The Arcades Project - Operi

Remarkable distinction between Hanenr and rubberneck (badaud): "Let us not,
however, confuse the Haneur with the rubberneck: there is a subtle difference . ...
The average Haneur . .. is always in full possession of his individuality, while that
of the rubberneck disappears, absorbed by the external world, ... which moves
him to the point of intoxication and ecstasy. Under the influence of the spectacle,
the rubberneck becomes an impersonal being. He is no longer a man-he is the
public; he is the crowd. At a distance from nature, his naive soul aglow, ever
inclined to reverie, . .. the true ruhberneck deserves the admiration of all upright
and sincere hearts." Victor Fournel, Ce qu'on voit dans les rues de Paris (Paris,
1858), p. 263 ("L'Odyssee d'un Hilrreur dans les rues de Paris"). [M6,5]
The phantasmagoria of the f1!lneur: to read from faces the profession, the ances·
try, the character. [M 6,6]
In 185116 there was still a regular stagecoach line between Paris and Venice.
[M6,7]
On the colportage phenomenon of space: '''The sense of mystery,' wrote Odilon
Redon, who had learned the secret from da Vinci, 'comes from remaining always
in the equivocal, with double and triple perspectives, or inklings of perspective
(images within images )-forms that take shape and come into being aecording to
the state of mind of the spectator. All things more suggestive just because they do
appeal'. '" Cited in Raymond Escholier, 'Artiste," Arts et metiers graphiques, No.
47 (June 1, 1935), p. 7. [M6a,!]
The flaneur at night. 'Tomorrow, perhaps, . . noctambulism will have had its
day. But at least it will be lived to the full during the thirty or forty years it will
last. ... The individual can rest from time to time; stopping places and waystations
are permitted him. But he does not have the right to sleep." Alfred Delvau,
Les I-Iew'es parisiennes (Paris, 1866), pp. 200, 206 CDeux Heures de matin" ).­
That nightlife was significantly extended is evident already from the fact that, as
Delvau recounts (p. 163), the stores were closing at ten o'clock. [M6a,2]
In the musical revue by Barre, Radet, and Desfontaines, M. Dureliej, ou, Petite
Revue des embellissemens de Paris (Paris, 1810), performed at the Theatre de
Vaudeville on June 9, 1810, Paris in the form of a model constructed by M. Durelief
has migrated into the scenery. The chorus declares "how agreeahle it is to have
all of Paris in one's drawing room" (p. 20). The plot revolves around a wager
hetween the architect Durelief and the painter Ferdinand; if the former, in his
model of Paris, omits any sort of "emhellishment," then his daughter Victorine
straightaway helongs to Ferdinand, who otherwise has to wait two years for her. It
turns out that Durelief has forgotten Her Majesty the Empress Marie Louise, the
most beautiful ornament" of Paris . [M6a,3]
The city is the realization of that ancient dream of humanity, the labyrinth. It is
this reality to which the f1!lneur, without knowing it, devotes himself. Without