The Arcades Project - Operi
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The Arcades Project - Operi

The Arcades Project - Operi The Arcades Project - Operi

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s [Painting, Jugendstil, Novelty] To create history with the very detritus of history. -Remy de Gourmont, Ie IIm Livre des masques (paris, 1924), p. 259 Events profit from not being commented on. -Alfred Delvau, Preface to Murailtes revolutionnaires (paris), vol. 1, p. 4 Pains eternal, And ever fresh, Hide from their hearts All your terrors. -Verse of dlC Devil, sung while he transforms a desolate and rocky landscape into a boudoir; from Hippolyte Lucas and Eugene Barre, Le Ciel et l'el!1er: Nen'e (Paris, 1853), p. 88 VVhile procreation used to be the fashion, We think of that, pardon, as tripe. -Pawl) Part 2 (Wagner in the homunculus scene)l History is like Janus: it has two faces. Whether it looks to the past or to the present, it sees the same things." Du Camp, Paris , vol. 6, p. 315. 0 Fashion 0 [SI,I] ·l.lt has often happened to me to note certain trivial events passing before my eyes as showing a quite original aspect, in which I fondly hoped to discern the spirit of the period. 'This,' I would tell myself, 'was bound to happen today and could not have been other than it is. It is a sign of the times .' Well, nine times out of ten, I have come across the very same event with analogous circumstances in old memoirs or old history books." Anatole France, Le Jardin d'Epicure (Paris), p. 113.2 o Fashion 0 [SI,2] Tbe change in fashions, the etemally up·to-date , escapes "historical" consideration; it is truly overCOllle only tluough a consideration that is political (theological). Politics recognizes in every actual constellation the genu-

inely unique-what will never recur. Characteristic of a fashionable considera­ tion, which proceeds from bad contemporariness, is the following item of infor­ mation, which is found in Benda's La Trahison des clercs : a German reports his amazement when, sitting at a table d'h8te in Paris fourteen days after the storming of the Bastille, he heard no one speak of politics. It is no different when Anatole France has the aged Pilate chatting in Rome of the days of his governorship and saying, as he touches on the revolt of the king of the Jews, "Now, what was he called?"3 [SI,3J Definition of the "modem" as the new in the context of what has always already been there. The always new, always identical "heathscape" in Kafka (Der FrozejJ) is not a bad expression of this state of affairs . '''Wouldn't you like to see a picture or two that you might care to buy?' . . . Titorelli dragged a pile of unframed canvases from under the bed; they were so thickly covered with dust that when he blew some of it from the topmost, K. was almost blinded and choked by the cloud that flew up. 'Wild Na ture, a heathscape; said the painter, handing K. the picture. It showed two stunted trees standing far apart from each other in darkish grass. In the background was a many-hued sunset. 'Fine; said K., 'I'll buy it.' K's curtness had been unthinking and so he was glad when the painter, instead of being offended, lifted another canvas from the floor. 'Here's the companion picture; he said. It might have been intended as a companion picture, but there was not the slightest difference that one could see between it and the other; here were the two trees, here the grass, and there the sunset. But K. did not bother about that. They're fine prospects; he said. 'I'll buy both of them and hang them up in my office: 'You seem to like the subject; said the painter, fishing out a third canvas. 'By a lucky chance I have another of these studies here: But it was not merely a sinlllar study, it was simply the same wild heathscape again. The painter was apparently exploiting to the full this opportunity to sell off his old pictures. 'I'll take that one as well,' said K. 'How much for the three pictures?' 'We'll settle tlmt next time; said tl,e painter . . . . 'I must say I'm very glad you like these pictures, and I'll throw in all the others under the bed as well. They're heathscapes every one of them-I've painted dozens of them in my time. Some people won't have anything to do with these subjects because they're too somber, but there are always people like yourself who prefer somber pictures.'" Franz Kafka, Der FrozejJ (Berlin, 1925), pp. 284-286." 0 Hashish 0 [SI,4J The "modern;' the time of hell. The punishments of hell are always the newest tlling going in this domain. What is at issue is not that "the same thing happens over and over," and even less would it be a question here of eternal return. It is rather tllat precisely in that which is newest the face of the world never alters, that this newest renmins, in every respect, the same.-Tbis constitutes the eternity of hell. To determine the totality of traits by which the "modern" is defined would be to represent hell. [SI,5J Of vital interest to recognize a particular point of development as a crossroads. The new historical thinking that, in general and in particulars, is characterized by

s<br />

[Painting, Jugendstil, Novelty]<br />

To create history with the very detritus of history.<br />

-Remy de Gourmont, Ie IIm Livre des masques (paris, 1924), p. 259<br />

Events profit from not being commented on.<br />

-Alfred Delvau, Preface to Murailtes revolutionnaires (paris), vol. 1, p. 4<br />

Pains eternal,<br />

And ever fresh,<br />

Hide from their hearts<br />

All your terrors.<br />

-Verse of dlC Devil, sung while he transforms a desolate and rocky<br />

landscape into a boudoir; from Hippolyte Lucas and Eugene Barre,<br />

Le Ciel et l'el!1er: Nen'e (Paris, 1853), p. 88<br />

VVhile procreation used to be the fashion,<br />

We think of that, pardon, as tripe.<br />

-Pawl) Part 2 (Wagner in the homunculus scene)l<br />

History is like Janus: it has two faces. Whether it looks to the past or to the<br />

present, it sees the same things." Du Camp, Paris ,<br />

vol. 6, p. 315. 0 Fashion 0 [SI,I]<br />

·l.lt has often happened to me to note certain trivial events passing before my eyes<br />

as showing a quite original aspect, in which I fondly hoped to discern the spirit of<br />

the period. 'This,' I would tell myself, 'was bound to happen today and could not<br />

have been other than it is. It is a sign of the times .' Well, nine times out of ten, I<br />

have come across the very same event with analogous circumstances in old memoirs<br />

or old history books." Anatole France, Le Jardin d'Epicure (Paris), p. 113.2<br />

o Fashion 0 [SI,2]<br />

Tbe change in fashions, the etemally up·to-date , escapes "historical"<br />

consideration; it is truly overCOllle only tluough a consideration that is<br />

political (theological). Politics recognizes in every actual constellation the genu-

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