe created a ch ar acter who wanders the streets of capital cities; he called him the Man of the Cr owd . The restlellsly inquiring engraver is the Man of Stones . . . . Here we have . . . an ... artist who did not stud y and draw, like Pira uesi, Ihe remnants of a bygone e:-:istence, yet whose wo rk gives one the 8ensa lioll of lHl-rsistent nostalgia .... This is Charles Mer)"on . His work as an engr aver represents one or the profoundest poems ever written about a city, ami wha t is trul y origi ual in all these striking pictures is that they seem to lHl- the image, despite being drawlI directl y from life, of thiugs that are finished , that a re dead or a hout to die .... This imprcn ion exists independeutiy of the must scrupulous and realistic reproduction ur subjects choscn by the artist . There was something uf the visioll ur y in Meryon. aud he unduubtedly di vined that these rigid alld un yielding form s were cphcmeral , thlll Ihelle singula r beauties were going the way of all fl esh . lie li8lcne<1 tu tile language spokcn b y strects and alleys that , since the ea rliest da ys of the city, were being continually torn "I) and redone; alld that is why his evocative poetry makes contact with the Middle Ages th rough tile nineteenth-centu ry city, why il ralli utes cterual nlclallchuly through the vision of immcdiate appcara nces. " Old Pa ris is gune ( 111.1 human hea rt I changes half su rast as a city's ru c.c). "I I T hese
two tines by Baudelaire could serve as an epigraph tu Meryun '8 entire oeuvre." Gustave Geffroy, Charies Meryon (Parie, 1926), PI' . 1-3. [C7a,l ) " There is nu need to imagine that the allcient porta triumphom was already an arched gateway. On the cOlltra ry, since it served an entirely symbulic act , it wuuld uriginally have been er ected by the simplest of meall8--nameiy, twu posts and. a straight lintel ." Ferdin and Noack , Triumph lind Trillmphbogen. Warburg Library Lectures , vul. 5 (L.e..ip:-:ig, 1928), p . 168. [C7a,2) The march thruugh the triumphal a rch as rite de pauage; "The ma rch of the troops thruugh the narrow gateway has been compared to a ' rigorous passage through a narruw opening,' something to which the significance uf a rebirtb at taches." Ferdinand Noack , Triumph und Triumphbogen , Warburg Library Lec tures, vol. 5 (Leipzig, 1928), p . 153. [C7a,3}
The fantasies of the decline of Paris are a symptom of the fact that teclmology was not accepted. These visions bespeak the gloomy awareness that along with the great cities have: evolved the means to raze them to the ground. [C7a,4) Nuack mentions " that Scipio's arch uood nut abuve but oppusite the road that leads up to the Capitol (adver sus viam , (IUa in Capitulium ascenditur).... We are thus given insight inlo the purely munumental character of these Uructu res, which are withuut any practical meaning." On the other hand , the cultic sig nificance of these structures emerges as clearl y in their relation tu special occa SiODS as in their isulation : " And there, where many ... later arches stand-at tbe beginning and end of the 8l~t, in the vicinity of bridges, at the entrance to the forum , at the city limit- there was operative for the ... Rumans a conceptiun of the sacr ed as boundary or th res hold ." Ferdinand Noack , Triumph und Tri umphbogcn , Warburg Lihrary Lectures, vol. 5 (Leipzig, 1928), pp. 162 , 169. [ca, l) Aprupos of the bicycle: "Actually une should nut deceive oneself about the real purpose of the fa shion able new mount , which a poet the other day referred to as the horse of the Apocalypse." L 'lllwtration. June 12 , 1869, cited in Vcndredi, [C8,2) October 9, 1936 (Louia Cheronllet, "Le Cuin des vieux"). Concerning the fire that destruyed the hippodrome: "The gossips uf the dislrict see in this disaster a visitatiun of the wrath of heaven on the guilty spectacle of the Gaulois. Octuber 2 (3?). 1869, cited in Vendredi, Octoher 9 , 1936 velocipedes." (Louis Cheronnet , "Le Coin des vieux"). The hippodrume was the site of ladies' bicycle races. [C8,3]
,.£
To elucidate Les Myu erc. de I'(lris a nd simila r wurks, Caillois refers to t.he romon noir, in particula r The Myllerie. of Udolpho . on accuunt uf the " prel)onder
ance of vaults and underground passages." Roger Caillois, " Paris, mythe moderne," Nou velle Revue fraru;ai$e , 25, no. 284 (May I , 1937), p. 686.
IC8,41 "The whole of the rive gauc he. aU the way from the Tour de Nesle to the Tombe Issoire ... , is nothing but a hatchway leading from the surface to the depths. And if the modern demolitions reveal the mysteries of the upper world of Paris, per· haps one day the inhabitantll of the Left Bank will awaken IItartled to discover the mysteries below." Alexandre Dumas, Le. Mohicam de Porn . vol. 3 (Paris, 1863).
IC8,S} " Thill intelligence of Blanqui's,. . thill tactic of silence, this politics of the cata combs, must have made Barbes hesitate occasionally. as though confronted with ... an unexpected stairway that suddenly gapes and plunges to the cellar in an unfamiliar house." Gustave GeCfroy, L 'Enferme (Paris, 1926), vol. 1. p . 72.
added publicizing through images . Etienne Carjat p hotographed the skeletons, ' with the aid of electric light. ' ... After Picpus, after Saint-Laurent, at an interval of some d ays , the Convent of the & sumption and the Church of Notre-Dame-des Victoirell. A wave of madness overtook the capital. Everywhere people thought they were finding buried vaults and skeletons." Geor ges La ron ze, Il i.$ I.oire de la [C8a,4} Com mune de 1871 (Paris, 1928), p . 370 . 187 1: " The popular imagination could give itself free reign , and it took every opportunity to do so. There was n' t ODe civil-service official who did not seek to expose the method of treachery then in fas hion: the subterranean method . In the prison of Saint-Lazare, they searched for the underground passage which was said 10 lead (rom the chapel to Argenteuil-that is, to cross two branches of the Seine and some ten kilometer s as the crow Ries . At Saint-Sulpice, the passage supposedly abutted the chateau of Versailles." Georges Laronze, Hi.$toire de la Commune de [CSa,S] 1871 (Paris , 1928), p . 399.
IC8,' }
p . 4 19) quotes fr om Vidocq's Memoire& (chapter 45): " Paris ill a spot on the globe, but this spot ill a sewer and the emptying point of all sewers ." [CSa,l }
I.e Panorama (a literary and critical revue appearing five times weekly), in vol ume I , number 3 (its last number), February 25, 1840, under the title "Difficult Qyestions": "Will the universe end tomorrow? Or mwt it---enduring for all etemity-see the end of our planet? Or will this planet, which has the honor of bearing u s, outlast all the o ther worlds?" Very characteristic that one could write this way in a literary revue. (In the first number, "To Our Readers," it is acknowl edged , furthennore , that Le PanOTama was founded to make money.) The founder was the vaud evillian Hippolyte Lucas. (C8a,2) Saint who each night led back The entire flock to the fold, dil.igent shepherdess, When the world and Paris come to the end of their term , May you , with a firm step and a light hand , Through the last ya rd and the Il8t portal, Lead back, through the vault and the folding door, The entire flock to the right hand of the Father. Charles Peguy, La Tapinene de Sainte-Genevieve, cited in Marcel Raymond . De Baudelaire au Surreawme (Paris, 1933) , p . 219. 15 [C8a,3} Di ~ tru 5t of cloisters and clergy duri.ng the Commune: "Even more than with the incident o( the Rue Picpus, everything possible was done to excite the popular imagination , thanks to the vaults of Saint-Laurent. To the voice ~f the preu was
"As a matter of fact , men had indeed replaced the prehistoric water. Many centu ries after it had withdrawn, they had begun a similar overRowin g. They had spread themselves in the same hollows, pushed out in the same directions. It was down there-toward Saint-Merri , the Temple, the Hotel de Ville. toward Les Hailes, the Cemetery of the Innocents , and the Opera, in the placell where water had found the greatest difficult y escaping, places which had kept oozing with infiltrations, with subterranean streams-that men , too, had most completely saturated the soil. The most densely populated and busiest qltartier! still lay over what had once been mars h ." Jules Romain" Les Homme. de bonne volonte. book I , Le 6 octobre (Paris <1932» . p . 191 . hI [C9,l] Baudelaire and the cemeteries: " Behind the high walls of the houses, toward Mont martre, toward Menilmontant, toward Montparnasse. he imagines at dusk the cemeteries of Paris , these three other cities within the larger one--cities smaller in appearance than the city of the living, which seems to contain them, but in reality how much more populous, with their closely packed little compartments a rranged in tiers under the ground . And in the same places where the crowd circulates toda y-the Square des Innocents, for example-he evokes the ancient ossuaries , now leveled or entirely gone, swallowed up in the sea of time with all the.ir dead , like ships that have sunk with aU their crew aboard ." Fra m;:ois Porclle, La Vie doulo ureuse de Cha rles Baudelaire, in series entitled Le Roman des Grande! Existences , no. 6 (Paris <1926» , pp. 186- 187. [C9,2} Parallel passage to the ode on the Arc de Triomphe. Humanity is apostrophized: As for yo ur cities, Bah-els of Hlonunumls Where all events clamor aI once, How 8uhslanlial are they? Arche$, lowers, I'yramid!l I would not be surprised if, in its humid incandescence, The dawn one morning suddenly dissol ved then"
AloDIl with the d~drOIJ8 o n •• 1It' . nd th yme. And . 1I yo ur no hle dwellin ll'. m. ny-tiered, End up II ~ heap. of I ione and grau Whe re , ill I.he ~ ullli gh t . the l u btl e Ilet'JJe nt hisllel.
Victor I-Iugo, w fin de Salan : Dieu (P ari., 1911 ), liP. 475-476 C'Dieu- L'Ange"'). [C9,3]
Leon Daudet on the view of Paris from Sacre Coeur. " From high up you can see thi. population of palaces, monuments, houses, and hovels, which seem to have gathered in ellpectation of some ca taclysm, or of several cataclysm&-meteorologi_ cal, perhaps, or social. ... As a lover of hilltop nnctuaries , which never fail to stimulate my mind and nerves with their bracing harsh wind . I have spent houn on FOllrviereslookjng at Lyons, on Notre-Dame d e la Garde looking at Marseilles, on Sacre Coeur looking at Paris . ... And . yes, at a certain moment I heard in myseU something like a tocsin , a strange admonition, and I saw thete three mag nificent cities . .. threatened with collapse , with devastation by fire and flood, with carnage, with rapid erosion , like foresl8 leveled en bloc. At other tinles , I saw them preyed upon hy a n obscure, subterranean evil, which undermined the monumentl and neighborhoods , ca llsing entire sections of the proudest homes to crumble ..• . From the standpoint of these promontories , what appears most clearly is the men ace. The agglomeration is menacing; the enormous labor is menacing. For man has need of labor, that is clear, bllt he has other need8 a8 well .... He need8 to isolate himself and to form groups, to cry out and to r evolt , to regain calm and to sub mit . ... Finally, the need for suicide is in him; and in the 80ciety he form8 , it is stronger than the instinct for seU-preservation. Hence. as one looks out over Paris , Lyolls. or Marseilles, from the heights of Sacre Cocur, the Fourvieres. or Notre-Dame de la Garde, what a8l0unds one is that Paris, Lyons, and Marseillet have endured." Leon Oaudet , Paru uecu , vol. I , Rive droite (Paris <1930), pp.220-221. [e9a,! ] " In a long !eries of classical writers from Polybius onward , we read of old, re nowned cities in which the st.reets have bec:ome lines of empty, crunlbling shells, wllere the cattle browse in forum and gymnasium , and tile amphitheater is a 80wn field , dolted with emergent statues and herms. Rome had in the fifth century of our era the population of a village, but il8 imperial palaces were still habitable. " Oswald Spengler, Le Deciin de I'Occit/enl
o [Boredom, Eternal Return] Must the SWl therefon: murder all dreams the pale children of my pleasure grounds?' Th~ da~ have grown so still and glowering. SatlSfaruon lures me with nebulous visions while dread makes away with my salvation:"" as though I wen: about to judge my God. - Jakob van HoddQ l
Bon:dom waiu for death. -Johann Ptter HebeF
Waiting is life. - VICtOr HuF
Child with its mo~er in th~ panorama. The panorama is presenting the Battle of Sedan. The child finds It all very lovely: "Only it's too bad the sky is so dreary'o"- "That's what the weather is like in war," 'answers the mother. 0 Dio ",",,,
.Thus:, the panoramas too an:: in fundamental complicity with this world of trust, this cloud-world : the light of their images breaks as through curtains ofrain.
[Dl ,l ] " '1'1 ' P . . liS arts [of Baudelaire's] is very different from the Paris of Verlaine wllich ~ t sdf hus already faded. The olle is somber and rainy, like a Paris on w~ch the ;olllge of Lyons has been superimposed ; the other is whitish and dusty like a pastel J)' Uaphuel. One is 8uffocating, whereas the other is airy, with n: w buildings ~:lI ltcr:d ill II wasteland , and , Ilot far away, a gate leading to withered arbors ." ra ll\,Ols Porche . La Vie dQulourewe de Charles BalUleLaire (Paris, 1926), p. 119.
[Dl ,2]
Them .. rr r e,: ~arcotwng euect which cosmic forces have on a shallow and brittle pc sonahty 15 attested in the rdation of such a person [0 one of the highest and m Ost geniaJ manifestations of these forces : the weather. Nothing is more c.harac.
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terucic than that precisely this most intimate and mysterious affair, the working of the weather on humans, should have become the theme of their emptiest chatter. Nothing bores the ordinary man more than the cosm os. H ence, for him, the deepest connection between weather and boredom. How fine the ironic overcoming of this attitude in the story of the splenetic Englishman who wakes up onc m oming and shoots himself because it is raining. Or Goethe: how he managed to illuminate the ",,-eather in his meteorological srudies, so that one is tempted [Q say he unclenook this work solely in order to be able to integrate even the weather into his waking, creative life. [01 ,3] Baude.laire 8 S the poet of Spleen de Paris: " One of the central m o tielJ of tlli, poetry is, in effect . boredom in the fog, ennui and indiscriminate haze (fog of the cities). In a word , it is spleen." Fram;:ois Porche, La Vie douloltreu.se de Charles Baude· loire (Paris , 1926), p. 184. [01 ,4]
In 1903 , in Paris, Emile Tardieu brought out a book entitled L'Ennui, in which all human activity is sho\'lll to be a vain attempt to escape from boredom, but in which, at the same time, everything that was, is, and will be appears as the inexhaustible nourishment of that feeling. To hear this, you might suppose the work to be a mighty monument of uteratuTe-a monument aere perenniUJ in honor of the taedium vitae of the Romans.' But it is only the sdf-satis6ed shabby scholarship of a new H o mais, who reduces all greatness, the heroism of heroes and the asceticism of saints, to documents of his O\'lll spirirually barren, petty bourgeois discontent. [01 ,5] " When the French went into Italy to maintain the rights of the throne of France over the duchy of Milan and the kingdom of Naples, they r eturned home quite amued at the pr ecautions which Italian genius had taken against the excessive heat ; and, in admiration of the arcaded galleries, they strove to imitate them. The r ainy climate of Paris. with its celebrated mud and mire , suggested the pillars, which were a mar vel in the old days. Here, much la ter on, was the impetus for the Place Royale. A strange thing! It was in keeping with the same motifs that, under Napoleon, the Rue de Rivoli , the Rue de Castiglione, a nd the famou s Rue des Colonnes were constructed." The turban came out of Egypt in this manner as wen . Le Diable a Paru (Paris , 1845), vol. 2, pp . 11- 12 (Balzac, " Ce qu.i disparait de Paris"). How many years separated the war mentioned above from the Na poleonic expe.. dition to ltaly? And where is the Rue des Colonnes located?5 [01 ,6] "Rainshowers have given birth to advenrures."· Diminishing magical [D1 ,11 power of the rain. M ackintosh.
first symptoms of the Revolution . [OIa,5) Concerning some lascivious pictures: " It is no longer the fan that 's the thing, but the umbreUa-invention worthy of the epoch of the king's national guard. The umbrella ellcouraging amorous fa ntasies! The umbrella furnishing discreet cover. The canopy, the roof, over Robinson 's island. " J ohn Crand..Carteret , Le Decolleleet fe relrou.ue (Paris ( 1910» , vol. 2, p. 56. [Dla,6]
"0 Illy here," Chirico once said . " is it possible to paint. The streets have such gradations of gray.. . ."
[D1a,7]
As dust, rain takes its revenge on the arcades.- U nder Louis Philippe, dust settled
even on the revolutions. When the young duc d'O rieans "married the princess of MeckJenburg, a great celebration was held at that famous ballroom where the
1'he Parisian atmosphere reminds Caruss of the wa y the Neapolitan coastline looks when the sirocco blows. CD I a,8J
Only someone who has grown up in the hig city can appreciate its rainy weather, which a1together slyly sets onc dreaming back to early childhood. Rain makes
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everything more hidden, makes days not only gray hut unifonn. From morning until evening, one can do the: same thing-play chess, read, engage in argu ment-whereas sunshine, by contrast, shades the hou rs and discountenances the dreamer. The latter, therefore, must get around the days of sun with subter· fu ges-above all, must rue quite early, like the great idlers, the waterfront loafers and the vagabonds: the dreamer must be up bd'ore the sun itself. In ~e "Ode ~ Blessed Morning," which some yean past he sent to Enuny H enrungs. Ferdi nand Hardekopf, the only authentic decadent that Germany has produced, confides to the dreamer the best precautions to be taken for surmy clays.' [Ola,9] ""0 give to Ihis dust a semblance of consistency, as by 80aking it in blood .... Loui,
Veuillot , Le, Odeltrs de Paru (Paris. 1914), p. 12.
[Ola,10)
Other European cities admit colonnades into their urban perspective, Berlin setting the style with its city gates. Particularly characte!is:tic is the Ha?e Gate unforgettable for me on a blue picture postcard represen~g Belle-~ce ~tz by night. The card was tranSparent, and when you held It up to the light, all Its windows were illuminated with the very same glow that came from the full moon up in the sky. [02, 1]
IlOur the master o£ the house took hil breakfa&1. ... After I had waited a quarter of an hour, he. deigned to appear. . . . He yawned , looked sleepy, and seemed continually on the point of nuddi n!; off; he walked like a somnambulis t. H is fatigue had infe<:led the walill of his mansion . The parakeeu stood out like his separate thoughl$ . each one materialized and attached to a pole .... " 0 Interior 0 Hodenberg, Paru bei Sonneruchein unci wmpenJichr (Leipzig, 1867), pp . 104
105.
(02,3]
Feles frant;aises, au Puris en miniatur e : IJrOOuced by Rougcmont and Gentil a t the Theatr e del Varietes. The plot lias to do with the marriage of Napoleon Ito Marie--Louile, and the convcraation, at this point, concerns the planned fe8tivities. ""Nevertheless," lI&yll one of the characters. " the weather iii rather uncertain."-Reply: ""My friend , you may r est assured that this day ia lhe choice of our sovereign ." He then strike8 up a song that begills: At his lJiercing glance, doubt not The future is revealed; And when good weather i8 required . We look to his star. Cited in Theodore MUTet , L 'Histoire par le theatre, 1789-1851 (Paris, 1865), vol. I , p. 262. [02,4]
" The buildings cOllstructed for the new Paris revive aU the styles. The ellsemble it not lacking in a certai n unit y, however, because all the styles belong to the category of the tedious-in fact , the mos t tedious of the tedious, which is the emphatic and the aligned. Line up! Eye,jronr! It seenu that the Amphion orthis city is a corpo ral. ... I He moves great quantities of things---ehowy,stately, coloual-and aU of them are tetlious. He moves other things, extremely ugly; they too are tedious. I The8e great 8treetl, thesc great quayli, theae great boules , thele great sewen, their physiognomy l)I)Orly copied or poorly dreamed-aU h ave an indefinable 10me thi ll5 indicative of unexpected and irregular fortune . They exude tedium." Veuillot , Le. Oc/eur! de Paris
"'This d ull, glib ladness called ennw." Lowl Veuillot , U8 Odeurs de Paris (Paris, 1914), p. 177. [02.5]
Pelletan describes a vilit wilh a king of the Stock Exch ange, a multimillionaire: "As I cntered the courtyard of the house, a squad of grooms in red veets were occupied in ruh hing down a half dozen English horses. I ascended a marble I lair· case hung with a giant gilded chandelier, and ellcountered ill the vestibule a major· domo with white cravat allli plump calves. He led me into a large glass-roofed galler y whOle walll were decorated entir ely with camelliali alld hotilOuse plants. Something like l upp resscd boredom lay in the air; at the very first step . ~ou breathe.l a vapor as of opi um . I then passed between two rows of pcr che8 011 wluch parak(..'Cts from va rious countrie8 were roosting. They were red , blue, green, gr ay. yellow. a nti white; but all seemed to s uffer from homesickneu. At the extreme e n.d of the !;allery stood a Imall table oPpolite a Re.llaislance--style fire place. for at thil
tion. Boredom is the threshold to great deeds.-Now, it wou1d be important to [02,7] know: What is the dialectical antithesis to boredom?
""Along with every outfit go a few accessorie8 which show it off to best effect-that iii to say, which cost loti of money beeaule they are so quickly ruined, in particular by e,·cry downpour." This apropOI of the top hat. 0 Fuhion 0 F. Th. Viacher, Ve rniinftige Gedunken iiber di/? j etzige Mode (in Krituche Gange, new leriee. no. [02,6] 3 (Stuttgart , 1861», p . 124. \~ are bored when we don't know what we are waiting fOT.lbat we do know, OT think we know, is nearly always the expression of our superficiality or inatten
The quite humorous book by Emile Tardieu, L'Ennui (Paris, 1903), whose main thesis is that life is purposeless and groundless and that all striving after happi ness and equanimity is futile, names the weather as one among many factors Supposedly causing bored om.-lbis work can be considered a son of breviary for the no,'entieth century. [02.8] Boredom is a warm gray fabric lined. o n the inside with the most lustrous and colorfu1 of silks. In this fabric we wrap ourselves when we: dream. \>\t are at
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home then in the arabesques of its lining. But the sleeper looks bort:d and gray within his sheath. And when he later wakes and wants lO [ell of w hat he dreamed, he communicates by and large only this boredom. For who would be able at one stroke to tum the lining of time to the outside? Yet to narrate dreams signifies nothing else. And in no other way can onc deal with the arcades-struc tures in which we relive, as in a dream, the life of our parents and grandparents, as the embryo in the womb relives the life of animals. Existence in these spaces Bows then without accent, like the events in dreams. F'linerie is the rhythmics of this slumber. In 1839, a rage for tortoises overcame Paris. One can ",'dl imagine the elegant set mimicking the pace of this crearurt: mort: easily in the arcades than
on the boulevards. oFlineur 0
[02a,11
Boredom is always the extema1 surface: of unconscious events. For this reason, it has appeared to the great dandies as a mark of distinction. Ornament and boredom.
(0231,2]
On the double meaning of the term Irnps'~ in French.
[02a,31
time, an indifferent expendirure of the all too quickly passing hours-these are qualities that favor the superficial salo n life," Ferdinand von Gall, Paris und seine Salotu, vol. 2 (Oldenburg, 1845), p. 171. [02a,71 Boredom of the ceremonial scenes de:picte:d in histo rical paintings, and the: dolce
far nirote of battle scenes with all that dwells in the smoke of gunpowde:r. From the imagts d'Epi1lai to Manet's E-ctcution 0/ Emperor Maximilian, it is always the same-and always a new- fata morgana, always the smoke in which Mogreby
Factory lahor as economic infrastructure of the ideological boredom of the up per classes. "The miserable routine of endless drudgery and toil in which the same mechanical process is repeated over and over again is like the labor of Sisyphus. The burden of labor, like the rock, always keeps falling back on the worn-out labo rer." Friedrich Engels, Die Lage der arbritrnden K/asse in England <2nd ed. (Leipzig, 1848) ~, p. 217; cited in Marx, Kapitai (Hamburg, 1922), vol. 1, [02a,4] p. 388. l!
" In SUIII , clastic urban a rt , after presenting its masterpieces, fell into decrepitude at the time of the philosophes and the constructors of Iyatems. The end of the eightccnth century saw the birth of innumerable projects; the Commiuion of Art· isu brought them illlo accord with a body of doctrine. and the Empire adapted them "1thout creative originality. The fl exible and animated classical style waa succeeded by the systematic and rigid pseudoclauical style.... The Are de Tri· omphe echoes the gate of Louis XIV; the Vendome column is copied from Rome; the Church of the Madeleine, the Stock Exchange, the Palais-Bourbon are so many Greco·Roman temples." Lucien Dubech and Pierre d' Espezel, Histoire ~ Pari., (Paris. 1926). p. 345. 0 Interior 0 [03 ,1)
The feeling of an "inrurable imperfection in the very essence of the present" (see Les PltJiJirs tiles jours, cited in Gide's homage)12 was perhaps, for Proust, the main motive for getting to know fashionable society in its innermost recesses, and it is an underlying motive perhaps for the social gatherings of all human beings. [02a,5]
"The First Empire copied the triumphal arches and monuments of the two clau i· cal centuries. Then there was a n attempt to revive and reinvent more remote models: the Second Empire imitated the Renaiuanee. the Cothic, the Pompeian. After this came an epoch of vulgarity without style." Dubech and d'Espezel, His· [03,2) loire de Pari., Waris, 1926), I)' 464. 0 Interior 0
On the salons: " All fa ces evinced the unmistakable traces of boredom , a nd conyer· sations were in general scarce. quiet , and serious. Most of these people viewed dancing al drudgery. to which you had to submit becaule it was SUPI)osed to be good fonn to dance." Further on, the proposition that " no other city in Europe, perhaps, dilplays such a dearth of satisfied . cheerful. lively faces at its soirees as Paris does in its salons .... Moreover, in no other society so much as in this one, and by reaSOIl of fashion no lell than real cOllviction, is the unbearable boredom so roundly lamented." "A natural consequence of this is that social affairs are marked by silence and r eserve. of a 80rt that at larger galherinp in other citiel would 01 0&1 certainly be the exception ." Ferdin and von Gall. Paris Iltul seine Salons, vol. I (Oldenburg, 1844), PI" 151- 153. 158. [02a,6)
Announcement for a book by Benjamin Gastineau, La Vie en chemin defer
The following lines provide an occasion for meditating on tiinepieces in apart ments : .. A certain blitheness, a casual and even careless regard for the hun:ying
Rather than pass the time, o ne: mUSt invite it in. To pass the time (to kill time, expel it): the gambler. Tune: spills from his every pore.-To store time as a battery stores energy: the 8:ineur. Ftnally, the third type: he who waits. He: takes ill the time and renders it up in altered fo rm-that of expectation. IO [03,4) "This recently {Iepollited Iimell ton~th e bed 011 which PMri8 rests-readily crum hlcs illto a dll ~ t which, like MUlimestone dust , is very pMinful to the eyes and lungs.
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A little rain doe. nothing at . u to help, aince it i. immedi ately absorbe d a llli the l urtace left d ry o nce again .... " He re ia the aource of the unp rel)0!J8C 88ing b leached gr ay of the houIes, which a r e a U buill fro m the brittle limesto ne mined lIt:ar Paris; here, too. the oripn o f t he dun-co lored B1ate roof. tha i black e n wilh 8 00t over the yean, &8 well a8 the high . wide chimne ys which deface even the public huild ings •... and which in some districb of t he old city stand 80 close togethe r thai they almost block the view entirely ." J . F. Bell ~e nberg. Briefe g€achrieben (Ill!
einer Reile nach Paru (Dortm und . 1805). vol. 1, pp . 112, Ill .
[03,5]
"Engeb told me that it was in Paria in 1848, at the Cafe de I. Regcne e (one of the earliest centers of the Revolut ion of 1789), that Ma rx first laid out for him the ec!ononU c determi nis m of his materia list theory of histor y. " Paul Lafa rgue, " Personl iche Erinne rungen an Friedri ch E ngels," Die neue Zeit , 23, no. 2 (Stuttga rt , 1905). p . 558. [03,6] Boredo m-as index to particip ation in the sleep of the coUecti ve. reason it seems distingu ished, so that the dandy makes a sh ow of it? In 1757 ther e were onl y three cafes in Paris.
Is this the [03,7]
[03., I}
Maxims of Empire p ainting: " The new a rtists accept only ' the heroic style, the sublime , ' and the sublime is attained onl y with ' the nude and dra pery. ' ... Paint ers are IUppose d to find their inspira tion in Plutarc h or Homer, Uvy or Virgil, a nd , in keeping with David', r ecomme ndation to Gros, are s uppose d 10 choose ... 'subj ects known to everyon e.' ... Subject s taken from conlem porary life were, because of the clothing styles. unwort b y of 'great a rt .'" A. Malet a nd P. Grillet , XIX' &iede ( Paris, 19 19), p . 158. 0 Fashion 0 [03a,2) " Happy the man who is an observe r ! Boredo m , for him , is a l'I'ord d evoid of sense." Victor Fourne l, Ce qu 'on voit dan! leI rue! de Paris ( Paris, 1858) , p . 27 1. [03a,3] Boredo m ~gan to ~ experie nced in epidem ic proport ions during the 18405. Lamart ine is said to be the first to h ave given express io n to the malady. It plays a role in a litde Story abou t the famous comic Debura u. A distingu ished Paris neurolo gist was consu1ted one day by a patient whom h e had not seen before. The patient compla ined of the typical illness of the times-w earines s with life, deep depress ions, boredo m. "There 's no thing wrong with you," said the d octor after a thoroug h examin ation. just try to relax-f ind som ething to enterta in you . Go see Debura u som e evening , and life will look differen t to you." "Ah, dear sir," answer ed dle patient, "I am Debura u." [03a.4) Heturn from the Course ! de la Marche: " The dust cxc(.oede(1 all expectu tiolili. The d egant folk hack from the r aces a re virtuall y encrust etl; they remilltl yo u of Porn-
peii. They have had to be exhume d with the help of a hrush . if not a pickaxe ." H. de Pene. Pari&in time (Paris , 1859), p . 320. [03a,5] "Thc introdu ction of the Macad am ~ys t em for p avi ng the houleva rds gave rillc to uu nlerOU li caricat ures. Cham shows the Pa risians blinded hy dus t, aud he pro poses to erect ... a statue with the inscript ion : ' In recogni tion of Macada m , from the grateful oculists and optician s.' Others represe nt IJede8tr ians 1II0Uute d on stilts traver sing mars hes and bogs." Pori&.fO U&la Republ ique de 1848: Expo.fit ion (Ie ItI Biblioth eque et des Tra t)(lUX hi.ftoriq ues de la Ville de Paris (1909) [Poete, Bea urepair e. Clouzot , Henrio t], p . 25. [03a,6] "Onl y England could have prod uced d andyism. France is as incapab le of it as its neighho r is incapah le of anyt hing like our ... liont . who are as eager to plealle as the daudiel are d isdainfu l of pleatin g.... D'Orsa y ... was natural ly and pasllion ately pleasin g to everyone, even to men , wherea s the dandies plcased only in displeas ing. . . . Betwee n the lion and the dand y lies an ahy n. But how much wider the ahYlis between the dand y and the fop! " Larou8se, ~Gr(lfl d Diction no ire uni ~ r.fe/le> du dix-neu v;eme siecle<, vol. 6 (Paris. 1870), p . 63 (article on the dand y». [04, 1] In Ihe second- to-Iast chapter of his book Poru: From Iu Origin& to th e Year 3000 (Paris, 1886), Leo Claretie spea ks of a crys tal canopy that would slide over the cily in case of rain. " In 1987" is the title of this cha pter. [04,2] With referenc e to Chodru c-Dudo s : " ~ are haunte d by what was perhap s the remains of som e rugged o ld citizen of H erculan eum who, having escaped &om his underg round ~d, rerume d to walk again amo ng us, riddled by the thousan d furies of the volcano , living in the midst o f death." Mimoiw de Chodruc-Dudos
, ro.]. Ango and Edouanl GoWn (Paris, 1843), vol. I , p. 6 (pmace). The first
Bineur amo ng the dic/a.s;iJ.
[04,3]
The world in which one is bored-" So wha l if onc is bored ! What inftucnc e can it possibly ha" e?" " What influence ! . .. What influenc e, boredo m, with us? But an enormo us influenc e• ... a decisive influen ce! For eunui, yo u St.'e. the French man has a horror verging on venerat ion . Ennui , in his eyes. is a lerrihle god with a devoted cult following . It is onl y in the grip of horedo m tll al Ihe French mall can he serio us. " Edouar d PaiUcro n , Le Moncle ou I'on .f'ennuie ( 1881 ). Act I , scene 2; in '>aillero n , T heatre comple t. vol. 3 (paris <19 1h ), p . 279. [04,4] Miclu:.le t ';offers a descrip tion , fu ll of inteUige nce and coml)assion, of the conditio n of Ihe fi rs t specialized ractory ...·orker s around I&W. There ....ere 'true heUs of horedom ' in the s pinlling and weaving mills: ' E ller. eller, ever. is the ull varying "'·onl tlullule ring in yo ur ears fro m the automa tic Ctluipm Cllt which ~ h ukes cven tile floor. One can nevcr get used to it .' Often the remark s of Michele t (for exam ple, 011 reverie and the rh ythms of {lifferen t occupat ionlJ) anticipa te, 0 11 all ill lui
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live level, the e xperimentul analyses of modern psychologists. tt Georges Fried. 111111111 . La Crise dll progri!1l ( Pa ri, (1936» , p . 244; quotation from Mic helet . Le Pel/pie (paril>. 1846), p . 83 .1S [04,5]
Faire droguer, ill the k nsc of fuire attendre. "to keep waiting," belongs to the argot oC tbe amlie8 of the Revolution and of the Empire. According to Bnlllol, Iliatoire de 10 lc,"sue/ram;aue, vol. 9, La Revolution et l'Empire (Pans . 1937)
thiij idea; for how call we be ~ure thallhose tribes which we call 'savage' may not in fact be the ciisjecf(J membra of greal extinci civilillations? ... It is hardly neces sary to say thai when MOlls ie ur G. s ketches one of his dandies on paper, he never (aiJs 10 give him his his torical personality- his legendary penonality, I would " elltllre to say, if we were nol speaking of the present time and of things ge nerally cIHlsitiered frivolo us. " Baudelaire, L'Ar' romontiqlle, vol. 3, ed. Hachette ( Pa ris).
pp.94-95. 11
[05,1]
Baudelaire describes lhe impression that the consummate dandy must convey: " A rich man. perhaps, but more likely an o ut-of-work He rcules!" Baudelaire, L'Art romolltique ( Paris), p . 96. 19 [05,2] In the essay on Guys, the crowd appears as the supreme remedy (or boredom: "'Any man ,' he said Olle d ay, in the course of one of those conversations which he illumines with burning glance and evocative gesture, 'any man ... who can ye t be bored in ,he heart 0/ the multitude is a blockhead! A blockhead! And I despise him !" Baudelaire , L 'Art romantique, p . 6S.zo [05,3]
Among all the subjects first marked out for lyric expression by Baudelaire. one can ~ put at the forefront: bad weather. [05,4]
[04.,1] "' Roman ticis m end!! in a theory or boredom, the characte ristically modern 8e.Dti ment; that is, it ends in a theory of l)Ower, or at least of energy.... Romanticism, in effect , marks the recognition by the individual of a bundle of instincts which society has a strong inte rest in repressing; but, for the most part, it manifeslll the abdication of the s truggle .. . . The Romantic writer ... turns toward ... a poetry of refuge and escape. The effort of Balzac and of Baudelaire is exactly the reverse uf llus and tends to integrate into life the postulates whic h the Romantica were resigned to wo rking with only on the level of art . ... Their effort is tbuslinked to the myth according to whic h imagi nation plays an e ver-increasing role in life. tt Hoger Caillois, " Paris. my the moderne," Nouvelle Revue/ramiaue. 25, no . 284 (May I , 1937), pp. 695,697. [04a,2]
1839: " France is bornd" (Lamartine).
[04a,3]
Butltlclaire in his essay on G uys: " Dandyism is a mysterious institution , no less peculiar than the duel. It is of great antiquity, Caesar, Catilille, and Alcibiades provitling us with dazzling examples; a nd very widespread . Chateaubriand having found it in the forests a nd by the lakes of the New World ." Baudelairn , L'Art rolllontilille (Paris). p. 91 .17 (04a,4]
Tim GUYBc hapte r in L'A rt romtuuique. 011 dalldieij: " They a re all repre~entatives ... o( Iha l compelling 1It.'etI , ala ~ onl y 100 rare loday. for comhating and destroying t.rivialit y.... DUlldyism j ij Ihe las l s purk of heroism amid tlecadence; a nd the t ype o( dandy tli3coveretJ hy o ur Iraveler ill North America doe~ nothing to invali~ate
As a uributed to a certain " Carlin," the well-known anecdote about Deburau (the actor affli cted with boredom) forms the pi~e de resistance of the versified Ewge de l'ertnui , by Charles Boissiere. of the Philotechnical Soci ety (Paris. 1860).-"Carlin" is the name of a breed of dog!; it cornel from the fint name of an Italia n actor who played Harlequin . [OS,S] " Monotony feeds o n the new." J ean Vaudal, Le Tableau flair; cited in E. Jaloux, " L' Esprit des livres ," Nouvelles fitteroires, November 20, 1937. [05,6)
Counterpan to Blanqui's view of the world : the universe is a site of lingering catastrophes. [05,1] On L'E/t:TTIi/i par Ie; astm: Blanqui, who, on the threshold of the grave, recog· nizes the Fan du Taureau as his last piau of captivity, writes this book in order to [05a,1] opcn new doors in his dungeon. On L'E/ernili par Ie; astres: Blanqui yields to bourgeois society. But he's brought to his k.nces with such force that the throne begins to totter. [05a,2] On L'Eternili par I~$ as/m: The people of the nineteenth u ntury see the stars against a sky which is spread out in this text. [05a.3] It may be that the figure of Blanqui surfaces in the "Litanies of Satan": "You who give the outlaw that serene and hauglllY look" (~Bauddaire, Ckuure;, ) cd. Le
Dantec, (VOl. 1 [Paris, 1931],) p. 138).21 In point of fact, Baudelaitt did a drawing from memory that shows the head ofBlanqui. (05a,4]
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To grasp the significance of nouue4uti, it is necessary to go back to novelty in everyday life. Why does everyone share the newest thing with someone else? Preswnably, in order to triumph over the dead. This only where there is nothing really new. (05a,5] Blanqui's last work, l'Iritten during his last imprisonment, has remained en· tirely lUlIloticed up to now, so far as I can 5«. It is a cosmological speculation. Granted it appears, in its opening pages, taSteless and banal. But the awkward deliberations of the autodidact are merely the prelude to a speculation that only this revolutionary could develop. ~ may call it theological, insofar as hell is a subject of theology. In fact, the cosmic vision of the world which Blanqui lays out, taking his data from the mechanistic natural science of bourgeois society, is an infernal vision. AI. the same time, it is a complement of the society to which Bianqui, in his old age, was forced to concede victory. What is so unsettling is that the presentation is entirely lacking in irony. It is an unconditional surTeIlder, but it is simultaneously the most terrible indictment of a society that projects this image of the cosmos-understood as an image of itself-across the heavens. With its trenchant style, this work displays the most remarkable similarities both to Baudelaire and to Nietzsche. (Letter ofJanuary 6, 1938, to H orkheimer.):1:2 [DS••6] From B1anqw'e L 'Etemite por le, MIre,; " Wha t man does not find him8elf 8ome times faced with two opposing courses? The one he dec!line8 would make for a far different life, while leaving him hi8 p articular individuality. One lead8 to mieery. sh ame, servitude; the other, to glory a nd liberty. Here, a lovely woman and h appi ness ; thcre. fury and desolation. I am 8peaking now for both sexe8. Take your chances or your cboice---it makes no difference. for you will not e8cape yo ur destin y. But destiny finds no footing in infinity, which knows no altcrnative and makes room for everything. There exists a world where a man follows the road that , in the other world , his double did not take. His existence divides in two. a globe for each ; it bifurcates a 8ccond time, a third time, thOllsallds of times. He thus possesses fuDy formed doubles with innumerable variants, which , in multi plying, always represent him a8 a person but capture onl y fragm ents of his destiny. All that one might have been in this world , one i8 in anot her. Along with one', entire existence from birth to death , experienced in a multitude ofplaccs, olle also lives, in yet other places, ten thousand different vcrsions of it. " Cit(.'(1 in Guslave Gcffroy, L 'Enfernle (Paris. 1897), p . 399. [06, 1] From I.he conclusion of L 'Eter-nile par les astre,; " Wltat I write allhis mOJIIClit in a cell of the Fort flu Taureau I have written aud sha ll write tltroughout all eter nit y- al a tahle, with a pen, clothed as I am now, ill circuJIIstances like thcse." Ciled in Gustave Geffroy. L 'Enfernle (Paris. 1897). p . 401. Right after·this . Gef
froy writes: " lie thus inscribes hi8 fal e, at each instant of ils duration , acron t.he numberless sta r8. His prison cell is multiplied to infinity. Throughout the enUre . h•.,. the same conftned lIIau thai he is on this earth , ,.';th his rebellious uJUvene. strength and his freedolll of thought ."
