In 1926: living at the edge of time - Monoskop

AMERICANS IN PARIS 15
precisely to what existentialist travelers can no longer find in Paris. It is
taken from a passage in the Book of Solomon: "One generation passeth
away, and another generation cometh; but the earth abideth forever ...
The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to the place
where he arose." The eternal rhythms of nature inspire American intellectuals
to long for an elementary ground of life, for something resistant
to their experience of the ever-changing and ever-frustrating superficiality
of the world back home. [see Authenticity vs. Artificiality] Spain, Africa,
and Latin America, even more than Paris, have become the spaces in
which the intellectual imagination projects such desire. An often frenetic
enthusiasm for the corrida and its rituals epitomizes the convergence
between the concept of the body as the elementary ground of human
existence and the traveler's longing for a sphere of transcendence. [see
Bullfighting] This is why the characters of The Sun Also Rises follow
Hemingway and his friends on a trip that they undertook in 1925 to the
fiesta of Pamplona, whose local tradition allows spectators to join the
toreadors in experiencing the presence of the animals' overwhelming
physical strength as the presence of death. [see Immanence = Transcendence
(Death)] This is why, instead of only imagining southern lands, it
is important to be there.
Indeed, the advertising of the tourist industry no longer focuses exclusively
on Paris. With wealthy customers also being invited to "Picturesque
Spain, the Land of Romance and Beauty," it is difficult to draw
any social distinction between middle-class tourists and intellectual tourists
among the Americans in Europe. Referring to an upper-middle-class
traveler with intellectual ambitions, D. H. Lawrence is probably being
both serious and ironic when, in the opening chapter of The Plumed
Serpent (20), he comments on his character's fascination with bullfighting
in Mexico: "He was seeing LIFE, and what can an American do
more!" [see Authenticity = Artificiality (Life)] Such seem to be the emotions
with which Mrs. Walker-the wife of New York's mayor, making
a goodwill tour of Berlin-reacts to her meeting with the recently appointed
German president (and war hero) von Hindenburg, whose public
image, at least among German intellectuals, is mainly that of a squareheaded
and increasingly senile military man. For Mrs. Walker, however,
von Hindenburg is like Europe-he is old and he is life: "The greatest
experience I had during my stay in Germany was yesterday'S reception
with Reichsprasident von Hindenburg. I thought I would meet a frail