The Arcades Project - Operi

sort of industrial tournament where each of the athletes will test his vigor and
dexterity, and where each can show off to an audience of lovelies, who will bring
the festivities to a close by serving lunch or a snack.' Charles Fourier, Traite de
l'association domestique-agricole (Paris and London, 1822), vol. 2, p. 584. To this
beau agricole belong fnrther the steles that are raised on flower-covered pedestals
and the busts of dcserving farm laborers or agriculturists placed on altars
that are scattered through the fields. " These are the mythological demigods of the
industrial sect or series." Cited in Armand and Maublanc, Pourier (Paris 1937)
vol. 2, p. 206. Offerings of incense are made to them through the Coryhants.
[WI5a,4]
Fourier recommends gearing the experiment, in the trial phalanx, toward precisely
the most eccentric characters. [WI6,1]
Fourier was a chauvinist: he hated Englishmen andJews. He saw the Jews not as
civilized people but as barbarians who maintained patriarchal customs. [W16,2]
Fourier's apple-the pendant to that of Newton-which, in the Parisian restau·
nmt Fevrier, costs a hundred times more than in the province where it is grown.
Proudhon, too, compares himself to Newton. [WI6,3]
To the Harmonians, Constantinople is the capital of the earth. [W16,4]
Harmonians need very littlc slcep (like Fourier!). They live to the age of 150 at the
very least. [W16,5]
"The "opera' stands at the forefront of educational directives . ... The opera is a
s(hool of morality in outline: it is there that young people are imbued with a
horror of anything prejudicial to truth, preeision, and unity. At the opera, no
favor can exeuse the one whose note is false, whose timing, step, or gesture is off.
The prince's child who has a part in the dance or the choir must endure the truth,
must listen to the criticisms arising from the masses. It is at the opera that he
learns, in evcry move he makes, to subordinate himself to unitary proprieties, to
general accords." Cited in .F. Armand and R. Mauhlanc, Fourier (Paris, 1937),
vol. 2, Pl'. 232-233. [WI6,6]
"No one ever dreamed, in eivilization, of perfecting that portion of our dress we
call 'atmosphere.' ... It does not suffice to change it merely in the rooms of certain
idlcrs . ... Wc must modify the atmosphere in general and systematically.' Cited
in F. Armantl anti R. Mauhlane, FOILrier (Paris, 1937), vol. 2, p. 145. [WI6,7]
Fourier's texts are rich in stereotypical locutions comparable to the gradus ad
parnassum.,J() Almost every time he speaks of the arcades, it is to say that, under
present circumstances, even the king of France gets wet when he steps into his
carriage during a rainstorm. [W16,8]