[D6,2]
f rolll the conclusion of L 'Eternile par les «stres: " At the prC8e nt time, the elltire life of our planet , from birth to death. with all its crimes and miseries, is being Ii" ed partly here and p artly there, day by d ay, on myriad kindred planets. What ",'e call 'progress' is confined to each particular world , and vanishes with it. AI· ways and everywhere in the terrestrial arena . the same drama, the same setting, on the same !Iarrow slage---a noisy humaui ty infat u ated with its own grandeur, believing itself to be the univer se and living in its prison as though in 80me im mense realm , only to founder at an early date along with its globe . which has borne with tleel)est disdain . the burden of human arrogance. The same monotony, the same immobility, on other heavenl y bodies. The universe repeats itself endlessly and paws the ground in place." Citcd in Gustave Geffroy, L'E fI/ernie (Paris,
1891), p. 402 .
[D6a,l ]
Blanqui expre88ly emphasizes the 8cientific character of his theses, which would have nO lhin~ to do with Fourierist frivolities . " One must concede that each par ticular combination of materials and people 'is bound to be repeatcd thousands of times in order to satisfy the demand8 of infinity.'" Cited in Geffroy, L'Enferme (Paris, 1897) . 1). 400. [D6a,2] B1amlui'8 misanthropy: "The variation8 l)egLn with those living creatures that havc a will of their own , or something like caprices. As soon as human beillg, ellter the scene, imagination enten with them. It is not as though they have much effect on the planet . . . . T heir turbulent activity never seriou sly disturbs the natural progre88ion of physical phenomena . though it disrupts humanity. It is therefore advisable to a nticipate this subversive inftuenee, which ... tean apa rt nations ami b rings down empires. Certainl y these brutalities run their course without even scratching the terrestrial surface. The disappea r ance of the disruptors would leave no trace of their self-styled sovereign presence, and would suffice to re turn natu re to its virtually unmolesled virginity." B1amlui , L'E ternite
II
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ac rou it ~ ~ urfa ce. wllether large or smaU , living or inanimate. share the privilege of thi ~ perpetuity. I The ea rth i ~ one of these heavenly bodies. Every huma n being is thus eternal at every seeo",1 of hi.s or her existence. What I write at this moment in a cdl of the Fort du Taureau I have written and shaU write throughout aU eternit y-at a table. with a pen , clothed as I am now. in circumstances like these. And thus it is for ever yo ne. I All worlds are engulfed . one after another, in the revivifyi ng fl ames, to be reborn from them and cons umed by them once more-. monotonous fl ow of an hourglass that etem ally empties and turns itaelf over. The uew ia alwaya oM, aud the old alwaya new. I Yet won ' t those who are intere8led in extraterrC8trial life Bmile at a mathematical deduction which accorda them nOI onl y immortality but eternity? The number of our doubleB ia infinite in time and alJau. One cannot in good conscience demand anything more. TheM! doublet! erilt in flesh and bone--indeed, in troUBenl and jacket , in crinoline and chignon. They are by no mealls phantollls; they are the present eternalized . I Here. nonetheless, lies a great drawback : there ia no progress, alas, but merely vulgar revisiona and reprin18. Such a re the exemplanl, the ostenaible ' original editions,' o( all the worlds ,)ast and all the worlds to come. Only the chapter on bifurcation. is still OIJeIl to hOIJe. Let us 1I0t Corget: all that one might have been in thia world, one it in anotller. I In this world . progress is (or our descendanta alone. They will have more of a chauce than we did . All the beautiful thingB ever seen on our world have, oC course, already been seen- are being seen at this instant and will always be seen- by our descendanta, and by their doubles who have preceded and will (01 low them . Scions o( a fin er humanity, they have already mocked and reviled our existence on dead world8, while overtaking and succeeding ua . They continue to scorn us on the living world8 from which we have disappeared . and their contempt for us will have no end on the worlds to come. I They and we. and . U the inhabi tants of Ollr planet , are reborn prisoners o( the momeot and o( the place to which dcstin y haa auigned us in the series of Earth's avatara. Our continued life depend. on that ohhe planet. We are merely phenomena that are ancillary to ita reflurree tions. Men of the nineteenth century, the hour of our apparitions is fixed fo~ver, and always brings U8 back the very 8ame ODCS, or at m08t with a prospect o( felicitoua varianu . There ia nothing here that will much gratify the yea rni.ng (or improvement . What to do? I have sought not at aU my pleasure . but only the truth. Here there is neither revelation nor prophecy, but rather a simple deduction on t.he basis of s pectra l a nal ysis and Laplacian cosmogony. These two di8coveries make us eternal. Is it a windfaU? Let li S profit from it. Is it a mystification? Let us resign ourselves to it . I. . I At bottom , this eternity of the human being among the star s is a melancholy thing, and this sequestering of kindred worlds by the inexorable ha rrier oC space is even more sad. So many identical populations pas! away without 8uspccting one a llother 's existence! But no--this has finally been di ~eovered, in the nineteenth century. Yet who is inclined to believe it? I Until now, the past has . for us, meant barharism, whereas the Cuture has signified pro gre~ 8. ~ ri e " ct'. hap pincs8, illu sion! This past. on all our counterpa rt worlds. h as seen the 111081 hrilliant civilililations disappear without leaving a trace. and they will continue 10 lliJlIIIJIl'ea r without leaving a trace. The future will wit.Aen yet again . on billiolls of world., the iplOrance, folly, and cruelty of our bygo ne eras! I At the
present time, the entire life of our planet , from birt.h to death. with all ita crimes and miseries, is heillg lived partly here and partly there. tla y b y d ay, on myriad kindred planets . What we call 'progr eu' is confinetilO each particular world , and "anishes with it. Always and e\'cr ywlU!re in the terrestrial a rena , the same drama, t.he same setting, on the sa llie narrow stag~a noisy humanity infatuated with iu own grandeur, believing itself to be the univerBe and living in its prison as though in SOlin: immense rea lm , onl y to (ounder a t an ea rl y d ate along with its pohe, which has borne with deelM!8t disdain the burden of human a rrogance. The same monot ony, the Jlame immobility, on other heavenly bodies . The universe repeats itself endlessly and (laws the ground ill place. In inflDity, eternit y performs--imper_ turbably- the same routine8." Auguste B1allllui , L 'Eternite par ies (J$tres: Hy por/l ~e a5tronomique (P aria. 1872). pp. 73-76. The elided paragraph dweUs on the "consolation" afforded by the idea that the doublea of 10'·00 ones departed from Earth are at this very hour keel'ing our own doubles company on a nother planet. [D7; D7a) " Let us think this thought in its most terrible form: e,ustence as it is, without ·meaning or aim, yet recurring iuevitably without any fmale into nothingness: the eterrlal retllm [p o45].... We deny end goals: if existence had one , it would have to have been reaehed ." Friedrich Nietzsche. Ce$ammelte Werke (Mullich (1926» , vol. 18 (Ti, e Will to Power, book I). p. 46 .Z3 [D8,I) "The doctri.ne of eternal rec urrence would have scholarly presuppositions." Nietzsche. Ge5ammelte Werke (Munich). vol. 18 (Th e Will to Power, book 1), 1' . 49. ZI [D8,2) "The old habit , however, of Buociating a goal with every e,·ent ... is 80 powerful that it ret:luircs an effort for B thinker lIot to CaU into thinking oC the very aimless lIess of the world a8 intended . Thi8 notion- that the world intentionally a voids a goal ...- lIlust occur to all those who would like to force on the world the capacity for eternCii novelty (p . 369).... The wo rld , as for ce, ma y Dot be thought of 8S IIl1linuted , for it camlOI be 80 thought of. . . . Thus--the world also lacks the capacity for eternal novelty. '" Nietzsche. Gesammelte Werke. vol. 19 (Th e WiU to /)o,,;er, hook 4). 1'. 370. 15 [D8,31 '·The ....orld . . . lives 011 itself: its cxcr emcnts are it~ nourishment. " Nietzsche. Cesu lllmelte Werke , vol. 19 (Ti,e Will 10 Po wer. book 4), 1'. 37 1.:'; [D8,4) T he ....orld " witllG!!t gou l, unless the joy of the circle is itst:lf a goal; without will. unless a rillg fl!i!ls good willluwartl it ~e1f. " NiclzllcI,e. Cesammelte Werl.-e. vol. 19 (Th e Will to I'ower, hook 4), p . 374.2: [D8,5) On eternltl recurrCllce: " The great tlmught II~ II Metlusa heatl: all fea lure~ of the ""orltl become lIlotjonlesH. II frozen deu ll, throe. -- Frietlrich Nietzsche, GestUFlmelle if'erke (M unich ( 1925», vol. 14 (Unpllbfislled PCI/Je rs_ 1882-/ 888), p. 188. !DB ,. ]
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"We have created the weightiest thought- now let '" creote the being for whom it is light and piell.sillg! " Nietzsche , Ge80 mmelte Werke (Mullich). vol. I" (U'lpub lished Poper8. 1882_1888j, p . 179. [08,7J Analogy between Engels and Blanqui : each turned to the natural sciences late in (D8,8)
lifo.
" If the world mlly be thought of as a certain definite qu antity of force a nd a& a certain defmite number of centers of force--and every other representation re mains ... weleu-it follows that, in the great dice game of existence, it must pas8 through a calculable number of combinations. In infinite time, every possible combination would at some time or another be realized ; more: it would be r ealized an infinite number of times. And since between every combination and its next recurrence aU othcr p088ible comhinations would have to take place, ... a circu lar movement of ab80lutely identical series is thus demonstrated .... This concep tion is not simply a mechanistic conception; for if it were that , it would 1I0t condition an infinite recurrence of identical cases but a filial slate. Because the world has not reached this, mechanistic theory must be considered an imperfect and merely provisional hypo thesis." Nietzsche, Gesammelte Werke (Munich <1926» , vol. 19 (Th e WiUto Powe,.., book 4) , p. 373.28 [08a, IJ ~ the idea of eternal reCl.llTeIlcc, the historicism of the nineteenth century cap SIZes. As a result, every tradition, even the most recent. becomes the legacy of som~~g that has already run its course in the immemorial night of the ages. TradilJon hencefonh assumes the character of a phantasmagoria in which primal history enters the scene in ultramodern get-up. [08a,2J Nietzsche's remark that the doctrine of eternal recurrence does not cnbrace mechanism seems to turn the phenomenon of the J>r:rPetuum mobile (for the world v.'Ould be nothing else, according to his teachings) into an argument against the mechanistic conception of the world. [08a,3)
mutually contradictory tendencies of desire : that of repetition and that of eter nity. Such heroism has its .counterpart in the heroism of Baudelaire, who conjures the phantasmagoria of modernity from the misery of the Second Empire. (D9,2) The notion of eternal return appeared at a time when the bourgeoisie no longer dared count o n the impending development of the system of production which they had set going. The thought of Zarathustra and of etcrnal recurrence belongs together with the embroidered motto.seen on pillows: "Only a quarter hour." (D9,3) Critiifue of the doctrine of eternal recurrence: "As lIatu ral scientist ... , Nietzsche is II philosophizing dilettante, and li S founder of a religion he is a ' hybrid of sickness and wiJI to power '" [preface 10 Ecce Homo] (p. 83).30 " The entire doctrine thus seems to he nothing other than an expe riment of the human will and an auempt to eternali%e aUour doings and failings, an athei&tic surrogate for religion. With this accords the homiletic style and the composition of Zar'athustro , which dOwn to its tiniest details often imitates the New Testament" (PI). 86--37). Karl Uiwith, Nietzsches Phiu,sophie de,.. ewig6fl Wiede,..kllnjt des GIeichen (Berlin , 1935). (D9,4) There is a handwritten draft in which Caesar instead of ZarathUStra is the bearer of Nietzsche's tidings (LOwith, p. 73). lOat is of no little momenL It underscores the fact that Nietzsche had an inkling of his doettine's complicity with imperial· ISm. [09,5) Lowith calls Nietzsche's " new divination ... the syntilesis of divination from the stKrS with divination from nothingness. which is the last verity in the desert of the freedom of individual capacity" (p. 81 ). [09,6J From "u s Etoiles" , by Lamartine: Thus theBe globes of gold . t.heBe islands of light . Sou gil t instinctively by the dN!aming eye. Flash up by the thousa nds from fugitive shadow. Like pillerinfj; dust o n the tncks of night ; And the hrea th of the evenin g that Riel in il8 wake Semb them swirling through th e ra diance of s pace.
On the problem of modernity and antiquity. " The existence that has lost its stabil it y and its dir~tion. and the world that has lost its coherence and its significance, come together in the will of ' the eternal recurrence of the same' as the attempt to repeat---on the pea k of modernity, in a symbol- tile life which the Greeks lived within the living cosmos of the vislLle worM ." Karl Lowith. Nietzsches Philosoph ie lIe,.. ewigen Wiede,..kllnft del Gleichen (Berlin, 1935), p. 83. [08a.4)
All th ut we see k- Io \'e. truth . These fruil' of the sky, full en o n eart h's palate. TI,rollgh ,)ut yo ur brilliant cli mel we long 10 see Nourish fore\'er the children of life; t\"d o ne day man l>erha l"" hi8 ,le' lin)' fulfilleo.l . Will reccn'er in )·o u all the thin~ he h a ~ lo~t.
i'Eternili par ItJ a.strtJ was written four, at most five , years after Baudelaire's death (contemporaneo usly with the Paris Commune?) _- This text shows what the stars are doing in that world from which Baudelaire, with good reason, excluded them. (D9,I) ~A lphon 5e
The idea of eternal recurrence conjures the phantasmagoria of happiness from the misery of the Founders Years?9 This doctrine is an attempt to reconcile the
de) Lamurtine,
OeulJn~s
completes , vol. I (Pari,. 1850), PI' . 22 1. 224
( J\MrlitmiOlI8). TJ.ill metlitation c10llell wilh a re\'crie in ....hicl. Lamartine ill pleused
to imagine luntllclf trullsformed into a star a lllong stars.
[09a, l]
From " L' lnfini dana lea cieux"
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Man, nonethdeu, Ih at imli8covcrable in&ecl . C r awling abo ul the ho Uo wBof a n o bsc ure o rb , Ta ke1l the measure of these fier,· pla neu, As~ignB them th eir place in the heave ns. Thinking. wilh handsl hal ca nno t m anage t he co mpass, To aifl Bu n8 li ke Vains of land. And Saturn bedimmed by its dista nt ring!
l..amartlne, Oeuvre, complete, (Parit, 1850), pp. 81-82, 82 (Jl armonie, poe,iques e, relis iel/Je,) . (09a,2] Dislocation of hell: "And, fmally, what is the place of punishments? All regions of the universe in a conditio n analogous to that of the eanh, and still worse." Jean Reynaud, Terre et ciel (Paris, 1854), p. 37Z 1b.is uncommonly faruow book pre sents its theologica1 syncretism , its p/lliosophie religieuJe, as the new theology. The eternity of hell's tonnents is a heresy: "The ancient trilogy of Earth. Sky, and U nderworld 6nds itself reduced, in the end, to the druidical duality of Eanh and Sky" (p. xili). !D9.,31
"Eternal return" is ulefondamentalfoml of the urgeJ(;hichllichen, mythic conscious (010,3] ness. (Mythic because it does not reflect.) L 'Eternite pu. r res u.5tre, should be compared with the spirit of '48, 8!1 it animate8 Heynau
As life becomes more subject to administrative nonns, people m ust learn to wait Waiting is, in a sense, the lined interior of boredom. (Hebel: boredom waits for death.) (09a,4] " I alway! arrived first. It was my lot to wait for her.... J .-J . Rousseau, Le, Co nfe. , iom, ed . HilsulII (Paris( 193 1» , vol. 3, p. 11 5. 31 (09a,5] First intimation of tbe doctr ine of ett!rnal rt!currence at tbe end of the fourth book of Diefrohliche Wi.uenschaft : " How. if 80me day or night a demon "'ere to sneak after you into your loneliest )olleline88 and say to you: 'Tlu8 li£e as you now live it ulld bave lived it , you will have to live once more a nd innumerable times more; and there ,.d Ube nothing ne'" in it , but ever y pain and every joy a nd every thought and sigh and everything immeasurably smaUor great in your life must return to you all i..II tht! same succession and Se(lut!lIce--even this spider and this moonlight between the trees, and e\'ell this 1II0ment a lld I my8eLf. The eternal hourglau of e:ll:istence is tu r ned over and ovt!r, and yOIl with it , a du ~ t grain of (luHt .' Would you lIot ... cu rse the dellloll who spoke thus? Or did you once eXl.erience a tremen dous moment when YOIl would hU\'e a nsweretl him : ' You a re a god and never bave I helml lIuything more godly!"'J2 Cilt!d ill Lowith , Niet:ache, 1'l!iwsophie der ell:igen Wiederkm ift
more. Games of chance possess the great charm of freeing people from having to wait. (O l Oa,2] The boulevardier (feuilletonist) has to wait, whereupon he really waits. H ugo's ~ Waiting is life" applies firs t of all to him. (O IOa,3] The essence of the mythica1 event is rerum. Inscribed as a hidden figure in such events is the futility that furrows the brow of some of the heroic personages of the underworld (Tantalus, Sisyphus, the Danaides). 'Thinking o nce again the thought of etemal recurrence in the nineteenth century m akes Nietzsche the figure in whom a mythic fatality is realized anew. (The hell of eternal damnation has perhaps impugned the ancient idea of etemal recurrence at its most formida ble point, substiruting an eternity of torments for the eternity of a cycle.) (OlOa,4] Tbe belief in progress-in an infinite perfectibility understood as an infinite ethical task- and the representation of etemal rerum are complementary. They are the indissoluble antinomies in the face of which the dialectica1 conception of historical tim e must be developed. In this conception, the idea of etenm.l return appears precisely as that "shallow rationalism" which the belief in progress is accused of being, willIe faith in progress seem s no less to belong to the mythic [0 10a.5) mode of thought than d ocs the idea of eternal return.
E
t ra led the s pirit of thc l imcs as a mirro r COllcclltra tcs the rays of thc sun , a book ""hieh to wered "I' in mllj t'l8l.ic glory 10 the heavell' like II primeval fo rest, a book in which ... a hook for .....!tich ... flll a Uy, a hook which ... by whic b a nd th rough which [ the most IOllg. willdt.'tl spt..'C ifica lions foUow] ... a book ... a book ... this book was th e DilJjfle Comedy.' Lolld appla use." Karl G utzkow, Brie/e aus Puris (Lei pzig, 1842), vul. 2. Pl'· 151- 152. {EI .3)
[Haussmannization, Barricade Fighting] 11l(: B.ow~ry realm of dccoratioll.'l, TIle chann of landsca~, of architecture, And alIl.hc effect of sttncry rest Solely on the law of perspective. - Franz Bohle, '(}uattT·CaltdtiJmlLl, fKkr "'lIlIoristisdlt ErAliiru"l INT Kili,t/mn- ufmiWidt im Biill1lmkbm iiblicMr Frmui-.diTt(T (Munkh), p.74
I venerate the Beautiful, the Good, and all things great; Beautiful nalUrc:, on which great an resLSHow it cndlanUi the ear and channs the eye! I Icrve spring in blossom: women and TO.'ICli. -OJ,ywioll d'u" lion dC!Kflu lIilU;f (Baron Haussmann, 1888)
11l(: brtathless capitals Opened thcll1Klves to the carolon. -Pierre Dupont. u Claant da iludu,niJ (ParU, 1849)
The characteristic and, properly speaking, sole decoration of the Biedenncicr room "was afforded by the curtains, which-extremdy refined and compounded preferably from several fabrics of dilTerent colors- were furnished by the uphol. sterer. For nearly a whole century aftenvard, interior decoration amoWlts, in theory, to providing instructions to upholsterers for the tasteful arrangement of draperies." Max von Bodm, Die Mode im X IX. Jahrhundert, vol. 2 (Munich, 1907), p. 130. TIUs is something like the interior's perspective on the window. [EI, I] P"I'~ W'cli\' 1I 1
c IJa ractc r of Illc (Ti no linc . ..... ith it;; lIumifo l.1
~i" pl'l linlll lS ","' rc wo rnllnJc rllcu lh .
flOIlIl CC!!. A I
leasl fi ve 10 {El ,2]
Strategic basis for the perspectival articulation of the city. A contemporary seek. ing to justify the construction of large thoroughfares under Napoleon III speaks of them as "unfavorable 'to the habitua! tactic of local insurrection.''' Marcel Poete, Ulle flie de a'ti (Paris, 1925), p. 469. "Open up this area of continual disturbances." Baron Haussmann, in a memorandum calling for the extension of the Boulevard de Strasbourg to Chatdet. Emile de Labedolliere, Ie Nouueau Paro, p. 52. But even earlier than this: "They are paving Paris with wood in order 10 deprive the Revolution of building materials. Out of wooden blocks there will ~ no more barricades constructed." Gutzkow, Brieft aUJ Paris, vol. I, pp. 60-61. What this means can be gathered from the fact that in 1830 there ",etc 6,000 barricades. (E I,4] " Ill Paris . .. they a re fl eeing the a rcades, 8 0 lo ng in fas hio n , as one flees sta le a ir. T he a rcades a re d ying. Fro m time to time, o ne of the m is closed, like the !lid Pa ssage Delorme, where, in the wilderness of the ga Uer y, fe ma le figures of a ta w dry an tiquit y used to da nce a lo ng the shopfro nts, as in the scenes from Pompeii inte r preted by G uerino n B enellt . T he arcade thllt for the Pa ritia n was a 80 rt of salo n-walk , where YO Il s trolled a nd smo ked and chatted, it now nothing more tha n a species of refu ge which yo u think of when it r am s. Some of the a rcades ma mta in a cert ai n a ll raclio n on acco unt of t his or that fa med esta blishment still to be found there. But it is the tena nt 's renown t ha t prolongs the exciteme nt , or r a the r the dea th ago n y, of Ihe plncc. The arcades have o ne grea t deft..'C 1 fo r mode r n Pa risia ns: you could say that , just like certa in paintings do ne fro m stifled perspectives, t hey're in need of air. " Jllies Cla retie, La Vie Pa m, 1895 (Paris, 1896), pp. 47f('
a
[E I,5]
The radical transfonnation of Paris was carried out under Napoleon III mainly along the axis ruruung through the Place de la Concorde and the H6td de V ille. It may be that the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 was a blessing for the architec. lU.ra1 image of Paris, seeing that Napoleon III had intended to alter whole dis tnets of the city. Stahr thus writes, in 1857, that one had to make haste now to see the old Paris, for "the new ruler, it seems, has a mind to leave but little of it slanding." (Adolf Stahr, MlChfii,y]ahrm, vol. 1 (O ldenburg, 1857), p. 36.) [E I,O]
I't·t· p .~ h o ",· r hc to ri(·. pt·r!lpt·c tivul figul't!fI of 51H:ech : "'Inc idc nt a ll y. tile fi gu re of ~rt ·a l ,·! t ,·ff,·d. c mployc.1 by a ll F rcnch om tor'S fro m Iheir pO(IiuIIl8 li nd t ri hunes, !lo lI'Hl s I'I'clly milc h li kc thi ~: 'T lIt'rl' wus in Ihc Mj.lJle Ages a hoo k which concen·
The stifled perspective is plush fo r the eyes. Plush is the material of the age of Louis Philippe. D Dusl and Rain D [E 1.7]
Among the most im pressive testimonies to the age's unquenchable thirst for perspectives is the perspective painted on the stage of the opera in the Musee GrCvin. (This arrangement should be described.) [£1,9)
" Havi ng, as they do , the appeara nce of walling-in a massive e te r nity, Ha uu ma nu's urhan works a re a wholly a ppropria te re presentation of the a bsolute gov erning principles of the Empire: rep ressio n of e ve r y individual fo rma tio n, every or ganic self-de velopmen t, ' fund a me nta l ha tred of all individuality. ,,, J . J. Honeg_ ger, Grunm teine einer a llgemeine n Kulturgeschichte der nel«!lte n Zeit , vol. 5 (Leipzig, 1874), p. 326. But Lou.is PhiliPIJe was alread y known as the Ro i~Ma ~on
Engels' c ritique of har ricade tactics : " T he most tha t the insurrectio n caD ac tuall y impleme nt ill the wily of tactical practice is the correct co ns tructio n lind defe nse of a single h a rricade." But "eve n in t he clau ic period of I t reet fi ghting, . . . the ba rricade produced more of a mo ral t han a ma te rial effe<:t. It was a mea ns of sha king the steadfas tness of the military. If it held o n until this was a ttained , t hen \'ictor y was WOII ; if not, there was defea t. " Friedrich Engell, Introductio n to Karl Ma rx, Die Kllusenk iimpfe ira Frarakreicll , 18,UJ-- 1850 (Be rlin , 1895) , pp . 13, 14. L
Regarding "stifled pers pec tives": " ' Yo u can come to the panoroma to do dra wingll fr om nat ure,' David told his s tude nts." Emile de LahedoWer e, Le iVOll lJeO. U Porn ( Paris), p . 3 1. [£ 1,8]
[El a,5) On the tra n8fonna tio n of the city under Napoleon 11.1 : "The 8ubsoil h al heen profo undl y dis tur bed by the installa tion of gas mai ns a nd the co nstruction of sewe rs . . . . Ne ve r befo re in Paris h ave so ma ny buil
as we find it in the period following the Re volutiun of 1848, was about to become uninha bita ble. Its popula tio n h ad been greatly e nla rged a nd unsettled by the ince u a nt activit)' of the railroad (whose rails e xte nded furthe r eac h day a nd linketl up wi th those of neighbo ring co un tries) , a nd now t his popula tion was suffo ca ting in the na rrow. ta ngled , putrid alleywa ys in which it was forcibly confined ." ~M axi me) 011 Camp, IJa ru • vol. 6
. No less retrograde than the tactic of civil war was the ideology of class sttuggie. Marx on the February Revolution : "In the ideas of the proletarians, ' .. who confused the finance aristocracy with the bourgeoisie in general; in the imagina tion of good old republicans, who denied the very existence of classes or, at most, admitted them as a result of the constirutional monarchy; in the hypocritical phrases of the segments of the bourgeoisie up till now excluded from power-in aU these, the rule 0/ Ihe bourgeoisie was abolished with the introduction of the republic. All the royalists were transfonned intO republicans, and aU the million aires of Paris intO workers. The phrase which corresponded to this imagined liquidation of class relations was fraim/iii." Karl Marx, Die KitJJJenAAmpje in Frankreich (Berlin, 1895), p. 29.2 (Ela,6] I n a ma nifesto in which he proclaims the r ight to wo r k . Lama rtine speaks of t he " ad ve nt of the industrial Chris t." J ournal del I!!cotlomistel , 10 (1845), p . 2 12 .J Indust ry 0 [El a,7]
o
"T he reco nstructio n of t.he city ... , hy obliging the workers to fmd 10dgiu gII in outl ying (lrro ndiuemetlts . has dissolve!1 t he hOllds of neighho rhood t ha t pre vio us ly united t he m ....it h the ho urgeois ie." Levasseur, Ililloire del cl(luel ou vrie res et (Ie l'indw t r ieen Fran ce, vol. 2 (Pa ris, 19{)
Co n ~ lruc lion
in the faub(lurg Saint-Antoine: Boulevard Prince Eugene, 'Boule vanl Maza., IIml Bou levard Richard Lenoir. as strategic axef. [E2 ,4J
The heightened expression of the dull perspective is what you get in panoramas. It signifies nothing to their detriment but only illuminates their style when Max Brod writes: "Interiors of churches, or of palaces o r art galleries, do not make fo r beautiful panorama images. They come across as Bat, dead, obstructed."
011 June 9, 1810 , a t the Theatre de la Rue de Chartres, a play by Barre, Radet, a ud Desfontaines is given its first performance. Entitled Momieur Durelie!. ou Le. EmbeUUsement. de Pari•• it presents a series of rapid scenes as in a review, s how ing the ch anges wrought iu Pa risia n life by Napoleon J. " An architect who i. the bearer of one of those sigllificant names formerly in use on the stage, M. Durelief, has fabricated a miniature Paris, which he illtellds to exhibit. Having labored thirt y yea rs on this project , he thinks he has fini shed it at lns t ; but suddenly a 'creative epirit ' aplHlars, and proceed s to pmlle and sharpen the work , creating the need for ince88ant co rrections and addi tions: Thi, vast and weahh y capital, Adorned wilh his fine monument" I \1;«1) Me II. card board model in my room, And I follow the embelli, hmenls. But alway. lliud myself in arrears By m)' word, it', ~tting desperate: Even ill miniature, one cannot do Whallhll.t man doe. full ·Kale.
Haussmann ami the Chamber uf De putie8: "Olle day, in an exceu of lerror, Ihey accused him of having created a desert in the very ccnter (If Pa ri.!!! Thai de.!!crt wae t.he Boulevard SCI,aslopol.·' Le Corbu.!!ier, UrbcHl u me ( Pari.!! (1925), I)' 149.~ [[2,91 Very important : " Ha u.!!,manll's ~: qllipmclIl "-iIIu.!!tration8 ill Le Corbusicr. Ur bllnisme. p . 150. s Va rious s hovels. picks . ",·heelharrows, and so on. (£2, IOJ J Illes Ferry, Comptes !ClII/(utiqlle. d 'H(I.lIlSmunn
"... the impossibility of obtaining permission to photograph an adorable wax . work figure in the Musee Grevin, o n the left, between the hall of modem political celebrities and the hall at the rear of which, behind a curtain, is shown 'an evening at the theater': it is a woman fastening her garter in the shadows, and is the only statue I know of with eyes-the eyes of provocation." Andre Breton, Nadja (Paris, 1928), pp. 199-200. 7 Very striking fusion of the mo tif of fashion with that of perspective. 0 Fashion 0 [E2a,2J To the characterization of this suffocating world of plush belongs the description of the role of Bowers in interiors. After the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte, an attempt was made at first to return to rococo. But this was hardly feasible. ~e European situation after the Restoration was the following: "Typically, thian columns arc: used almost everywhere. . . . This pomp has something oppressive about it, just as the restless bustle accompanying the city's tranS formation robs natives and foreigners alike of hoth breathing space and space for reBection.... Every stone bears the mark of despotic power, and all the ostenta tion makes the atmosphere, in the litera1 sense of the ",'Oros, heavy and close .... One grows dizzy with this novel display; one chokes and anxiously gasps for Dreath. The feverish haste with which the work of several centuries is accom plished in a decade weighs on the senses." Die Grem.bolenJournal of politics and literature « Leipzig,~ 1861), semester 2, vol. 3, pp. 143- 144 ("Die Pamer Kunst· ausstellung von 1861 und die bildende Kunst des 19 .... Jahrhunderts il~ Frank reich"). The author probably Julius Meyer. l"b.ese remarks are allned at HaUSSmaJUl. 0 Plush 0 (£2a.3J
Cor:n
Tile play ends with an a potheosis of Marie-Louise. whoSi: portrait the goddess of the cit y of Pa ris holds , as her loveliest ornament , high above the head, of the audience. Cited in Theodore Murel, L 'Hutoire par k theatre , 1789- / 851 ( Paris, 1865). "01. I . pp. 253-254. (E2 ,6J Use of omnibuses to build barricades. The horsee were unha rnessed , the passen gers were put (Iff, the vehicle was lllrlled over, and the fl ag was fa stened to an axle_
1'2,71 On the expropriatiulIs: " Before the war, there was talk of demolis hing the Passage 1111 Cu ire ill ortler to pUI a circus on the site. TOIla y there's a shortage o(funds, and the proprieton (all fort y-four of them) are hard to please, Let 's hope there's a 8110rtage of fUlI(l s for a long I.jllle to come amllile proprietor.!! become s till harde r to plcalOc. The hilleous ga p of the Bouleva nl l-I au8smalln at the corner of the Rue Drouot. with all Ihe charming houses it has brought (1(I""n , s hould I;Olllelll u. for Ihe momcnt :' Paul LCa niaUlI. " Vieu" Parill," Mercure de "'ran ce (Octoher 15, 1927). p . 503. (E2,8J
Remarkable propensity for structures that convey and COlUlect-as, of course, the arcades do. And this cOlUlccting or mediating function has a literal and spatial as well as a figurative and stylistic tx:arin g. One thinks, above all, of the way the Louvre links up with the Tuileries. "111e imperial govenmlent has built practi
cally no new independent buildings, aside from barracks. But, then, it has been all the mo re zealous in completing the lxudy begun and half·finished works o f previous cenruries .... At first sight, it seems strange that lhe govemment has mad e it its business to preserve existing monumen ts.... The government, how. ever, d ocs no t aim to pass over the people like a stonn; it wants to engrave itself lastingly in their existence .... Let the o ld houses collapse, so long as the old monuments remain." Die Grenzhott1J (1861 ), semester 2, vol. 3, pp. 139-141 ("Die Pariser Kunstausstellung von 1861"). 0 D ream H ouse D [E2a,4] ConneClion of the railroads 10 Haussnu.lnn's projt!CIS. From a memorandum by II l1 ullllma nn : ""The railway slations are t!Hlay the principa l entrywa ys into Paris. To put Ihem in communica tion with the city centcr by mealls of large a rteries is a IWI:C!ssity of the fi rsl order. " E. de Labedolliere , lli$loire tlu 'IOU Ileall Ptlri.s. I). 32. This applies in pa rticular 10 the so-caUl..d Boulevard du Centre: the extenliion of tilt: Boule\'ar<1 de Stras hourg ItJ Chi telel by what is loday the Boulevard Sebas lopol. [E2a,5] ,Ol>cninguflh e Boulevard Sebalilopollike the ullveiling of a monument . "At 2:30 in Ihe IIflC!rn OOn, at Ihe lIIoment Ihe [impcrial] procession was IIpproaching from the Bouleva rd Saint-Dcnis, an immense scrim , which had mas ked the entrance to the Boule\'ard de SebaslollOl frOIll this side, was dra....n like a curtain . Thi.ll dra pery had been hung lH! twcen two Moorish columns, on the pe(les tals of whic h we re fi gures rcprcsenting the arts, the sciences, indus try, and commerce ." Labedol lil~ re , f1is lQire du IIQ1Weflll Paris , p . 32. [E2a,6]
Hausslll;um 's p redilection fo r perspectives, fo r long open vistas, represents an attempt to d ictate art fonns to techno logy (the techno logy o f city plaruting). ah vays results in kitsch . [E2a,7]
nus
lI a tlss nla un on himself: " Born in Paris, in the old .' auhonrg du Roule, which is joilwd IIOW 10 the Fa ubourg Saint- Hollore at the I)oint where the Boulevard II lI lIsilln;ulII ends ami the Aveline d e .' ried land hegins; student at the College 1I t'lIr i IV :11111 the oM LycCe Na poleon , which is situated 011 the Montagne Sainte CI·llc\Oii·\'t· . where I lalt'r studie<1 al the law school a nd . at odd 1II0ments, at the Su duolll w ululthe College de France. I took walks, morcover, through all parts of Ilw d l y. alltl J was oft en absorl wtl , during my youth . in protracled contemplation uf a lIl ap uf Ihis many-sitled I~aris . a lIla p which re\'ealed 10 me weaknesseli in the Iwt wol·k uf ,,!lhlie ~ 1!·t·t· l s. I Despite Illy long reijitlcnce in Ilrc provincC!s ( no less th:tI\ IWI·nl y-t"'·o years!). I ha"c managetl 10 reta in my lIlC!moricii and impressiolls uf for mCI' times. so thai . wlrell J was iludtlC!lIl y called UpOII . sOllie da ys ago. 10 direct III!' Irlll1 sful'llI ation uf IIII' Capil al of IIIC Empire (ovet· which lire Tuileries alld Cil y 11 :111 1I 1'l~ l'urn'lIt ly :11 luggcl'hell lls). I fell myself, in fa ct, lietter pre pared than olle miglll hll\'l' supposcd hI fulfill this complex mission , alld read y, in an y case. to ('lIler buld ly inlo lite IICIIl't of lite pruhl(·lIIs 11.1 lie re80Ivc{I. " Mcmoircs du Haroll 1If1f1 ss I//(///JI . \'1.11. 2 ( Pllris, 1890), 1'1" 34-35. DClllull81rale.ll ver y ~cll how it is
often dista nce a lollc thai , inle rvening betweell 1'11111 a nd work. ena ble! the plan to [E3, l] be realized . How Baron i:laussma nn advllnced upon Ihe drea m city thai Pa ris 81.ill was in 1860 . From a ll a rticle of 1882: "There wcre hills in ['aris, evcn Ull the UOlllm'ard8.... We lacked waler, markets. liglll in those remote times-scarccly thirl y yea rs ago. Some ga8 j ets had begun to a plJCar -lhat is all . We lacketl Churcilt.'8, 100, A nUIII ber of the more IIncient oncs. including the mOdt lieautiful , were ser ving a8 stores, bllrrllcks, or offlccs. The othcrs were wholly concealed by a growth of tumbledown ho\·els. Stm, the Railroads exisled ; each day in Parili they discilargetl torrents of tra\'elers who cou ld neither lod ge in our houses 1I0r r01l1ll through ollr torluouli slreets. I . .. He [1IIIussmllllll] demo lislied some (11Ipulatioll of Pa ris as a whole was liympathetic to the plans for the tra nsformation--or, as it wll8 called then , Ihe 'emhelLisluuent '--of the Capitlll of the Empire. the gr eater pal'l of the liourgeoisie and alm051 all Ihe a ristocracy were hostile:' ",III)' Ihough? Memoire$ flu B(lrOIi H(lUu rtltllln, vol. 2 ( Paris, 1890), p . 52. {E3.4] " 1 left Munidl 011 t.he sixth of Fe bru ar y. spelll len Ila ys ill IIrchil'e8 ill northerll h aly, and a rri\'cd ill HOllie limier a pouring rain . i found Ihe l1 utt SSmlt llllizatioll of Ille cit y wellllli vancell. " Bri('f e 11011 Fenlilll/1l(/ Grcgoro vil/ .~ rm tlell S /(lIIl ssekreliir I-Ierm(lntl von 1'1,iie . cd . Ilermlllln "on r~c l c rs ll o rff ( Be rli" , 1894), p . 110. [E3 .5J Nicknallle for l-Ia ll8slllanll : " I'a8ha Ollllla n. " He himself Illukes the commenl , wil h reference to hill IITOVidillg the cily with spring waler : " I mUlit build myself all
aqlll.llluct." Another hon mot : " My t.itlcs? lionist. .•
I have been luuned artist-d cmoli (E3,6(
" In 1864. Ildcnding the arhitrary cha racter of the city's government . [ lIau88 m81111J IHlopled a tone of ra re boldness. ' ''' or its inhabitants, 11aris is either a great marketplace of consumption . a giant stockyard of labor, a n arena of ambitions, or simply a re ntlCillvoUS of pleasures. It is not their home ... .' Then the statement tha t polemicists wi U a ttach to his reputation like a stone: ' If there are a great many who come to find an honorable situ ation in the city, ... there are also others, \'eritable nomads in the midst of Parisian society, who are absolutely destitute of municipal lIentimcnt .' And , recalling that ever ything-railroads, administrative networks, bru nches of n ational activi t y~ ve ntually leads to Paris, he concluded : ' It is thus not surprisiug that in France, country of aggregation and of order, the Cal)i tal almost always has heen placed, ",ith rega rd to its communal organintion , . ,., GCOr ges La ronze, Le Baron Ilauumann (Paris, tlllt Ier an emergency regime. 1932), pp . 172- 173. Speech of November 28, 1864. (E3a,l ]
Political ca rtoons represented " Pa ris as bounded b y the wharves of the English Cha nnel and those ufthe south of France, by the highways of the Rhine vaUey and of Spain ; or, according to Cham , a8 the city which gets for Christmas the houses in the suburhs! ... One ca ricature shows the Rue de Rivoli stretching to the hori zon ." Gt."Orges Laro rl ze .l...e Baron lIau.nmann (Paris, 1932) , Pl'. 148- 149. (E3.,,]
, " New arteries ... woulcllink the center of Paris with the railroad stations, reduc ing congestion in the latter. Othen would take part in the battle against povert y a nd revolution; they wo uld be stra tegic routes, breaking through the sources of contagion and the cenlel"ll of unrest , a nd lH!rmiUing, with the inOu,; of beuer air, th e arriva l of an armed force, hence connecting, like the Rue d e Tur bigo, the !O\'ernment with the barracks. and , like the Bou1evard du Prince-Eugene, the ba rracks with the suburbs." Georges Laronze, Le Baron Haun mann , PI" 137 1m. (E3a~ " An ind cpendent deput y, the comte de Durfort-Civrac, ... objected that these lIew houlevartls. which were supposed to aid ill rep ressing disturbances, would 1I 1 ~ 0 mllke thcm more likely heca use, in order to construct them, it was neceasary to as!;cmhle n muss of wOI'kers.'· Gcorges Larollze, Le l1aron J/cmnmflml, p . 133. [E3a,4) lI u ll s~ m a llll c.·lchrnte>! tile birlhd ay--or name Ila y (April 5)?--of Na poleoll III . " Hunn ing the leugt h of the Chumps-Elysees, from tim Place de 11.1 Conconle to the ": toilc. then' was a 8CllllolH!d border of 12·1 sculpted arcades reposing on a tlouhle row of columns. ·It is a reminiSl"ence; Le Corutitllfion1lel sought to ex plai n, ' of Cordova a nti t.he Alhamhra .· ... T he visual effect was thus very striking, with the swirling hra n c h e~ of the fift y.six great streetlights alollg the ave nue, the reOec tions
from the surfaces helow, and the fli ckering of flames (rom Ihe five hundred thou sand j ets of gas." Geor ges LarOI1 ~e, IAt 1101"011 Ilall-umlUlrl , p . 11 9. 0 F1iineur 0 [E3a,5) On U aussma nn : " Paris now ccasetl forever to be a conglomeration of small towns. each "'ith its distinctive physiogllomy and wa y of life--where one was horn and where one died, where one ne\'er dreamed of leaving home, and where nature a nd histor y had collaborated to realize variety in unit y. The centralization , the mega lomania , cr eated an a rtificial city, in which the Parisian (and this is the crucial point) no longer feels at home; and so, a8 800n as he can , lIe leaves. And thus a new need arises: the craving for holidays in the countr y. On the other h and , in the city deserted by itll inhabitant.s, the foreigner arrives on a specified date--the start of ' the season .' The Parisian , in hiB own lown , which has become a cosmopolitan crossroads, now seems like one deracinated ." Lucien Dubech and Pierre d ' Espezel ,
T his malicious atalement (which comes in the wak e of othera) ia the ccluivalent of aaying thai Pa ria haa been stralegically embellished. WeU, so be it .... I do nol hesit ate to procluim that strll.legic emhelli.shments are the moSI admira hle of em bellishments." Puru nOUlleau j uge p ar Im jliineur (Paris, 1868). pp . 21- 22. [£4,41 " T hey say tha t the city of Paris has condemned itself to forced la bor, in the lIeDse Iha t, if it ever ceast:d its various constructiOIl projects and forced ils numerous workers to re turn to their re.spective provinces, from that day forwa rd its toU revenues would di rninillh consid er ably. " Paris nouveau juge par 1m jlaneur (Paris, 1868), p . 23. [E4,5] Proposal to link the right to vote for the Paris mUllicipal council to proof of a t least fifteen months' resideDce ill the city. Part of the reasoning: " If yo u examine the mailer closely, yo u will soon realize that it is p recisely during the agita ted, adven turou s, and turbulent I)eriod of his existence. that a ma n residell in Pa ris." "(lris nouveau juse pur "njWne ur, p . 33. [£.4,6] " It is und erstood that the follies of the cit y pro mote reason of state." Jules Ferry, Co mptesjant(lstiqlleJl d 'IIClIlu nw nn (Paris, (868), p. 6. [FA ,7]
" T he cODceuions. worth hundred s of millions. a re uPl)Ortioned sub rosa. T he principle of public adjudication is set aside, as is that of cooper ation." Ferr y, CompleJlfimtUJl liqlU!s. p. II. [E4a, l] Ferry analyzes (pp'. 2 1- 23 of his ComptesjantastiqueJl) the j udgments rendered in caseli of expropriation- j udgments which , in the course of Ha llu mann 's pr ojects. took on a tendency unfavorable to the city. FoUowillg a decr ee of December 27, 1858--which Ferry r egards as merely the normalization of an aDcient righ t , but which Ha uu mann regardll 88 the establishment of a n e~' rigllt- the city was de nied the possibility of expropriating in their entir ety propt!rtiea which lay in the way of the new arter ies. T he exp rop riation was limited to those por tions immedi alely rC(luiroo for the constr uction of the stnoets. In this way, the city lost out on the profits it had hoped to make from the sale of remaining plOIS of land , whollC value was dri ven up b y the construction. [E4a,2] From Ha ussmann 's memorandum of December 11 , 1867 : " There is a deep-r ooted a nd long-sta nding conviction tha t the last two method& of acquisition did not by II.lIy mea llS a utomatica Uy termin ate the ten ants' occupancy. But the Court of Ap pt!als has ruled , in va rious decisions spanuing the pt!riod 186 1- 1865 , that , vis-a vis the city, the jU Ilgment re«(uiring the conllelll of the seller. ta ken together with the pr ivate contract . has the effect ip Jlo jure of dissolving the lease of the tenants. All II conSCCluence. man y of Ihe tenants doing business in hOIlst:s aC(luh-ed for the city by mutua l agreemellt ... have acted to ann llilheir leases before the date of expropriation and have de.ma nded to be immedia tely evicted and compen
sated .... T he city ... has had to pay enormous, u nforeseen indemnities. I t Cited ill Ferr y. Comptcsjallt6s tillues, p . 24. (E4a,3] '·I...ollis-Nal)Oleon Bonaparte felt his vocation to be Ihe secu ri ng of the ' bourgeois order .' ... hl(lustr y and trade, the affairs of the bourgcoisie , were to prospe r. An im lllcnse num ber of concessions were given out to the railroads ; public sub ven tions were grantetl; credit was orga nized. T he wealth and luxury of the bourgeois world increased . T he 1850.1 saw the ... beglnllillg8 of the Par isian department stores: Au Bon Marche, Au Louvre. La Belle Jardi niere. T he turnover at Au BOD Marche-which , ill 1852 , was only 450,000 fra ncs-rose, hy 1869, to 21 million." Gisela Freund , " Entwicklung del" Photographie in Frankreich" [ manuscript] .' [£4.,41 Around 1830: " T he Rue Suint-Denis a nd Rue Saint-Martin are the principal ar teries in this quartier, a godsend for rioters. T he wa r for the streets was deplorably easy there. The rebels had only to ri p up the pavement and then pile up various objC4:ts: fur niture from neighboring houses, cra tes from the grocer ' •• and, if Deed be, a passing omnibu s, which they would 8tOp. gallantly helping the ladies to disembark . In order to gaillthese Thermopylaes, it was thull necessar y to demolish the houses. T he line infantry would advance into the OpeD, heavily armed and well equi pped . A handrul of ill8urgents behind a b arricade could hold an entire regi ment at ba y." Dubeeh and d 'Espezel, Histoire de Pa ru (Paris, 1926), pp . 365-366. [£4.,51 Under Louis P hilippe: " In the interior of the city, the governing idea seems to have been to rearra nge the strategic lines that played 110 important a r ole in the rulitOric days of July: the line of the qu ays, the line of the boulevards.... Finally, at the center, the Rue de Rambuteau , gr andsire of the R aussmannized thoroughfares: it presented . at Les Hailes , in the Marais, II breadth that seemed considerable then- thirteen meters." Dubeeh and d ' Esllezel, Hu toire de Paru (Paris, 1926), pp.382-383. [E5,11 Sailll-Simonians: " During the choler a epidemic of 1832 . they caned for the demo lition of crowded . closely built nei&hborhoods. wruch was excelleDt . But they de nla,;ded th at Louill Phili ppe and Larayette set the pace with shovel and pickaxe ; the wor kers were supposed 10 work under the direction of uniformed Polytechni cians, amI to the 1I0und of military music; the most beautiful women in Paris were to come anll offer their encouragement ." Dubech and d ' Espezel, H u lOire de Pa ris , [E5,2] I'p. 392-393. 0 Indust rial Developmeut 0 Secret Societies 0 "All efforU notwithsta nd ing, the newly constructed buildi ngs did not slIffice to aceonmlOdate the expropr iated. T he res ult was a grave crisis in rents : they dou liled. In IB5 I. the ()Opulation was 1,053 ,000; after the annexatioll in 1866, it increase{1 to more than 1,825,000. AI the end of the Second Empire, Paris had 60.000 houst:s and 612,000 al)artme.nts. of which 48 1.000 were r ented for lelll than
500 fran ct. Buildin ge grew taUer, but ceilinge became lower. Tile governm ent had to pa811 II law J"e(luiril lg a minimu m ceiling height of 2 meten 60 centime ters." Duhech and d 'E spezd , PI' . 420-421 . {ES t 3)
"Scand a lous fortune s ",·ere amasse d by those inille prefect 's inner circle. A legend altrih utes to Mad ame Ha Ullllnum n a naive remark in a talon : ' It is curious that every time we buy a houlre, II bouleva rd pusses through it. , .. Dubech and d ' Espezel , p. 423 . [E5,4 j "At the end of his wide avenue s, Haussm ann constru cts-fo r the sake of perspec tive--v ar ious monum en18 : a Tribuna l of Comllle rce al Ihe end of the Boulev ard Sebasto pol, and bastard churches in all styles, such as Saint-A ugustin (where Ballard copies Byn ntine structu res), a new Saint-A mbroise , and Saint -Fra n ~o is Xavier. At the end of the Chauss ee d 'Antin , the Church of La Trinite imitates the Renaiss ance style. Sa inte-Clo tilde imitates the Cothic style, while Saint-Je an de Belleville. Saint-Ma rcel, Saint-B ernard , and Saint-E ugene are all proouc ts of irOn constru ction and the hideous embras ures of false Cothic .... Though Hau8Snlann had some good ideas, he realized them badly. He depend ed hellvily on perspee tives, for exampl e, and took ca re to Jlllt monum ents at the end of his re<:tilin ear stree18. T he idea was excellen t , but ",·hat awk wardne u in the execution! The Boulev ard de Strasbo urg franles the enormo us Right of stel's at the Tribun al of Comme rce, and the Avenue de l' Opera providc s a vista of the porter 's lodge at the Louvre ." Duhech and d ' Espezel , Pl'. 416, 425. [E5,5) "Above all, the Paris of the Second Empire is cruelly lacking in beauty. Not one of these great straight a venues has the charm of the magnifi cent curve of the Rue Saint-A ntoine, and no hOllse of this period affords anythin g like the tender de lights of an eightee nth-cen tur y fa~ade, with its rigorous and gracefu l orders. Fi nally, this i110gica l city is structll rally weak . Alread y the architec ts are saying that the O,.era is cracked , that La Trinite is crumbl ing, and that Saint-A ugustin is brittle. " Dubech a nd d 'Espezel, p . 427. [E5,6) " In Haussmann's time, there was a need for new roads, but not necessa ril y for the lIew roads he built .... The 1II0St striking featu re of his projects is their scorn for historic al eXIW!rie nce .... Haussm ann lays Ollt an artificia l city, like sOlllethi lig in Canada or the .' a r West . . . . His thoroug hfares ra rely possess any utility and nevcr an y beallty. Mon a re astollish ing are hitectu ral intrusiolls that begin just ahout a nywher e and end up nowher e, whilc dcstroy ing evcr ything in their path ; to cun'e them would have been enough to prt:serv c preciou s old buildin gs.... We must not accuse him of too much Haussma nnizatio n , but of too little. In spite of the megalom ania of his theoric s, his vision was, in practic e, 1I0t la rge enough . Now here did he an ticipate tile future. II.is vistas lack amplitu de; his strects are too narrow. Ilis clJllccp tion is grandiose but not graml; lIeither is it just or providc nt. " Dubech li nd d'Espe zd , PI' . 424-42 6. . [E5a, 11
" If we had to defin e, in a word , the new s pirit that was coming 10 p reside over the tra nsforma tioll of Paris, we would have to call it megalom ani a. The empe ror allli Ius Ilrefect ai m to make Paris the capital not olily of France but of tile world . Cosmop olit an Pllris will be the resuh ." Dubccll and d ' Espezel , p. 41)t1 . [E5a,2j "Three facts will domina te the project to tralllifo rm Paris: a stratel, ';c fa ct that demand s, at the cilY's center, the break-u p of the ancient capital and a lIew ar rangement of the hub of Paris; a natural fact , the push westwa rd ; and a fact entailed hy the systema tic megalo ma nia of the idea of annexin g the suburb s. " Dube<:h and d'Espez el, p . 406. [E5a,3) Jules Ferry, oppone nt of Haun mann, a l the news of the surrend er at Sedan : "The armies of the empero r a re defeated! " Cited in Duhech and d ' Espezel , p. 430. [£5a,4) "Until Haussmalln , Paris had been a city of moder ate dimens ions, where it was logical to let experie nce rule; it develop ed accordi ng to pressur es dictated by na ture, accordi ng to laws inscribe d in the facu of history alld in the face of the lalldsca pe. Brusqu el y, H aussma nn acceler ates and crowns the work of revolut ion ary and imperia l centralization . . . . An artificia l and inordin ate creatio n, emerge d like !'tUncrva frolll the head of Jupiter , born amid the ab use of the spirit of authori t y, this work had need of the spirit of authori ty in order to develop accord ing to its own logic. No sooner was it bo rn , than it was Cllt off at the source .... Here was the parado xical speetac le of a constru ction artificial in prillciple but abando ned ill fact onl y to rules imposed by nat ure." Dubech and d ' Espezel , pp .443-44 4. {ESa,5)
" lI aussma nn cut immens e gaps right through Paris, and carried out the most startlin g operati ons. It seemed as if Pa ris would never endure his surgica l experi ments. And yet , today, docs it not exist merel y as a conscllu ence of his d aring and courage? His equipm ent was meager ; the sho\'e1 , the pick , the wagoll , the trowel , tile wheelb a rrow- the simple tools of every race ... before the mcchanical age. His ac hievement was trul y admira ble." Le Curbus ier, UrbtwiSlll c (Pnris d 925» , p . 149.' [ESa,6)
The mighty seek to secure their position with blood (police), with cunnin g (fash ion), with magic (pomp) . [ESa,7)
Thc widenillg of the streets, it was said, was necessit att..'<1 by the crinolin e. [E5a,S) Manlier of life II 1110ng the maso ns, ""ho often came from Marc he or Limous in . (The descrip tion dates from 185 1- before the great influx of this social st ratum in the wake of HalissmaJln '8 works.) " The masons , whose way of life is lIIore distinct than that of other emigran ts, belong ordinar ily to famili es of smu.1l farmcrllUusch oldcrs establis hed ill the rural towlIshil)S and providt..-d with individ ual paSlura ge, allow
hi.m8elf more susceptible to feelinga of jeaJoulY toward the upper classes of toeiety. Thil depravity, to which he succumbs far from the influence of his family, ... and in which the love of gain develops without the counterweight of reUgioul aentiment , leads lometimel to the 10rt of coaraenel8 found ... among the sedentary workers of Paril ." F. Le Play, Les Ouvrier. europeefU (Parie. 1855). p. 277 . [£6,1) On the politics of finance under Napoleon Ill: "The financial policy of the Empire has been consistently guided by two main concerns: to compensate for the in~ sufficiency of normal revenue. and to multiply the con. truction projecu that keep capital moving and provide job•. T he trick W 81 to borrow without opening the ledger and to undertake a great num ber of works without immediately overloading the budget .... Thus, in the Ipace of l eventeen years, the imperial government ha, had to procure for itself, in addition to the natural productl of taxation , a 8um of four billion three hundred twenty-two million francs. With the gathering of this enormous 8ubsidy, whether by direct loans (on which it was necel8ary to pay interest) or by putting to work available capital (on which revenues were lost). there h as re. u1ted from these ex tra~budgetary operatione an increase of debu and liabilities for the state." Andre Cochut, OperatiofU et tendances jinancieres du Second Empire (Paris, 1868), pp. 13,20-21. [£6,2) Already at the time of the June Insurrection, "they broke through walls 80 as to be able to pall from one house to another. " Sigmund Englander, Geschic:hte der !ramosilchenArbeite"..Auocwtionen (Hamburg, 1864), vol. 2 , p. 287. [E6,3)
" In 1852, ... being a Bonapa rtist opened up all the pleasures in the world. It was
Tools used by Haussmann's workers. Artist unknown. Set: £5a,6.
ing for the maintenance of at least one dairy cow per family.... During hie 80 journ in Paris , the mason lives with aU the economy that is consistent with an unmarried situation ; his provisionl ... come to approximately thirty-eight franc. a month ; hil lodgings ... cost only eight fran ci a month . Worken of the .ame profession ordinarily Ih are a room, where they sleep two b y two. TWI ch amber iI b arely heated ; it is lit by means of a tallow candle, which the lodgers take turnl in buying.... Havillg r eached the age of fort y~fi ve, the mal on ... henceforth re mains on his property to cultivate it himself.... This way of life fonns a marked contralt to that of the sedentar y 1)OIluiationi neverthelell, after lome yean, it tendl visibly to alter.. .. Thus, d urinA his stay in Paril, the youn~ mason showl himself more willinA than before to contract illegitimate unionl, to spend money on clothing. and to frequ ent various gathering places and placel of pleasure. AI he becomes len capable of elevating Ilimllelf to the condition of prov.rielor, he finds
tbese people who, huma nly speaking, were the most avid for life; therefore . they conquered . Zola was agitated and amazed at this tbought; suddenly, here was the formula for those men who, ea ch in hie own way and from his own vantage point, had founded a n empire. Speculation (chief of tbe vital functions of this empire), unbridJed self-enricbment , pleallure !leeking-all three were glorified theatrically in exhibition. a nd festivals , which by degrees took on the aspect of a Babylon . And along with these brilliant malles taking part in the apotheosis, close behind them, ... the obscure malleI who were awaking and moving to the forefront ." Heinrich Mann. Ceilt und Tat (Berlin, 1931). p . 167 ("Zola"). [E6a,l) Around 1837, Dupin , in the Calerie Colbert, issued a series of colored lithographs (signed Pruche , 1837) representing the theatergoing public in variou. postures. A few plates in the series: Spectator. in High Spirits . Spectators Applaudiry;. Spectator. Intrigu.ing, Spectator. Accompanying the Orchelfra. Attentive Spec~ . tator•• Weeping Spectator.. [£6a,2) Beginnings of city planning in S oisse!'s Discourl con Ire leI servirude. publiques of 1786: "Since the natural comnlunity of goods has been broken up and dil tributed. every individual property owner has built as he pleases. In the past , the locial order would not have suffer ed from this
trend . liut now that urlian construction proceeds at the entire discretion , and 10 till!: entire advantage, of the owners, t1lere is no longer a ny consideration at all for the security. healdl , or comfort of society. Tllis is particularl y the case in Par is, wher e churches and p alaces , lioulevards and walkwaYII are built in abundance, while houllillg for the great maj orit y of inhabitants is relegated to the sluldows. Boinel descr ihes in gra phic detail the ruth and perill that th reaten the poor pedell· triall 0 11 the IItreelll of Pa ril .... To this miserable a rra ngemcllt of Itreell he now turns his attention , a nd he eff~ ti nl y l olves the prohlem b y p ropol ing to Ira ns· form the ~o und fl oors of houses into airy ar cades, which would offer prot~ ti on from the vehicldl and the weather. He thus anticip atel Bellamy's idea of ' one umb rella over all head s. "'10 C. Hugo. ""Der SO"llialismus in Frankreich wii hrend der grossen Revolution ," part I , " Fra n ~ois Boilisel," Die neue Zeit, II , no. 1 (Stuttgart . 1893), p. 8 13. (E6a,3)
[Leon Go:d an .] Le Trionl/,he rle! onirlibll..J: Poeme heroi:...comiqlU! (Paris. 1828), [E?,' ) p.7.
On NalwleQn III a round 1851: " Ue is a socialist with Proudhon , a reformer with Gir ardin , a reactionary with Thiers. a moder ate r epublica n with the SUPl)Orters of the republic, and an enemy of democracy and r evolution with the legitimists. He promises everything and subscribes to everything." Friedrich Szarvady, Pam, vol. I {the only volume 10 appear] (Berlin , (852), p. 401. (E6a,4)
1833: '"The plan to surround Pa ris with a belt of fortifications ... aroused pas sionate interest at this time. It was a rgued that detached forts would be useleSli for the defense of the interior, and th reatening only to I.h e population. The opposition wali univeJ;sal. ... Steps were taken to or gallize a large popular demonstration on July 27 . Informed of these prep aratiolls , , . , the government abandoned the proj· eet .. . . Nevertheless, ... on the d ay of the review, numer ous cries of ' Down with the forts! ' echoed in ad vance of the procession: 'A bas le! f ort! detacMs ! A btl! leI b(l..J lille! !'" G. P inet , Hut oire de " Ecole polytechniqu.e (Paris, 1887), PI' . 2 14-2 15. The government miniliterS took their r evenge with the affair of the "Gunpowder (E1a,2] Conspiracy."11
" Louis Nalwleon , ... this representative of the lumpenproletariat and of every type of fraud alld knavery. slowly draws ... all power to himself.... With glad elan , Daumier reemerges. fi e creates the brilliant figure of Ratapoil, an audacioul pimp and ch arlatan , And lhili ragged ma rauder, with his murderous cudgel for ever concealed behind his back , bet:omeli for Daumier the embodiment of the downfallen Bonapartist idea." Frit"ll Th. Schulte, " Honore Da umier," Die neue Zeit, 32, no. I (Stuttgart <19 13-1914» , p. 835. (E1,1) With reference to the tranliformation of the city: " Nothing len than a COmpa88 is req uired , if you are to find yo ur way. " J acques Fabien , Ptlru en !onge (Paril , \ 863), p . 7. [E?,2) The fo llowing remark , by way of contrast , th ro ws a n interesting light on Pa ris: " Where money. industry, and riches a re prelient , there are fa~ad e8; the houses have assumed faceli tha t serve to indicate the differenccs in claSli. III London , more than c1 s~wht!re , the distallces a re pitilessly marktl(1. ... A prolifera tion of led ges, bow windowli, cornices, column!l--8o man y columns! The colullln is nobility." Fernand Uger, " Londres," LII , 5. no. 23 (June 7, 1935), 1' . 18. (E7,3) The (Iistanl native or the age-old Marais RaN-ly IJets root in the Qua rtier tI ' Antin. Ane! {ro m Menilmontant . calm lookout poinl , He lurvey. Parie u {rom a hei&!tt; IIi. thrill anti rrul5alily won ' I let him butll5'" "rom this '1>01 when Ihe (!:Ods h.ve (Iropped him.
" Hundreds of thousands of families , who work in the center of the capital, lilcep in the outskirtl. This movement resembleli the tide: in the morning the worken stream into Paris, and in the evening the same wave of people flows out. It is a melancholy image .... I ....ould add ... tha t it is the fi rs t time that humanity hal aSliisted in a spectacle so dispiriting for the people." A. Gr anveau , L'Oll.vrier c/evant W societe (Paris . 1868), p . 63 ("Les Logements a Paris"). (E7.5) J u ly 27, 1830: " Outside the IIChool, men in shirtsleevell were alread y rolling casks; others brought in paving siones and Ii8nd by wheelb arrow; a b arricade was be- gun ." G. Pinet, Hu toire de " Ecole poly,echniqlle (Paris, (887), p. 142. [E1a. l )
Engravings from 1830 show how the in surgentli threw all sOrU of furnilu re down on the troops fro m oul of the windows. T his was a feature especially of the ba ttles (E7a.3] on the Rue Saint· Antoine. Cabinet des Estampeli. Rattier invokes a d ream Paris, which he calls " the false Par ili"-as distinguished from the real one: " the p urer Parili, ... the truer Paris, ... the Parili that doesn ' t exist" (p. 99): " It is gralld , at this moment in time , to set well-guarded Bab ylon walzing in the arm! of Memphis, and to set London dallcing in the embrace of Peking.... One ofth cse fine mornings, Fr ance ....iII h ave a rude awakening when it realizes it is confIDed within the walls of Lutetia. of which she form s but a cr oss· roads .... The lIext day. It aly, Spain . Denma rk, and Russia will he incorporated hy decr ee into the Par isian municipality; three d ays later, the city gates will be pushed back to Novaya Zcmlya alld to the Lalld of t.he Papuans. Paris will be the world , and the uni vcrse will be Pa ris. The sava nnahs and the pampas and the m ack Forest will compose the puhlic gardens of this greater Lutetia; the Alps, the P yrenees, the Andes, the Himalayas will he the Aventine a nd the scenic hills of this incomparahle city- knoilli of plealiure, st udy, or liolitude. But aU this is IitiU 1I0th illg: Paris will mount to the akica It.ntl scale the fi r mament offinnamen18: it will an nex, as suburbs . the planets and the stara." Paul-Ernest de Rattier, Pam n 'exute
IHU (Paris. 1857). PI)' ,n-49. Thc&e ea rl y fantasiell IIhould be compared with the lIatircs on Uauu malln published W II years later. [E7a,4] Mread y Rattier assignll to hill false Paris "'a unique and simple sylltem of traffic control that links geometrically, and in pa rallel lines, all the avenues of this fa lse Parill to a single center, the Tuiteries-this being all admirable method of defense and of maintai ning order." Paul-Ernest de Rattier, l\Jrill 11 'exute pU ll (Paris. 1857), p . 55. [E8, l ] " T he false Paris has the good tas te to recognize that nothing is more useless or more immoral than a riot . Though it may gain the upper hand for a few minutes, it is queUed for sever al centuries. Instead of occup ying itself with politics •... it is peaceabl y absorbed in questions of t!t!onomy.. . A prince who is against fraud . . knows ... very well ... that gold . a great deal of gold . is re(luiroo ... 011 our planet to build a 81epladder to the sky." Paul-Ernest de Rattier. Paris n 'ex;.fle pas (Paris, 1857), pp. 62 , 66-67. (£8,2] July Revolution : " Fewer were felled ... by buUets than hy other projet!tilell. The lar ge squares of gra nite witb which Pa ris is paved were dragged up to the top floors of the houses a nd dropped 0 11 the heads of the soldiers." Friedrich \'on Raumer, Briefe am Paru utld Frankreich im Jahre 1830 (Leipzig ~ 183 1)), vol. 2, p . 145. [E8,3] Report of a third party. in Raumer's book: '" saw a group of Swiss, who had been kneeling a nd begging for their lives, kiUed amid j eering, aud I saw the stripped bodies of the gravely wounded thrown cOlltemptuously onto the ba rricades to ma ke them higher." Friedrich von Rau mer. Briefe uus PClr;.s und FrCIIlkre;ch ;n Jahre 1830 (Leipzig, 1831), vol. 2, p . 256. (£8,4) Descriptions of barrica des of 1830: Cil . Motte, RevolutiOlu de Pa ris. 1830: Pian fig.lrarij des barricades aim; que de.s po.s;tions et mouvements de.s c;toyell5 arme.s
el de.s troupes (published b y the author ( Paris, 1830) .
(£8,5]
Caption for a plate in u.s Ru;nes de Paru: 100 photogral)hies, by A. Liebert (paris, 1871 ), vol. I : ""Barricade of the Federa tes, Constructed by Gailla rd Senior... [ES,6] "When the emperor ... enters his ca pital , the fifty horses of bis ca rriage are at a I;;allop; between the Gateway of Paris a nd his Louvre, he pauses under two thou· saud triumphal arc hes and passes before fifty colossi erected ill his image .... And this idolizing of the sovereign by hisllubjocts causes some disma y a mong tllI~ la lter day pious, to whom it occu rs that tllt~ir idols were never recipiclits of s udl hom age." Arsene HOllu aye, " Le Paris fUlur"; in ( Dum a ~ . Gautier. l-IolIS8u ye , and Hl hers ,) PlI ri.s el ie. Parisien.s (III X IX- siecie (Paris. 1856), p . 460. [£8,7]
High d aily allowallccs for the depulics under Napoleon III .
]ES,S}
" The 4 ,054 harricadefi of the ' Three Glorious llays' were made fro m . . . 8. 125,000 paving stones.'" Le Romanlume (Exhibitioll catalogue (at the Ilib Iiotheque Na tiollule), J anua ry 22-Mureh 10, 1930; exphlllato r y no te to no. 635, A. de Grandsagne and M. P lant . Revolution de 1830, plun des combut.s de PlI r is]. ]ES,9] " When , last year. thousands of workers mar ched through the streets of the capital ill a menacing ca lm ; when , at II time of peace and cOlluuercial prosltCrity, they illierruptetithe course of their work ... , the govcrnment 's first responsibility was 10 take forcefullllca sures against a disturbance th at was a ll Illt~ more {Iangerolls for not knowing il8elf as such ." 1... de Carne, " Publica tions democrati(IUes et communistes," Revue de.s deux mOIU/e.s, 27 (Parill, 184 1), 1" 746. [E8a, l] "Wh at fate does the present movement of society have in store for architecture? I,..etlls look arou nd us . . .. Ever more monuments . ever more palaces . On aU sides rise up great 'SlOne blocks, and everything tends toward the solid , the heavy, the vulgar; the genius of a rt is imprisoned by s uch an imperati ve. in which the imagi nation no longer has any roo m to play, can 110 longer be great , but rather is exhausted in rep rese ntin~ . . . the tiered orders on fa~_a d e8 and in det!orating friezes and the borders of windo"" frames. In the interior, olle finds still more of the court , more of the peristyle, ... with the little rooms more and mo re confined, the studies a nd boudoirs exiletlto the niches under the spiral staircase, . . .·where they constitute pigeonholes for people; it is the cellul ar system applied to th e family group. The problem ooomes how, in a given sp ace, to make lise of the least amoullt of materials alld to pack in the greatest num ber of people (while isol a tin~ them aU from one a nother) .... T his tendency-indeed . this fait accoDlpli- is the result of progressi,'e subdividing. . . . In a word . each for him.self and each by him.selfhas incr easingly ~ome the guiding pri nciple of society, while the puhlic wealth ... is scaltered and s()uandered. Such are the causes , at this 1II0ment in France, for the demise of monumentally scaled residential a rchitecture. For pri vate ha bita tions. as they become narrowe r, a re able to sustai n but a narrow a rt . Tile artist, lackillg s pace, is reduced to making statuettes and easel paintings .... In the presentl y cmerp ng condi tions of society, art is driveu illto a n impas8C where it suffocates for lack of air. It is alread y s uffering the dfects of this new norm of limited a rtistic fa cility. which ccrtllin souls , supposetll y ad" aIlCctl , st."em 10 regllrd as the goal of thei r philalltbropy.... In architecture , we do not nHlke uri fOI' 11l'I'S sake; we d o not raise monuments for the sole purpose of occupying the imagination of architects and furni shing work for painters and sculptors. What is uecessll l'y, then , is 10 apply the mon umel11 al mod e of construction ... 10 all the d ementi! of iUllllan dwelling. Wt" must make it l)Ossihle 1I0t onl y fo r a few pri,'ilcgctl individuals hu t for all people 10 live in pa laces. And if one is 10 occup y a pulace . one ~ h oulil properly li ve there togeth er with others. in bonds of 88sociation .... Where al'l is concerned . therefore. it iMonl y the aSliociation of all clements of the eummunily
that can laullch the immense development we are outlining." D. Laverda.nt . De to miu iotl de I'lIr' I'll du role des artille.: Solon de 1845 (Paris. 1845). from the offices of La I' lmlatlge. pp . 13-15. [E8a,2) " For sOllie time now, .. there have L t t ll efforts to discover wher e this word bOlllevard could have come from. As for me, ) am fin ally satis.fi ed as to the etymol ogy: it is merel y a variant of the word OOuleve,..ement ~co mmotion . upheavab ." Edouard Fournier, Chmnique. et Ugende. de. rue. de Pari, (Pa ris, 1864). p . 16. [E9, I) " Monsieur Pica rd , attorney for the city of Paris , ... has energeticaUy defended the interests of the city. What he has been p resented with in the way of anteda ted leases at thc moment of expropriations, what he has had to contend with in order 10 nullify fanta stic titles a nd reduce the claims of the ex propriated is almost be yond belief. A collier for the city one d ay placed hefor" him a lealie, antedated w me years, on paper hearing official stamps. The simple maD believed himself ah'eady in poues8ion of a weighty 8um for his shanty. Bul he did nol know that this palM!r bore, in iu watermark , the date ofils manufacture. The attorney raised it to the lighl ; it had been made three years after the date stamped ." Auguste Lepage, I.e. Cafe. politiqlle, et fitterai,.e. de Pam (Va ris <1874». p . 89. [E9,2) Observations on the physiology of the uprising, in Niepovie's book: " Nothing has changell 011 the surface, but there is something unuliual in the air. The cabriolets, omnibuses, and hacklley coaches seem to have quickened their pace, and the drivers keep turning their heads as though someQne were aft er them. There are more groUI)S standing around than is usual. ... p eQple look at one another with an ;\:ious interrogation in their eyes. Perhal)S this urchin or this worker hastening by will know something; ami he is stopped a nd questioned . What 's going on ? ask Ihe passersby. And the urchin or the worker responds, with a smile of utter indif ference, 'They are gathering al the Place de la Bas tille,' or 'They are ga lherin~ lIear the Temple' (or somewhere else), and then hurries off to wher ever they are guthering. . . . On the sites themselves, Ihe scene is prett y much as he said : the population 11 118 massed to 8uch an extenl that you can hardly get through . The pavement is strewn with sheets of p aper. What is it? A proclamation of I.e Monifeur republica in, which dates from the Year 50 of the one and indivisible French republic. People have gathered , you are told , to discu88 the proclamation. T he shops have lIot yet been closed ; shols have nOI yl:lt been fired .... Now then , behold the suviors . . . . All of a sudden , t.he holy battalion has halted before a house . and , just as quickly. the third-story windows are thrown open and packets of cartridges rain down . ... The distrihution is accomplished in the twinkling of all eye and. wit h that , the battalion is Ilispatched on the run-a portion 10 one ~ i(l c, II porli"tl 10 the other .... Vehicles are no longer passing 011 the streets; there is leu noise. Aud that ', why one can hear, if I do noilleceive myself .. . Listen , they' re bealing Ihe drum . It is the call to a rms. The authorilies are roused."
Caetan Niepovie, Euuie. phy.iologiquc. , ur le. grande, nuEtropole, e1e l'Eu,.ope occidentale: Pari$ (Paris, 1840). pp . 20 1- 204. 206. [E9,3) A barricade: " At the ent,.a nce to a narrow street , an omnibus lies witll its four wlleels in the air. A pile of cr ates, which had served lM!rhaps to hold oranges. rises to the righl and to the left , and behind them. between the rims of the wheels and the openings, small fires are blui ng, continually emitting small blue clouds of smoke. " Gaetan Niepovie, Etudes phy'iologique. , ur leI grllndel metropole, de ('Europe occidentale: Pari, (Paris, 1840), 1' . 207. [E9a,I) 1868: dea th of Meryon .
[E9a,2)
" It has been said that Charlet and Raffet by themselvcs pre pared the way for the Secoud Empire in France." Henr i Bouchot , UI Lithographie (Paris <1895» , pp. 8-9. [E9a,3!
From Arago's letter on the encirclement of Paris (Associations Nationales en F~veu r de la I)resse Patriote) [extract from I.e Na tional of Jul y 2 1, 1833] : " All the projected fort s, with regard to distance, would give access to the most populous districts of the capital" (p . 5). " Two of the forts. those of Ita lie and Passy, would be enough to set fire to aU sections of Paris on the Left Bank of the Seille; ... two olhers, Fort Philippe and Fort Saint-Chaumont , could cover t.he rest of the city [E9a,4) with their circle of fire" (p . 8).
1.11 Le Figaro of April 27, <1936,> Gaetan San voisin cites this remark by Maxime Ou Camp: " If there were onl y Parisians in Paris, ther e would be no revolutionar [E9a,5! ies." Compare with similar statements by Ha uu mann . "A one-act play hy Engels, written in haste alld performed in Septemher 1847 at the Gennall Alliance for Workers in Brussels, already ,.ep resented a hattie on the barricades in a German petty state--a battle ....hich ended ....ith the abdication of the prince and the proclamation of a republic. " Custav Maye r, Friedrich Engeu , vol. I, F,.iedrich Engeu in !einer Friihzeit, 211d etl. (Berlin d 933». p. 269. I: [E9a,6) During the suppression of the June Insurrection , a rtiller y came to he used for the first time ill street fightin g. [E9a,7)
Haussmann's attitude toward the Parisian population recalls that of Guttot ta ward the proletariat. Guizot characterized the proletariat as the "external popula tion." (See Georgi Plekhanov, "Oher die Anfange der Lehre vom K.lassenkampP,' Die neue' Zeit, 21, no. 1 (Swttgan, 1903), p. 285. [E9a,8} Tile building of barrica" e~ a ppears in Fourier as an example of " nonsalariell hut impassioned work." [E9a,9j
T he practice of b amboozling the municipal exp ro priations committee became a n industry under Ha USSmallIl . "Small tradcrs and shopkt."epers ... would be 811p "Iiell ,,; th fa lse book8 a nd inventorie1l, and , whcn necessar y. their p re mise8 would (it tur ned out) be n~wl y retlecorated a nd refurnished ; while du ri ng the vi8it of the cllmmiltee to the p remise8, a conSlant stream of unexpeclt."(1 clistomCr8 would pour in ." S. Kracauer, Jo cqlles Offenbach Ilntl tlos Poris seiller Zeit (Amsterda m, 1937), p . 254. LJ [EIO, I) Cit y pla nning in Fourier : " Each ave nue, each 8treet , should open onto 80me pa r ticula r pros pect, whether the countrY8ide or a public monument. The custom of civilized nation8-where streets come to an end with a wall , as in fortresses, or with a heap of ea rth , as in the newer 8t.'Ction8 of Mar seille8-sholild be avoided . Ever y house that faces thc strttl sh ould be obliged 10 have ornamcntation of the fi rst class, in the ga rdens as well as on the buildings." Charles Fourier, Cite, Oll vrieres: Des modifica tions it intmduire dans " a rchitecture des villes
[EI0a,2]
Raslignac's (amous challenge (cited in Messac
For the Blanquist putsch of August 14, 1870,300 revolvers and 400 heavy dag· gers were made available. It is characteristic of the street fighting in this period that the workers preferred daggers to revolvers. [EI0a,5] Ka ufmann plaees a t the head of his chapter entitled " Architectural Autonomy" an epigr aph from Le Co ntrat social: " a form . , . in which each is united with all, yet obeys only himself a nd remains as free as before.-Such is the fundamental prob lem that the 80cial contract solves" (p. 42). 16 In this chapter (p . 43): " (Ledoux] j us tifi etl the separ ation of the buildinp in the second proj ect for Cb aux with the words: ' Return to principle .... Consult nature; man is everywhere isolated' (Ar chitectare, p . 70). The feudal principle of prer evolutionary society ... can have no furth er validity now. .. The autonomously grounded form of every object makes all stri ving after theatrical effect appear sell8eleu .. , . At a stroke, it would seem , ... the Bar oque a rt of the prospect disappears from Bight." E. Kaufmann, Von Ledoux bis Le Corbwier (Vienna a nd Leipzig, 1933), p. 43. (EIOa,6j "The renunciation of the picture8llue has its architectural equivalent in the refusal of all pr08IJCcl-a rt . A highl y significant symptom is the sudden diffusion of the silhouette.... Steel engra ving and wood engraving supplant the mezzotint , which had fl ourished in the Ba roque age .... To anticipate our conclusions, ... let it be said·that the a uto nomous principle retains its effi cacy . .. in the first decades a fter the architecture of the Revolution , becoming ever weaker with the pauage of time until , in the later decades of Ihe nineteenth centu ry. it is virtuaUy un recogniz ahle." Emil Ka ufmann . Von Ledoux bis Le Corbwier (Vienna and Leipzig, 1933), pp , 47, 50. [E II ,I] Na poleon Gaill ard : builder of the mighty ba rricade that . in 187 1, 8tood at the [Ell.'] entra nce of the Rue Royale a nd the Rue de Ri voli. "At the curlier of the Rue de la Ch aussee-d 'Antin and the Rue Basse-du-Ramparl , there sit8 a house that is rema rka ble for t.he caryatids on the fa -;ade facing the Rue
Basse-du- Rampart. Because this lalle r sireN must disappear. the magnifice nt house with Ihe caryatids, built o nl y twenly ye urs ago, is going 10 he {Icmolished. The jury for expropriations grunts Ihe dll'ee miUion francs {lclllumle(1 by Ihe owner and approved by the cily. Three miUion! What a useful and pro{luctive expenditure!" Auguste Blanqui , Critique socia Ie, vol. 2 , Progments et Tlotes (Paris , 1885). p. 341. [EII ,3] "Against Paris. Ollilurate scheme to clear oul the cily, 10 dispe r se its population of workers. Hypoc ritically-on a humanitaria n pretext- they propose to redistrib ute throughout the 38,000 townships of France the 75 ,000 workers afft,-.: ted by unemployment. 1849. " B1anqui . Critique sociale. vol. 2 , Frag mellts et Tlotes (Paris, 1885) , p. 313. [Ell ,4] " A Monsie ur d ' Havrincourt receutIy expounded on the strategic theory of civil war. The troops must never be a llowed to spend much time in the main areas of disturbance. They are corrupted by co ntact with the rebels and refuse to fire freely when repression becomes necessa ry.... The best system: construct citadels dominating the suspect towns and ready at any moment to crush them . Solmen mus t he kept garrisoned, away from the popular contagion." Auguste Blanqui, Critique sociale, vol. 2 (Paris, 1885), pp. 232-233 (" Saint-Etienne. 1850").
[Ell ,SI "The Haussmanization of Paris and the provinces is one of the great plagues of the Second Empire. No one will ever know how many thousa nds of unfortunates have lost their lives as a consequence of deprivations occasioned by these senseless constructious. The devouring of so many millions is one the principal causes of the present distress .... 'When building goes well , everything goes well,' runs a popu lar adage, which has attained the s latus of economic u1I:iom. By this standard , a huudred pyramids of Cheops, rising together iuto t.he clouds, would attest to overflowing prospe rity. Singula r calculus. Yes, ill a well-orde red state, where thrift did not strangle exchange, construction would be the true measure of public fortune. For then it would re veal a growth in population aud all excess of labor that ... would lay a foundation for t.he future. In any ot.her circumstances, the trowel mere ly betra ys the murderous fanta sies of absolutism , which , whe n its fury for war momentarily slackens , is seized by the fury for building. . . . All me rce nar y tongues have been loosed in a c horus of celebration for the great works that are re newing the face of Paris. Nothing 80 sad, so lacking in !Social spoutane il y, as this vast shifting of stoues by the hand of despotism. The re is no more dis mal symp tom of decadeuce. In proportion as Rome collapsed in agony, il s monuments grew more lIumerous and more colossa l. It was building its own sepulclle r aud making ready to die gloriously. Bul us for t he mode rn wodd- it has no wish to die, and human stupidity is nearin g its em!. People are weary ()f grandiose homicidal ac ts. The projects that have so dis rupted tile capital , conditione{1 as they are on repression and va nity. ha ve failed the future no le8s thun the present. " A. Blanljui .
Critique &ocialc, vol. 1, CalJitai et travail (Parill, 1885) , I'p. 109- 111 (conclusion of " Le LU1l:e"). The foreword to Capital tm vail ill daled May 26, 1869. [ElIa, l]
e'
" The illusio ns aboul lhe fallta slic s tructures are dispelled . Nowhe re are there materia ls other thu.1l t.he hundre d simple bodies . ... It ill with this meager assort me nt that the unive rse is necessa rily made a nd remade, without respite. M. Hau u malin had just as much 10 rebuild Paris with; he had precisely tbese mate rials. It is nol variety that stands o ut in his const ructions. Nature , which a lso demolishes in order 10 reCOllstruct , d ocs a littJe better with the things it c reates. It kuows how to make such good lise of its me age r resources that one hesit ates to say ther e is a liuut to the origillality of its works." A. Blanqui, L 'Etemite p(lr les futres: Hypothese astronomique (Paris, 1872), p. 53. (EIla,2]
Di( TZeU( Wdtbiihn(, 34, no. 5 (February 3, 1938), in an essay by H. Budzislawski, "Croesus Builds" (pp. 129-130), quotes Engels' "Zur WOhnungsfrage"
Is it true, as Paul \r\b:tJleim maintains in his article "Die neue Siegesallee" (Di( 'Uiu Weltbiihn(, 34, no. 8, p. 240), that Haussmann spared Parisians the misery of large blocks of Bats? (EI 2,2]
Haussmann who, faced with the city plan of Paris, takes up Rastignac's cry of "A deux maintenant! " [EI 2,3]
!lOllS
'''The new boulevarl18 !Jave intr(Hluced light and air inlo unwholesome districts, 11111 have done so h y wiping oul , along their way, almost aU the courtyards and ga.·dens-w!Jich moreover lJave beell ruled oul by the progressive rise in real estate prices. " Victor Fournel , Paris nOlwcau et ParisfutlLr (Paris. 1868), p. 224 (" Conclusion"). [E12,4J The oltl Paris hewails the monotony of the new streets; whereupon the new Paris I"I:SPOlld 8:
Haussmann's work is accomplished today, as the Spanish war makes clear, by quite other means. [E13,2]
Why allihese reproaches? . Thanks 10 the straight line, the eue of travel il arfords, One avoids the shock of many a vehicle. And , if one's eyes are good , one Jikewise avoids The fools, the borrowers, the bailiffs, the bores: Lasl hut nOlleast, down the whole length of the avenue, Each pll8serby now avoids the others, or nods from afar.
M. Bartlu':lelllY, Le VieliX Paris e t Ie nouvea" (Paris, 1861), PI'. 5-6.
" They ... transplant the Boulevard d es haliells in its entirety to the Montagne Sainte-Genevieve--with about as much utility and profit as a hothouse flower in the forest- and they create Rues d e RivoH in the ancient city center, which has no need of them. Eventually this cradle of the capital , having been demolished , will comprise at most a barracks, a church , a hospita l, and a palace." Victor Fournel, Pari$ nOlweal~ et Puris futur (Paris, 1868), p. 223. The last thought echoes a [E13, I) stanza from Hugo's "A l' Arc de Triolllphe. "
[EI2a,I J
The old Pa ris: " The rent devours all , and they go without meat." M. Barthelemy, l...e Vieux Paris et Ie nouvealt (Paris, 1861 ), p. 8. [E12a,2] Victor Fournel, in his Paris nouveau et Paris fuwr (Paris, 1868). pa rticularly in the section "Un ch apitre des mines de Paris moderne," gives an idea of the scale 011 which Haussmann engineered d estruction in Paris. " Modern Paris is a parvenu that goes back no furth er in time than its own beginnings, and that razes the old palaces and old churches to build in their place beautiful white hou8e8 with stucco ornaments and p asteboard 8tatue8. In the previous century, to write the annals of the mo numents of Paris was to write the allnals of Pa ris itself, from its origins up through each of its epochs; soon , however, it will be ... mer ely to write the annals of the last twent y yea rs of our OWD existence" (pp. 293-294). [E 12a,3) Fournel, in his eminent demonstration of Haussmann's misdeeds: " From the Fau bourg Saint-Germain to the Faubourg Saint-Honore, from the Latin Quarter to the en virons of the Palais-Royal, from the Faubourg Saint-Denis to the Chaussee d 'Antin , from the Boulevard des ItaLiens to the Boulevard du Temple, it seemed , in each case, th at you were passing from one continent to another. It all made for so many distinct small cities within the capital city-a city of study, a city of COlllmer ce, a city of luxury, a city of refuge , a city of movement and of popular pleasures-aU of them n onetheless Linked to one another by a h08t of gradations a nd transitions. And this is what is being obliterated . . . b y the construction ever ywhere of the same geollletrical and rectilinear street , with its unvarying mile la ug per spective a nd its continuous rows of houses that are alwa ys the same house." Victor Fournel , Paris 1I0uvet!lt et Paris futlLr, PI'. 220-22 1 ("'Con clusion "). [E 12a,4)
Tempora ry tenants under Haussmann : " The industrial nomads among the Dew ground-floor Parisians fall into three principal categories: commercial photogra phers; d ealers in bric-a.-brac who run buaar s and cheap shops; and exhibitors of curiosities, particularly of female giants. Up to now, these interestin g personages have numbered among those who have profited the most from the transformation of Paris." Victor Fournel, Paris nouveau et Parisfllwr (Paris, 1868), pp. 129-130 ("Promenade pittoresque a. travers Ie nouveau Paris") . [E t 3,31 " The covered market of u s Hailes, b y universal consent, constitutes the most irre proachable construction of the past dozen years.... It manifests one of those logical harmonies which satisfy the mind b y the obviousness of its signification. " Victor Fournel, Paris nouveau et Pa ri.tflttur, p. 213. [E 13,4] Alread y Tissot invites speculation : " The cit y of Paris is supposed to make a series of loans totaling hundreds of millions of franc s and , at the same time, purchase the better part of a qltarti.er in order to r ebuild it in a manner conforming to the r e quirt ments of taste, hygiene, and ease of communication. Here is matter for speculation ." Anll':dee de Tissot , Paris et wndres compare.t (Paris, 1830), pp.46-47. [E 13,51 In Le Paue, Ie present , l'a venir de la Repltblique (Pa ris, 1850), p. 3 1 (cited in Cassou, Quarante-huit (Paris, 1939>, PI'. 174-175), Lamartllie already speaks of the " nomadic, indecisive, and dissolute city dweller!! who are corrupted b y their idJeness in public places and who go whichever way the wind of fa ctional [E13a,l ] ism blows, heeding the voice of hip! who shouts the loudest ." Stahl on the Parisian tenement houses: " It was already [in the Middle Ages] an overpopulated metropolis that was squeezed within the tight belt of a walled for· tification. For the mass of people, there were neither single-fa mily houses nor separately owned houses nor even modest cottages. Buildings of lIIany stories were erec ted on the n arrowest of lots, generally allowing only two, often only one, front window (though elsewher e three-window houses wer e the rule). These buildings usually remained wholly unado rned , and when they did not simply come to a stop
al Ihe top, I.llere was al mosl II single gahle affixed ther e .. .. On tile roofs. the siluation was stra uge enough . wi th unllssuming superstructu res and IIIlIlIsardes nestled ncxt to Ihe chimney flues. whicll were placed ext remely close to one an other." Sta hl SI'CS, in the freedom of the roofi ng structures-a freedom to which mode rn a rchitects ill Pa ris Likewise ad here--"a fa ntastic and thoroughl y Gothic [E 13a,2] element :' Fritz Sta hl . P(lris (Berlin (1929»), pp. 79--80. " Ever ywhere ... the peculiar chimneys serve only to heighten the disorder of these for ms [the mansa rdes]. T his is . .. a trait common to aU Parisian houses. £" el\ tile oldest of them have that high waU from which the tops of the chimney flues extend .... We are fa r relllo"ed here from the Roman style , which has been taken to be the foundation of Parisia n a rchitecture. We are in fact lIearer ill! opposite, the Gothic, to which the chimneys clearly allude . .. . If we want to call this more loosely a " nortllern s tyle." then we can see that a second .. . northern element is present to mitigate the Roma n character of the streets. This is none other than die modern boulevards and a venues .. . • which are planted , for the IllOst pa rt. with tn.'C8; . .. a nd rows of trees. of cour se , are a feature of the north ern city. " Fritz Stahl , P(lris (Berlin), pp. 2 1- 22. [E13a,3] In Ilaris, die modern house has " developed gradually out of the preexisting one. T his could happell hecallse die preexisting one was already a lar ge townhouse of the type cr eated here .. . in the seventeentll century 0 11 tile Place Ven
Paris of the pas t three centuries . For Haun mann took over not only the form of the ave nue alld boulevarll but also the form of the house from the imperial capital laid out hy Louis xrv. That is why his Itreets can perform the function of making the city into a conspicuous unity. No. he has not destroyed Paris; ~at he r, he h u brought it to completion .... This must be acknowledged even .... lIen yo u realize how much beaut y was sacrificed .... Uau1I8mann was alsuredly a fanatic-but his work could be accomplis hed onl y by a fana tic." Fritz Stahl, Pam: Eille Stadt au KURstwerl..· (Berlin). pp . 173- 174. [E14a]
reedy a ny type or wood. Shortl y arter 1840, rull y padded rurnitu re appears in Frallcc. and ",;t!1 it the upholstered style become8 dominant." 1\1al[ Yon Doehn, Die Mocle illl X IX. j(l/ir/lllflderl , vol. 2 (Munich , 19(7), p . 131 . [FI .3)
F [Iron Construction1 Each epoch dreams the one to foIlO\.... - Michelet,
~A,"l:nirl
AV(:llirl" (Europt, 73, p. 6)
Dialectica1 deduction of iron construction: it is contrasted both with Greek con struction in stone (raftered ceiling) and with medieval construction in stone (vaulted ceiling). "Another an, in which another static principle establishes a tom:
even more magnificent than that of the other two, will struggle from the womb of time to be born. . . . A new and unprecedented ceiling system, one that will naturally bring in its wake a whole new realm of art forms, can ... make its appearance only after some particular material-fonnerly neglected, if not un known, as a basic principle in that application-begins to be accepted. Such a material is ... iron. which our cenrury has already staned to employ in this sense. In proportion as its static properties are tested and made known, iron is destined to serve, in the architecture of the future, as the basis for the system of ceiling construction ; and with respect to statics, it is destined to advance this system as far beyond the Hellenic and the medieval as the system of the arch advanced the Middle Ages beyond the monolithic stone-lintel system of antiq uity.... If the static principle of force is thus borrowed from vaulted construc tions and put to work for an en tirely new and unprecedented system, then. with regard to the art forms of the new system, the fonnal principle of the Hellenic mode must lind acceptance."
The two great advances in technology-gas' and cast iron-go together. "Aside from the great quantity of lights maintained by the merchants, these galleries are illuminated in the evening by thirty-four jets of hydrogen gas mounted on cast iron volutes on the pilasters." The q uote is probably referring to the Galerie de l'Opera. J. A. Dulaure, Histoire de ParU . .. depuis 1821 jUJqu'jz nrujourJ, vol. 2 « Paris, 1835), p. 29). [F I,4) '"'The stagecoach gallops up to the quay, by the Seine. A bolt of lightning Rashes over the Pont d'Austeriitz. The pencil comes to rest." Karl Gutzkow, Briefi aUJ Paris, vol. 2
10 mentionin g factories built in the style of resid ential houses, and o ther things o f this kind, we must take into account the following parallel from the history of architecture: "I said earlier that in the period of 'sensibility: temples were erected to friendship and tenderness; as taste subsequently rumed to the classical style, a host of temples o r temple·like buildings immediately sprang up in gardens, in parkS, on hills. And these were d edicated no t only to the Graces or to Apollo and the M uses; fann buildings. tOO, including bams and stables, were built in the style of temples." J acob Falke. CeJchichte deJ modmun GeJchmaclu (Leipzig, 1866). pp. 373-374. lllcre are thus masks of architecture, and in such masquerade the arcllitecture of Berlin around 1800 appears on Sundays, like a ghost at a costume ball. [Fla,l ] "Every tradesman imitates the materials and methods of others. and r.hink.s he has accomplished a miracle of taste when he brings out porcelain cups resenl bling the work o f a cooper, glasses resembling porcelains, gold jewelry like leather
thongs, iron tables with the look of rattan, and so on. Into this arena rushes the confectioner as we11-quite forgetting his proper domain, and the touchstone of his taSte- aspiring to be a sculptor and architect.n Jacob Falke, Gescnichte des motkmen Gmnmadf.J, p. 380. This perplexity derived in pan from the superabun· dance of technical processes and new materials that had suddenly become avail· able. The effort to assimilate them more thoroughly led to mistakes and failures. On the other hand, these vain attempts are the most authentic proof that techno· logical production, at the beginning, was in the grip of dreams. (Not architecture alone but all technology is, at certain stages, evidence of a collective dream.) [Fla,2] " With iron construction- a s«ondary genre, it is true--a new art was born. The east-side railroad station designed by Duquesnay, the Gare de l'Est, was in this regard worthy of archit«ts' attention. The use of iron greatly increased in that period , thanks to the new combinations to which it lent itself. Two quite differ ent but equally remarkable works in this genre deserve to be mentioned fi rs t : the Bihliotheque Sainte-Genevieve and the cental marketplace, Les H alles. The latter is ... a veritable archetype: reproduced several times in Paris and other cities, it proceeded. as the Gothic cathedral had done, to appear aU over France.... Nota ble improvements can be observed in the details. The monumental lead-work bas become rich and elegant ; the railings, candelabras, and mosaic flooring all testify to an often successful (Iuest for beaut y. Technological advances have made it possi ble to s beathe cast iron with copper, a process which must not be abused. Ad vances in luxury have led . even more successfully, to the replacemeDl of cast iron by bronze , something which has turned the streetlamps in certain public places into objets d'art. " 0 Gas 0 Note to this passage: "In 1848, .5,763 tons of iron en tered Paris; in 1854, 11 ,77 1; in 1862 , 41 ,666; in 1867. 61,.572." E. Levasseur, Hut oire des classes ouvneres et de l'indw trie en France de 1789 a 1870, vol. 2 (Paris, 1904), pp . .531-.532. [Fl a,3} " Henri Labrouste, an artist whose talents a re sober and severe. s uccessfull y in augurated the ornamental u se of iron in the COllstruction of the Bihliothet(ue Sainte-Genevieve and the Bibliotheque Nationale." Levasseur, llutoire des [Fla,4] classes ouvrreres, p. 197. First constr uction of Les Halles in 18.51 , long after the p roje<:t had heen approved by Napoleon in 181 1. It met with general disfavor. This stone structure was known as ie/ort de la HaUe . " It was a n unfortunate attempt which will not be repeated. ... A mode of construction better suited to the end proposed will now he sougbt . The glassed sections of the Gare d e l' Ouest amI the memory of the Crystal Palace, which bad housed the world exhibition at London in 18.51, were no doubt respon sihle for the idea of using glalili and cast iron almost exclusively. Today we ca n see the justification for turning 10 such lightweight materiab. which , beller than an y others, fulfill ed t.he conditiolls laid down for these estahlishmcnts. Work on Les
Hailes h as not let up since 1851, yet lhey are still not finished." Maxime Du Camp , Pari.! (Paris, 1875), yol. 2. I'p. l21 - 122. [Fla,S) Plan for a train station intemled to repla~:e the Ga re Saint-Lazare ..Corner of Place de la Madeleine li nd Rue Tronchet. " According to the report, the rails-supported by ' elegant cast-iron arclu:s rising twent y feet above the ground , and having a length of 61.5 meters'- would have crossed the Rue Saint-Lazare, the Rue Saint_ Ni co la ~, the Ruedes Mathurin..., and the Rue CasteUane , each of which would have had its own station ." 0 FUineur. Railroad sta tion near (?) the streets 0 " ... Merely by looking at thcm , we ca n see how little these plans actua lly anticipated the futu re of the railroads. Although d cscribed as ' monumental ,' the fa~ade of this train station (which , fortunately, was never built) is of unus ually small dimensions; it would 1I0t even serve to accommodate one of those shops tha t nowadays extend along the corners of certain intersections. It is a sort of Italian ate building, three stories high , with each story Il avingeight wi ndows; the mai n ent ra nce is marked by a stairway of twenty-four steps leading to a semicircuJar IJOrch wide enough for five or six persons to pass through side b y side. " Du Camp , Pa ru, vol. I , pp. 238 ill
~ij
The Gare de l'Ouest (today?) presents " the double aspect of a factory in operation and a ministry." Ou Camp , Paru , vol. I , p. 241. "With yo ur back to the three tunnels that pass under the Boulevanl des BatignoUes, yo u call take in the whole of the trai n station . You see that it almost bas the sh ape of an immense mandolin: the rails would form the strings, and the signal posts, pl aced at every crossing of the tracks, would form the pegs." 011 Camp, Paris, vol. I , p . 2.50. (F2,2] "Charo n . . . r uined by the installation of a wire footbrid ge ovcr thc Styx. " Grand ville, Un alllre moncle (Paris, 1844), p. 138. (F2 ,3] The first act of Offenbach 's Vie parisiennc takes place in a railroad station . "The iudustrial U10vemellt seems to run in the hlood of this generat ion- to such an extcnt that. fo r example, Flaehat has b uilt his house on a plot of land where, on either side , trains arc always whistling by. " Sigfried Gie
"The complicatt.."'! construction (out of iron and copper ) of the Corn Exchange in 1811 was the work of the archite<:t BeUange and the tlngin~r Brunet. It is the first tillle. 10 our knowledge, that architect and engineer are no longer united in one person . .. Hittorff, the builder of the Care tlu Nord , got hill insight into iron construction frolll BeUangc.- Naturally, il is a matter more of all application of iron than a eonSlruction in iron. TeeilltiqutlS of wood construction were simply transposed to iron. " Sigfricd Giedioll , Hauen in Fnwkreich. p. 20. [F2,6) Apropos of Veugny's covered market built in 1824 near the Madeleine: "The slen derness of the delicate cast-iron columns brings to mind Pompeian wall paintings. 'The construction , in iron and cast iron, of tbe new market near Ihe Madeleine i, one of the most graceful achievements in this genre. One cannot imagine anything more elegant or in better taste .. . .' Eck , 7raile." Sigfried Giedion , Hauen in Frankreich , p. 21. [F2,7) "The most important step toward industrialization: mechanical prefabrication of specific forms (sections) out of wrought iron or steel. The field s interpenetrate: ... in 1832, railroad workers began lIot with buildillg components but with rails. Here is the point of deparlure for sectiollal iron , which is the basis of iron construction. [Note 10 this passage: The new methods of construction penetrate slowly into industry. Double-T iroll was used in flooring for the first time in Paris in 1845, when the masolls were oul on strike and the price of woo
Railroad stations used to be known as Eisrnhahnhi!fe.3
[F2a,4)
There is talk of renewing art by beginning with fonns . But arc nOt fonns the true mystery of nature, which reserves to itself the right to remunera.te- precisely through them- the accurate, the objective, the logical solution to a problem posed in purely objective temu? When the wheel was invented, enabling continuous forward motion over the ground, wouldn't someone there have been able to say, with a certain justification, "And now, into the bargain, it's round- it's in theform ofa whed'!" Are not all great conquests in the field offomu ultimately a matter of technical discoveries? Only now are we beginning to guess what fonus-and they will be determinative for OUT epoch-lie hidden in machines. "To what extent the old fonns of the instruments of production influenced their new forms from the outset is shown, . .. perhaps more strikingly than in any other way, by the attempts, before the invention of the present locomotive, to construct a loco motive that actually had two feet, which, after the fashion of a horse, it raised alternately from the ground. It is only after considerable development of the science of mechanics, and accumulated practical experience, that the fonn of a machine becomes settled entirely in accordance with mechanical principles, and emancipated from the traditional fonn of the tool that gave rise to it." (In this sense, for example, the supports and the load, in architecrure, are also "fonus.") Passage is from Marx, Kapital, vol. 1 (Hamburg, 1922), p. 347n. ~ [F2a,5) 1brough the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, architecture is linked with the plastic arts. "That was a disaster for architecture. In the Baroque age, this lllLity had been perfect and self-evident. In the course of the nineteenth century, however, it became untenable." Sigfried Giedion, Bauen in Frank reich , p. 16. This not only provides a very important perspective on the Ba roque ; it also indicates that architecture was historically the earliest field to out· grow ~e concept of art, or, beuer, that it tolerated least well being contemplated as "art"-a category which the nineteenth century, to a previously unimagined extent but with hardly more justification at bottom, imposed on the creations of intellecrual productivity. (F3, I) The dusty fata morgana of the winter garden., the dreary perspective of the train statiqn, with the small altar of happiness at the intersection of the tracks- it all ~olders under spurious constructions, glass before its time, premature iron. For m. the first third of the previous cenrury, no one as yet understood how to build WIth glass and iron. That problem, however, has long since been solved by hangars and silos. Now, it is the same with the human material on the inside of ~e arcades as with the materials of their construction. PinlPS are the iron bear Illgs of this street, and its glass breakables are the whores. (F3.2) "The new ' a rchitecture'
"Railroad ttacks," with the ~culiar and unmistakable dream world that attaches [Q them, are a very impressive c~xample of just how great the natural symbolic pO\\-'C r of technological ilmovation can ~ . In this regard, it is illuminating to learn of the bitter polemic waged against iron rails in the 18305. In A Treatise in Elementary Locomotion, for example, A. Gordon argued that the steam carriage (as it was called then) should run on lanes of granite. It was deemed impossible to produce enough iron for even the very small num~r of railway lines being plrumed at that time. [F3,4] It must be kept in mind that the magnificent urban views opened up by new constructions in iron-Gicdion, in his &urn in Frankreich (illustrations 61--63), gives excellent examples with the Pont Transbordeur in Marseilles-for a long rime were evident on1y to "'()rkers and engineers. 0 Marxism 0 For in those days who besides the engineer and the proletarian had climbed the steps that alone made it possible to recognize what was new and decisive about these structures : the feeling of space? [F3,5] In 1791 , the term ingenieur began to be used in France for tho5e officers skilled in the arl!! of fortifi ca tion and siege. "At the same time, and in the same counlry, the opposition between ' conlltruction ' and ' a rchitet:ture' began to make itseLffeit; and before 10llg it figured in personal attacks. This antitlicllis had been entirely un knuwn in the pallt . .. . 811t in the innumer able aeflthetic treatises which after the storms of the Revolution guided French a rt back into regular channels, ... the COllSlrllctCItr5 stood opposed to the decorlltellr~. and with this tbe furth er question arose: Di.lnot the illg{micllrs, as the allies of the former, n~ellsa rily occupy with them, socially Sileaking, a distinct camp?" A. G. Meyer, Eisenbaltten (Esslingen ,
1907). p. 3.
[F3.6]
" The teelllli.,ue of slune a rchit ~ ture is stereolomYi Ihat of wood is tectonics. What does iron construction have in COllllllon with the one or the other?" Alfred Gott· hol.1 Meyer, Eisenballte" (Esslingen , 1907), p. 5. " In stone we feel the natural s pirit of the mall. Iron is, for us, only artificially cOlllpressed durability and tcnacity" (p. 9). '" Iron has a tensile strength forty times greater than that of stone and ten timcs greater tillm that of wOOlI. although it ~ net weight is only four tinles that of stone ami onl y eightl.imes that of wood . In compariso n widl a stone mass of the same .Iimensiolls . therefore . an iro n body I)(lSSes8CS. with onl y four time!! the weight . a load limit forty times higller" (p . 11). [F3 ,1) "T hi ~
muteda l, ill it s fi rst humlred ycu rs. has already undergone eSHenlial trans· iron , wrought iroll, ingol iron_ o dia l tOtlay the engineer has al his .Iislmlial a IlIIillling ma lerial completel y different from that of some fifty years 11gO•••• In Ihe pcrsl"-"Clive of historical rcfl ~tioll , thc;;c are ' fermcnlil' of a dill
poilllibiJitics.'·· A. G. Meyer, Eisenballtell, p. 11. tron as revolutionary building [F3a,l ] material!
Meanwhile, how it looked in the vulgar consciousness is indicated by the crass yet typic.1.l utterance of a contemporary journalist, according to whom posterity will one day have to confess, "In the nineteenth century, ancient Greek architec· ture once again blossomed in its classical purity." Europa, 2 (Stuttgart and [F3a,2] Leipzig, 1837), p. 207. Railroad stationt at "ahodcs of art." " If Wicrtz bacl had a t his disposal ... the puhlic mOlluments of modern ci ...ilization- r ailway IItalions, legislative chambers, unh'enilY lectllre halls, marketplaces, town hallt - .. . who can say wbat bright and dra matic lIew worlds he would have traced upon his canvas!" A . J . Wiertz, Ocuvre5iitleruircs (paris, 1870), pp. 525-526. (F3a,3]
The teclUlica1 absolutism that is fundamental to iron construction-and funda· mental merely on account of the material itself-becomes apparent to anyone who recognizes the extent to which it contrasts with traditional conceptions of the value and utility of building materials. "Iron inspired a certain distrust just ~cause it was not imnunediately furnished by nature, but instead had to be artificially prepared as a building material. 1bis distrust is on1y a specific applica· tion of that general sentinlent of the Renaissance to which Leon Battista Alberti (De re tudjficatona [Paris, 15121, fol. xliv) gives expression at one point with the words: 'Nanl est quidcm cujusquis corporis pars indissolubilior, quae a natura conoeta et counita est, quam quae hominum manu et ane conjuncta atque, compacta est'
form are, as it were, more homogeneous." A. C. Meyer, Eisenhautm (Esslingen, 1907), p. 23. [F3.,5]
!
1840-1844: " The construction of fortifications, inspired by Thiers. .. Thiers, who thought that railroads would never work, had gates constructed in Pam at the very moment when railroad stations were needed." Dubech and d 'Espezel, Hi!toire de Poris (Paris, 1926). p. 386. [F3a,6]
•
"From the fifteenth century onward, this nearly colorless glass, in the form of window panes, rules over the house as well. The whole development of interior space obeys the command: 'More lightl'5_1n seventeenth-century Holland, this development leads to window openings that, even in houses of the middle class, ordinarily take up almost half the wall... . 1The abundance of light occasioned by this practice must have ... soon become disagreeable. Within the room, curtains offered a relief that was quickly to become, through the overzealous art of the upholsterer, a disaster... . 1 The development of space by means of glass and iron had come to a standstill. 1Suddenly, however, it gained new strength from a perfectly inconspicuous source. 1Once again, this source was a 'house,' one designed to 'shdter the needy; but it was a house neither for mortals nor for divinities, neither for hearth fires nor for inanimate goods; it was, rather, a house for plants. 1The origin of all present-day architecture in iron and glass is the greenhouse." A. G. Meyer, Eismbautm, p. 55. oLight in the Arcades 0 Mirrors 0 The arcade is the hallmark of the world Proust depicts. Curious that, like this world, it should be bound in its origin to the existence of plants. [F4,1]
!!
On the Crystal Palace of 1851: "Of all the great things about this work, the great est, in every sense of the word, i8 the vaulted central hall .... Now, here too, at fir8t , it was not a space-articlilating auhitect who did the talking but a-gar dener.... Thi8 is literally true: the main reason for the elevation of the central hall was the presence, in this set!tion of Hyde Park, of magnificent elm trees, which neither the Londoners nor Paxton himself wished to see felled. Incorporating them into his giant glaBB house, as he had done earlier with the exotic plants at Chatsworth, Paxton alm08t unconsciously-but nonetheless fundamentaUy--en hanced the architet!tural value of his construction." A. G. Meyer, Ei!enoouten (EBBlingen . 1907), p. 62. (F4.2] In opposition to the engineers and builders,
The following holds good for the arcades, particularly as iron strucntres: "Their mOSt essential component ... is the roof. Even the etymology of the word 'hall'G points to this. It is a covered, not an enclosed space; the side walls are, so to
Interior of the Crystal Palace, London, from a photograph by William Henry Fox Talbot. See F4.2.
speak, 'concealt:d.''' This last point pertains in a spc:cial sense: to tht: arcad~, whose walls ha~ o nly s~ndari1y tht: function of partitioning tht: hall ; primarily, thq- s~ as walls or fa~des fo r tht: commucial spaces within tht:m. Tht: pas· sage is from A. G . Mt:yer, Eisrobauten, p. 69. [F4,4)
..
The arcade as iron construction stands o n the ~rge of horizontal oc:tension. TItat is a decisive condition for its "old-fashioned" appearance. It displays, in this regard, a hybrid character, ·anaIogous in certain respeas to that of the Baroque church-"the vaulted 'hall' that compreht:nds tht: chapels only as an ex~nsion of its own proper space, which is wider than ever before. Nevertheless, an attraction 'from on high' is also at work in this: Baroqut: hall-an upward·tending ecstasy, such as jubilates from tht: frescoes on tht: ceiling. So long as ecclesiastical spaces aim to be more than spaces for gathering, so long as they strive to safeguard the idea of the t:tt:mal, they will be satisfied with nothing l~s than an overarching unity, in which tht: vertical tendency outweighs tht: horizontal." A. G. Meyer, EiJarbauten, p. 74. On the o ther hand, it may be said that something sacral, a vestige of the nave, still attaches to this row of commodities that is the arcadt:. From a functional point of view, the arcadt: already occupi~ the field of horizon tal amplitude; architecturally, however, it still stands within the conceptual field of the old " haII ~ [F',51 The Galerie des Machines, built in 1889.1 was torn down in 1910 " out of a rti. tic [F4,6) . adism.'" Historical extension of the horizontal: " From the palaces of the Italian High Ren ail8ance, the chateaux of tlle French kings take the 'gaUery,' which-as in the case of the ' CaUery of AIKlllo' at the Louvre and the 'Gallery of Mirrors' at Versailles- becomes the emblem of majesty itself.... I Its new triumphal advance in the nine teenth century begins under the sign of the purely utilitarian structure, with those haUs known as warehouses and market8, workshops and fa ctories; the problem of railroad stations and , abo!e all, of exhibitions leads it back to art . And every wher e the demand for continuous horizontal extension i.e .0 great that the stone arch and the wooden ceiling can have only very limited applications.... In Gothic structures, the wall. tllrn into the ceiling, whereas in iron halls of the type ... represented hy the Galler y of Machines in Paris, the ceiling slides over the walls without interruption .'" A. G. Meyer, Eisenbauten. PI). 74-75. [F4a,l]
Never bcfore was the criterion of the "minimal" so important. And that includes the mininlal e1cment of quantity: the "little," the "few." These are dimcnsions that wcre well established in tedmological and architectural constructions long before literature made bold to adapt them . Fundamentally, it is a question of the earliest manifestation of the principlt: of montage. On building the Eiffel Tower: "Thus, the plastic shaping power abdicates here in favor of a colossal span of spiritual cnergy, which channels the inorganic material energy into the sma llest, most efficicnt fonns and conjoins these fonus in the most clfeetive
manner.... Each of the twelve thousand metal fittings, each of the two and a half million rivets, is machinw to the millimt:ter.... On this work site, one hears no chisel-blow liberating fonn from stone; here thought reigns over musclt: power, which it transmits via cranes and secure scaffolding." A. G. Meyer, Eisenbaulm, p. 93. 0 Precursors 0 [F4a,2) " Haussmann was incapable of having what could be called a policy 0 11 railroad stations .... Despite a directive from the emperor, who justly baptized Ie. Bare. ' the !lew gateways of Paris ,' the continued development of the railroads surprised everyone, surpaning aU expectations .... The habit of a certain empi.rici. m was not easily overcome." Dubech and d ' Espezel, Histoire de Paris (Paris. 1926), p.419. (F4a,3) Eiffel Tower. "Greeted at first by a storm of protest , it has remained (Iuite ugly, though it proved useful for r ese.rc.h on wirelen te.legraphy.... It has been said that this world exhibition marked the triumph of iron construction . It wouJd be truer to say that it ma rked itB bankruptcy. " Dubech and d ' Espezel, Histoire de Paris , pp. 461-462. [F4a,4) "Around 1878. it was thought that salvation lay in iron construction . Its ' yea rning for verticality' (aa Salomon Reinach put it), the predominance of empty spaces over filled spaces, and the lightness of ita visible frame raised hopes that a style was emerging in which the essence of the Gothic gewus wouJd be r evived and rejuve nated by a new spirit and new materials. But when engineer s erected the Galerie des Machines and the Eiffel Tower in 1889, people d e8l)aired of the art of iron. Perhaps too soon. " Dubech and d ' Espezel, Histoire de Pari. , p . 464. [F4a,5] Reranger : " Hia sole reproach to the regime of Louis Pbilil>pe was that it put the republic to grow in a hothouse.'" Franz Diederich , " Victor Hup;o,'" Die De lle Zeit. 20, no. 1 (Stuttgart, 1901), p . 648. [F4a,6) " The patlt that leads from the Empire form of the firu locomotive to the fin ished objeetive and fun ctional form or today marks an evolution ." Joseph Aug. Lux , " Maschineniisthetik," Die neue Zeit, 27, no. 2 (Stuttgart, 19(9), p . 439. [F4a,7) "Those endowed with an especiaUy fin e artistic conscience have hurled down , from the alta r of art , curse after curse on the building engineers. It suffices to mention Ruskin ." A. G. Meyer, Ei.enb(JIuen (Esslingen, 1907), p . 3. [F5,I) Concerning the artistic idea of Empire. On Daumier : " He d isplayed the grea test enthusiasm for muscular excitation•. Tirele88ly his pencil exalts tbe t~ nsio n and movement of muscles .... But tilt: public of which he dreamed was pro portioned differently from Ihis ignoble ... 80ciely of shopkeepers. He yearnetl for a sodal milieu that would have provided . like that of ancient G rt!Cce, a base frum which
lJe<>ple eould rllille thcm ~dve~ . as frolll a Il.e destal , in vigorou~ beauty.... A gro tei>llue Ili.'l lorlioll mu! 1 ... re! lIh whe n Ihe bourgeoi! ie i~ viewed from the a ngle of s tich idcu llJ. O:lUmicr's ca ricatu re! wc re thus the a lmost involuntary conSCple in whom a n emphatica lly muscular rhe toric and u profession uLl y Ilruma tic pose ha"e made for an elaborate ph y@iognomy of the body." Fritz Th. Schu he, "'Honore Da umie r,'" Die neue Zeit. 32, 11 0. I (Stutt~rt <1913» ,
pp.833-835 .
like the tOI)S of Boucher's gates." Edollartl Fo ucaud. Pliris inventeur: Physiologic de l'indllslriejrall{rJise (Puris, 1844), pp. 92- 93. (F5a,2) The s
In eugravings of the l)eriod. IlOrse& a re pranc ing across railroad statio n espla IHldell, and s lugccoachcs roll by ill douds of d us!.
{F5a,4)
Cu ption for a wOOilcul reprcsenting a catafalque in the Care du Nord: " Last re.sl)Ct!ts puid to Meyerbecr in Paris at the su re de chemin de fer du Nord." [F5a,5J
{F5,2J
{F5,3)
Fllctories wit h gulleries illside and winding irOIl staircases. Ea rl y prOSI)Ct!tu8e8 and illus trations s how productio n rooms and dis play rooms, whic h are often under the same roof, fondly represented in cross-sectio n like do Li houses. Thus a prospectus of 1865 for the foo twear coml)any Pinet. ot infreque ntl y one sees ateliers , like t.hose of photographers, with sliding s hades in front of the skylight. Cabinet des [ stu mpes. {F5a,6)
0 11 the CrYiOta l Palacl', Wilh Ihe elms ill its midst : " Under these ~ass arches, tha nks to awnings, "clltilutors, and ~s hillg fountain s, visilors revel in a delicious coolncss. In tile wo rds of o ne o bserve r : ' You might think you were under the billows of sOllie fa bulous ri vcr, in the crystal palace of a fairy or naiad. ,.' A. Demy, EUrJi IliJtorillue u ur les expoJition J univerJeJfes de Paris (Paris, 190 1)~, p . 40. [F5,4]
The Eiffcl To"'"er : " It is c harllcte ristic of this most famous COll8lructio ll of the e poch that , for a ll its gigantic stature, ... it nevertheless feels like a knickknack , which . . . !!pcaks for the fllct t.hat the secolld*ra te artistic scnsibility of the era co uld think , ill gener a l, only within the fnun ework of genre and t he technillue of filigree." Egon Friedell , Killturseschichte der Nellzeit, vol. 3 (Munich , 1931), p .363. {F5a,7]
"After the closing of the London Exhibition in 1851, people in England won· dered what was to become of the Crystal Palace. Although a clause inserted in the deed of concession for the grounds required ... the demolition ... of the building, public opinion was unanimous in asking for the abrogation of this clause.... -The newspapers "''ere full of proposals of all kinds, many of which were distinctly eccentric. A doctor wanted to rum the place into a hospital; another suggested a bathing establishment. .. . One person had the idea of mak· ing it a gigantic library. An Englishman with a violent passion for Bowers insisted on seeing tJle whole palace become a garden." The Crystal Palace was acquired by Francis Fuller and transferred to Sydenham. A. S. de Doncourt, Uj ExpositioTl.l Imiuemll(j (LiUe and Paris d889~), p. 77. Compare F6a,1. The Bourse could rr:p mmt anything; the Crystal Palace could be ujr:d for anything. IF5a, l )
" Micllel C hc vulier sets d own his dreams of the ne w te mple in a poem:
The miscarriage of Ba1tard's design for Les Halles, built in 1853, is due to the same unfortunate combination of masonry and ironwork as in the original proj ect for the London exhibition hall of 1851, the 'work of the Frenchman Horeau. Parisians referred to Ba1tard's structure, which was subsequently tom down, as Ie
fort dt: fa Hallt:.
" FIIl'lIillln' making in lulllliar iro ll ... rivals furnilure making ill wooIl, 111111evell ;;uqJa u I's il . Jo' uruitu re of s lIc h iron. willI hllkell-o n color, .. . ellllllleicil wilh Row .:rl; ur wi tll plllterll l; imil ul.ing 111O~c of inluid woo.1. is clcgllllt and nicely turned .
1 would have YOIl see my temille, the Lord God lIIid. The culumn& of the temple Were strong beams; Of hollow cast·iron ooillmns Wu 'llf: organ of this new temple. The framework wu of irOll, of molded steel . Of cupper ami of hronze. The arc hitect had "luced il ul,on Ihe col LImn s Like a Blringed instrlllllent Ill)On a wOOIlwind . From ll,e lempl.· "an'e. moreo\'cr. a l each mOlllC1i1 of t he day. The BOUlids of a new harmony. The sten,I"r ~ Ili re rose lip like II lightning rod; [t reac he<11O l.h" doUlls,
arts-a view which is, unhappily, deeply rooted in him and deeply pondered." Victor H ugo, Oeullm £ompleltJ, novels, vol. 3 (Paris, 1880), p. 5.' [F6,3j Before the decision to build the Pa1ais de l'Industrle'Q was made, a plan had existed to roof over a section of the Champ s-E1ys tes-alo ng with its trees-i n the maJUler of the Crystal Palace. [F6,4j
La Uwe-tite-oman~> flU fA Fureur dujour (picrure Puu1e Mania, or They're AIl the Rage These Days). See F6,2.
To ~k there electric rorce; Storms have charged iI with vitality and ten,ion.
Vidor Hugo, in Not re-Dame de Pari8, on the Bourse: " If it be the rule that the arehiteeture of a buildin g 8hould be adapted to itl fun ction , ... we can hardly wonder enough at a mOllum ent which might equaUy weU be a king'l palace, a house of eommOIlS, a lown haU, a coUege, a riding school , a ll academy, a warebo Ule, a law (Jourt , a mu,eum . a b arracks , a lepulcher, a temple, or a theater . For the present , it is a stock exchange .... It is a Slock exchan ge in Frallce just as it would have been a temple in Creece .. .. We h ave the colonn ade encircli ng the monu· ment , beneath which, on day! of high religiou! solemni ty, the theory of stockbr o kers and jobber! can be majestically expoun ded. These, for sure, are ver y stately monum ents. If we add to them man y fine streets, as am using and diverse a8 the Rue de Ri voLi , then I do not despair but that one d ay a balloon 's-eye view of Paris will offer us that wealth of lines, ... that di versity of aspect , that 80mehow . _ . unexpec ted beauty, which ch aracter izes a checke rboard ." Victor Hugo, Oeuvre , completel, novels, vol. 3 (Par is, 1880), PI). 206-20 7 (NOIre- Dame de Po rn)."
[F6a,lj Atthe topofth e minareu The telegrap h was wavin&i u ann' , Bringing rrom all paru Good newl to the J.e
The "Chinese puzzle," which comes into fashion during the Empire , reve~ the century's awakening sense for construction. The problems ~t. appear, m the puzzJes of the period, as hatched portions of a landscape, a buildmg, Of a fi~re are a first presentiment of the cubist principle in the plastic am. (fa ve~y: whethe r, in an allegorical representation in the Cabine t des Estampes, the bram teaser undoes the kaleidoscope or vice versa.) [F6,2j
"Paris a vol d'oiseau" (A Bird's-Eye View of Paris_ Nom-Dame ck Paris, vol. I, book 3-conc ludes its overview of the architectura..l history of the city with an ironic characterization of the present day, which culminates in a descrip tion of the architec tural insignificance of the Stock Exchange. The importa nce of ~e chap ter is underlined by a note added to the definitive edition of 1832, which says: "The author ... enlarges, in one of these chapters, upon the CUITeIll decade nce of architecture and the now (in his view) almost inevitable demise of this king of the
TIle Paris Stock Exchang e, mid-nin c:tc:enth century. Counesy or the Paris Stock. Exdmng e. 'keF", ,
tWO
wor dll can meet"
h). 25; it remains to be determined whether
t.his last selltence
is meallt iconica lly, or whether it distinguishes between algebra alld mathematics).
T he a uthor criticizell the POlit dll Louvre a nll the Pont de la Cite (both bridgell from 1803) in accorda nce with the principles of Leon BaUista Alberti. [F6a,3j According to Yael , the fi rs t bridges to be built on a constructive basis would have (F7,I ] been undertaken a round 1730 . III 1855, the Hotel du Louvre was constructed at a rapid tempo, so as to he in p lace fo r the opelling of the world exhibition . " For the firs t time , the entrepreneura u!!ed elt:(;tric light 0 11 the site, in order to double the day's labor ; some unexpected delays occurred ; the city wall just co min~ out of the famou ll carpentera' str:ike, which put an end to wood·frame structures in Paris. Consequently, the Hotel du Louvre ponesses the rare distinction of having wedded , in its d esign, the wood paneling of old b ouses to the iron flooring of modern buildings." V" G. d ' Avenel, " Le Mecanisme de la vie moderne," part I , " leI G rands Magasins," Revue
" In the beginning, railroad cart look like stagccoachell, autohuses like omnibuses, electric lights like gas chandeliers, and the last like petroleum lamplI." Leon Pier re·Quint, "Significatioll du cinema ," L 'Art cinematographique, 2 (Parill, 1927), p . 7. [F7,3]
The: PalaU de: I'lndustrie: at the: world exhibition of 1855. Sc:c F6a,2.
Palaia de l' lndualrie: "'One ia atruck b y the elegance and lightnel8 of the iron framework ; yet the engineer, ... Monsieur Barrault , has ShOWD more skill than taste. As for the domed gla" roof, ... it is awkwardly placed , and the idea evoked ... is ... that of a lar~e cloche: industry in a h othowe.... On each side of the entrancc have been placed two superb locomotivell with their tender .... Thii la81 arrangement Ilrcliumably occasioned by the distrib ution of priZCII which clollCd the u hibition 0 11 November 15, 1855. Louil Enault, " Le Palail de 1' lndU81rie," in Pari.! et k. Pari.!iem e'll X IX' sieck (Paris, 1856), pp. 313, 315. [F6a,2]
From C ha r l es· Fra n \~ois Viel , De 1'lmplliJlance des mathemaliques pour aSl ll rer to .olidite des beifimenlS (11aris, 1805): Viel dislinguishell ordOl.na tlce
Apropos of the Empire style of Schinkel: "The building that brings out the 10- cation , the substructu re that emhodiell the true seat of invention, . . . these things r esemble-a vehicle. T hey convey architectural ideals, which only in thia sort of way call stiU he ' practiced.·., Carl Unfert, " Vom Ursprung grosser [F7,4) Baugedanken ," Prankfu rter Zeituns . J anuary 9, 1936. On the 'world exhibition of 1889: " We can say of thii festivity that it ball been celebrated, above aU, to the glory of iron .... Having undertaken to give readert of Le Corresponda nt a rough idea of industry in connection witb the Exposition du Champ d e Mars . we have chOllen for our thenle ' Metal Structurell and Railroadt. ,,, [F7,5] Alliert de Lapparellt , Le Si~le dufer (Paris, 1890), pp . vii- viii. 0 11 the Cr ystal Palace: "The architect , Paxton, and the contractors, Messrs. Fox alltl Helid e Cl~oll , had systematicaUy resolved not to use parts with large dimCII· siolls. The heaviellt were hollow cast· irOIl girders, eight meters long, nOlle of which weigh ed more than a 1011 ••.. Their chicf meril was that they were ecollomical.... Moreover, the execution of the pl an was remarkahly rapill, sillce all the partl were IJf a sorl that the fa ctories I;ould ullliertake to deliver quickly." Albert de Lappar ent , Le Sieck dufer ( P8ri ~. 1890). p. 59. [F7,6] Lappaccllt divides iron structures inlU two du ues : iroll structures with Slone facings and true iron ~ tru ctu res. He IIlaCCII the followillg example among lhe flr'llt
-
"Labrouste . . . • in 1868•... gave 10 the puhlic the readi ng room of the 8lbliotheque Nationale.... It is difficuh to imagine anything more satillfyin g or more harmonious than this great chantlle r of 1, 156 '((U IUe meter" with its nine fretted CUIH>liUl, incorporating a relles of iron lattice Ilnd resting 011 sixteen light cast-iron colunlPs, twelve of which are lIel agai ns t the walls , while (our, cOlllpletely free-standing, rise from the floor on pedestals of the same metal." Albert de La,) 1I0 rt .
parenl, Le Swck diller (Pans. 1890), Pil . 56-57.
•
[F7a,1]
The engineer Alexis BarrawI , who with Viel built the Palace of Industry in 1855. W88 a brother of Emile Barrauh . (F7a,2) In 1779, the first call-iron bridge (that of Coalhrookdale). In 1788, iu builderl! was awarded the Gold Medal of the English Society of Am. " Since it was in 1790, furthermore, that the architec:t Louis completed the wrought-iron framework for the Theitre Frall~ais in Paris, we may say that the centenary of metal construction coincides almost exactly with that of the French Revolution ." A. de Lapparent, Le Siecle dufer{Paris, 1890), pp. 11- 12. [F7a,3) Paria, in IS22: a " w(H){jwork 8trike."
(F'7a,4]
On the 8ubjec:t of the Chinese punic, a lithograph : The Triumph of the Kaleido scope, or the Demue ofthe Chinese Game. A reclining Chine8e man with a brain teaser 8pread out on the ground before him. On his s houlder, a female figure bas planted her foot. In one hand, Ihe carriea a kaleidoscope; in the other, a paper or a IcroU with kaleidoscope patterns. Cabinet del Estampes (da ted ISIS). [F7a,5] "The head turn8 a nd the heart tighten8 when , for the first time, we vi8it tholc fairy hall8 where pollihed iron and dazzling copper seem to move and think by them selves, while pale and feeble man i8 only the humble servant oftho8e 81eeI9antt ." J . Michelet, Le Peuple (Paris, 1846), p. 82. The author in no way fears that me chanical production wiU gain the upper hand over human beings. The individual i8m of the cons umer I!eeID.8 to him to spea k against tillS: each " man now ... wantl to be himseH. Consequentl y, he will often care leal for products fa bricated by cianCI, without any individuality thai speaks to his own" (ibill ., p . 78).13 (F'7a,6] " Viollct-Ie-Duc ( ISI4-1879) s hows that the a rchitectl of the Middle Agel were also engineers and r ellOurceful inventors." Amedee Ozenfant . " La Peinture murale," Encyclopedicfr(JlI~ai",c. vol. 16. Art! Cl lilleralllres da/II ta sociere COlltcmpo rainc, part I , p . 70. coluUlII 3. (F8,I] Protest against the Eierel Tower: "We come. as writers . paillleu. sculluors, archi tects , . .. in the lIa lne of French art and Frellch history, hoth of which are thrcllt cned , ... to protest agains t tilt: cons truction. in the very heart of our capital , of the usclell and JUon ~ trou~ Eiffel Tower . . . . Its barharOUI ma s~ ol'erwIJdms Notre-Dame, the Sainte-Cha pellc, the Tower of Sllint-Jllcques. AJI our monuments
Le 1"riQ1//pht du !J.aliidoscOPtJ ou Le 1"omhtau du}eu chinois (The Triumph of the Kaleidoscope, or The Demise of the Chinese Game), 1818. Counesy of the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. See F7a,5.
are dehased, our architectu re diminis hed." Cited in Louis CherollDet . " lei Troil Grand -meres de I'eltpositioll ," Vcmiredi, April 30, 1937. (F8,2] Supposedly then: were trees within Mill ard's " 1.la nnony H all ," on the Boulevard MOntmartre. (F8,3J " It was in 1783. in tile COllstruction of the Theatre Fram;nis, that iron was em " Io)'cd for the firs t lime on a large scale, by the architect Lollil. Never perhaps. hus a work so audacious heen attempted. ~rhen , in 1900 , the theater wa s rehuilt in the aftermat h of a fire, it was with a weight of iron one hund red times greater tban that which the architect Louis hUll IUletl for the same tru8swork . COllstruction ill irou has providell a ~ u ccellS ion of buildings, of which the great reading room of the Bihliothalue Nationale !ly LabrOUl tc was tile first , and olle of the most success ful. . .. But iron retluires costly maintenance . ... The world exhibition of 1889
lIIar ked the triulllph of exposed ironwork .. . ; at the exhibition of 1900, nearl y all the iron frallles were covered ",;th plasterwork." L 'Ell c)'clolH!diefr(l/l {a i~e, vol. 16, 16-68, pp . 6-7 (Auguste Perret, " Les Resoins collectiCs et r architecture"). [Fa., ] T he " triulllpl, of exposed iro nwork " ill the age of the gellre: " It may be . .. the ... c ntllU s i a~ 1II for lIIachilie techllology a nd the faith in the superior durabilit y of its matcrials that explains why the altribute ' iro n ' is used ... whenever ... power and ncccssity are supposed to be manifest. Iron a re the laws of nature, and iron is the 'str idc of the worker battalion '; the ... union of the German empire is suppos cilly made of iron, aud so is ... the ch ancellor himself." Dolf Sternberger, Pano ra mo (Hamhurg, 1938) , p. 3 1. [F8,S) T he iron balcony. " In its most rigor ous form , the house has a uniform fa{ade .... Ar ticulation results only from doors and windows. In France, the win dow is, withoul exception, even ill the poorest house, a porte{enetre, a ' Fre nch window' 0IHllung to the fl oor .. . . T his makes a railing llocessar Yi in the poor er houses it is a plain iron bar, but ill the wealthier houses it is of wrought iron .... At a cerlain stage , the railing becomes all ornament. ... It furth er COlltributes to the articula tion of the fa ..ade by ... accenting the lower line of the window. And it fulfills both fun ctions without b rea king the pla ne of the fa ..ade. For the great architectural mass of the modern house, with its insistent lateral extension, this articulation could not possibly suffice. T he ar chitects' building-sense demanded that the ever stronger horizont al tendency of the house ... he given exp ression.... And they discovered the means for this ill the traditional iron grille. Across the entire length of the building fro nt, on olle or two stories, they set a b alcony provided with an iron grating of this type, which, being black, stands out very distinctly and makes a vigorolls impression. These h aiconies, .. . up to the most recent period of build ing, ""cl·e kept very na rrow; a nd if throngh them the severity of the surface is overcome, what call he called the relicf of the fa ..ade remains nonetheless quite fla t , over coming the effec t of the wall as little as docs the scul pted or namentation, likewise kept fl at . In the case of adjoin in g houses, these balcony railillg8 fu se )¥ith one a nother alltl cousolid ate the impression of a walletl streeti and this effect is heightened by the fac t th at , wherever the upper stories a re used fo r commercial pu r poses, the proprietors put "I' ... not sign hoa nls but matched giltled letters in roman 81yle, ""hich, when well spaced across the ironwork , a ppear purely decor a [F8a) tive." Fri tz Stahl , Pa ris (Berlin ( 1929)), pp . 18-19.
G [Exhibitions, Advertising, Grandville1 Yes, when all the world from Paris to China Pays heed to your doctrinc, 0 divine Saint-Simon, The glorious Golden Age will be reborn. Rivers will Bow with dlocolate and tea, Sheep roasled whole will frisk on the plain, And saut~ed pike will swim in the Seine. Fricasseed spinach will grow on the ground, Garnished with aushed fried croutons; The trees will bring forth apple compoles, And farmers will harvesl boots and coats. It will SIIOW wine, it will rain chickens, And ducks cooked with turnips will fall from the sky. - Ferdinand Langit and Emile Va.nderburch, Lluis-Bronu tl It SaintSimtmien: Parodit tk Louis Xl (Th~(re du Palais-Royal, Febnwy 27, 1832), cited in Thtodore Muree, L'Histqjf( par It IMom, 1789- 1851 (Pam, 1865), voJ. 3, p. 191 Music such as one gets to hear all the pianofones of Sa tum's ring. - Hector Berlioz, A traun-J chants, authorized German edition pre· pared by Richard FbhJ (Ldpl.ig, 1864), p. 104 ("Beethoven im Ring da Salum~)
From a European perspective, things looked this way: In all areas of production, f~m the Middle Ages lIntil the beginning of the nineteenth century, the develop ment of technology proceed ed at a much slower rate than the develop mCflt of art. Art could take its time in variollsly assimilating the technological modes of operation. But the transfomlation o f things that set in around 1800 d ictated the tempo to an, and the m ore breathtaking this tempo becam e, the morc readily the dominion of fashion overspread all fields . Fmally, we arrive at the present state of things: th e possihiliry now arises that an will no longer find time to adapt some how to teclmological processes. TIle ad vertisement is the ruse by whicll the dream forces itself on industry. [G 1,1) Wit.hin the frames of the p ictures that hung on dining room walls, the advent of whiskey advcrusem ents, of Van H outen cocoa, of Amieux canned food is h er
alded. Naturally, one ean say that the bourgeois comfort of the dining room has survived longest in small cafes and other such places ; but perhaps one can also say that the space of the cafe, wit.hin which every square meter and every hour are paid for more punctually than in apamnent houses, evolved out of the latter. The apartment from which a caU was made is a pictuTe puzzle (Vixierbild> with the caption: Where is the capital hiding? [G I ,2)
course in the end, the law according to which an action brings about an opposite reactio~l holds true for Jugendstil. 111(:: genuine liberation from an cpoch, that is, has the structure of awakening in this respect as well: it is entirely ruled by cunning. Only with cunning, not without it, can we work free of thc re.a1n~ of dream. But there is also a false liberation ; its sign is violence. From the beguuung, it condemned Jugcndstil to failure. 0 Dream Structure 0 [G t ,7)
Grandville's ,\-'Orks are the sibylline books of pu6iicili. Everything that, with him, has its preliminary foml as joke, or satire, attains its true unfolding as adver· [GI ,3) tisement.
I1fficnnost, decisive significance of the advertisement: "Good posters exist ... only in the domain of trifles, of industry, or of revolutio~ ." Ma~ce Talmeyr, ~ Citi du Jang (Paris, 1901), p. 2n. The sanle thought With which the bourgeoIS here detects the tendency of advertising in its early period: "In short, the moral of the postcr has nothing to do with its art, and its art nothing to do with the moral, and this defines the character of the poster" (ibid., p. 275). [GI ,S)
HamlLilI of a Pa ri!!ian textiles denier from the 1830s: " Ladies nnd Gentlemen: I I ask you to cas' an indulgent eye on the following observation!!; my de8ire to con tribute to you r eterna l salvation impels me to address you. Allow me to di r ect yo ur attention to the stud y of the Holy Scripture8, as weU as to the extremely moderate prices which I have bl..'t:n the first to introduce into the field of ho!!.ier y, cotton gootls. and rc.lated products. No. 13, Rue Pave-Saint-Sauveur." Eduard Kroloff, Schilclerllllgell all..!' Pelr;, (Hamburg, 1839), vol. 2, pp. 50-51. [G I ,4) Superposition a nd adver tising: " In the Palai8-Ro yal, not long ago , between the columJl ~ 011 the upper story, I hapl.ene.1 to see a life-sized oil painting repre 8t:llljng, in very li\'e1y colors, a French general in fuU -d reu uniform. I take out my spectacles to examiJle more cl08ely the historical subject of the picture. and my general is sitting in an armchair holding out a bare foot: the podiatrist , kneeling before him , excises the corns ." J . F. Reichnrt.h , Vertraute Briefe all.! Paris (Ham burg. 1805), vol. I, p. 178. [GI ,S)
In 1861 , the first lithographic poster suddenly appeared on walls hcre and there around London. It showed the back of a woman in white who was thickly wrapped in a shawl and who, in all haste, had just reached the top of a Sight of stairs, where, her head half turned and a finger upon her lips, she is ever so slightly opening a heavy door, through which one glimpses the starry sky. In this way Wtlkie Collins advertised his latest book, one of the greatest detective novels ever writtcn : The Woman in White. See Talmeyr, iA. Citt du Jang (Paris, 1901), pp.263-264. IGI .61 It is significant that Jugcndstil failed in interior design, and soon aftcrward ill architecture too, whereas in the street, with the poster, it often found vcry suc· cessful solutions. TIus is fully confim lcd in Behne's disceming critique: "By no mcans was Jugclldstil ridiculous in its original intentions. It was lookin.g for renewal because it clcarly recognizcd the peculiar contradictions arising bctween imitation Renaissance art and new methods of production deternlined by the machine. But it gr.ldually became ridiculous because it believed that it could resolve the enonnOliS objective tensions fonnally, 011 paper, in the studio." 0 In· terior 0 Adolf Behne, NeUf!J Wohnen-Neua &uen (Leipzig, 1927), p. 15. Of
J ust as certain modes of presentation- genre scenes and the like-be~, in the coursc of the nineteenth ccntury, to "cross over" into advertising, so also mto the realm of the obscene. The Nazarene style and the Makart style have their black and their
[Gl a,3)
Many years ago, on the streetcar, I saw a poster that, if thi.ngs had their due in this world, would have found its admirers, historians, exegetes, and copyists ju~t as surely as any great poem or painting. And, in fact, it was both at the sallle wne.
As is sometimes the case with very deep, unexpected impressions, however, the shock was too violent: the impression, if I may say so, struck with such force that it broke through the bottom of my consciousness and for years lay irrecoverable somewhere in the darkness. I knew only that it had to do with "Bullrich Salt" and that the ongina] watthouse for this seasoning was a small cellar on Flotrn't:ll Strc:~t, w~ere for years I had circumvented the temptation to get out at this point and mqwn:= about the poster. There I traveled on a colorless Sunday afternoon in that northern Moabit, a part of town that had already once appeared to me as though built by ghostly hands for just this time of day. lbat was when, four years ~go, I had come to Uitzow Sbttt to pay customs duty, according to the weight of Its enameled blocks of houses, on a china porcelain city which I had had sent from Rome. There wen: omens then along the way to signal the approach of a momentous afternoon. And, in fact, it ended with the story of the discovery of an arcade, a story that is too herfinisd, to be told just now in this Parisian space of remembrance. Prior to this incident, however, I stood with my twO beautiful companions in front of a miserable cafe, whose window display was enlivened by an arrangement of signboards. On one of these was the legend "Bullrich Sale" It contained nothing else besides the words; but around these written characters there was suddenly and effortlessly configured that desert landscape of the poster. I had it once more. Here is what it looked like. In the foreground, a horse-drawn wagon was advancing across the desen. It was loaded with sacks bearing the words uBullrich Salt." One of these sacks had a hole, from which salt had already trickled a good distance on the ground. In the background of the desen landscape, two posts held a large sign with the words "Is the Best." But what about the trace of salt down the desen trail? It fonned letters, and these letters fonned a word, the word "Bullrich Salt." Was not the preestablished hannony of a Leibniz mere child's play compared to this tightly orchestrated predestination in the desen? And didn't that poster furnish an in1.3ge for things that no one in this mortal life has yet experienced? An image of the everyday in Utopia? (Cl a,4)
"The store known as La Chaussee d~ntin had recently atulouuced its new inventory of yard goods. Over two million meters of barege, over five million of grenadine and poplin, and over three million of other fabrics- altogelher about eleven million meters of textiles. Le lInlama"e now remarked, after recolllllend· ing La C haussee d'Antin to its female readers as the 'foremost house of fashion in the world,' and also the 'most dependable' : 'The entire French railway system comprises barely ten thousand kilometers of tracks- that is, only ten million meters.1llis OTle store, therefore, with its stock of tcxtiles, could virtually stretch a tent over all the railroad tracks of France, "which, especially in the heat of summer, would be very pleasant.'" 'Tbree or four other establishments of this kind publish similar figures , so that, with all these materials combined, one could place not on.ly Paris ... but the whole dipar/emm / of the Seine under a massive canopy, ' which likewise would be welcome in rainy weather.' But we calU10t help asking: How are stores supposed to find room to stock this gigantic quantity of
goods? The answer is very simple and, what is more, very logical : each firm is always larger than the others. "You hear it said: 'La Ville de Paris, the largest store in the capital,' 'Les Villes de France, the largest store in the Empire; 'La Chaussee d'Antin, the largest store in Europe,' 'Le Coin de Rue, the largest store in the 'A-'Orld.'-'In the world' : that is to say, on the enure earth there is none larger; you'd think that would be the limit. But no: Les Magasins du LoUVTe have not been named, and they bear the tille 'The largest Stores in ~e.unive~.' The. universe! Including Sirius appar_ ently, and n1.3ybe even the disappeanng twUl stars' of which Alexander von Humboldt speaks in his Kosmos. "I H ere we see the cOtulection between capitalism's evolving commercial adver tising and the work of Grandville. .Adolf Ebeling,) Lehauk Bilder aUJ dm modnnm Paris, 4 voIs. (Cologne, 1863 1866), vol. 2, pp. 292- 294. [G"l) "Now then, you princes and sovereign states, resolve to pool your riches, your resources, your energies in order to ignite, as we do our gas jets, long-extinct volcanoes [whose craters, though filled with snow, are spewing torrents of inBam mabie hydrogen]; high cylindrical towers would be necessary to conduct the hot springs of Europe into the air, from which-so long as care is taken to avoid any premature contact with cooling waters-they will tumble down in cascades [and ~ereby wann th.e atmosphere]. Artificial concave mirrors, arranged in a semi circle on mountaIntops to reflect the rays of the sun, would suitably augment the tendency of these springs to heat the air." F. v. Brandenburg, VIC/oria! EiN neue
Well! Freudaloller AUJrufin Baugdaral!£ daRarifurIJmn PIaN/m, hmmtim ariftkr ~n UTU hewonnlm niirdlickn Halhl1ugel tiN fatale 'TemperaJur-Yeriindnung hinsidzt. lien tkr Ymnehnmg tkr almosphiiriscnen mime eingetrdm isl,' 2nd expanded ed. (Berlin, 1835) . 0 Gas 0 1l:tis fanatasy of an insane mind effectively constitutes, under the influence of the new invention, an advertisement for gas lighting-an advertisement in the comic-cosmic style of Grandville. In general, the close cOtulection between adver tising and lhe cosmic awaits analysis. (G2,2) ~bitions. "~ regions and indeed, retrospectively, all times. From farming and
m.mmg, from mdustry and from the machines that were displayed in operation, to raw materials and processed materials, to art and the applied arts. In all these we see a peculiar demand for premature synthesis, of a kind that is characteristic of the nineteenth century in other areas as """eU: think of the total work of art. ~P:nt from indubitably utilitarian motives, the century wanted to generate a VlSlon of the human cosmos, as launched in a new movement." Sigfried Giedion, Bauen in FraTlR reich
aro ulul the world , for all mltions have come here; enemies are coexisting in peace. just as, at the origin of things, the divine 8pirit Wil l hovering over the or" of tile waters, so now it Ilovers over this or" of iron." L 'Exposition UlI.jV/u·selle cle 1867 illUMree: PubliClJtion internfltiollale alltorisee IJa r lu commission iml~riale. vol. 2. 1).322 (cited in Giedioll , p. 41 ). (C2,4) In connl..-.:tion with t.he exhibition of 1867. O n Offenhach. " For the past ten years, this verve of the comic author and this joyous illSI)iration of t.he composer have bee.n vying with each other for fanta stic and serendipitous dfects; but only in 1867, the year of the Universal Exposition, did they alt ain the height of hila rity, the ultimate expression of their exubera nce. 3 The success of this theater company, alread y so great, hecame d eliriou&--something or which our petty victoriee of today ca n fu rnish 110 idea. Pa ris, that summer, euffered sunstroke." From the SIHlech berore the Academic Fra n-;:aise by Henri Laved an, December 3] , 1899 (on [C2a, I) the election of Meilhac). Advertising is emancipated in Jugendstil. J ugendstil posters are "large, always figurative, refined in their colors but not gaudy; they show balls, night clubs, movie theaters. TIley are made for a frothy life-a life with which the sensual rurves ofJ ugendstil are '....e11 matched." Fran/rfurter
ments, marble statues, and bubbling fo untains populated the giant halls. 0 Iron IG2a,7)
oInterior 0
The design for the CryStal Palace is by J oseph Paxton, chief gardener to the duke of Devonshire, for whom h e had built a conselVatory (greenhouse) o f glass and iron at C hatsworth H o use. His design provided for fireproofing, p lenry of light, and the possibility of speedy and inexpensive assembly, and it p revailed over those of the London Building Committee, whose competition was held in vai.n.~ [G2a,8j " Yes, long live the bl..'Cr of Vicnna! Is it native to this lanti that produces it? In truth , I do 1I0t know. But or one thing, there can be no doubt: it is a refined and comfortin g brew. It is not like the beer of Str88bourg ... or Bavaria.... It is divine beer, ... clear as the thought of a poet, light as a 8wallow in flight , robust alld alcohol-charged as the pcll of a German philosopher. It is digested like the purest wa ter, and it refreshes like ambrosia. " Advertisement for Fa nt a Beer of Vienna . No.4, Rue Halevy, near the Nouvel Opera, 'ew Year 's 1866. Almanach indiealellr parisien (Paris, 1866), p. 13. [G2a,9) " Another new word : to recto",e (advertisement). W"t11 it make a rortune?" Nad ar, Quandj'etais photographe (Paris <190(h), I)' 309. IG2a,l Oj Between the February Revolution and the june Insurrection: " All the waUs were co\'ered with revolutionar y postere which, some years later, Alfred Oelvau re printed in two thick volumes under the title Les Murailles revoiutionnaires, so that tod ay we can still get some idea of this remarkable poster litera ture. There was scarcely a palace or a church on which these notices could not be seen. Never before was such a multitude of placa rds on view in any cit y. Even the government made use of this medium to publish its decr ees and I)roclamations, while thou· sa nds of.other people resorted to tlffiches in order to a ir thcir views publicly on all IJOssihle q uestions. As the time ror the opening or the National Assembly drew near, the la nguage of the posters grew ",i ider and more passionate .... T he num ber of public crier s increased every day; t1lOusands and thousands of Parisians, who had nothing else to do, became news vendors." Sigmund Englander. Cescllich'e der frcmzosischen Arbeiter·AS$ociationen (Hamburg, 18M), vol. 2 , pp.279-280. IG3,I) "A short merry piece that is customurily jl l'e8cntcd hcre before the pufonnance of a !lew play: U flrkflllj" flffach eur dla rlet:luin the Bill-Sticken. In one {Iuite funn y alld c1larmillg scene . a pOSler ror the comedy is st uck 0 11 Columbine's house." j . F. Heicha nlt , Ver/rflute Briefe fillS Paris (H amllllrg. 1805). vol. 1, p. '1S7. (G3,2) " These tlaye. a gootlma ny houses in Paris apIH:a r 10 be decoralec.1 i.n the style or Harlequin', costume; 1 mean a patchwork of la rge green, yellow, [a word illegible] and pink pieces of paper. The bill-stickers wrangle over the wall8 a nti come to
hlows over Q streetcorncr. Tile beSI of il is Illal aU Illese poslers cover one anolher up alleaSI len timCll a d ay"· Etluard Kroloff, SciJiJIlerlHl8fm (illS Paris ( Ha mhurg, [G3,3) 1839), vol. 2, p. 57. " I' au l Sirlludin , born in 1814, has In.:cn active in tile theater since 1835; he has supplemented this acti vity wi th practical efforu in the fi eld of confectionery. The re"u!ti of these efforts beckon no ieu teillptingiy from tile large dis plQy window in the Rue de la Paix than the sugar almonds, bonbolls, hone y cakes, a nd sweet crackc r8 offered to the public ill the form of olle-act dramatic ~ k ct c h es at the Palais-Royal. " Rudolf Gottschall, " 0 88 Theater und OramQd es Second Empire," in U,uere Zei, ; Deutsche Revue-iUolla ,uch rif, Z Uni COIJ vers(j,ioIJslexicolJ IG3,4] (Leipzig, 1867), p . 933 . From COPPt.'e', speech to the Academie Frall-.:aise (" Response to Heredia," May 30, 1895) , it can be inferred that a s tra nge sort of writtell image could foml erly be seell in Pa ris: "'Calligraphic masterpiec:es which , in the old days, were exhibited 011 every strootcorner, alll.l in which we could admire the po rtrait of Beranger or 'The Taking of the Bastille' in the form of pa ra phs"
Lc: Charivari of 1836 has an illustration showing a poster mat covers half a housefrollt. The windows are left uncovued, except for one, it seems. Out of that a man is leaning while cutting away the obstructing piece of paper. IG3,'] " EIi8enCe d ' Amazilly. fragrallce and antiseptic; h ygie nic toiletries from DUIJra t alld Coml)any." " If we have named our essence after the d aughter of a cacique , it is only to indicate t.hat the vegetal ingredients to which this distillation owes its surprising effectivene88 come from the same torrid climate as she does. The term 'antiseptic' belongs to the lexicon of science, and we use it only to point out that, apa rt from the iucollll'a rable benefits Ollr product offers to ladit.'fI. it possesses hygienic vi rtues calcula ted to will the confidence of aU those wilJilig to be convinced of its salutary action . For if our lotion, Ilulike the wa ter s of tbe .' ountain of Youth . has no power to wash away the acculIlulated yea r s, a t least it docs ha ve, in addi tion to other merits, the inestimable IIdvantage (we believe) of r estoring to the full extent of its former radiance the lost majesty of tha i consummate entit y, that mas terpiece of Creation which , with the elegallce, purity, and grace of its forms, makes up the lovelier half of huma nit y. Without the providential Stll){.'r vt.'ntion of our discovery, this mos t brilliant ami delicate ornament- rese mbling, in lhe ten der charms of its mys terious structul·e, a fragile blossom Ihat v.'ilts althe first hanl rain- would enjoy, at belt , hut a fu giti ve sple ndor, aft er the falling of which it mmt 111.'t.'ds languish lIIuler the ruinous cloud of illness. the fa tiguing dClllamls of nursing. or the 110 Ic!! injurioU!! clllbruce uf the pitiless corset. Develope!l , a btlvc aU, in ti m intereSIS of Indics, our Essellce i1'Amazill y ulIswcrs ttl the mO$t e)(acling ami IIIOs t intimate re{luiremelits of their toilelle. It unih:~, th ullk! to a happ y infusion, all that is necessary to revive, fos ter, ami enhance nat ural all ract.iolls,
".·ithout the slightcst detriment ." Cha rles SimOIllI , f'nris de 1800 ii. 1900 ( Pa ris. 1900), vol. 2, p . 5 10 (" Une Reclll llle lie parfulII("ur C II 1857'"). ~ [G3a, I) "Gravely, 11u- sandwich-nllill hears his duuble burdcll , light li S it is. A yo ung lad y whose ,·utlilltlity is only tcmporary smiles 1.1 1 the walking poster, yet wis hes to read it C\'en as s he smiles. The Il a ppy author of her a bdo minal salience likewise bears a hurtlt'li of his own ." Te)(t IIccompllllyiug a lithograph entitled " L' Homme-affiche s ur la P lace des Victoircs," from Nou veaux Tableallx de Paris. tcxt to pi ute 63 (the lithogra phs a re h y Ma rlel]. This hook is a sort of l:Iogarth ad US IIIII Dell1l1ini. [G3a.2] Beginning of Alfred Oelva u's prefa ce to Les Alurailles reuo/ut.iollflClires: " These revolutionary placards-at the bottom of which we set our obscure name-form an immense and unique compositio n , one \'Iithou t precedent , we believe, in the history of hooks. They are a collective work . The author is Monsieur Everyone- Mein Herr Omnes, as Luther says." Les Murailles revolu';ollflUires de 1848, 16th ed. ( Puris <1852» , vol . I , p . I . [G3a,3] "'When , in 1798, under the Direc::tory, the idea ofpuhlic exhihitions was inaugu ra ted on the Champ d e Mars, there were 110 exhibitors, of whom twent y-five wer e awanlcd med als." Patais ele J'ln dlUltrie (distributed by H . P ion). [G4,1] " Begillning in 180 I , the products of newl y emerging industries were exhibited in the courl yard of the Lollne." Lucien Oubech and Pierre d ' Espezel, lIistoire de [G4,2} Pari$ (1'"oIris, 1926), p . 335. "E\'ery five yea rs-in 1834, 1839, and 1844--t he products of industry are exhib ited in Marign y S(lua re." Oubech and d'EslH!zel , His,oire de Paris , p . 389. IG4,3] "T he fi r8t e)(hibition dilies hack to ] 798; set up 0 11 the Chump de Mars, it was ... 3n e)( hihilion of Ihe products of French indus tr y a nd was conceived h y Frllm;ois d e Neufehiiteau . There were three national exhihitions under the .: mpire (in 180 1, 1802. "01 1111 1806), the first two in the eourl ya rd of the Lo uvre, the third at the Im'alide8. There were th ree du ring the Hesloration (in 18 19, 1823. und 1827), aU allhe l.Qu vrc ; three during the July Monurch y (in 1834. 1839 , allli 1844), on the Place {Ie la COllcorde a nd tlw C ll a mps- E l y~s; a nd olle UllIler the Second Re puh lic. in 1849. Tllen . followinr; the example of EngIallll, \\'hich h ad orga nized 1111 illlrr natiollal exhibition in 185 1, IrnlJC!riul .' ra nce held world exhih itions on the Champ {Ie Mars ill 1855 11 1111 1867. The firs t saw the hirlh of the Pulais de J' lndus trie. d cmolished tluring the Itepublic; the second WII S u delirious festi v.ll.l marki ng the high point of the Second Em pire. In 1l178, a new exhibition was orga nized 10 attCllt 10 rebirth after d efeal; il was held on the Champ de Mars in It temporary
palace erected b y Formige. It is characteristic of these enormous fai rs to be ephemeral, ye t eac h of them has It-ft its trace ill Paris. T ile exhi.bilion of 1878 was re~(>o n s ible for the Trocadero. tha t eccentric p alace cllIPI}Cd down 011 I.he tOI) or Chaillol hy Davio ud anti Bourdais. and also for the root b ridge at Passy, buih to n:l'lace the Pont d'iena , which WIl S no longer usable. T he cxhihition of 1889 left l}Chilld the Galerie de. Machines, which was e" entually torn down , ahhough the Eifre! Tower stiU sta nds." Dubech and d 'Espezel , lIiMoire de I'uri, (I"ris, 1926), [G4.4] p. 46 1. '''Europe is off to view the mer chandise,' said Renan--contemptuously-of the 1855 exhibition. " Paul Morand , 1900 (Paris, 193 1), p . 71 . (G4,5] "'This yea r h as been lost for propagandll ,' says a socialist ora tor a t the congress of 1900." Paul Morand , 1900 (Paris, 193 1), p . 129. [G4 ,6]
" Despite all Ihe posturing with which TeutOllic arroga nce trie. to represenl the capit al or the HeidI as the brighlest beacon of civilization , Berlin has not yet been able to mount a worl,1 exhibition . . To tr y 10 excuse this d eplorable fa ct by claiming thai world exhibitions have had their da y alld now ar e nothing but gaudy aud gr audiose vanit y fairs . and so forth , is a crau evasion . We have no wi,lh to ,Ieny the tlrawbacks of ....orld exhibitions ... ; nevertlleless, in ever y case they relUaili incomparably more I)()",·erful le' ·ers of human culture than tbe countless barracks a UlI chu r ches with ....hicb Berli n has bl.'f:n inundated at such great C08t. The rccurre nt initintives 10 establish a world exhibitioll ha ve found ered, lirst of nil , on the Inck of energy ... arflicting the bourgeoisie. a nd , 8tM:ond , on the poorly disguised resentment with which an absolutist-feudal m.ilitarism looks on anything that could thr eaten its-alas!---still germinating rOOI8. " (Anonymous,) " Kl a8S~ cllkiimpfe." Die ' leue Zeit , 12, no. 2 (Stuttga rt . 1894), p . 257. (G4a,2)
Ou the occasion or tile world exhibition of 1867 , Victor Hugo issued a manUealo to " In 1798, a univer sal exposition of industry was an nounced ; it was to take place ... on Ihe Champ de Mars. The Directory had charged the minisler or the interior, Fra n ~ois de Ne ufchateau . with orga nizing a national resti val to commemorate the founding of the Republic. The minister had confern:d with several people, who proposed holding contests and games, Uke grea s y~ po l c climbing. One person s ug~ gested I.hat a great ma rket be set up after the fas hioll of country fairs , but on a larger scale. Finally, it was prol)Osed that all exhibition of paintings be included. These last two suggestio ns ga ve Fran~o i s de Neufchateau the idea of presenting an exhibition of industry in celebration of the n ational festival. Thus. the first indus trial exposition is born from the wish to amuse the working classes, and it become. for them a festival of emancipation . . . . The increasingly popular char ac ter of industry starts to become evident. ... Silk fab ri u are replaced by woolens, and sa tin aud lace by materials more in keeping with the domestic req uirements of the Third Estate: woolen bonnets and corduroys .... Cha ptal, the spokesman for this ex hibition , calls the industrial sta te by its name for the fir~ t time." Sigmund Engl iinder, Ce$chichte der fmn: o$i$chen Arbeiter-Anociutioflefl (Hamburg, 1864), vol. I , pp . 51- 53 . [G4,7] " In celebrating the centenary of the great Revolution, the French bou rgeoisie has, as it ....ere, intentionally set out to demonstrate to the proletariat ad OCUW$ the economic possibility and nec::essity of a social up rising. The world exhibition has givcn the proletaria t an excelleut idea of the unprtM:edented level of deveiolHuelit which the means of production ha ve reached ill all civili7.cd la nds-a development far exc!!eding the boldest utopia n fanta sies of the centur y preceding this one.... The exhibition has furth er demollstrated that modern d ev elo pnu~ nt of Ihe forces of production must of neccssity lead to industrial crises that , givcn tile a na rch y c u r~ rcntl y reigning in production . will onl y grow more acute ....itll the passage of time, and hence more destructive to IIle course or the world ecollomy." G. Plckhanov. " Wie die Bourgeoisie ihrer Revolution get.lenkt ," Oie lIeue Zei, . 9, 11 0 . I (Stu ttga rt , 1891). p. 138. [G4a.I J
the l)flOples of Europe.
(G4a,3)
Cbevalier ....as Ii disciple of Enfantin. Editor of Le Globe.
IG",' I
Ap ropos of Holand tie la Platier e's Encycwpedie methodique: " Turning to les mam ifuctllre" ... Roland writes: ' Industry is born of need .... ' It might appea r from this that the term is beillg used in the classical sense of indwtria. What follows provides clarification : ' Sut this fecund a nd l}Crverse riverhead, of irregu~ lar a nd retrogressive disl)()sition , eventually came down from the uplands to flood the fi elds, and soon nothing could satisfy the need which overspread the la od . ' ... What is significant is his ready employment of the word indwtne, more than thirty years before the work of Chaptal. " Henri Ha user, Le, Debuu du capitawme (Paris, 193 1), pp . 315-3 16. (G4a,5) " With price tag affixed , the commodity comcs on the ma rket . Its material quaUty alUl individu alit y are merely an incentive for buying and selling; for the social measure orils value. such qualily is of no importance whatsoever. T he commodity has become all abstraction . Once escaped frOnl tile ha nd of the producer and di vesled or its real particularit y, it cesse. to be a product and 10 be ruled over by human beings. It has acquired a ' g1IOStly objecti vity' and leads a life of its 0101'0 . 'A commodi ty appears, a t first sight , to be a tri vial anti easily understood thing. Our anal ysis 8110ws thut . in reality, it is a vexetl a nd complicated thing, abounding in lIIetapll )'sieal suhtleties a nd theological niceties. ' Cut ofr from the will of man , it aligns itself in II mys ter ious hierar chy, develops or declines exchangeability, alld, ill acco rdance with itl! own peculiar la ws, performs as lin actor on a phantom stage. 1/1 the la ngullge or the commodities excha nge, cotton 'soa rs, ' copper 'slunlps,' corn ' is acth'c: coa l ' is sluggish .' wheat 'is on the road to recovery.' and petro leum ' ,lis pla y a healthy treud .' T hings have gaine(1 autollomy, and Ihey take on human features .... T ile commodity has been tra nsformed into an idol that . al~ though the prod uci or human hallds, disposes over the llumall. Marx sl)C.aks of the
fetish cha racter of the commodit y. ' This feli sh charac ter of t.he comnu)dity world has its origin iJl the pt,'c uli ar social character of the la bor th at produces cUlllmod.i_ Li e~ . . .. It is onl y tile I'articnla r social relation between pcuple I.hut here au nmes, in the eyes of these IItltIJlle, the phantasmaguriclll form of a rel atiun between things. t· ... 0 110 Riihle. Kurl Ma rx (H ellerllu ( 1928) , PI" 384-385. [C 5, 1] "According to offi cial es timates, a total of a bunt 750 workers. chosen by their comrades or else nam ed by the entreprene urs themselves. visited London's world e ~hibiti o n in 1862 .... Tbe offi cial char ac ter of this delegation , and the manner in which it was cons titu ted , naturally inspired little confidence in the revolu tiouary and re publica u emigres from Fra nce. This circums ta nce perhaps explains wh y the idea of an organized re<:elltion for this deputation originated with the edi to rs of an organ dedicated to the eool)tlra ti ve movement ... . At the urging of the editorial starr of Th e Working Ma n , a committee was formed to prepa re a welcome for the French workers .... Those named to p articipate iucluded ... J . Morton Peto, . .. and J oseph Paxton . . .. Tbe interests of industry were put foremost , .. . a nd the need for an agreement between workers and entrepreneurs , as the sole meam of bettering the difficult condition of the worker s, was strongl y underlined ... . We cannot ... rega rd this gathering as the birthplace . .. of the International Work ingmen's Association . That is a legend . . . . The truth is simply that this visit acquired , through its indirect consequences, momentous iml,ortance as a key step on the way to a n understanding between English and French workers." D. Rja zanov. " Zur Ceschichte del' er sten Internationale," in M(lrx -Ens elsA rchiv. vol. I , pp. 157, 159-160. [G5.2) "Alread y, for the fi rs t wo rld exhibition in 185 1, some of the workers proposed by the ent repreneurs were sent to London at the state's expense. There was 0 18 0 , however , an independent delegation d isp atched to London on the initiati ve of Biamlui (the econonlisl) and Emile de Girardin . . .. This delegation submitted a gener al report in which , to be sure, we find no trace of the attempt to establish a permanent liaison with Englis h worken, but in which the need for peaceful rela lions between England and France is s tressed . . . . In 1855, t.he second world exhibition took place, Ihis time in Paris. Delegations of workers from the ca pital, as well as from the provinces. wer e now totally bar red . It was fea red that they ....ou.ld gi ve wo rkers 1111 opportunit y for organizing. " O. Rj aza nov, " Zur Geschichte der crs ten Intcfn lllionale," in lIIa rx-E,lsels Archiv• ...-d. Rjazanov, vol. I (Frank [G5a, J) furt lun Mllin). I'p . 150- 15 1.
The subtleties of Grandville aptly express what Marx calls the "tllcological nice ties't7 of the commodity. [G5a ,2] " T he sense of taste iHa ca rriage with four wlu,·cb . wbich are: ( I) Gas tronomy; (2) Cuisine; (3) COlilpa ny: (4) Culture." FrUin
Cormection o f the 6rst world exhibitio n in London in 185 1 with the idea of free trad e. [G5a,4) "The world exhibitions ha ve lost Illllch of their origin al ch aracter. The enthusiasm th at, in 185 1, was felt in tllc mos t dis pa rate circles h as subsided , and in its 1)lace has come a kind of cool calculation . In 185 1, ....e were living in the er a of free trade . . . . For some decades now. we have ....itnessed the s pread of protection_ ism . ... Particip ation in the exhibition ~o m es ... a sort of r epresenta tion . _ . ; and ....hereas in 1850 the ruling tenet Wall that the gove rnment Deed not concern itself in this affair, the situa tion today is so far advanced that the government of each country can be considera l a verita ble entrep rene ur." Julius Lessing, Da, halbe Jahrhundert del' WellulIssreliuns en ( Be rlin , 1900), pp. 29-30. {G5a,S) In London, in 185 1, " a ppea red . . . the first cast-steel cannon by Knipp . Soon therea ft er, tbe Prussian minis ter of war pl aced an order for more tha n 200 exem plars of this model. " Julius Lessing, Das halbe Jahrhunder"l der" Weltau,uleUun_ Sen (Berlin , 1900), p . II . [C 5a,6) " From the same sphere of thought tilat engendered the great idea of free trade a rose . . . Ihe notion that no one would come aWIlY empt y- handed- r ather, the contrar y- fro m an exhibitioll at which he had s taked his best so as to be able to take home the best that other people had to offer.. . This bold conception , in which the idea for the exhibition originated , wall put into action . Within eight months. ever ything was finis hed . 'An a bsolute wonder lilat h as become a pa rt of history. ' At the foundation of the entire underta king, remarka bly enough, re8U the principle that such a work must be backed not by the s ta te but b y the free activity of its citizens ... . Origi n aUy, two private contrac tors, the Munday broth er s, offer ed to build , at their own ris k , a p alace costing a million ma rks. But gr ander proportions wer e resolved on , and the necessary fund s for guara nteein ~ the enterp rise, totaling man y millions, we re lI ubscrihed in short order. The Veat new thought found a great new form . The engineer Paxton built the Cr ystal Pal ace. In every l a ~d r ang out the news of something fa bulous and unp re<:ede nted: a palace of glass and iron was going to be built , one Ihat would co,'er e.ighteen acres. No t long before this , Pax ton had cons tructed a vaulted roof of glass and iron for one .o f the greenhouses at Kew, in which luxuriant palm8 were growing, and thi, ac hievement gave him the courage to ta ke on the new task . Chosen as a site for the exhibition wIIs the flllest pa rk in London, Hyde Park , which offered ill the middle !I wide open meadow, tra ve rsed !llong its s horter !I ~ ill by a ll avenue of splendid elms . But anxious onlookCI's 800 n raised II cr y of ala rm lest these trees be sacrificed for the sa ke of a whim . ' Theil I shall roof o,'cr tile trees ,' was PalC tou's answer, and lIe p roceedCllto Ilesigu the transe pt. which , wit.h its semicyliudrical vault eleva ted 11 2 feet a bove tile ground , . . . accollunodated the whole ruw of elms. It is in the highest degree remar ka ble and significan t that this Great Exhibition of Londoll oorll of mode rn cOllccptions of stea m " owcr. electricity. ami photogra phy. and modern conceptio ns of free trade--should lit t.he same time have a fford ed the
decisive impetus, within thit period u a whole, for the r evolution in artistic forms. To build a palace out of glus and iron teemed to the world , in thOle days, a fa ntastic inspiration for a temporary piece of a rchitecture. We see now that it was the fi rst great ad vance on the road to a wholly new wor ld of forms .... The con structive style, as opposed to the historical style, has become the watchword of the nlOd ern movement. When did this idea make it. triumphal entry into the world? In the year 185 1, with the Cr ysta l Palace in London. At firs t , peolJle thought it impo. sihle that a Iialace of colossal proportions could be built from glBlSand iron. In the puhBcations of the d ay, we find the idea of assembling iron componen ts. so fanlil iur to us now, represented UII something extraordinary. England can boast of hav ing accomplillhed this quite novel tu k in the space of eight months, ulling iu existing factories, without any additional capacity. Qne points out triumpbantly that .. . in the . ixteenth century a small glned window wall still a lux ury item, whereas tod ay a building covering eighteen acres can be constructed entirely out of glass. To a man like Lothar Bucher, the mea ning of thill new IItructure was clear: it was the undisguised architectural expression of the transver&e strength of slen der iron components. But the fantastic charm which the edifice exerted on aU lOuls went weU beyond such a ch aracterization, however crucial for the program of the future; and in this regar d , the preser vation of the magnificent row of trees for the central transept was of capital importance. Into this space were transported all the horticultural glories which the rich conservatories of E ngland had been able to cultivate. Lightly 1)lumed palms from the tropics mingled with the leafy cr own. of the five-hundred-year-old elms; and within thit enchanted forest the d ecoraton arranged masterpieces of plan ic art, slatuary, large bronzes, and specimens of other artworks. At the center stood an imposing crystal fountain. To the right and to the left r an galleries in which visitors p assed from one n ational exhibit to the other. Over all, it seemed a wonderland , ap pealing more to the i.magination than to the inteUecl . 'It is with sober economy of phrase that I term the prospect incompa r ably fairy-like. This space is a summer night'. dream in the midnight SIlO ' (Lolhar Bucher ). Such sentiments were registered throughout the world . I myself recaU, from my childhood, how the new. of the Crystal Palace r eached us in Ger man y, and how pictures of il were hl10g in the middle-class p arlors of distant provincial towns. It seemed then that the world we knew from old fairy taie8--0f the princess in the glau coffin , of queens and elves dwelling in cr ystal houBelJ-had come to life ..., and these inlpressions have persisted through the decades. The great tra nBeI)t of the palace and part of the pavilions were transferred to Syden ham, where the building sta nds today;' ther e I saw it in 1862 , with feelin gs of awe and the sheerest delight. It has taken four d eca des. numer ous fires, a nd many depredations 10 r uin this magic. although even today it is still not completely vanished." Julius Lessing. Das halbe Jahrhunderl de r WeltulusuJlwl8en (Berlin, 19(0), pp . 6- 10. [G6 ; G6a,I) Organizing the New York exhibition of 1853 fell to Phineas Barnum.
[G6a,2)
" I..e Play has calculated tha t the number of years rccluired 10 pre pare a world exhibition equals the number of months it ru ns .... There ia obviously a ahocking
Exterior of the Crystal Palace, London. See G6; G6a, l.
disproportion here between the period of gestation and the duration of the enter prise." Maurice I'ecard , Les Expositions internationales au point de vue ecoRO mit/lie er social, particuli.e rement en France (Paris, 1901), p. 23 . [G6a,3) A bookseller 's poster apl»ear s in Le. Mura ille. revolurionnaires de 18 /18 with the following expl anatory rema rk : " We offer this affiche, a8 la ter we shaU offer others unrelated to the elections or to the political events oflbe day. We offer it because it lells why a nd how certain manufacturer s profit from certain occasions." .' rom the Iwster : " Reatl this imlw rtallt notice against Swindlers. MOlisieur AJexandre Pier re, wishing 10 stop t he d aily abuses created by the gelleral ignor ance of the Argot and J a rgoll of swindlers and dangerous men, haa made good use of the unhappy time he was forced to spend with them as a victim of the fall en Govern ment ; now r estored to liberty by our noble Republic, he haa juSI published the fruit of those l ad studiell he was able to make in prison . He is not afr aid to descend
inlo Ihe midsl of these horrible places, and even inlO the Lions' Den , if by these means ... he ca n she{1 liglu on Ihe principal words of thcir con vc rsatiolls , and thus make il possible 10 avoid tile mil!fort unes arltl ab uses thai result from nOI knowin g these wo rds, which until now were intelligible onl y to swindlers .... On sale from public ve ndors a nd from the Autlror." Le. Mltraille. riwollllionnaire5 de 1848 (Paris ( 1852), vol. I , p . 320. [G7, 1]
If the commodity was a fetish, then Grandville was the tribaJ sorcerer.
IG',' I
mond Empire: "The government 's candidates ... wer e able to print their p roela mations on white pape r, a color reserved exclusivel y for official publications." A. Malet a nd P. Grillet , XI X' .iecle (Paris, 1919) , I)' 27 1. [G7,3]
InJugendstil we see, for the first time, the integration of the human body into [G7,4} advertising. DJugendstil 0 Worker delegations at the world exhibition of 1867 . At the tOI) of the agenda is the demand for the ab rogation of Article 1781 of the Civil Code, which reads: '"The employer's word shaD be taken as true in his statement of wages apportioned , of salary paid for the year ended , and of accounts given for the current yea r" (I'. 140).-"T he delegations of worken at the exhibitions of London and Paris in 1862 and in 1867 gave a direction to the 80cial movement of the Second Empi re, and even, we may say, to that of the sccond half of the nineteenth century. . . . T heir reports were compared to the rec:ord8 of the Estates General ; the former we re the signal for a 80cial evolution , just as the latter, in 1789, had been the cause of a political and cconomic revolution" (I" 207).-{Thi8 comparison comes from 1'tUchel Chevalier. ] Demand for a ten -bour workday (I" 12 1).- " Four hundred thousand free tickets were distributed to the workers of Paris and vario us cieparlement• . A barracks with more than 30 ,()(M) beds was pu t at the disposal of the visiting workers" (p . 84). Henr y Fougere, Le. Deiegalion$ Qu vriere. aax expo . itions univer.elle. (Montlut-on , 1905). [G7,5} Gatherings of worker delegations of 1867 at the " training ground of the Passage Raoul ." Fougere, p. 85. [G7a,l ] "The exhihition Ilad long since closed , hut the delegate8 continued their discus sions, and the pa rliamen t of workers kept llOlding sessions in the Passage Haoul. " Henry Jo'ougere, Le. DeUgation. oll vriereJ (lUX exp o.ition. IIniller.elle. 50118 Ie lIcco/ld empire (Montlu ~o n , 1905), 1'1" 86-87 . Altogetiler, the sessions lasted from July 21. 1867, until Jul y 14 , 1869. [G7a ,2} Internation al Assoeiation of Workers. '''The A88ociation . . . {IIIICS from 1862, fro m the lime of the world exhi bition in LOllllon. It was there that English and French wo rkers first met , to holll discussions a llli Sirek mutu il l cnligiltclllnent. ' Statcment made by M. Tolain on March 6, 1868 •... during the flrlH suit IJrought
b y the government aga inst the International AS8ociation of Workers." Ilcnry Fougerc, 1A!5 lJeUgo tiOJu Ollvrierc. tlll.;c eX/Jo, itio" . IlII ivencllCJ '011$ Ie "ecotld empire (Montlu\'on , 1905), p. 75. T hc fi nll great lIIt:eting in London drafted a [G7a,3] (Ieclarat ion of sympath y for the liberal ion of the Polcs. In till: three or four reports by the wo rker delegations who took part in the world exhihitioll of 1867, therc are dema uds for the abolition of standing armies anti for geller al disar ma lllelll . Delcgations of porcelain painters, pillno repairmen , shoe lIIa ken, and mec:h anics. See Fougere. PI'. 163- 164. [G7a,4] 1867. " Whoever visited the Chaml) de Mars for the first time got a sillJ,·ular impres sion. Arri ving hy the central a\'enue , he saw at first ... onl y iron and smoke ... . This initial impression exerted SUell an illfluence on the visitor that , iglloring the tempting diversions offered by the arcade, he would hasten toward the movement IIntlnoise that attracted him . At every poiut ... where the machines were monlen ta ril y still , he could hear the strai ns of steam-powered organs and t.hc symphonies of brass instru ments." A . S. de Doncourt , Les Exposilion$ ILniver.elle. (Lille and I)uris <1889) , PI'. 1 I 1- 11 2. [G7a,5) T heatrical works pertaining to the world exhil)ition of 1855: Paris trop petit , Augu st 4 , 1855, Tlu!itre du Luxembourg; Paul Meurice, Pu ri. , July 21 , Porte Saint-Martin ; Theodore Barriere a nd Paul {Ie Koek , L 'lIisloire de Paris and Le. Grand. Siecle5. Sep tember 29; Le. Mode. de l'exp o.ition ; Dzim boom boom: Re vue de l 'exhibition; Seb as tien Rheal, La Vision de f'awtw . 011 L 'E:cpositiotl uni verselle de 1855. In Adolp he De.my, Eu ai hi810rique . ur Ie. expo. i, ioru univer.elle5 de Puris (Paris, 1907), p . 90. [C7a,6] London 's world exhibition of 1862: " No trace remained of the edifying impre88ion made by the exhibition of 185 1. ... Nevertheless, this exhihition h ad some note worth y result8.... T he greatest surprise ... callie from China . Up to this time, Europe had seen nothing of Chinese art except ... tile ordinary I)()rcelains sold OD the IUllr·ket . Hui 1I 0W the Anglo-Chinese war had taken place ... , and the SUlIlmer Palace h ad ht.'Cn burnell to the ground , SUPI)()u."d ly a8 punis hme nl . ~ In truth , however, the English had succeeded even more d UIll thei r a llies , the French , in carrying awa y a large portion of tllt~ treasures alllassed in that palnce, and these treas ures we re 8ubsequentl y put 0 11 exhihit in London i.1I 1862. For the sake of Iliscretion , il was wo men r ather than men ... who actcd as exh ibitors." Julius LeS5ing, Da . 'Ultbe jalrrlllmtIerl tier Welltll1881ellllflge n (Ber lin, 1900), p. 16.
IG8,II Lessing (Do. II(JII..e }trllrllunrlert der Wei,all.stelluflgc n [Berlin. 1900]. p . " ) IHJillIJi up the difference Iw twet:1l the ...·orld ex hibi tion;; a lld the fairs. " or the latter, tile IIlcr'cha nts brought IIlCir whole stock of gootl ~ alo ng with thclII . Thc world exhibitiolls pre8UPI)()Se a considcra ble d evelopmcnt of conllllercial as well a8 in
dtl!~trial
credit- that is to@ay,crt:tlit part or the firm s taking their ordet"8.
011
the part of the customcrs. as wdla8 0 11 Ihe (G8,2]
" You Iid iheratel y had to close yo ur eyes in order not to realize Iha llhe fair 0 11 the Champ de Ma rs in 1798. that Ihe s upe rh porticoes of tlu: courtyard of tile l..ouvre alld t.he courtyard of Ihe In Vlllidcs cOlis tructetl in the rollowing years, alld . filially, thaI tlte mcmorable royal ordinance or J anua ry 13, 18 19," have powcrrull y eOIl tr ihutcd to the glorious d evelopment or French indus try.... It was rese rved rOr the king or France to trallsform the magnificent gaUeries or his palace into a ll immell8C bazaa r, in order that his IH!Opie might contemplate ... thesc ullbioodied trop hics raised up by the gt:uius or the arts and the geuiu! of l)Cal:e." doseph Charlcs. ChcllOu and H .D., Notice s ur l 'exposition des produits de l'indll~ trie et des arts flui a eu lie u DOlWi en 1827 (Douai, 1827), p. 5. [G8,3]
a
'1l:tree different delegations of workers "'ere sent to London in 185 1; none of them accomplished anything significant. Two " 'ere official: one represented the National Assembly, and one the municipality of Paris. The private delegation was put together with the support of the press, in particular of Emile de Girardin. The workers themselves played no part in assembling these delegations. [G8,4] The dimensions of the Crystal Palace, according to A. S. Doncourt , Les Expoli- ,iolll ilni lJer~e llel ( wile and Paris dB89», p . 12. The long sides measured 560 meters. [G8,5] On the workers' delegations to the Great Exhibition in London in 1862: " Electoral offices were being r a pidl y organized when , on the eve of elections, an incident ... arose to iml)C(le the ol)Crations. The Paris police ... took umbrage at Ihis unp rece dented d evelopment , alld the Workers Commission was ordered to cease its ac tivities. Con vinced that this meas ure . . . could only be the resuh or a mis unders ta nding, members of the Commission took their a plHlal directl y to His Majesty.... The emperor .. . was, in facl , willillg to authorize the Commisssion to purs ue its task. T he e1ectiolls ... resulted ill the selection of two hundred dele ga tes .... A lH!riod of len Ilays had been gr an ted to each group to accomplish its mission. Each delegate received , on his departure, the s um of 11 5 fra ncs, a 8flCo' (llul-class round-trip trai n ticket , lodging, and a meal. as well as a pass to the exhibition .... This grca t popular movement took place witllOut the slightest inci de lll tllllt . coulll Ila vt~ bl."Cli termell regrettahle." RlIpporl s d es del olwrie r., l}(Jri~ ie ll.f (; l'exposi,ioll de umtirel ell 1862, pllbfie. ]Jur 1(1 Commi~lI i01I oliliriere ( Puris . 1862- 1864) [I vol.!] , pp. iii- iv. (The Ilocumcnt contains r.rt y tllrl."C re pol·ts by Ilclegutions from the dirferent tralle.... ) [GSa, !]
deles"e.
Pari..._ 1855 . " Four locolll o ti vc ~ were gu ardi ng the hall of machines, like those great IlIIlIs or Nineva ll . or like the s phinxes to bc seen a t the e ntrance to Egylltian temples. T his hall was a land of iron a nd fire and wa ter ; tllc ca rll were deafellt,.'( I, the e}'t!s (Iazzlell.... All was in motion . One sa .... wool combed , dotl. twis tcll, yarn
clipped. grain threshed . coal extracted . chocolate refin ed , and on and on . All exhibitors without exception were allowell lIIotil.it y and steam , contrary to what went on in Lolllion in 185 1, when onl y the English ex hihitot"8 had had the benefit of fire and water." A. S. DonCOlirt . Les EXIJW ifion~ unive r~elks (LilJe and Paris <1 889» . 11 • 53 . [G8a,2] In 1867 , the " oriental qua rter" was t.he center of atl.raetion .
(G8a,3)
Fifteen million \'isitol"8 to the exhibition of 1867.
[G8a,4]
In 1855 , for the fi rs t time, merchandise could he ma rked with a price.
IG8a,5]
>rincipal nations occupied the secto rs cut by those radii. In this way, ... by strolling around the gaUeries, one could ... survey the s tate of one particula r industry in all the different countries, whereas, by strolling up the avenuC1l that crossed them , one could ...urvey the sta te of the different branches of industry in each particula r country." Adolphe Dimy, Euai historique l ur k l eX]Jo.ilio n~ univer~elkl de Pa ris (Paris, 1907), p. 129.-Cited here is Theophile Gautier 's article about the palace in Le Moniteur of September 17, 1867: " We have before li S, it seems, u monument created 011 another planet, 011 Jupiter or Saturll , according to a taste we do not recognize ami with a coloration to which our eyes arc lIot accllstomed ." Ju st berore this: " The grea t azure gulr, with its hlood-colored rim , prolluces II vcrtiginous erfect a ud unsettles our idcas of architecture. " . (G9,2] Hesis tance to the world exhihition of 185 1: "The king or Prussia forbade the royal prince anti princell ... from traveling to London .... The diplomatic corps re fu sed to addreu any word of congratulations to the (Iueell . 'At this mome"t ,'
wrote ... Prince Albert 10 his mother 011 April IS, 185 1, ... ' Ihe opponents of the Exhihition are hard al work . . . . The foreign er l, they cry, will start a r adical revolution here; they will kill Vicloria and myself and proclaim a red republic. MOI·cover, t.he plugue will surely reault from the inAu" of such multitudes a nd wiD devour tholle wllO h ave not been dri vell away by the high prices on everything. ' .. Adolphe Dimy, Euo.i hu ,orique Sllr te, expo.irion. Itlliverselle. (Paris, 19(7), p .38 . [G9,3) Frall~oi s
de Neufchateau on the exhibition of 1798 (in Demy, Euai hutorUiue . ur "'The French ,' he d eclared, .. ' have amazed EurolJe by the swiftness of their military successes; they should launch a caree r in commerce and the arts with just the l ame fer vo r '" (p . 14). " This initial expo8ition . . . is really an initial ca mpaign, a campaign disastrous for English industry" (p . 18).-Martial characler of the opening procefl8ion : "(1) a contingenl of trum· peter s; (2) a detachment of cavalry; (3) the first two squads of mace bearers; (4) the drums; (5) a military marching hand ; (6) a 8quad of infantry; (7) the heralds; (8) the festival mars hal ; (9) the artis18 regis tered in the exhibition; (10) the jury" (p . 15).-Neufchateau awards the gold medal to the most heroic anauh on Eng.l.ieb industry. [G9a,I)
tes exposition. univer.elle. ).
The lIec!ond e"hibition, in Year IX," was supposed to bring together, in the court· ya rd of the Louvre, works of industry and of the plastic artll. But lhe artilltll refu sed 10 e"hibit their work alongside thai of manufacturers (Demy, p . 19). (G9a,2) Exhibition of 18 19. '""fhe king, on the occallion of the exhibition , conferred the title of baron on Ternaux and Oberkalllpf. ... The granting of a ristocratic titlea to industrialistll had provoked Home criticillms. In 1823, no new titles were con ferred ." Di my, Eu ai hutorique, p . 24. (G9a,3] Exhibilioll of 1844. Madame de Girardin 's conunenlS on the event , Vicomte de l..aunay, uttres paru iennes, vol. 4, p. 66 (cited in Demy, Euai hu torique. p. 27): .... ' It is a pleasure, ' she remarked, 'strangely a kin to a nightmare.' And IIhe went OD to enumerate the singularities, of which ther e waa no lack: the fl ayed horlle, the colo88al het:tlc, Ihe moving jaw, the chronometric Turk who ma rked the hours by the num ber of his somersaults, and- Iallt but not least- l\1 . and Mme. Pipelel , the concierges in u. Mystere. cle Paris , 1: ill angelll." (G9a,4) [G9a,S)
World exhibition of 1851 : 14,837 ex hibitors; that of 1855: 80,000.
In 1867, the t: gyptiall e"hiiJit was housed ill a IlUilding whose design a n Egyplialll elilple.
Will
based on [G9a,6)
In his 1I0"e! The Fortren , Wall)Ole dellcribeathe precautions Ihat ....ere taken in a lotlging-house sl)eCially designed 10 ....elcome visitors to the ....orld exhibition of
185 1. These preca utions included continuolls 1)OIice surveillance of the dormito ries, the pn:llellce of a cha plain , ami a regular morning visit by a d octor. [G IO, I) Walpole describes the Crystal Palace, with Ihe g1asll fount ain at its cenler and the old e1m;;--the laller " looking a lmost like Ihe lions of Ihe forest caught in a net of glass" (p . 307) . He deKribes the booths decorated with expensive carpets, and above aU the machines . " There were in Ihe machille· r OOIll the 'self-acling mules,' the J aCtlua rd lace machines, the envelope machines, the power looms, the model 10comOlivC1l, celltrifugal pumps, the vertical 81eam--e.ngines, aU of Ihe3e ....orking like mad , while Ihe thousand s ncarby, in their high hats and bonnela. sat patientl y wailing, passive, unwillillg that Ihe Age of Man on this Plunet was doomed. " Hugh Walpole, "he Forrren (Hamburg, Parill, a lld Bologna <1933», p. 306.13 (GIO,2) Delvau speaks of " men who, each evenillg, have their eyes glued 10 the displa y ....indow of I..a BeUe J a rdinere to watch the da y's receilll8 being counted ." Alfred Delvau , us Heure. paruienne. (Pa ris, 1866). p . 144 ("Huit heures dll soir"). IGIO,']
In a s peet':h to Ihe Senate, on January 31,1868, Michel Chevalier makes aD effort to save the previous yea r 's Palace of Industry from de3truction . Of the various posllibilitiell he lays out for lIalvaging the building, the most noteworthy ill that of using the interior-which , with its circular form , ill ideally lluited 10 such a pur pOIle--for practicing troop maneuvers. He also proposes developing the structure into a lH!rmanent merchandise mart for in1l)Orts. The intention of the opposing party seemll to have been to keep the Champ de Mars free of all construction- this for mililary reallons. See Micliel Chevalier. Dilcours .fUr line petition reciamo.nt conlre ia de$truCliotl du pailli. cle l'Expo.ition IIniversette de 1867 (Paris, 1868). IGIO,. ] "T he world exhibitions ... can not fai l to provo ke the mosl exacl comparisons 1H!lween t.he prices a nd the qualities of the same article as produced ill different countriC1l. fl o .... tlie school of abllolute freedom of trade rejoices then! The world exhibitiunll contribute ... 10 the reduction , if nottlie a bolition , of cllslom duties. " Achille de Colusont (?>, lIi3toire de$ exposition. cles proouiu cle t'indlUtrie frt.in~uue (Paril, 1855), p. 544. [G l Oa, I) E,·e ry
inclu ~ lr)",
in u hihil ing itll trophics
In liIi" ha1!aar of Uni llC r8ll1 Jl rogrcu. See m~ to ha"'l horrowed a fairy's ma gi c wand To hlc&!I lh e Cr)"S1al Palaer:. Ric h me n . ""llOlar8. a rli s l ~ . proklarillnll- Eac h on.· la hort fo r Ihr: co mmo n I!!OV(I; '\nd. j oi nin! toget he r like no hle hrolhc r •. ,\11 loa lie at hclt rlthe ha l' l,i netl' of each.
Clairville anti Jules Cordier, Le Pulail de Cris tal, Ol~ IA!~ Paris ie ,,~ ;; Lo ndre~ [Theatre de la Porte-SainI-Mar tin , May 26, 185 1J ( Paris, 185 1), p. 6 . [GlOa,2) The laS! two tablea ux from Clairville's Pala is de Crillal take place in f ro nl of a nd illside Ihe Cr ystal Pa lace. T he stage di rections for the (llext to) laSI tableau : ''The main gallery of the Cr ystal Palace . To the left , d ownstage, a bcd , at the head of ...hich is a la rge dial. At center stage , a 8ma1l ta ble holding small sac ks and pots of ea rth . To the right , an electrical machine. Toward the rea r, an exhibition of vari ous products (b ased 0 11 the descrip tive engraving done in Londoll)" (p . 30). [CIOn,3] Ad ver tisement fo r Marquis Chocolates, fro m 1846: " Chocolate from La Ma ison Marquis, 44 Rue Vivienne, at the Passage des Panoramas.-The time has come ... hen chocolate praline, and all the other va rieties of ch ocolat de fa ntail ie, will he available . . . fro m the House of l\1a rqu.is in the most varied and gr aceful of fo rms. . . . We are privileged to be a ble to aDliounce to our readers tha t, oltce again , a ll assortment of pleasing verses, j udiciously selected fro m a mong the year's purest , most gracious, and most elevated publications, will accompan y the exqu.i site confections of Marquis. Confident in the favora ble advantage that is ou rs alone, we rejoice to bring together that puissan t name wi th 80 much lovely ve rse." Cabinet des Estampes. [GlOa,4] Palace of Industry, 1855: "Six pavilions bonier the b uildi ng on four sides, and 306 ar cades run tb ro ugh the lower story. An enormous glass roof provides light to the interior. As mater ia ls, onl y stone, iron , a lld zinc have heell used ; building costs amounted to II millioll francs .... Of p articular interest are two lar ge paintings on glass at the eastern and western ends of the ma in gallery.... T he figures rep re sented 011 tbese a ppear to be life-size, yet ar e no les8 than six meters high ." Acht Tage in Paris ( Pa ris, Jul y 1855), PI' . 9- 10. The pa intings on glass show fi gures representing industrial Fra nce and Justice. {GI I ,I] " I have ... written , together ...ith my collabora tor s on I. 'A telie r, tha t the moment for economic revolution has come . . . , although we had all agn-ed some time previously that the workers of Euro pe had acbieved solidarity and that it was necessa r y now to move 0 11 , before an ything else, to the idea of a political federation of peoples. " A. Corbon , Le Secret tlu peuple de Pa ris (Paris, 1863), p. 196. Also p. 242: " In sum , the political attitude of the working class of Paris consis ts uhllost entirely in t.he pas ~ i o ll ate desire to ser ve the moveme nt of fede ra tion of nationali ties ." [C I I,2] Ni na Lassave, Fieschi 's bdol'ed, was employed . aft cr his execution on Februar y 19, 1836, as a cas hier al Ihe Cafe de la H eJl ai ~s a n ce 0 11 tilt: Place tie la Bourse.
{Gll ,3] AII.imal s ymholis m ill TonssclleI: the mole. " T he mole is .. . not the emblem of a single charac ter. II is the emblem of a whole social perioa: the period of industry 's
infancy. the Cyclopean pcriod .... It is the .. . allegor ica l expression of the ah so lu te predomin ance of hrule fO I·ce over illtcllt.-eilial force . . . . Man y estima ble analobtlsts find a marked resembla nce betW(''C1I moles, ... hich II pllll·1I the soil a nd pierce passages of 6ubielTanean conuuunication , ... and the monopolizers of r ail· roads and stage I·outes . . . . The extreme ner vo us sen8ibility of tile mole, whic b fea rs the light . . . , admi rably cha racter izes the obstinate obscu ra ntis m of t.hose monopolizers of banking and of trallsportation , who also fea l· the light ." A. Toussenel , I~ 'Esprit des oo' es : Zoologie passiOllllelle-l'tfammiferes de France (paris, 1884), pp. 469, 473--474.].1 [G ll ,4] Ani mal symbolis m in Toussellei: the marmot . "The ma l·mot .. . loses its hair at its work- in allusion to the paillfullabo r of the chimney sweep , who rubs and spoils his clotbes in his occupation ." A. Toussenel , L 'Esp rit des /Je' es (Pa ris, 1884),
.="
~ l l~
Plant symbolis m ill Toussend : the vine. " The ViJle loves to gossip ... ; it moun ts fa milia rl y to the shoulder of plum tree, oBve, or elm, and is intimate with all the trees." A. Toussellel, L'Esprit (le~ betes ( Paris, 1884), p . 107. [C Il ,6]
Toussenel expounds the theory of the circle and of the parabola with reference to the different childhood games of the two sexes. This recalls the anthropo morphisms of Grandville. "The figures preferred by childhood are invariably round- the baH, the hoop, the marble; also the fruits which it prefers: the cherry, the gooseberry, the apple, the jam tart. ... The analogist, who has observed these games with continued attention, has not failed to remark a characteristic differ ence in the choice of amusements, and the favorite exercises, of the children of the two sexes .... \Vhat then has our observer remarked in the character of the games of feminine infancy? He has remarked in the character of these games a decided proclivity toward the ellipse. I I observe among the favorite games of feminine infancy the shuttlecock and the jump rope.... Both the rope and the cord describe parabolic or elliptical curves. \Vhy so? \Vhy, at such an early age, this preference of the minor sex for the elliptical curve, this manifest contempt for marbles, ball, and top? Because the ellipse is the curve of love, as the circle is that of f~endship . The ellipse is the figure in which God ... has profiled the form of His favorite creatures-woman, swan, Arabian horse, dove; the ellipse is the essentially attractive form .... Astronomers were generally ignorant as to why the planets describe ellipses and not circumferences around their pivot of attrac tion; they now k.now as much about this mystery as I do." A. TousselleJ, L'Espn·, des biles, pp. 89-91. '6 (Glla,I) TousselleJ posits a symbolism of curves, according to which the circle represents friendship; the ellipse, love; the parabola, the sense of family ; the hyperbola, ambition. In the paragraph concerning the hyperbola, there is a passage closely related to Grandville: "The hyperbola is the curve of ambition.. . . Admire the detennined persistence of the ardent asymptote pursuing the hyperbola in head
long eagem ess: it approaches, always approaches, its goal .. . but never attains [Gll a.2] it." A. Toussenel, L'Espn'f des beles (Paris, 1884), p. 92.'1
its first ordeal. " A. Toussenel , L 'Esprif des befes; Zoologie Pll.SSiOflnelle (Paris, 1884). pp. 44-45. [G12 ,5)
AJlimal symbolism in Toussenel : the hedgehog. " Gluuollous allli repulsive , it is also the portrait of the scurvy slave of tile IH:n, trafficking with all subjects, scUing postmaster's appoiJltments and theater passes, ... and drawing .. from Ilis sorr y Chr istian conscience pledges and apologies at fixed prices . . .. It is said that Ihe hedgehog iS lhc only quadruped of France on which the venom of the viper has no effect. I should have guessed this exception merely from analogy. .. For ex pl ain . . . how calumny (the vilJer) can stillg the literary blackguard." A. Toussene!, L 'Esprit des M tes (Paris, 1884). PI" <1, 76, 478 .' ~ [G II a,3)
Principle of Toussenel 's zoology; " The rank of the species is ill direct proportion to its resemblance to the human being. " A. Toussellel, L 'E$pril des beres (Paris, 1884), I)' i. Compar e the epigraph to the work: '''The best thing about lIIall is his [Gl2a,l ) dog. '-Charlet ."
" Lightning is the kiss of clouds, stormy but faithful. Two lovers who ad ore each other, and who will tell it in spite of all obstacles, are two clouds animated with opposite electricities, and swelled wilh tragedy. " A. Toussenel. L 'Esprit des betes: Zoologie pa ssionnelle-Mammifi~ res de Frallce, 4th ed . (Paris, 1884), pp. 100 IOI. I ~ [G12 ,l) The first edition of Toussenel's L 'Esprit des be fes appeared in 1847 .
IGl2,' 1
" I have vainly questiolled the archives of antiquit y to fi nd traces of the setter dog. I have appealed to the memory of the most lucid somnambulists to ascertain the epocll when this race ap peared. All the information I could procure . . . leads to this conclusion: the setter dog is a creation of modern times." A. Toussenel, L'Es prit des Mtes (Pa ris, 1884), p. 159. :0 [G12,3) " A beautiful young woman is a true voltaic cell , ... in which the captive fluid i8 retained by the form of surface8 and the isolating virtue of the hair; 80 that wheD this fluid would escape from its sweet prison, it must make incredible efforl8, which produce in turn, by inRuence on bodies differently a nimated , fearful rav ages of attraction . . .. The history of the human race swarms with examples of intelligent and learned men, intrepid heroes, ... transfixed merely by a woman's eye . ... The holy King David proved that he perfectly understood the condensing pro per ties of polished elliptical surfaces when he took unto himself the yo ung {G12,4] Abigail. " A. Toussencl, L 'Esprit des befes (Paris. 1884). pp. 101_ 103. 11 TOllssenei explains the rotation of the earth as the r esultant of a centrifugal force and a force of attraction. Further on: " T ile star. . begins to wah7. its fre lletie wa ltz . . .. E\'er ything rustles, stirs, warms up , shines on !lIe sllrface of the globe, whicll onl y the eveni ng before was entombed in the frigid silence of night . Marvel Oil S spectacle for the well-placed observer--change of scene wonderful to behold . For the revolution took place between two suns und , that very evelling. un ame thyst Slu r malle its fir st aplJeara nce in our skies" (p. 45). And , alluding 10 the volcanism of earlier epochs of the earth ; " We know the effects which the first waltlE usually h a ~ 011 delica te co n ~titutiulI'; .. .. T he Earth, too. "" as rudely awakened by
The aeronaut Poitevin, sustained b y great publicity. ulldertook a n " ascent to Ura_ nus" accompanied in the gOlldola of his balloon by yo ung women dressed as mythological figures. Paris $O U $ la Republique de 1848: Expositioll de la Bib fiotheque el des Ira vaux historiques de fa Ville de Pa ris (1909). p. 34. [GI2a,2)
We can speak of a fetishistic autonomy not only with regard to the commodity but also-as the following passage from Marx indicates-with regard to the means of production: "If we consider the process of production from the point of view of the simple labor process, the laborer stands, in relation to the means of production, ... as the mere means . . . of his own intelligent productive activ ity. ... But it is different as soon as we deal with the process of production from the point of view of the process of surplus-value creation. The means of produc tion are at once changed into means for the absorption of the labor of others. It is now no longer the laborer that employs the means of production, but the means of production that employ the laborer. Instead of being consumed by him as material elements of his p roductive activity, they consume him as the ferment necessary to their own life process . . . . Furnaces and workshops that stand idle by night, and absorb no living labor, are a 'mere loss' to the capitalist. Hence, furnaces and workshops constitute lawful claims upon the night labor of the workpeople.":12 Tl1is observation can be applied to the analysis of Grandville. To what extent is the hired laborer the "soul" of Grandville's fetishistically animated objects? [Gl 2a,3) "Night distributes the steUar essence to the sleeping planlS. Every bird which flies has the thread of the infinite in its claw. " Victor Hugo, Oeuvres completes (Paris , L88I). 1I0vels, vol. 8, 1' .114 (Les Miserables, book 4).23 [G12a,4) Drumont ca Us Toussenel " one of the greatest prose writers of the century. " Edoua rd Drumont , Les Heros et les pitre$ (Pa ris ( 1900) , p. 270 ("Toussenel"). [G12a ,5) Technique of exhibition: " A fUlld umelital rule, Iluickl y lea rnell through observa tion , is that 110 object should he placed direet1y on the fl oor, on a level with the walkways. Pianos, furniture, physical apparatus, and machines are better dis played on a pedestal or raised platform . The hest exhibits nlake usc of two q uite distinct systems: disp lays under glass and open displays. To be sure, some p rod ucts , by their very nature or because of their value, have to he protected from
-
COlltll~:t with the a ir or the ha nd ; o illen! benefit (rom being left uncovered ." Expo . ilion unilJc rselle de 1867, ci Pm';,, : Album dell in.tluiJalion.J Ie. pllU rerrwrquablu de l'Exposition de 1862. a Lolldres, publii par lu commiuion impe riale pour .ervir de renseigrlemc nl UlU eXpO,cHlt, des di ver,e' "(llium (Pari" 1866) . AJhum of plate. in lar ge folio. widl ve ry interesting illustrations. l ome in color, sho.....ing-in cr oss-section or longitudinal section , 81 the case Dlay be--the pavil.
iOllt
of the world exhibition of 1862. Bibliothi!
