In 1926: living at the edge of time - Monoskop

268 CODES
By engendering multiple distinctions, the contrast between Authenticity
and Artificiality produces social order. If Gene Tunney controls his
fists and his boxing strategy like an intellectual by relying on reflexivity
(it's no coincidence that he claims to read Shakespeare), the public persona
of jazz fan Jack Dempsey-that of a fighting machine-converges
with Brecht's artificially produced character Galy Gay. [see Boxing] Similarly,
Heinrich Mann observes that the classical understanding of stage
acting as an incarnation of abstract character concepts has now been
replaced by a much more body-oriented style of performance: "The body
of the diva has to represent pride of the spirit. The diva is now fading
away, even as others are emerging who are different, if not opposite, to
her. What do the few remaining great character actresses of Europe think
about the younger generation, whose appearance on stage is more motor-driven
than character-driven?" (Mann, 276). The distinction between
Authenticity and Artificiality cuts right through the world of dance,
setting apart Mary Wigman's Ausdruckstanz from Valeska Gert's grotesque
Variete performance, from Josephine Baker, and from the popular
kicklines. [see Dancing] At the opposite pole of the same binary logic,
Heinrich Mann sees the latest dance fashions of Berlin as a liberation
from depth or expression, and he associates them with the collapse of
the social hierarchy: "Skillful couples execute well-calculated steps as if
they were playing chess. There is nothing behind these steps ... What
really matters is to unburden oneself of thoughts and to be in great
physical shape. This disposition improves the relations between the sexes
and even between the social classes. Thanks to their physical achievements,
sons of the people now rise to become socially important-even
in the eyes of the capitalists" (306-307).
Jorge Luis Borges sets the tangos of the past apart from those of the
present, because the latter try too hard to reproduce what came naturally
in the old days: "The current tango, performed with picturesque detail
and laborious underworld jargon, is one thing; the old tango, performed
with pure bravado, shamelessness, and flamboyant pride, is quite another"
(Borges, 29-30). But instead of remaining on the level of desperate
Artificiality, which Borges finds distasteful, many new tangos base
their self-staging on the acknowledgment of the qualitative difference
between present and past, thus generating temporal depth through selfdenunciation: