In 1926: living at the edge of time - Monoskop

78 ARRAYS
the Hotel Excelsior thus contain a promise: "The utmost perfection of
modern hotel technology! ... No staircases!" If rising above the ground
is inevitably accompanied by the fear of losing the firm foundation under
one's feet (see Airplanes, Uncertainty vs. Reality), this movement conquers,
on the other hand, a spatial dimension that eliminates the claustrophobia-suffered
by the workers in Metropolis-of living on an overcrowded
surface. [see Center = Periphery (Infinitude)] This is why roof
gardens become the setting for an earthly paradise. [see Roof Gardens]
If, however, rising above the ground in an elevator frees the passengers
from the limitations of the human body as controlled by inertia and
gravity, a price has to be paid for this redemption. Those who are
redeemed must give up their claim to subjecthood-and in some cases
they must even transfer it to another subject. The recipient of such
transfers becomes a subject with a stronger agency, a subject in control
of the entire system whose intrinsic movement the elevator embodies.
This subject is personified in the profit-calculating owner and businessman.
Predictably, therefore, the advertisement for the reopening of the
Hotel Excelsior is written in the first person and signed "Curt Elschner,
Owner."
While acknowledging the status of elevators as central emblems for
the self-description of the contemporary world, the journalist Friedrich
Sieburg, in an essay entitled "Adoration of Elevators," sheds an ironic
light on the tendency of intellectuals to romanticize businessmen and to
admire the concretizations of their power: "Meanwhile, European poets
of all ages write about the American tempo, and about how it finds its
expression above all in elevators. They pay exhilarated tribute to the
American spirit-to its determination and to its straightforward dealmaking.
They praise the efficiency of New York hotels (how promptly a
guest can get his trousers ironed!), and speak with tears in their eyes
about traffic regulations-while, cruising up and down the Hudson in
their sleek boats, they toss the old German god overboard" (Sieburg,
274). [see Action vs. Impotence, Immanence vs. Transcendence]
Related Entries
Airplanes, Assembly Lines, Boxing, Dancing, Employees, Roof Gardens,
Action vs. Impotence, Immanence vs. Transcendence, Sobriety vs. Exuberance,
Uncertainty vs. Reality, Center vs. Periphery (Infinitude)