[G 13,1J
Paris in tile year 2855 : "Our many visitors from Sa turn and Mara have entirely forgotten , since a rriving her e, the hori:l:Olls of their mother planet! Paris is hence forward the capilal of creation ! . . . Where are yo u, Champs-Elysees, favored theme of newswritenl in 1855? ... Buzzing along this thoroughfa re that is paved widl 1I01l0w iron and roofed with crys tal are the bees and hornets of fmance! The capitalists of Ur sa Major are conferring with the stockbrokenl of Mercury! And coming on the market this very da y are shares in the debris of Vellus half con sumed by its own Aames!" Anlene Houssaye, " L.e Paris futur," in et lu Pari.siem au XIX' .siecie (Paris, 1856), pp. 458-459. IG13,2)
Porn
At the time of the establishment , in London , of the General Council of the Workenl Int er n a tion a l /~ the following rema rk circulated: " The child born in the work s hops of Paris was nu rsed in London ." See Charles Benoist , " L.e ' My the' de I. classe ouvriere," Rellue des deux mOrldes (March I , 1914), p. 104. [GI3,3) "Seeing that the gala ball is the sole occasion on which men contain themselve8, let us get used to modeling all our ins titutions on gatherings such as these, wbere the woman is queen ." A. Toussenel, Le Monde de, oi.seaux, vol. I (Paris, 1853). p . 134. And: "Man y men are courtcous and gaUant at a ball, doubting not tbat gallantry is a commandment of God" (ihid. , p. 98). [GI3 ,4) On Ga briel Engelma nn : " When he published his Euail lithogrophique.s in 1816, great care was taken to reproduce this medallion as the frontis piece to his book, ..... jth the inscription: 'Awarded to M. G. Engelmann of Mulhouse (Upper Rhine). Lurge-8cale execution, and refinement , of the art of lithography. Encouragement. 1816. '" Henri Bouchot , 1..« Lithographie ( Paris (1895» , p. <38>. (G13,5) On the London world exhihition: " Ill making the round li of this enormous exhibi tion , the observer soon realizell that . to avoid confusion , . .. it has been necessary to cluster the different nationalities in a certain number of gro ups, and that the on ly useful way of establishing these industrial groupings was to do so on the basis of--oddl y enough- religious beliefs. Each of the great religious divisions of hu ma uit y corresponds, in effect •... to a particular mode of existence and of indus [GI 3a, l ) trilli llctivity. " Michel Chevalier. Du Progre~ ( Paris, 1852), p. 13. Frum t.he fi nll cha pter of Cnpifnl: " A cOllllllodity ap pears, at first sight. a very tri vial thing IIlId easi.ly unders tootl. 118 analysis shows that in reality it is a very
(Iueer thing. a bounding ill metaphysicai liubdeties and theologicailliceties. So far as it is a value in use, there is nothing mys terious abullt it. . . . The form or wood is altered h y making a ta ble out of it; ncw:rtlleles8, thi ~ table remains wood , an ordinary material thing. As soon as it stcps forth as cOlllmodity, however, it is transforlll ed int o alllat crial immaterial thing. It not only s tands with its feet on the gro und , but . in the fa ce of all other comlllO(lities, it s tands on ita Ilead . and out of its wOO(len bra in it evolves notions more whimsically than if il had s uddenly begun 10 dauce:-:' Cited in Franz Mehring, " Ka rl Marx und das Gleichnis," in Karl M(lrx (115 Dellker, Mcn.scll, IIfU/ RevolufiOlliir, ed. Rjazanov (Vienna and Berlin (1928» , p . 57 (firs t puhlished in Die "eue Zeit, March 13, 1908). (G I3a,2) Henan compares Ihe world exhibitions to the great C r eek feslivals, the Olympian games, and the Panathenaea. But in contrast to these, the world exhibitions lack poclry. " Twice, Europe hilS gOlle off to view the merchalldise and to compare products and materials; and on returning from this new kind of pilgrimage, no one has complained of missing anything." Some pages later: " Our century tends to ward neither the good nor the bad ; it tends loward the mediocre. Whal s ucceeds in e,'ery endeavor nowada ys is mediocrity." Ernest Henan , Eu oi.s de morale et de critique ( Paris. 1859), PI' . 356-357, 373 ("Lu Poesie d e n : xposition"). [G I3a,3) Has hish villion in the casino at Aix-la-C halH!lIe. '"'The ga llling la ble at Aix-Ia Chapelle is nothing s hort of an international congress, where the coins of all king doms and all countries are welcome.... A storm of Leopolds . Friedrich Wilhelms, Queen Victorias, and Napolcons rain down ... on the lable. Looking over this shining alluvium, J thought I could see ... the effigies of the sovereigns ... irrevo cably fade from their respective ecus, guineas, or ducals, to make room for otber visages entirely unknown 10 me. A great many of these fa ces ... wore grimaces .. . of vexation , of grOOtI , or of fur y. There were happy ones 100 , but only a few ... . Soon this phenomenon ... grew dim ami passed away, and anOlher sort of vision, 110 less extraordinary, now loomed before me . . . . The bourgeois effi pes which had s upplan ted the monarchll began themselves to move about .....ithin the metallic disks ... that confined them. Before long, they had separaled from the dis ks. They ap peared in full relief; then their heads burgeone<1 oul into rounded forms. They had taken 0 11 .•• nol only fa ces but living fl esh . They had all sprung Lilliputian hodi~s. Ever ything assumed a s halH! ... somehow or olher ; and cr eatures exactl y like us, except for their siZe, ... began to enliven the gamillg tahle , from which all currency had vanished . I heard the ring of coins struck by the s teel of the crou pier's rake , hut this was all that remained of the old resollance .. . or louis and tic us, whicll Ilud become men . These poor myrmidons were now laking to their heels, franti c lit the approach of the murderous rake of the croupier; but escape .....as impossible ... . Then ... the d .....arfis h s ta kes, ohliged to ad mil defeat, .....ere ruthlessly cllpture(l hy the fUla l rake, .....llicll gat here(1 them inlo the croupier'! cl utching halld . The croupier-how horril,IC!-IOok up each smull hod y {Illintil y hetween his linger s and de'·ou.red il .....ith gusto. I.n Icss thun half Iln hour, I sa ..... some h alf-tlozen of these imprudent LiUipulianli Imrleo.l intu the ahY8ll of this lerri
hie 101nb.... 8111 what appallctl me the mosl was thai , on r nising my cyc~ (alto gcther by chance) to the ga lJcry surroundiJlg this valley of
a contest of paUr y coo k ~ . The 600,000 utMete8 of ind u8try a re furnished with 300,000 boules of c1lumpugnc, whosc co rks, III a signal from the "command
tower," arc 11 11 popped simult a neously. To echo throughollt the " mountains of the Euphrate8. " Cited in Mauhl
"A rich death is The principles informing the exhibition of objects ill t.he Calcrie des MnchinCi of 1867 were derived from Le Play. [G I4a,2]
11
closed abyn. " From the fifti es. Auguste Blanqui, Critique so [CI5,3)
ciule (Paris, 1885), vol. 2 , p . 315 (""' ragments et notes").
An image d 'Epinal by Sellerie shows the world exhibition of 1855 . A divinatory representation of architectural aspects of the later world exhibitions is found in Gogol's essay "On Present-Day Architecture," which appeared in the mid-l birties in his collection ATah(JqU(J. "Away with this academicism which commands that buildings be built all one size and in one stylel A city should consist of many different styles of building, if we wish it to be pleasing to the eye. Let as many contrasting styles combine there as possible! Let the solemn Gothic and the richly embellished Bytantine arise in the same street, alongside colossal Egyptian halls and elegantly proportioned Greek structures! Let us see there the slightly concave milk·white cupola, the soaring church steeple, the oriental miter, the Italianate fl at roof, the steep and heavily ornamented Flemis h roof, dIe quad rilateral pyramid, the cylindrical column, the faceted obelisk!"Z6 Nikolai Gogol, "Sur I~chitecture du temps present," cited in W1adimir \\kidlc, Ul Abdllu d'AriJti( (paris d936~) , pp. 162- 163 ("L~ gon.ie de I'art") . [GI 4a,3)
[GI 5,' ]
Elements of intoXication at work in the detective novel, whose mechanism is described by Caillois (in (em u that recall the world of the hashish eater): "The characters of the childish inlagination and a prevailing artificiality hold sway over this ~trangely vivid world. Nothing happens here that is not long premeditated ; nothing co~ponds to appearances. Rather, each thing has been prepared for use at the nght moment by the omnipotent hero who wields power over it. ~ recognize in all this the Paris of the serial installments of FantOmllJ." Roger Cail lois, ~Paris, mythe modeme," Nou udJe R(uu(/ra1lfaiu, 25, no. 284 (May 1, 1937), p.688. [GI5,5]
f.~o uri e r ref"r8 to the fo lk wis
" Every day I SLoe passing heneuth Illy will"01. 2, p . 99 (--5alon de IK46:' section 7, " Dc I'Idca l et du m Oll e l~"). 211 [GI5.6)
Fourier Cel llnOI resist
IU1Ig uefrtllH;uise de$ origi1les ii 1900. vol. 9, La Rewilll.iofl el I'EmpiTe. part 9,
Ad" cr tisiJIg IImlt'r tile EIIIJlin', uccording to Fenliruu1<1 Brunot. Ili!ltoire de
II I
" Les Evellements, les institutions et la langue" (Paris, 1937): " We shall freely imagine tlull a mall of geniuli conc:eived the idea of ellllhrining, wi thin the banality uf the vernacular, certain vocahles calculated 10 seduce readers alltl buyer ,., and Ihat he cho5e Greek 1I0t only beca use il furllishe,. ine:dlllllstihie resources to work with 11111 also IleCalue, less widely known than Latin. it has the advuntage of being . . . in co ml'reh ell!~i "'e to a geller ation le,.s l'ersed in the study of allcieot G n :ece. . . . Only, we know neither who this man wa s, nor wbat his nationality might he . lIor even whether he existed or not. Let us suppose that ... Greek words ga ined currency Iiule by little until, one da y, ... the idea ... was horn ... that, by their own intrinsic virtue, they could serve for advertising... . I myself would like 10 think tha t .. . several generations and several na tiOIiS went into the making of that verhal billboard , the Greek monster that entiCefl hy lIurprise. I believe it wall during the el)(}Ch I' m speaking of that the movement began to take shape.... The age of 'comagenic' ha ir oil had arril'ed ." Pp . 1229- 1230 ("Lea Causes du [eI5a,l) triomphe du grec"). "Wh at would a modern Winckelmann say. were he confronted by a product from China-sometbing strange, bizarre, contorted in forlll , intense in color, and somelinles so delicate as to be almost evanescent ? It is, nevertheless, an example of universal beauty. But in order to under stand it , the critic, the spectator, must effect within himself a mysterious transformatioo ; and by lIIt!ans of a phenomenon uf the will acting on the imagination, he must learn by himself to particiJlate in the milieu which has given birth to this strange flowering." Further along, 0 11 the same page, al)pear " those mysterious f1 0wcn whose deep color enslaves the eye and talltali:res it with its shape." Ch arles Baudelaire , Oeu vres,
IG!',' ]
Grandville's masking of nature with the fashions o f midccntury- nature under· stood as the cosmos, as well as the wo rld of animals and plan ts-lets history, in th e guise o f fashion, be derived from the eternal cycle o f nature. \oVhen Grand· ville presents a new fan as the "fan of Iris," when the Milky Way appears as an
"avenue" illwninated at night by gas lamps, when "the moon (a self.portrait)" reposes. 011 fashionable ~dvet cushions instead o f on clouds, then history is being secuJanzed and dra'Nll Into a natural COntext as relentlessly as it was three hun (G16,3) d red years earlier with allegory. The planetary fashions o f Grandville arc: so many parodies, drawn by n ature, of human history. Grandville's harlequinades rum into Blanqui's plaintive ballads. IG!',' ] "The exhibitions li re Ihe only proJlerly modern fe stivals." Herlllann Lotze , Mi J,'rokosmos, vol. 3 (Leipzig, 1864), p. ? IG!',S] The world exhibitions were training schools in which the masses, barred from consuming, learned empathy with exchange value. "Look at everything; to uch nothing." IG 16,6) The entertainment industry refines and multiplies the varieties of reactive behav. ior ~~ng the I~asses. In this way, it makes them ripe for the workings of advem smg. The link between this industry and the world exhibitions is thus well established . (G16,7) Proposal for urba n planning in Paris: " It would bC! ad villahle to vary the forms of the houses and, as ror the districts , to employ different architectur al orders, even those in no way clallllical--f;uch as tbe Gothic, Turkish, Chinese, Egyptian, Bur mese, and so forth ." Anu!dee dC! Tissot, Paris el Lone/res compares (Paris, 1830), (G16a,1) p. 150.-The architecture of futu re exhibitions! " As loog as this ullspe"kable COlistructioll [the Palace of Industry] survives, ... I shall take satisfa ction in renoullcing the title ' man or leiters' . ... Art and ilulus try! Yes, it was in fa ct for them alone thai , in 1855, this impossible tangle of galleries was reserved , this jumble where the poor writer s have not evt:n been granted six square fee t- the space of a grave! Glory to thee, 0 Sta tioner. , .. Mount to the Capitol, 0 Publisher .. . ! Triumph , you art ists a lld industrials, you who ha ve bad the honors a nd the profit of a world exhibition, whereas poor Iitt:r a ture. '. . " (Pl' . v-vi). "A world exhibition for the man of leiter s, a Crystal PalacC! for the author-mollistt:!" Whispe rings of a scurrilous demon whom Babou , accord ing to his " Lettre u Cha rles Assdineau," is supposed to h ave encountered one da y alollg the Champs- Elysees. Hippolyte Bahol! . Les Hire /IS imlOcelils (Pllris, 1858), [G 16a.2) p. xiv.
Exhihitions. " Such lrunsitory installations, as a rule. have had 110 infiu elll.:e 011 the configuratiull or ci ties.... It is otherwise ... in Paris. Precillcly in Ihe racl tllUt here gian t exhibitiolls could he sel up in the middle of town. and thai nearl y always they would leave hehind a IIl01l1ll1lt:nt well suilt:!1 to 1.lIe city's gent:ral aSIH.'c:t- pre
cisely in this, one CIHl re<:ognize the blessing of a great origin al layout ami of a continuing tradition of urball planning. Paris could . .. orlilanize even the m08t immense exhibition st) as to be ... acceuwle from the Place de la COllcorde. Along the quays leading west from this squ are, for a distance of kilometers, the curbs have beell set b ac k from t.he ri ve r in ~ u ch a way that vcr y wide lanes a rc olMmed, which , abundantl y plaliled with rows of trees, make for the loveliest ponihle [GI6a,3[ cxhillitioll routes. " Fritz Stahl , Paris (Berlin (1929), p. 62.
D [The Collector] All these old things have a moral value. - Charles Baudclain: L
I believe ... in my soul: the 1hing. - Unn Deubel, (kIlVrtJ (Paris, 1929), p. 193
Here was the last refu ge of those infant prodigies that saw the light of day at the time of the world exhibitions: the briefcase with interior lighting, the meter·long pocket knife, or the patented umbrella handle with built-in watch and revolver. And near the degenerate giant creatures, aborted and broken-down m atter. ~ followed the narrow dark corridor to where-between a discount bookstore, in which d usty tied-up bundles tell of all sorts of failure, and a shop selling only buttons (mother-of-pearl and the kind that in Pam are called defan/aisie)- tbere stood a SOrt of salon. On the pale-colored wallpaper full of figures and busts shone a gas lamp. By its light, an old woman sat reading. They say she has been there alone for years, ,and collects sets of teeth "in gold, in wax, and broken." Since that day, moreover, we know where Doctor Miracle gOt the wax out of {H l ,l ) which he fashioned Olympia.' 0 Dolls 0 "The crowd throngs to the Passage Vivienne, where people never feel conspicu ous, and deserts the Passage Colbert, where they feel perhaps too conspicuous. At a certain point, an altempt was made to entice the crowd back by filling the rotunda each evening with hannonious music, which emanated invisibly fro m the ..vindows of a mezzanine. But the crowd came to put its nose in at the door and did not enter, suspectin g in this novelty a conspiracy against its customs and ro utine pleasures." Le Livre des (enl-e/-ulI, vol. IO (Paris, 1833), p. 58. Fifteen years ago, a similar altempt was made- likewise in vain-to boost the (Berlim departm ent store W. ""=.rtheim. Concerts were given in the great arcade that ran [1-11.21 through it. Never Inlst what writers say about their own writings. When Zola undertook to defend his 7h&tse Raquin against hostile critics, he explained that his book was a scientific study of the temperam ents. H is task had been to show, in an example,
exaoJy how the sanguine and the nervous temperaments act 011 one another-to the derrimem of each. But this explanation could satisfy no one. Nor does it explain the admixture of colportage, the bloodthirstiness, the cinematic goriness of the aclion. Whidl-by no accident- takes place in an arcade. 3 If this book really expounds something scientifically, then it"s the death of the Paris arcades, the decay of a type of architecture. The book's annosphere is saturated with the [Hl ,3] poisons of this process: its people drop like flies. In 1893 , tile cot:t1I1t.'S were dri\'ell rrom the arcaJ e!l.
[HI.']
Music secms to have settled into these spaces only with their decline, only as the orchestras themselves began to seem old-fashioned in comparison to the new mechanical music. So that, in fact, these orchestras wouJd just as soon have taken refuge there. (Tbe "theatrophone" in the arcades was, in certain respects, the forerunner of the gramophone.) Nevertheless, there was music that confomled to the spirit of the arcades-a panoramic music, such as can be heard today only in old-fashioned genteel concerts like those of the casino orchestra in Monte Carlo: the panoramic compositions of
u
"Cillooruma!l. The Grantl Globe Celeste: a gigantic sphere rorty-six meters in di- / allleter, where you can hear the music or Saint-SaclIl!." JuJes Claretie, Ln Vie ii "nri.t 1900 (Parill, 190 1), p. 61. 0 Diorallla 0 [Ht ,6]
f
r
Often these inner spaces harbor an tiquated trades, and even those that are thoroughly up to date will acquire in them something obsolete. They are the site of infonnation bureaus and detective agencies, which there, in the gloomy light of the upper galleries, follow the trail of the past. In hairdressers' windows, you can see the last women with long hair. TIley have rich.ly undulating masses of hair, which are "pennanent waves," petrified coiffures. They ought to dedicate small votive plaques to those who made a special world of these buildings-to Baudelaire and Odilon Redon, whose very name sounds like an all tOO well tumed ringlet. Instead, they have been betrayed and sold, and the head of Salome made into an omament-u that which dreanlS of the console there below is not the embalmed head of Anna Czyllak.' And while these things are petrified, the masonry of the walls above has become brittle. Brittle, tOO, are 0 Mirrors 0 [Hla, l] What is decisive in collecting is thal the object is detached from all its o riginal functions in o rder to enter into tlle closest conceivable relation to things of the same kind. TIlis relation is the diametric opposite of any utility, and falls into the peculiar category of completeness. What is this "completeness"? It is a grand attempt to overcome the wholly irrational character of the object's mere presence
at hand through its integration into a new, expressly de~d historical system : the collection. And for the true collector, every single thing in this system be comes an encyclopedia of all knowledge of the epoch, the landscape, the indus try, and the owner from which it comes. It is the deepest enchantment of the collector to enclose the particular item within a magic circle, where:, as a last shudder runs throUgll it (the shudder of being acquired), it tums to stone_ Every thing remembered, everything thought, everything conscious becomes socle, frame, pedestal, seal of his possession. It must not be assumed that the collector, in panirular, wouJd find anything strange in the topru hyjxrouranios-that place beyond the heavens which, for PlatO ,~ shelters the unchangeable archetypes of things. He loses hinlSelf, assuredly. But he has the strength to pull himself up again by nothing more than a straw; and from out of the sea of fog that envelops his senses rises the newly acquired piece, like an island.-Collecting is a fonn of practical memory, and of all the profane manifestations of "nearness" it is the most binding. Thus, in a certain sense, the smallest act of political reBection makes for an epoch in the antiques business. ~ construct here: an aJann clock that rouses the kitsch of the previous century to "assembly." [Hla,2] Extinct nature : the shell shop in the arcadcs. In "The Pilot's Trials," Strindberg tells of "an arcade ,vith brighcly lit shops." "Then he went on into the arcade.... Tho-e was every possible kind of shop, but not a souJ to be seen, either behind or before the counters. After a while he stopped in from of a big window in which there was a whole display of shells. As the door was open, he went in. From Boor to ceiling there were rows of shells of every kind, collected from all the seas of the world. No one was in, but there was a ring of tobacco smoke in the air.... So he began his walk again, following the blue and white carpet. The passage wasn't Straight but winding, so that you could never see the end of it; and there were always fresh shops there, but no people; and the shopkeepers were not to be seen." The unfathomability of the moribund arcades is a characteristic motif. Strindberg, Miirchen (Munich and Berlin, 1917), pp. 52-53, 59.' [Hla,3J One must make one's way through us Fleurs du ma/with a sense for how things are raised to allegory. The use of uppercase lettering should be followed carefully. [HJa,4) At the conclusion of Malihe el mimQire, Bergson develops the idea that perception is a function of time. If, let us say, ......e were to live vis-a.-vis some things more calmly and vis-a-vis others more rapidly, according to a different rhythm, there would be nothing "subsistent" for us, but instead everything would happen right before our eyes; everything would strike us. But this is the way things are fOT the great collector. They strike him. H ow he hinuelf pursues and encounters them, what cllanges in the eJl5emble of items are effected by a newly supervening item- aU this shows him his affairs in constant flux. Here, the Paris arcades are examined as though they were properties in the hand of a collector. (At bottom, we may say, the collector lives a piece of dream life. For in the dream, tOO, the
1-1
nate for the previous century has come to an end. 0 Flftneur OThe Baneur optical, (H2 .5J the collector tactile.'
rhythm of perception and experience is aJtered in such a way that everything even the seemingly most neurraJ-comes to strike us ; everything concerns us. In order to understand the arcades from the ground up, we sink them intO the deepest stratum of the dream ; we speak of them as though they had struck us.) (Hla.5]
Broken-down matter: the elevation of the commodity to the status of allegory. (H2 ,6] Allegory and the fetish character of the conullodity.
"Your understanding of allegory assumes proportions hitherto unknown to you; I will note, in pass~g, that allegory- long an object of our scorn because of maladroit painters, but in reality a most Jpin'luaJ an fonn , one of the earliest and most natural forms of poetry-resumes its legitimate dominion in a mind illumi nated by intoxication." Charles Baudelaire, Ul Paradis artfficieb (Paris, 1917), p. 73.' (On the basis of what follows , it cannot be doubted that Baudelaire indeed had allegory and not symbol in mind. The passage is taken from the chapter on hashish.) The collector as allegorist. 0 Hashish 0 [H2, I] "The publication ~ in 1864>o( L'Uisroirede la societefram;aisependontlo Revola tion el SOlU k Directoire opens the era of the curio--and the word 'curio' . hould 1I0t be taken as pejorative. 1.11 those days, the historical curio was called a ' relic. , .. Hemy de GOllnllollt , Le Deuxiiime Livre des "'(m/lles (Paris, 1924), p. 259. This (H2 ,2] passage concerns a work hy Edmond and Jules de Goncourt.
The true method o f making things present is to n:present them in our space (not to n=present ourselves in their space). (!be collector does just this, and so does lhe anecdote.) Thus represented, the things allow no mediating construction from out of "large contexts." The same method applies, in essence, to the consid eration of great things from the past- the cathedral of Chartres, the temple of Paestum-when, that is, a favorable prospect presents itself: the method of re ceiving the things into OUT space. don't displace our being into theirs; they
~~-.
"'*
~
Fundamentally a very odd fact- that collector's items as such were produced industrially. Since when? It would be necessary to investigate the various fash ions that governed collecting in the nineteenth century. Characteristic of the Biedemlcier period (is this also the case in France?) is the mania for cups and saucers. "Parents, childn:n, friends, relatives, superiors, and subordinates make lheir feelings known through cups and saucers. The cup is the preferred gift, the most popular kind of knickknack for a room. Just as Friedrich WlIhclm III filled his study with pyramids of porcelain cups, the ordinary citizen collccted, in the cups and sauccrs of his sideboard, the memory of the most important events, the most precious hours, of his life." Max von Boehn, Die MOlk im XIX. Jahrhun (Jut, vol. 2 (Munich, 1907), p. 136. [H2,4] Possession and having are allied with the tactile, and stand in a certain opposition to the optical. CoUcctors are beings with tactile instincts. Moreover, with the receOl tum away from naturalism, the primacy of the optical that was detenni
O ne may start from the fact that the true collector detaches the object from its functionaJ relations. But that is hardly an exhaustive description of this remark able mode of behavioT. For isn't this the foundation (to speak with Kant and Schopenhauer) of that "disinterested" contemplation by virtue of which the col lectoT attains to an unequaled view of the object-a view which takes in more, and other, than that of the profane owner and which we would do best to compare to the gaze of the great physiognomist? But how his eye comes to rest on the object is a matter elucidated much mon: sharply through another consid eration. It must be kept in mind that, for the collector, the world is present, and indeed orden=d, in each of his objectS. Ordered, however, according to a surpris ing and, for the profane understanding, incomprehensible connection. lbis con nection stands to the customary ordering and schcmatization o f things something as their arrangement in the dictionary stands to a natural arrangement. need only n:call what importance a particular collector attaches not only to his object but also to its entire past, whether this concerns the origin and objective charac teristics of the thing or the details of its ostensibly extemal history: previous owners, price of purchase, ClUTCIlt value, and so on. All of these-the "objective" data together with the other-come together, for the true collector, in every single one of his possessions, to foml a whole magic encyclopedia, a world order, whose outline is the fate of his object. Here, therefore, within this circumscribed field, we can understand how great physiognomists (and collectors are physiog nomists of the world of things) become interpreters of fate . It suffices to observe JUSt one collector as he handles the items in his showcase. No sooner does he hold them in his hand than he appears inspired by them and seems to look through them into their distance, like an augur. {It would be interesting to study ~e bibliophile as the only type of collector who has n Ot. completcly withdrawn his treasures from their functional context.) [H2.7 ; H2a,1]
"'*
I
The great coUector Pachinger, \o\blfskch1's friend, has put together a collection ~Ult;in its array of proscribed and damaged objectS, rivals the Figdor collection u~ Vienna. H e hardly knows any more how things stand in the \\--add; explains to ~ visitors- alo ngside the most antique implements- the use of pocket handker duefs, hand mirrors, and the like. It is related of him lhat, one day, as he was crossing the Stachus, he stooped to pick something up. Before him lay an o bject he had been pursuing for weeks : a misprinted streetcar ticket that had been in circulation for only a few hours. (H2a,2j An apology for the collector ought not to overlook this invective: "Avarice and old age, remarks Cui Patin, are aJways in collusion. With individuaJs as with
societies, the: need to accumulate is one of the signs of approaching death. TIlls is confinned in the acute stages o f prtparalysis. There is also the mania for collec tion, known in neu rology as 'collcctionism,' I From the collection o f hairpins to the cardboard box bearing the inscription: 'Small bits of string are useless?" &pt Pichis (apilaux (Paris, 1929), pp. 26-27 (paul Morand, "L'Avarice"). But . compare collecting do nc by children ! [H2a,3)
us
=
" I am 1I0t s ure I . hould ha\-,been 8 0 thoroughly possessed by Ihis one . uhjecl . but (or the heaps of fanta stic things I hall seen huddled together in the curiosity. dealer 's warehouse. These, crowding 0 11 my mind , in connection with the child , and gathering round her. 8 8 it were, brought her condition palpably before me. I had her image. without any effort of imagination , surrounded and beset by ever y thing thai was for eign to il8 nature, and farthest re mo v~1 from the sympathie. of her sex a nd age. If tJlelle helps to my fancy had all been wanting, and I had been forced to imagine her in a common chamber, with nothing unusual or uncouth in its appearance , it is very probable that ( should have been less impressed with her strange and solitary stale. All it was, she seemed to exist in a kind of allegory." Charles Dickens, Ocr RlIritiitetlladen (Leipzig, ed. Insel), pp . 18- 19 .9 {H2a,4] Wiesengrund, in Ill! unpublished essay on The Old Curiosity Shop, b y Dicken. : " Nell's death is decided in the sentence that reads: ' There were some triJlell there--poor useless thin p -that she wouJd have liked to take away; but that was impou ible.' ... Yet Dickens recognized that the posllibility of tra nsition and dia lectical rescue was inherent in this world of things, this lost , rejected world ; and he exprel8ed it , hetter t.hon Romantic nature-worship was ever able to do. ill the powerful allegory of money with which the depiction o( the industrial city ends: ' ... two old , hattered , smoke-encrusted penny pieces. Who know. but they shone as brightly in the eyes o( angels , as golden gifts that have been chronicled on tombs?""O [H2. ,5] " Most enthusiasts let themselves be guided by chance in forming their collection , like bibliophile. in their browsing.... !\t . Thiers has proceeded otherwise: hefore aue mbling his collection . he (ormed it as a whole in his head; he laid out his plan in adva nce. and he has slJelit thirt y years executing it . . . . M. Thiers p088esse. what he wanted to pOlIse.s.... And what was the point? To arrange a round him self 8 luinialure of the uni verse--that is, to gather, within an ellvironmellt o( eight y ~ (I uare melers. HOllle and Florence, Pompeii and Venice, Dresden and the Hague, the Vaticall li nd the Eseorill.l, the British Museum and Ihe Hermitage, the A1II/Hu hra lind the Summer ['lI laee .... Anti M. T hiers h as been ahle tu rcalize this VII~ I pruject with only modcSI expenditures malle each yellr over a thirty-yellr I)C riod .... Seeking. ill IHlrtieul lir. lu allurn Ihe wall!! u( his residence with t.he IIIOSI pn·(,ious sou\'eni u of his voyages. M. Thiers had reduct.. .1 copies made o( the tIIu~ 1 (a lnous paintings .... Allil ~o, Ull enlering his hOlne, you find yo urself illllllctlill.tely i urroundl:d lIy In ai>terl'it."t:cs creal t...J in haly during the age o( ko X. The wall racing the wimlow~ i ~ occupietl by Th e W Il' Judg me",. hUlig belween TIIf~ Dispute
of t/ie 1I0ly Sucrulllc"t 811tl l 'lIe ScllOol ofA,/iefili. Titian ', ASIlllmpti() fI adorns the nUHlld piece, belwt.'1!n 'nle Commullioll ofS11itl' J erome and Tile Trtl1l1lftgllration. l '/ie Mm/o mlll ofSailll SiXIUll ll1akes a pair with SlIi1ll Cecila , alltl on the pilaster arc frallIell the Sibyls o( Haphad , IJelwt.'Cu the Spolluli~io aud the pictu re repre S(' IILillg Gregory IX Ilelh' l~ring the d ecreta Is to a delegate o( the Consisto ry... . Thest· copies all beillg ~ Iu ccd in accordance wilh the satlle scale, or nearly so, .. . the eye discu\'ers ill tllem, with pleasure, Ihe relative propo rtions o( the originals . Tht'y arc painted in ",·ater culor." Charlell Blanc, Le Ca binet rle M. Thiers (Paris. ISiI ). PI" 16- 18. {H3,1] "Casimir Perier sai(1 one (l ay, while viewing the art collection o( an illustrious cnlliu.sias t . .. ; ' All th cse I)a intill ~ are very pretty- but they're d onnant capi tal.· ... Today, ... one could say 10 Casimir Perier ... that ... paintings ... , ""hen they are indeed authentic, that drawings, when recognizably by the hand o( II masler, ... sleep a sleep that is resto ra ti ve alld profitable .... The ... sale o( the curiosities and paintillgs of Monsieur n.... has proven in round figu retl that works of genius possess a value just as solid as the Orleans
I
The positiut countertype to the collector-which also, insofar as it entails the liberation of things from the drudgery of being useful, represents the conswruna tion of the collector-can be deduced from these words of Marx: "Private prop erty has m ade us so stupid and inert that an object is ours only when \\'C have it, when it exists as capital for us, or when ... we use it." Karl Marx, Der historische Malmalismus, in Die Friihschnj/en, ed. Landshut and Mayer (Lcipzigd932) , vol. 1, p. 299 ("'NationaJo konomie und Philosophie"). 11 (H3a,l] "All the physical a nd intellectual sell8e8 have been re placed by the simple aliena· lion o( all these senses, the .cnse or ha ving . ... (On the category of lIa ving , see 1·less in Twenty-One SlIeets)." Karl Man, Der histori.tche Materio lumw (Leipzig), vol. I, p . 300 (" NationaWkonomie IIlul PlwosoJlhie").I! {H3a,2] " 1 can , in p ractice. reillte myself humanly to an obj et!t only if the object relates itsd(. hUJlIanl y 10 ma n." Karl Marx, Der hillfori.sche Ma' eriaiismull (Leipzig), vol. I. p . 300 (" Nn tionaWkunolnic lIlItl £·hilosophie").'l [H3a ,3] The cullections of Alt'):lIndre dn SOlllmel'lIni in the holdings o( the l\1usce Clu ny. [H3a,4] -n IC
quodlibet has somelhing of the genius of both collector and fhincur. {H3a.5]
Tbe collector actualizes latent archaic represelltations of property. These repre· sentations lUay in fact be COlm ectcd wilh taboo, as the following remark indio
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cates: "It ... is ... certain that taboo is the primitive foml of propeny. At first emotively and 'sincerely; then as a routine legal process, declaring something taboo would have constituted a title. To appropriate to oneself an object is to render it sacred and redoubtable to others ; it is to make it 'participate' in oneself.... N. Gutcmmn and H . Lefebvre, In CollJa'ellu lIIJJtifite (Paris, 1936), p. 228.
fomlS of argumentation to which the author alludes, and indeed certain fonus of Scholastic thought in general (appeal to hereditary authoritary), bdong together wlth the fornlS of production. The collector develops a similar relationship with his objects, whicll arc enricllcd through his knowledge of their origin and their [H4,4] duration in history-a relationship that now seems archaic.
[H3a,6}
=
P-"dssageli liy Marx fro m "NalionaWko llomie und Philosophic": " Private property hsslIlade 111180 8tupid and inc rt"181 HII obje<:1 ill ours only when we ho ve it. " " AU the physical and intellectual !ellses ... have been I'cplucetl oy the ~i mpl e aliena. tioll of all these senses, the sense of having. "I I Ciled in Hugo Fischer, Karl Marx lind lci" VcrMiltnu zu StUll' lind WirflCh(ifi (Jella , 1932), p . 64. [H3a,7]
The ancestors of Balthazar Clacs were collectors.
[H3a,8]
Models for Cousin Pons : Sommcrard, Suuvageot, Jacaze.
(H3a,9]
The physiological side of collecting is important. In the analysis of this behavior, it should not be overlooked that, with the nest-building of birds, collecting ~c quires a clear biological function. There is apparently an indication to this effect in Vasari's treatise on architecture. Pavlov, too, is supposed to have occupied [H4 ,J) himself with collecting. Vasari is SUPI)osed to have maintained (in his treutise 011 architecture?) that the term "grotesque" comes from the grolloc'll ill which collectors hoard their treasures. [H4,2]
Collecting is a primal phenomenon of study: the srudent collects knowledgt=. [H',3]
Perhaps the most deeply hidden motive of the person who collects can be de scribed this way : he takes up the struggle against dispersion. Right from the start, the great collector is struck by the confusion, by the scatter, in which the things of the world are found. It is the sanle spectacle that so preoccupied the men of the Baroque; in particular, the world image of the allegorist cannOt be explained apart from the passionate, distraught concern with this spectacle. The allegorist is, as it were, the polar opposite of the collector. H e has given up the attempt to elucidate things through research into their properties and relations. He dis· lodges things from their context and, from the outset, relies on his profundity to illuminate their meaning. The collector, by contrast, brings together what be longs together; by keeping in mind their affinities and their succession in time, he can eventually furnish infonnation about his objects. Nevertheless-and this is more imponant than all the differences that may exist between them-in every collector hides an allegorist, and in every allegorist a collector. As far as the collector is concerned, his collection is never complete; for let him discover JUSt a single piece missing, and everything he's collected remains a patchwork, which is what things art for allegory from the beginning. On the other hand, the allege rist-for whom objects represent only keywords in a secret dictionary, which will make known their meanings to the initiated-precisely the allegorist can never have enough of things. With him, one thing is so little capable of taking the place of another that no possible reSection suffices to foresee what meaning his profun [H4a,1] dity m.ightlay claim to for each one of them. I ' Animals (birds, ants), children, and old men as collectors.
In elucidating the rdauon of medieval man to his affairs, Huizinga occasionally adduces the literary genre of the " testament": "This literary fonn can be ... appreciated only by someone who remembers that the people of the Middle Ages were, in fact, accustomed to dispose of even the meanest [!l of their possessions through a separate and detailed testament. A poor woman bequeathed her Sun day dress and cap to her parish, her bed to her godchild, a fur to her Ilurse, her everyday dress to a beggar woman, and four pounds tournou (a sum which constituted her entire fortune), together with an additional d ress and cap, to the Franciscan friars (Champion, ViI/on, vol. 2, p. 182). Shouldn't we recognize here, too, a quite trivial manifestation of the sam e cast of mind that sets up every case of virtue as an eternal example and sees in every Qlstomary practice a divinely willed ordinance?" J. H uizinga, Hu b;1 de; Mille/a/1m (Munich, 1928), p. 346Y What strikes one mOSt about this noteworthy passage is that such a relation to movables would perhaps no longer be possible in an ab'C of standardizcd mass production. It would follow quitc naturally from th.is (0 ask whether or not the
[H4a,2]
A SOrt of productive disorder is the canon of the mimcire inoo/cnlaire, as it is the canon of the collector. "And I had already lived long enough so that, for more than one of the human beings with whom I had come in contact, I found in antipodal regions of my past memories another being to complete the picrurt .... In much the sanle way, when an an lover is shown a panel of an altar screen, he remembers in what church, museum, and private collection the other panels are dispersed Oikewise, he finally succeeds, by following the catalogues of an sales or frequenting antique shops, in finding the mate to the object he possesses and thereby completing the pair, and so can reconstruct in his mind the predella and the entire altar)." Marcel Proust, Le Temp; retrouui (paris), vol. 2, p. 158. 11 The ~bnoire fIO/ollta ire, on the olher hand, is a registry providing the object with a clas· slficatory number behind which it disappears. "So now we've been there." ("I've had an experience.") H ow the scatter of allegorical properties (the patchwork) relates to this creative disorder is a question calling for further stud y. [HS,I]
I
How the interior defended itself against gaslight: "Almost all new houses have
gas today; it bums in the inner courtyards and on the stairs, though it does not }'et have free admission to the apartments. It has been allowed into the antecham ber and sometimes even into the dining room, but it is not welcome in the dra\ving room. Why not? It fades the wallpaper. "Ibat is the only reason I have run across, and it carnes no weight at all." Du Camp, Paro, vol. 5, p. 309. (II ,S]
[The Interior, The Trace]
" In 1830, Romanticism was gaining the upper hand in literature. It now invaded architecture and placarded house fa-;ades with a fantastic gothicism, OD e aU too often made of pasteboard . II in1lJO&ed itself on furniture making. ' AU of a l udden ,' lay. a relwrter on the exhibition of 1834, ' there is boundleu enthusiasm for strangely shaped furniture . From old chiteaux, from furniture wareliou8e8 and junk . hops, it has been dragged Ollt to embellish the salons, which in every other resped are modern. . . . ' Feeling inspired, furniture manufacturers have been prodigal with their ' ogives 'and machicolations. ' You see beds and armoires bris tling with battlements, like thirteenth-century citadels.'" E. Levaueur,
a
Apropos of a medieval annoire, this interesting remark from Behne: "Movables quite clearly developed out of immovables
(Lcip,ig, 1927), pp. 59, 61-62.
(ll ,']
Hessel speaks of the "dreamy epoch of bad taste." Yes, this epoch ~wholly_ adapte~the dream, was furnished in dre~ms . TIle alternation in styles Gothic, Persian, Renaissance, and so on-signified : that over the interior of the middle-class dining room spreads a banquet room of Cesare Borgia's, or that OUt of the boudoir of the mistress a Gothic chapel arises, or that the master's study, in its iridescence, is transfomled into the chamber of a Persian prince. The photo montage that fixes such images for us corresponds to the most primitive percep tual tendency of these generations. Only gradually have the images among which they lived detached themSelves and settled on signs, labels, posters, as the [II ,6J figures of advertising. A series of lithographs from 18<-) showed women reclining voluptuously on ottomans in a draperied, crepuscular boudoir, and these prints bore inscriptions: On the Banlts 0/the Tagtll, On the Banlu 0/tne Neva, On the Banlts rif the &ine, and so forth. The Guadalquivir, the Rhone, the Rhine, the AM, the Tamis-all had their tum. lbat a national costume might have distinguished these female figures one from another may be safely doubted. It was up to the ligende, the caption inscribed beneath them, to conjure a fantasy landscape over the represented interiors. [11 ,7] To render the image of those salons where the gaze was enveloped in billowing cu.rtains ~d swollen cushions, where, before the eyes of the guests, full-length lllJITOrS dISclosed church doors and settees were gondolas upon which gaslight [11 ,8] from a vitreow globe shone down like the moon.
