In 1926: living at the edge of time - Monoskop

ENGINEERS 97
against the modern spirit, were I not so strict" (Nedo and Ranchetti,
204). Despite the harsh economic restrictions under which government
agencies continue to operate in Europe, city planning and complex housing
projects are the fields in which the dreams of the architect as "social
engineer" may become reality (Chronik, 127, 171). If "functionalism,"
as the governing principle of such projects, produces forms of a highly
provocative "modernity," it also promotes sober techniques of optimization
that avoid any extreme solutions. The theories of Wittgenstein's
British friend, the economist John Maynard Keynes, follow the same
guidelines. His publications articulate growing doubt as to whether capitalism,
the "best piece of social machinery ... on offer," can guarantee
its own success (Skidelsky, 221). [see Strikes] At the same time, however,
and despite his sympathy for the striking workers in England, Keynes is
skeptical about the Communist belief in the need for revolutionary action:
"No one has a gospel. The next move is with the head, and fists
must wait" (233.).
Among politicians, the interpretation of their task as "social engineering"
seems to generate the conviction that concrete tasks of engineering
have to be high on the State's agenda. The Spanish government under
Miguel Primo de Rivera gives priority to such problems as "disruptions
in railway service and the deplorable condition of our highways" (Garcia-Nieto,
147). The sixteen-year-old protagonist in Roberto Arlt's novel
EI juguete rabioso (The Furious Toy) ranks his dream professions accordingly:
"More firmly than ever, I believed that a magnificent destiny
lay before me. I could be an engineer like Edison, a general like Napoleon,
a poet like Baudelaire" (Arlt, 171). The aura of the engineering
profession shines so brightly that poets often associate it with the erotic
appeal of a beloved (Benjamin's dedication of Einbahnstraf5e is by no
means an exceptional case). The ode which Federico Garcia Lorca writes
on his friend Salvador Dali, after months of unfulfilled desire spent close
to him at the summer residence of Dali's family in Cadaques (Etherington-Smith,
72f£'), brings the description of "modern painters" together
with mathematical connotations:
Modern painters, in their white studios,
Nip the aseptic flower from the square root.
In the waters of the Seine, a marble iceberg
Frosts the windows and withers the ivy.