The Arcades Project - Operi

its first ordeal." A. Toussenel, L 'Esprit des betes: Zoologie passionnelle (Paris,
1884), pp. 44-45. [GI2,5]
Principle of Toussenel 's zoology: " The rank of the species is in direct proportion to
its resemblance to the human being." A. Toussenel, L 'Esprit des betes (Paris,
1884), p. i. Compare the epigraph to the work: r.HThe best thing about man is his
dog.' -Charlet." [G I2a,I]
The aeronaut Poitevin, sustained by great publicity, undertook an "ascent to Uranus"
accompanied in the gondola of his balloon by young women dressed as
mythological figures. Paris sous la Republique de 1848: Exposition de la Bibliotheque
et des travaux historiques de lu Ville de Paris (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 activity
. ... 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 production
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 lab ore': Instead of being consumed by him as
material elements of his productive 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:' 22 'Ibis observation can be applied to the analysis of Grandville. To
what extent is the hired laborer the "soul" of Grandville's fetishistically animated
objects? [GI2a,3]
"Night distributes the stellar essence to the sleeping plants. Every bird which flies
has the thread of the infinite in its claw." Victor Hugo, Oeuvres completes (Paris,
1881), novels, vol. 8, p. 114 (Les Miserables, book 4). 2:l [GI2a,4]
Drumont calls Toussenel "one of the greatest prose writers of the century."
Edouard Drumont, Les Heros et les pitres (Paris