The importance of movable property, as compared with immovable property. Here our task is slightly easier. Easier to blaze a way intO the heart of things abolished or superseded, in order to decipher the contours of the banal as picture puuJe-in order to start a concealed William Tell from out of wooded entrails, or in order to be able to answer the question, "Where is the bride in this picture?" Picture puzzles, as schemata of dreamwork, were long ago discovered by psycho analysis. we, however, with a similar conviction, are less on the trail of the psyche than on the u-ack of things. we seek the totemic tree of objects within the thicket of primal history. The very last-the tOpmost- face on the tOtem pole is that of kitsch. (11 .3]
Nallle~ of differcnt types (If traveling ear frOIll the curly yea rs of the railroad: hcrlin (closed uml Olk:n ). diligence, furnis hcll (·ouch. unfurnislled coach . 0 Iron COIISIructiOIl 0 Il1 a,2]
1"l1e confrontation with furniture in Poe. Snuggle to awake from the collective dream. [11 ,4]
" This year, too. s pring arrive!1earlier lind more beautiful than ever. so thaI. to teU lile truth , we could not righ tl y re member the (:X.iSIClice of winter in ti,ese parts. lIor
" We have witnessed tile unprec:edented- marriages bet .....een styles tha t olle would have belie\'ed eternall y incolllpatible: hats of tile Firs t Empire or the Restoration worll with Louis XV jackets , Directory~s t y l e gO\O'IIS paired with high-heeled ankJe boots-IlIHI. still heller, low-wais ted coats wor n over high-waisted ,Irenes." J ohll G ralld~Cartcrct , I.es Elegonces de ia toiietle (Pa ris), p . )(vi. [II a, I)
whether the fireplace wa ll there for any purpose othe r than supporting on illl manlel the timepieces and candelabra that are known to ornament eve ry room here ; for tbe true Paris ian would rather eat one course leu per day than forgo his ' mantelpiece arrangcmenl. ", Lebende Hilder "11$ den! modeN.e n Puru , 4 vo ill. (Cologne. 1863-1866), vol. 2 , p. 369 (" Ein kaiserliches Famiuenbild") . [lla,3]
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1breshold magic. AI the entrance to the skating rink, to the pub, to the tennis coun, to resort locations: Pt:TUllf:s. The hen that lays the golden praline-eggs, the machine that stamps our names on nameplates, slot machines, fortunetelling devices, and above all weighing devices (the Delphic gn6rhi seau(rm1 of our day) these guard the threshold. Oddly. such machines don't Sourish in the city, but rather are a component of excursion sites, of beer gardens in the suburbs. And when, in search of a little greenery, one heads for these places on a Sunday afternoon, one is ruming as well to the mysterious thresholds. Of course, this same magic prevails more covertly in the interior of the bourgeois dwelling. Chairs beside an entrance, photogrp.phs Banking a doorway, are fallen housdlold deities, and the violence they must appease grips our heans even today at each ringing of the doorbell. Try, though, to withstand the violence. Alone in an apartment, try not to bend to the insistent ringing. You will find it as difficuk-as an exorcism. Like all magic substance, this too is once again reduced at some point to sex-in pornography. Around 1830, Paris amused itself with obscene lithos that featured sliding doors and windows. These were the Image; dite.s Ii portu et izfenitU5, by Numa Bassajet. [lIa,4] Concerning the dreamy and, jf possible. oriental interior: " Everyone here dreams of instant fortune; everyone alms to have , at one stroke, what in peaceful and industrious times would cost a lifetime of effort. The creations of the poett are full of s udden metamorphoses in domestic existence; they all rave about marquises and princesses, ahout the prodigies of the l'howand and Om! Nights. It is an opium trallce that has overspread the whole population , and industry is more to blame for tltis than poetry. Industry was responsible for the swindle in the Stock Exchange, the exploitation of all things made to serve artificial needs, and the . . . dividends." Gutzkow, Briefe Ull.! Paris
p.92.)
(lIa,6]
On the cxhibition of 1867. " These high galleries, kilometers ill length, were of an undeniable grandeur. The noise of machinery fLIled them. And it should IIOt be forgotten that, when this exhibition hdd its famoll s galas, guests stiU drove up to the festivitics in a eoach-and-cight. A s was usual with rooms at this period , at tempt s were made-through furn iture-like installations-to prettify these twenty five-meter-high galleries allli to relieve the austerity of their design. One stood ill fear of olle's own magnitmle ." Sigfried Giedion , Ballen in f'rtlllkreicli
Under the bourgeoisie, cities as well as pieces of furniture retain the character of fortifications. "Tdlllow, it was meJortiJied city which constantly paralyzed town planning." Le Corbusicr, Urbanisme (paris (1925»), p. 249. 2 [I1a,B] The ancient correspondence betl':een house and cabinet acquires a new variant through the insertion of glass roundels in cabinet doors. Since when? '\\ere these also found in France? [Ila,9] The bourgeois pasha in the imagination of contemporaries: Eugene Sue. He had a castle in Sologne. There, it was said, he kept a harem filled with women of color. Mter his death, the legend arose that he had been poisoned by theJesuits.3 [12,1]
Gutzkow reports that the exhibition salons were full of oriental scenes calculated to arouse enthusiasm for Algier s. [12 ,2] On the ideal of "distinction." "Eyerything tends toward the 80urish, toward the
curve, toward intricate convolution. MIat the reader does not perhaps gather at
first sight, however, is that this manner of laying and arranging things also incor porates a setting apart-one that leads us back to the knight. / The carpet in the foreground lies at an angle, diagonally. The chairs are likewise arranged at an angle, diagonally. Now, this could be a coincidence. But if we were to meet with this propensity to siruate objects at an angle and diagonally in all the dwellings of all classes and social strata-as, in fact, we do-then it can be no coincidence... . In the first place, arranging at an angle enforces a distinction-and this, once more, in a quite literal sense. By the obliquity of its position, me object sets itself ofT from the ensemble, as the carpet does here .. . . But the deeper explanation for all this is, again, the unconscious retention of a posture of struggle and defense. I In order to defend a piece of ground, I place myself expressly on the diagonal, because then I have a free view on two sides. It is for this reason that the bastions of a fortification are constructed to form salient angles .... And doesn't the carpet, in this position, recall such a bastion? . . . IJust as the knight, suspecting an attack, positions himself crosswise to guard both left and right, so the peace· loving burgher, several ccnruries later, ordcrs his art objects in such a way that each one, if only by standing out from all the rest, has a wall and moat surround· ing il. He is thus truly a Spir:55biirgr:r, a militant philistine." Adolf Behne, Nr:uu Wohnr:n-Nr:uu Bauro. (Leipzig, 1927), pp. 45-48. In elucidating this point, the author remarks half-seriously : "The gentlemen who could afford a villa wanted [0 mark their higher standing. What easier way than by borrowing feudal fonus, knightly fonns?" (ibid., p. 42). More universal is Lukacs' remark that, from the perspective of the philosophy of history, it is cha racteristic of the middle classes that their new opponelU, the proletariat, should have entered the arena at a mOment when the old adversary, feudalism, was nOt yet vanquished. And they will never quite have done with feudalism. [12,3]
Maurice Banes h.u characterized ProUSt as "a Persian poet in a concierge's box." Could the first person to grapple with the en.igma of the ninclccnth-ccmury interior be anything else? (!be citation is inJacques-Emile Blanche, M e; M odele; [Paris, 1929] 1)' (12,' 1 AJlIIOUnCCllll!lIt puhLished in til e ne WSp S IH!f S: " Notice. -Mons ie ur Wie rt:r; offen to
paint a pic ture free of c harge (o r a llY lo ve rs of painting who , p085cssing 8n original
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Rubens or Raphael , would Like 10 p lace his work as a pend ant beside the work of either of these masters." A. J. Wiertz , Oeuvres lilleraires (Paris. 1870), II. 335.
(12,51
Nineteenth-ccnrury domestic interior. The spacc...disgWgsjlScif::=.puts ~7lik< ~",,"_ self-satisfied burgher should know something of the feeling that the next room might have witnessed the coronation of Charlemagne as weU as the assassination of Henri Iv, the signing of the Treaty of Verdun as well as the wedding ~f Otto and Theophano. In the end, things are
~g creature, the costwnes of moo$;. The
mercly mannequins, and even the great moments of world history are onl;: costumes beneath which they exchange glances of complicity with nOlhingn~ with the petty and the banal. Such nihilism is the innennost core of bourgeois coziness-a mood that in hashish intoxication concentrates to satamc content· ment, satanic knowing, satanic calm, indicating preciscly to what extent the nineteenth-century interior is itself a stimulus to intoxication and dream. 'Ibis mOO(! involves, furthennore, an aversion to the oPen air, the (so to spe~ ra man amlosphere, which throws a nC\v light on the extravagant interior design of the period. To live in these interiors was to have woven a dense fabric about oneself, to have secluded oneself within a spider's web, in whose toils world events hang loosely suspended like so many insect bodies sucked dry. From this cavern, one does not like to stir.$ [12,6J During my second experiment with hashish. Staircase in CharlotteJoi:l's srudio. I said: "A strucrure habitable only by wax figures. I could do so much with it plastically; Piscator and company can just go pack. \\buld be possible for me to change the lighting scheme with tiny levers. I can transfonn the Goethe house into the Covent Garden opera ; can read from it the whole of world history. I see, in this space, why I collect colportage images. Can see everything in this roolll the sons of C harles III and what you will."6 [12a. 1J " The serra ted collurs alltl puffed sleeyes . , . whk h we re mis takeuly tho ught to be the gal"li of metlie yu llutlies." Jacob Falke, Ceschichte
rooms in cofft.-e houses. Each corfeehollse hUll II smoking room known li S the di Gut zkow. Briefe /lU", I'Cl ri., (Leipzig. 1842 ). vol. I. p . 226. 0 Arcades 0
V /lfI ."
[12a,3] " T lle great Be rlin intlulltrial e)(hihition ill full of illll)osing Re naissance rooms; eYen Ihe as htraYIl are in a ntique st yle. the c urta ins haye to be secured with halberds, alld the bull's-eye r ules in windo w a nd cabine t." 70 J ahre deutsche Mode (1925), p. i2.
[12a,4]
An observation from the year 1837. "In those days, the classical style reigned, just as the rococo does today. With a stroke of its magic wand, fashion . .. uansfonned the salon into an atrium, armchairs into curule seats, dresses with trains in to tumCS, drinking glasses into goblets, shoes intO buskins, and guitars into lyres." Sophie Gay, Der Salon tier Friiulein Conte! (in Europa: Chrrmilt der gtbildeten Welt, ed. August !..ewald, vol. 1 [Leipzig and Stuttgart, 1837], p. 358). Hence the following: "What is the height of embarrassment?" "When you bring a harp to a party and no one asks you to play it." 'Ibis piece of drollery, which also illuminates a certain type of interior, probably dates from the Frrst Empire. [12a,5]
"As to Baudelaire's 'stage properties'-which Wert no doubt modeled on the fashion in interior decoration of his day-they might provide a useful lesson for those elegant ladies of the past twenty years, who used to pride thcrnsclves that nOt a single ' false note' was to be found in their town houses. They \'\'Quld do well to consider, when they contemplate the alleged purity of style which they have achieved with such infinite trouble, that a man may be the greatest and most artistic of writers, yet describe nothing but beds with 'adjustable curtains' ... , halls like conservatories ... , beds 6lled with subde scents, sofas deep as tombs, whatnots loaded with Bowers, lamps burning so briefly ... that the only light COmes from the coal fire." Marcel Proust, Chrrmiquts (Paris <1927», pp. 224-2257 (the tides of works cited arc: omitted). These remarks are important because they make it possible to apply to the interior an antinomy fonnu1ated with regard to museums and town planning-namely, to confront the new style with the mysti cal-nihilistic expressive power of the traditional, the "antiquated." Which of these tv.·o alternatives Proust would have chosen is revealed not only by this passage, it :.nay be added, but by the whole of his ","'O rk (compare renfirmi-"closed·up," musty"). [12a.6J Desideratum: the derivation of genre painting. What function did it serve in the rOOms that had need of it? It was the last stage-harbinger of the fact that soon these spaces \\'Ould no longer, in gener-..tI, welcome pictures. "Genre painting.... Conceived in tllls way, an could not fail to resOrt to the specialtics so suited to the m~ketpl ace: ead} artist wants to have his own specialty, from the pastiche of the Middle Ages to microscopic painting, from the routines of the bivouac to Paris fashions . from horses to dogs. Public taste in this regard docs not discrimi
nate.... The same picrure can be copied twenty times lVithout exhausting de mand and, as the vogue prescribes, each well-kept drawing room wants to have onc of these Cashionablefumirhing.r," Wicrtz, CkUUTtJ littiraires
pp. 527- 528.
112a,7]
Against the annature of glass and iron, upholstery offers resistan~ with its 113, 1] textiles.
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One need only srudy with due exactitude the physiognomy of the homes of great collectors. Then onc would have the key to the nineteenth-century interior.Just as in the fonner case: the objects gradually take possession of the residence, so in the latter it is a piece of furniture: that wou1d n:mevt: and assemble the styJ!.stic traces of the centuries. 0 W:>rld of Things 0 [13,2)
Why does the glance intO an unknown window always find a family at a meal, or else a solitary man, seated at a table under a hanging lamp, occupied with some obscure niggling thing? Such a glance is the germ cell of Kafka's work. [13,3]
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The masquerade of styles, as it unfolds across the nineteenth century, resul ts from the fact that relations of dominance: become obscured. The holders of power in the bourgeoisie no longer necessarily exercise this power in the places where they live (as renben), and no longer in direct unmediated fonns. The style of their residences is their false inunediacy. Economic alibi in space. Interior alibi in time. (13," This is the fonnula for the interior. [13,5] " lnwar duess is the histor ical p risou of primordial human n ature. " Wiesengrund [13,61 Adorno , Kierkegaarcl (Tiibingell , 1933), p . 68.9 S«ond Empire. " It is tlus epoch tha t sees the birth of the logical specialization ~y genus and species that &till prevails in moS( homes, and that r eserves oak and sO.lid walnut for the dining roo m and stud y, gilded wood and lacquer s for the drawlIIg room , marquetry and veneering for the bed roo m." Louis SOllolet , La Vie p o ri"iellne " 011..1 Ie Second Empire (Paris . 1929), p . 25 1. [13, 71 " \l(h at d omin ated this co nception of furnishing. in a manner so pro nounced as 10 epilOmi'1.I' the whole . wa ~ tile taste for draped fa hr ics . ample hlll1gings, a nd the art of hll rmonilliing them 1111 in a visual cnsemble." Louis Sonolet , LAI Vif! lJllri.t ie /l1lf~ $0 11..1 Ie Second Empire ( Puris, 1929). p . 253. [13,8J
" The d ra wing rooms of the Second Empire contai ned ... a piece of fu r nitu re (Iuite n:ceuti y invented and tod ay completely cxtinct : it was the fllm ell.se. You sat on it as tride . while leaning lJack on uphoLster.:tl a rlll-rests and enjoying a cigar." Louis [13,9) 50nolet , LA, Vie parij ie,we $011" If! Second Empire (P:lris, 1929), p. 253. On the ,·ftl igree of chimneys" as "'fata 1II0rga na" of the inter ior : " Whoever raises his eyes 10 the housetops, with their iron ra ilings tracing the upper edge of the long gray bouleva rd blocks. discovers the variety and inexh auslibility of the concept ·chimlley.' In all degrees of hc.ight , breadth , lind length , the ~ mokest a ck s rise from their base in the common stone flu es; they range from simple clay p ipes, oftentimes half-b roken and stoolH:d with age, a nd those tin p ipes wilh flat plates or pointed caps, ... to re\'olving chimney cowls a rtfull y lterto ra ted Like visors or ol)Cn 0 11 one side, with bizarre soot-blackened metal fl aps ... . It is the ... teuder irony of the one single form hy which Pllris .. . has been able tu prcscr ve tile magic of inti macy.. . . 50 it is as if the urbane coexistence, .. that is characteristic of tlus city were to be met with again UI) ther e Oil the rooft ops." J oachim von 1:Ie.!mersen , {13,lO) " Pariser Ka mine," Frankf urter Zeitung. Febr uary 10, 1933. Wiesengrund cites and commcnts on a passage from the D;(lry of a Seducer-a passage tha t he considers the key to Kierkegaa rd's " en tire oeuvre" : " Environment and setting still have a great influ ence u pon one; there is something abo ut them which stamps itself fl""l y a nd deeply in the memory, or r ather upon the whole souJ , and which is therefore neve r forgotten . However old I may become, it will always be impossible for me to think of Cordelia amid surroundings differe nt from this Little room. Wilen I come to visit her, the maid admits me to the ha ll ; Cordelia herself cOllies in from her r oom , and , just as I open the door to enter the Living roo m, she opens her door, so that our eyes meet exactly in the doorway. T he living roo m is small , comforta hle, Linle more tha n a cabinet. Ahhough I ha ve now seen it from ma ny different viewpoints, the olle dea rest to me is the view fro m the sofa. She sits there by my side; in front of us stands a round tea table, over which is draped a rich talll« lolh . O n the ta ble stands a lamp sh al.oo Like a Rower, which shoots up vigorously to bea r its crown , over which a dcLicately cut paper sh ade ha ngs dowli so lightly that it is neve r still. T he lamp's form rcminds olle of oriental lallds; the "lUde 's movement , of mild oriental breezes. T he fl oor is concealed b y a carpet wo"en froni II cer tain kind of osier, which imnu,..iiately betra ys its foreign origin . For the moment . J let the lamp become the keynote of my lalU.lscape. I am sitting the r~ with Iter outstretched 0 11 the fl oor, under the I IIII1 P 'S fl oweri ng. At other tillles I let the osier rug evo ke thoughl8 of a ship . of 11 11 offi cer 's ea hin- we sail out into the middle of the grea t I)t;elln . When we sit a t a liista nee from the window, we gaze directl y in to hea\'cn 's vast horizon .... Cordelia 's 1~lI v i ro nment lIlust have no foreground . b ut onl y the infi nite boldness of far horizons" (Cesa m melte Sch riften
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than he leel through the semblance of the spatial in the image of the inlerior. But here lIe is exposed by the mate ria l. . . . The contenls of I.he interior are mer e decor ation. a lie na ted from IIle purposes the y represent , de prived of their own lise value, e nge nde red solely by the isolated dwe lling-Ip ace. . . . The self is ove;:=- whelmed in its own d o ma in by commodities a nd their historica l eUCRee. T heir semblunce-character is historically-economicaUy produced by the alienation of thing from lise value. But in the interior, things do nol remain aUen .... Foreign-=- ness transfornlA: iuelf from alienated things into expreuion ; mute things speak 88 ', ymhols.' T he ordering of thinge in the dwelling-space is called 'arrangement.' Historically illusor y
The bourgeois who came into ascendancy with Louis Philippe sets store by the transfonnation of nature into the interior. In 183 9, a ball is held at the Britisll embassy. Two hundred rose bushes'jll"e ordered. "The garden," so runs.Jgl eye: witness account, "was covered by an awning and had the feel of a drawing room . But what a d rawing room! The fragrant, well-stocked Hower beds had turned into enonnous jardiniem, the graveled walks had disappeared under sumpruous carpets, and in place of the cast·iron benches we found sofas covered in damask and silk; a round table held books and albums. From a distance, the strains of an orchestra drifted intO this colossal boudoir." (14,11 Fa8 hion j ournals of the IJeriod contained instructions for preserving bouquets.
invent some sort of casing fo r! (\)eket watches, slippers, egg cups, thermometers, playing cards- and, in lieu of cases, there were jackets, carpets, wrappers, and covers. The twentieth century, with its porosity and transparency, its tendency toward the well-lit and airy, has put an end to dwelling in the old ~nse. Set ofT against the doll ho use in the residence of the master builder Solncss are the "homes for hwnan being!."11 Jugendstil unsettled the world of the shell in a radical way. Today this "-arid has disappeared entirely, and dwelling has dimin ished : for the living, through hOld rooms; for the dead, through crematoriums. [14,4] "To dwell" as a transitive verb-as in the no tion of "indwelt spaces";ll herewith an indication of the frenetic topicality concealed in habirual behavior. It has to do with fashioning a shell for oursdves. {14,5] " From under aU the corlll branches and bushes, they Iwam into view; from under every table, every ch air; from oul of the drawers of tile old-fa shioned cabinets and wardrobell that l>lood within Ihis stra nge clubroom- in short , from every hand's breadth of hiding which the 8pOt provided to the smallest of fi sh , they suddenl y came to Life aud showed themselves." Friedrich Cer stiicker, D~ verlunkene Stadt (Berlin : Neufeld and B enius, 1921), p. 46. {14a, l] From a review of Eugene Sue's Juiferrant , criticized for various reasons, including the d enigration of the Jes ui ts and the unmanageable abundance of cha racters who do nothing bUI al)pear and disappear: "A novel is not a place one passes through ; it is a place one inhabits." Paulin Limayr ac, " Du Roman BCtUe! et de nos romanciers," Revue del deux mondel, 11 , no. 3 (Paris, 1845), p.951. {14a,2]
[14,2] " Like an odalisque upon a shimmering bronze divan , the pro ud cilY Lies amid warm , vine-dad hills ill the scrpentine valley of the Seine." Friedrich Engels, " Von l:taris nach Bern," Die neue Zeit. 17, no. 1 (Stuttga rt , 1899), p. 10. {14,3]
The difficulty in reHecting on dwelling: on the one hand, there is something age-old-perhaps eternal-to be recognized here, the image of that abode of the human being in the maternal womb; on the other hand, this motif of prima1 history notwithstanding, we must understand dwelling in its most extreme fonn as a condition of nineteenth-century existence. The o riginal foml of all d welling is existence not in the house but in the shell. The shell bears the impressio n of its occupant. In the most extreme instance, the dwelling becomes a shell. The nine teenth century, like no other century, was addicted to dwelling. It conceived the residence as a receptacle for the person, and it encased him with all hls appurte nances so deeply in the d",'elli.ng's interior that o ne might be reminded of the inside of a compass case, where the instnullent with all its accessories lies embed ded in deep, usually violet folds of ~l~t . What didn't the nineteenth c::entury
On literary Empire . Nel)OmuCfme Lemen.:ier brings onto the stage, under allegori cal names, the Monar ch y, the Church , the Aristocr acy, the Demagoguel, the Em pir e, the Police, Liter ature, and the Coalition of European powers. His artistic means: " the fantastic ap plied emblematically." His maxim : " Allusions are my weapolIs; aUegory, my buckler. " NepoDlucime Lenlercier, Suite de la Panhy. pocriJiade. ou Le Spectacle infernal du dix-neu vieme l iecie (P aris, 1832), PI)' ix , vii. {I4a,3] FrUIn tile " Expose prClimillairc" 10 I..elllcr cier 's uJIllpelie et Daguerre: "A short prea mble is lu:cessar y 10 introduce my audiellce to tile compositional stra tegy of this POCIII , whose subject i ~ prnise for the ~liscove ry "lIule h y Ihe i.lIl1 s lriou~ artist M. Daguel're; this il; a tliscover y of equ al inlerest to the Academy of Science and the Academy of Finc Arts, for it cOllcerns the stud y of drawing as much ItS the Slutl y of physics.... On the oceallion of such an homage, I would Like to see a IICW in velltiOIl in 1)t}Clry ap plied to Ihi ~ cxtrao rtlinary discovery. We know Ihlll ancient mythulogy . . . explained nalura l plu~nome na by symbolic beings. ac ti ve repre selltations of the parlicula r principles cmbtKlied in things .. . . Mot.Iern imitations
h ave, up 10 !lOW, borrowed only the form s of clauicallH>etry ; I am e ndeavoring to appropriate for 11 8 I.hc principle and the s ubs tance. The lende llcy of the ve rsifiers of o ur cenlUry ill 10 retl uce the a rt of the mus~ to practica l a ud trivial rc nlilic8, easily co mpreilc n8ible by the ave ra ge perso n. This is not progreu hUI decade nce. The origiJl li1 e nthus ias m of the a nc ienls, by co ntras t , tc utlet! to elevate the 1111ma n illtc Uigcllce by initiating it into thosc secrets of n at ure reve aled by the elegantl y ideal fables.... It is 1101 without encouragement that 11ay bare for you the fouD
dations of my theory, which I ha ve a pplied ... to Newtonian philosophy in my
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A,'an.im/e. T he learned geome te r Lagru uge has been
110 gene rous as 10 voice 8P proval of my a lte rnp! to crea le for o ur modern muses tha t great ra rit y: a theoso ph y . . . conforming to acq uired kno wledge.'" Nel)Qmucene I...cmereier, S ur fa Decouverte ele r ingenieux pe intre du diorama: Seance publiqlle atulllelle de! c inq academies de jemli 2 rnai 1839 ( Paris, 1839), pp. 21-23. [14a,4)
On the illusionistic painting of the J us te Milieu : 13 ''The pa inter must ... be a good dramatist , II good cos tumer, a lld a skillful di rec: tor. . . . T he public ... is much more inte rested in the 8ubject t han in the artistic qualiti es. ' Isn' t the most diffieult thing the ble lltling of colors?-No, respo nds a connoisseur, it 's gelling t he fis h 's sca les ri ght . S uch was the idea of a esthetic c reation alllollg professors . la wyers, d octors ; everywher e one admired the miracle of tromIHl-I' oeil . AllY mi~mally successful imitatio n wo uld ga rne r praise. '" Gisela Freund , " I..a Pho togra phie du point d e vue 8ociologi«ue" (ManIl8cript , p . 102). The Iluota tion is from Juletl Breto n . No! pcintre. du sieck. p . 4 1.
[15, 1)
Plush-the material in which traces are left especially easily.
[!S.2[
Furthering the fa shio n in knic kkn a cks are the a d va nces in metallurgy, which has ill! origins in the First Em pire. " During this period , grOUp8 of cupids a nti bacchan tes aplleared fo r the first time .... Today, a rt owns a sho p a nd displays the mar vels of its creatio ns o n shelve;; of gold or crysta l. whe rea8 in lbme days ma8terpiet:cs of stat uary, reduced in prec:ise proportio n . we re sold a t a di8coMt . The 1·hree Cruces of Canova fo und a place in the bo udoir, while the B(l cclwntes a nd the Falin of Pradie r ha d the honors of the b r idal ch amber." Ed oua rtl Fou ca ud , Pm"is inve"teur: Pllysiologie de l'industriejrum. (li!c ( Paris, 1844), pp . 196
197 .
[1S.3[
" The science of tile poste r .. . has a tta ined that r a re tlegrce of llerfcctio ll ul which s killturn8 into art . And here I a lii IIQt speaking of those extruol·dinury placa rds . .. un whic h ex pe rts ill c.II lligrap hy . . . underta ke to r epresent Na po leon on ho rsebac k by all iugcniulis combina tio n of (jIl CS in which the course of his histo r y is simuh ullcolisly narra ted a nd depicted . No. I s ha ll confllle III YscI£ to ordin ur y p...stt' rl. JII ~ t sce how fu r these ha ve been aLle to push t he eloquence or t ypQ' grap h y. the st:tluclions of the vigne tte. t he fu scin a tiol18 of coiur, h y us ing I.hl: 1II08t va rictl .II.lId br illiant of huell 11.1 iCllli perflfiious s up port to 11m ruses of du: l'u h li8h
era!" Victo r FOUfnel , Ce qu '1.1 11 lJOil 294 ("Ellseib'llclI ct uffi chu").
l i tUl S
leJ r ues de Priri.s ( Paris . 1858), pp . 293 [15,4J
Interio r of Alphouse Karr', apa rtme nt : " 'Ie lives li.ke 11 1.1 Q II C else. These days he'. the 5ixt h o r seveuth fl oor a bove the Rue Vi vienne. The Rue Vivienne for a n artist! His apa rtme nt is hung in blac k ; he has windowpanes of viole t o r white frosted glass. He has ne ither ta bles lIor c ha in (at mM t, II s ingle c hair for excep tional vis itors), a nd he slet:p8 on a dj va n- fully d ressed, I' m toltl. He lives like a Turk, o n cushio ns. and writes s itting o n the fl()Qr... . Hi8 wa Us are det:o ra ted with ,.ado u.!! old things . . . ; C hinese va8es, de a th-heads, fe ncer 's foils, a nd tob a cco pipes orname nt e,·e r y corner. For a 8e r vant , he h aa a mulatto whom he outfits in scarlt:t fro m he a d to toe!' Jules Lecomte, u s Lettre, de Von E ngelsom . cd . AI
1.111
me ras ( Pari.!!, 1925), pp. 63-M.
115,5)
From Da umier 's C roquis pri.! ou S%" (Sketches Made a t the S a lo n>. A solita r y art-lover indicating a picture 011 which two miser able po plars are represented in a fl a t la lldscape: " What society could be as degene rate a nd corrupt as ours? . . . Everyone looks a t pictu res of mo re or less mo nstrous scenes, but no one stops before an image of beautiful lind pure lIa ture." [I5a,l ] On the occasioll of a murder case in London which turned on the d iscove ry of a sack co nta ining the victim 's body parts, together with remnanll! of clothing; from the latter. the police we re a ble to draw Ct!rtain co nclus ions. "'So many things in a minuet!' a cele bra ted da ucer u.!!ed to say. So ma n y things in an ove rcoat !-wben circums tances a nd men ma ke it Sllea k . Yo u will say it', a bit much to expect a person , each ti me he acqui res a topcoat, to cons ide r tbat one day it may sene him as a willding sheet . I a dmit tha t my slIPI)Qsitio ns a re not e xactly rose-colored. But, I re lHlat , . . . the week's e"e nlS have been do leful ." H . de Pe ne, Pori.! intlme ( Paris, 1859), 1' .236 . 115a,2J Furniture a t the time of the Restor a tion : "sofas, d ivans, o ttomans , love sea ts, recliners, settees ." J a cques Ro bi(luet . L'A rt et legoul SOIlS la Restouralwn (Paris, 1928). p . 202. [15a.3) " We h llve a lread y s a id ... Iha t hum a nit y is regressing to the sta te of cave dwelle r, a nd so all- hut t ha t it is regressing in an est ra nged . maligna nt form . T he savage in his ca,·c ... fL'tJls ... III ho me t he re .... But the h ase ment a partment of the poor JUa n is a hostile dwe lling, ' a n IIlic lI . rest ruining power , which gives itself up to him 0111 '1 insofa r as he gives up to it II is hlood a nd swea t .' S uch a (Iwclling can ne ve r feel like home. II pillce where he miglll a t las t excl a im . ' He re I a m at home!' Ins tead , the poor lIlan find l himself in someone d se's ho me. . . someone who d a ily lies in wai t for him a nd til row. him Ollt if he d ocs no t pay his re nt . He is a lso aware of the Cont rast i.n «lIl1lh y between hia dwe lling 11111111 hUllla n dwdling-a reside nce ill tha t other wo rld , the he aven of wealt h ." Ka rl Ma r x. lJe,. hislorische M(Jteriaiismw ,
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ed. Lands hut and Maye r (Leipzig ( 1932) . vol. J. p . 325 ("NationalOkoliomie und Philosophic" )." [15a.4J
Valer y 011 Poe. He IImle rlines the Ame rican writer ', incompara ble illSight into t he conditions and effects of liter ar y work in general: " What distinguishes a trul y gener al phenomenon i8 its fertilit y. . . . It i8 therefore not surprising that Poe, posscningllo effective and l ure a method , became Ihe inve ntor of sever al different litera r y fonns-that he provided the fi rst ... examples of the scientific tale. the modern cosmogonic poem, the detective novel , the literature of morbid psycho logical 8tates .'· Valer y, " Introd uction" to Baudelair e. LeIJ FLeur. du mal
In the following description of a Parisian salon, Gautier gives drastic expression to the integration of the individual into the interior: "The eye, entranced. is led to the groups of ladies who. Buttering their fans . listen to the talkers half·reclining.
Their eyes are sparkling like diamonds ; their shou1ders glisten like satin; and their lips open up like flowers." (Artificial things come forth!) Pari; e/ leJ PariJinu aux X IX' Jiecie (Paris, 1856), p. iv (Theophile G autier, "Introduction,,). [16,1] /
Balzac's interior decorating in the rather ill-fated property Les J ardies :15 "This house ... was one of the romances on which M . de Balzac worked hardest during his life. but he was never able to finish it. ... 'O n these patient as M . Gotlan has said, 'there were charcoal inscriptions to this effect: "H ere a facing in Parian marble"; "H ere a cedar stylobate n ; "H ere. a ceiling painted by Eugene Delaooix"; "H ere a fireplace in cipolin marble ...•.. Alfred Nettement, H islom de La littiralurt fta nfaUt JOU; Ie gouumzcnmJ de j uilk J (Paris, 1859), vol. 2. pp. 266
walls:
267.
(16,21
Develo pment of "The Interio r" chapter : entry of the prop into 6lm.
[16,3]
E. R. Curtius cites the foUowing passage from Balzac's Pth"tJ &urgtflu: "The hideous unbridled speculation that lowers, year by year, the height of the ceilings, that fits a whole apartment into the space fonnerly occupied by a d rawing room and declares war on the garden, will not fail to have an influence on Parisian morals. Soon it will become necessary to live more. o utside the ho use than within it.n Ernst Roben C urtius, Baluu: (Bonn, 1923), p. 28. Increasing importance of [16.4] the streets. for various reasons. ~rhaps there. is a connection between the shrinking of residential space and the elabo rate furnishing of the interio r. Regarding the first, Balzac makes some telling observations : "Small pictures alone are in demand because large ones can no longer be hung. Soon it wiU be a fo rmidable problem to house one's library.... O ne can no longer find space for provisions of any son . H ence, o ne buys things thal are not calrulated to wear well. 'The shirts and the books won't last, so there.
you are. The durability of products is disappearing on all sides!" Ernst Robert Curtius, & Juu: (Bonn, 1923), pp. 28-29. [16,5] "S unsets cnt their glowing col o r~ on the walls of di n.ing room a nd drawin g room, filtering softl y through lovely ha ngingil or intricate high windows with nmllioned panes. An the furniture is immense, fantastic , stra nge, armed with lock! and te(:rets like aU ch·i.lized 801l1s. Mir ror s, metals , fabrics , pottery, and works of the goldsmith 's art playa mute mysterious symphon y for the eye." Cha rlcs Baude lai.re, Le Spleen de Paris, ed . R. Simon (Paris), p. 21 (" L' lnvitation all voyage" )Y [16a,I) Etymology of the word "comfort ." " I.n EngLish, it used to mea n eanJoMtion ('Com rorter ' is the epithet applied to the Holy Spirit). T hen the sense became . instead , well-being . Today, in aU languages of the world, the word designates nothing more than rational convenience. " Wladimir Weidle, Les Abeilks d 'A ristee (Paris ~ 1 936) , p . 115 ("L' Agonie de I' a rt"). [16a,2] " The artist-midinettes . .. 110 longer occupy rooms; rather, they live in studios. (More a nd more , you hear ever y place of habitation caUed a 'studio,' as if people ",er e more and more becoming artists or u udents .)" Henri Polles, " L'Art du com nlerce," Vend redi , Febr ua ry 12 , 1931. [16a,3]
Multiplication of traces through the modem administrative apparatus. Balzac draws attention to this : "Do your uttnost, hapless Frenchwomen, to re.main unknown, to weave the very least little romance in the midst of a civilization which takes note. on public squares, of the hoW' when every hackney cab comes and goes; which counts every letter and stamps them twice, at the exact time they are posted and at the time they are deliven=d ; which numbers the houses ... ; which ere long will have every acre of land, down to the smallest holdings . . . , laid down on the broad sheets of a survey- a giant's task, by command of a giant." Balzac, ModeJ/~ Mignon, LI cited in Regis Messac, U "Dtltch"ue Novel" «I I'irifluma de Ja ptnJit JcitnJifiqun (Paris, 1929), p. 461. [16a,4) " Victor Hugo works standing up, and , since he cannot find a suitab le antique to serve as his desk, he writes 011 a stack of 8tools and la rge books which is covered ....ilb a carpet . It is on the Bible. it is on the Nuremberg Chronicles, that the poet lea ns a nd sp reads his Ilaper." Louis Ulhach, LeJ Contemporaim (Paris, 1833), cited ill Uaymond Escholier, Victor Hugo ra COnle par ceux qui I'ollt vu (Paris , 193 1), p. 352. [17,1]
The Louis Philippe style: "The bto:Uy overspreads everything, even the time pieces." [17,2] There is an apocalyptic interior- a co mplement, as it were., of the bo urgeois interior at midcentury. It is to be found with Victor H ugo. H e writes of spiritual
isoc manifestations: "I have been checked for a moment in my miserable human alllour.propr~ by a,crual revelation, coming to throw around my little miner's lamp a streak of lightning and of meteor." In us Contnnp/o6onJ, he writes:
'* for any sounds in these dismal empty spaces; Wandenng through the shadows, listen to the breath liste~
clltiation. Changes in fa shion dis rupllhal ... procell of ... assimilalion between subject and object. . . . [In the third "lace. there is] the multitude of style. thai confronts us whell we view Ihe object8 I.bal surround us ." Georg Simmel , Philo! o_ pllie tie! Geldes (Leipzig, 19(0). PI>· 491-494. ~~ [17a,2)
"""e
1'bat malta the darkness shudder; And now and then, lost in unfathomable nights, 'W: sce lit up by mighty lights The window of etentity.
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(Cited in Claudius Grillet, Vu/or Hugo Jpidle
The relation of the jugendsti1 interior to its predecessors comes down to the fact that the bourgeois conceals his alibi in history with a still more remote alj,bi in [17,5) natural history (specifically in the realm of plants). Th: eruis, dust covers, sheaths with which the bourgeois household of the pre cedmg century encased its utensils were so many measures taken to capture and preserve traces. [17,6] On the history of the domestic interio r. The residential character of the rooms in the early fact.o~es, though disconcerting and inexpedient, adds this homely touch : that WIthin these spaces o ne can imagine the factory owner as a quaint figurine in a landscape of machines, drnming not only of his own but of their future greatness. With the dissociation of the proprietor from the workplace, this characteristic of factory buildings disappears. Capital alienates the employer, too, from his means of production, and the dream of their future greatness is finished . This alienatio n process culminates in the emergence of the private home. [I7a,l ) " During the first ~l eca d e8 of the nineteenth century, furniture and the objects that Surrounded liS for lise and pleasure were relatively simple a nd durable , and ac· t'onle{1 with the need s of both the lower and the u"per stnlla. This resulted ill people's altaciullcnt. as they grew u" , to the object s of their s urroumlings .... The differ entiation of objects has broken down this situation in three different wa y•. . .. Fir;H, Ihe sill.:er quuntil Yof ...cry specifi cally formed objt.:t:ts make II close .. . relations hip to eaclt of them more djfficuit .... This is expreued ... ill IIIC hou sewife'. cumplai.nl Iha l Ihe care of the household becomes ceremonial felis h is m .... Thi. concurrenl differ entiation has the same effect a8 cOllsC(:uti...e differ
On the theory of the trace. To "the Harbor-Master, ... [as] a son of ... deputy Nepnm e for the circumambient seas, ... I was, in common with the other sea men of the port, merely a subject for officia1 writing, filling up of fonns with all the artificial superiority of a man of pen and ink to the men who grapple with
realities outside the consecrated walls of officia1 buildings. What ghosts we must have been to him! Mere symbols to juggle with in books and heavy registers, without brains and muscles and perplexities; something hardly useful and decid edly inferior." j oseph Conrad, Die Schaltm/inie (Berlin <1926» , p. 51.20 (Compare with the Rousseau passage .) [17a,3) On the theory of the trace. Practice is eliminated from the productive process by machinery. In the process of administration, something analogous occurs with heightened organization. Knowledge of human nature, such as the senior em ployee could acquire through practice, ceases to be decisive. TIlls can be seen when one compares Conrad's observations in "The Shadow-Line" with a pas OmftJJioru. [18, 1) sage from
u;
On the theory of the trace: administration in the eighteenth century. As secretary to the French embassy in Venice, Rousseau had abolished the tax on passpons for the French. "As soon as the news got around that I had refonned the passpon tax, my only applicants were aowds of pretended Frenchmen who claimed in abominable accents to be either from Provence, Picardy, or Burgundy. As I have a fairly good ear, I was not easily fooled, and I doubt whether a single Italian cheated me out of m y ;equin, or a single Frenclunen paid it." jean:Jacques Rous Confts.sioru, ed. Hilswn (Paris ~193h), vol. 2, p_ 13Z21 {18,2] seau,
u;
Baudelaire, in the introduction to hi. tran81ation of Poe'8 " PhiloliOphy of Furni ture," which originaUy appeared in October 1852 in Le Magluin des famiiles : "'Who among U8, in hi8 idle hou n, has not taken a delicious plea8ure in construct ing for himself a model apartment. a dream house. a house of dream8?" Cbarles Baudelaire, Oeu vres completes, ed . Crepet, Ilistoire! g rotesques et serieuses par Poe ( Paris, 1937), p . 3(H. {I8,3]
