The Arcades Project - Operi

Le 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 costuming is that-above all, in in the theatn'-it
undertakes such a confrontation. Beyond the theater, the question of
costume reaches deep into the life of art and poetry, where fashion is at once
preserved and overcome. [Bla,4]
preserved and overcome. [Bla,4]
A killdred problem arose with the advent of new velocities, which gave life an
altered rhythm. This latter, too, was first tried out, as it were, in a spirit of play.
The loop-the-Ioop came on the scene, and 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. Tbe new tempo of life is often announced in the most unforeseen
ways ways. . For example, in posters. "These inlages of a day or an hour, bleached by
the elements, elements, charcoaled charcoaled by urchins, scorched scorched by the sun-although others others are
sometimes sometimes collected even before they have dried-symbolize to a higher higher degree
even than the newspapers the sudden, sudden, shock-filled, multiform life that carries carries us
away." Maurice Ta Talmeyr, lmeyr, La La Cite du sang sang (paris, 1901), 1901), p. 269. In the early days
of the poster, poster, there was as yet no law law to regulate the posting of of bills or to provide
protection for posters posters and indeed indeedfrom from posters posters; ; so one could wake up some
morning to find one's window placarded. From time immemorial immemorial this enigmatic enigmatic
need for sensation has found satisfaction in fashion. But in its ground it will be
reached at last only by theological inquiry, for such inquiry bespeal