Arcades Project blogathon

Volute

Galeries St. Hubert (1846), Brussels

Arcades Project (1927 – 1940) – Walter Bejamin

3. One book you would want on a desert island? Something large, omnivorous, digressive, its curiosity knowing no boundaries, a sort of uber-Merzbau that might serve as a microcosm of the world I left behind, “the theater of all my struggles and all my ideas,” Walter Benjamin’s The Arcades Project. –girish
The Arcades Project site was created and is maintained by Heather Marcelle Crickenberger.

“It is part of a doctoral dissertation that is scheduled to be completed May 2006 at the University of South Carolina. Much of the bibliographic infomation required of such a project is yet to be included.” [Oct 2006]

Here is the list of convolutes she features.

Convolute is a multifaceted word that connotes “To make something unnecessarily complex; to fold or coil into numerous overlapping layers; to twist someone’s words to fit a desired meaning that was not intended by the speaker.”

If I understand correctly (without direct access to a paper copy (mine is on the way from Germany)), Walter Benjamin used the concept in his Arcades Project ; konvolutes were sections in a collection of thousands of index cards on which he transcribed quotations and notations. It was a cross-referenced system not shying away from ambiguity and ambivalence; seeking its power in opposition and confusion, an early version of fragmented modernity and harbinger of postmodernity.

I would like to call for an Arcades Project blogathon. There is no deadline. By way of inspiration I offer you the following concepts

in praise of convolution

in praise of variety

in praise of flânerie

in praise of juxtaposition

in praise of multifacetedness

and …

“Method of this work:
literary montage.
I have nothing to say only to show.”
(Passagenwerk (1927 – 1940) – Walter Benjamin)

The “rhizome” allows for multiple,
non-hierarchical entry and exit points
in data representation and interpretation.
—Mille Plateaux – Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari,
volume 2 of Capitalisme et Schizofrénie (1980)

Un pauvre honteux – Xavier Forneret

In the 1992 British horror film, Tale of a Vampire, a centuries-old vampire and scholar (Julian Sands) approaches an occult-specialist librarian (Suzanna Hamilton) when he sees her reading an antique volume of Forneret. He tells her that his favorite poem by Forneret (1809-1884) is “Le pauvre honteux”–about a starving man who eats his own hand.

Below is the poem in question:

Un pauvre honteux

Il l’a tirée
De sa poche percée,
L’a mise sous ses yeux ;
Et l’a bien regardée
En disant : ” Malheureux ! “Il l’a soufflée
De sa bouche humectée ;
Il avait presque peur
D’une horrible pensée
Qui vint le prendre au coeur.Il l’a mouillée
D’une larme gelée
Qui fondit par hasard ;
Sa chambre était trouée
Encor plus qu’un bazar.

Il l’a frottée
Ne l’a pas réchauffée
A peine il la sentait ;
Car, par le froid pincée,
Elle se retirait.

Il l’a pesée
Comme on pèse une idée,
En l’appuyant sur l’air.
Puis il l’a mesurée
Avec du fil de fer.

Il l’a touchée
De sa lèvre ridée. –
D’un frénétique effroi
Elle s’est écriée :
Adieu, embrasse-moi !

Il l’a baisée,
Et après l’a croisée
Sur l’horloge du corps,
Qui rendait, mal montée,
De mats et lourds accords.

Il l’a palpée
D’une main décidée
A la faire mourir. –
– Oui, c’est une bouchée
Dont on peut se nourrir.

Il l’a pliée,
Il l’a cassée,
Il l’a placée,
Il l’a coupée ;
Il l’a lavée,
Il l’a portée,
Il l’a grillée,
Il l’a mangée.

Quand il n’était pas grand on lui avait dit : Si tu as faim, mange une de tes mains.

Xavier Forneret (1809-1884) was a French dramaturge, poet and journalist. In the 1830s, he was a member of the Bouzingo, a group of poets which advocated a radical bohemian romanticism in life and art; contemporaries and kindred spirits included Gerard de Nerval and Theophile Gautier. His reputation was partly rehabilitated by Andre Breton, who included some of Forneret’s poems and aphorisms in his Anthology of Black Humor (1940).

1979 in music

E=MC2 – (1979) Giorgio Moroder [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

Via Dadanoias come two tracks off (scroll down) of Giorgio Moroder ‘s 1979 E=MC2 album. This album is one of the highlights in European camp/gay sensibility in music. I bought this in the Brussels Harlequin shop in the early nineties; in fact it is one of the first pieces of vinyl I ever bought. My issue is on Durium records and altogether much nicer (qua cover art) than the album above. The only album of Giorgio to rival the level of kitschiness is the Knights in White Satin effort of 1976, picture here.

Here are the tracks.
Giorgio Moroder – Baby Blue.mp3 (+;)
Giorgio Moroder – What A Night.mp3

See also: 1979

Some more music

Some more music by one of the more dependable sources in New York: beatsinspace, the peeps behind the famous AllDisco parties. Girish, for you, here are their playlists with all the streams, and here is an excellent (really) eighties mix by crazy rhythms, which sadly appears to be sold out.

The latest show by beats in space:

October 17th (part 1 with Headman ) :: [stream] [download]
October 17th (part 2 with Tim Sweeney) :: [stream] [download]

A Year In The Mix : 1987

A Year In The Mix : 1987 : Part 1

 

This mix focuses purely on house tracks from 1987,
including classics from M/A/R/R/S, Rhythim Is Rhythim, The Beatmasters and more.

 

A Year In The Mix : 1987 : Part 2

 

This mix focuses on club tracks from 1987,
including classics from Janet Jackson, Alexander O’Neal, New Order and more.

 

 

From : http://www.historicalbeats.com/themixes.htm

See also: 1987 music –  eighties groove (music)

Exploitation culture by region


Hank Janson pulp cover

American exploitation culture is well-known throughout the world, European exploitation culture less so.

The previous posts on Stewart Home and Richard Allen led me to Hank Janson [Google Gallery] and Reginald Heade [Google gallery], the latter two examples of 1950s British exploitation culture.

Exploitation by region: By region: American exploitation – British exploitation – European exploitation – French exploitation – German exploitation – Italian exploitation – Japanese exploitation

My interest in regional pulp culture is what it tells about the region where it is produced. In search of national stereotypes by way of their exploitation culture; regional stereotypes deduced from regional fears and desires (horror and eroticism).

Richard Allen and punk pulp

The Complete Richard Allen, Vol. 1 (1992) – Richard Allen
[Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

James Moffat, who wrote under the pen name Richard Allen, produced several pulp novels for the UK publishing house New English Library during the 1970s.

Many of his stories featured the often violent and sensationalist exploits of a fictional skinhead character, Joe Hawkins. Allen’s skinhead-related works include: Skinhead, Skinhead Escapes, Trouble for skinhead, Skinhead Farewell and Dragon Skins (about Kung Fu-fighting skinheads). He also wrote a number of other titles aimed at exploiting various youth subcultures, including Punk Rock, Teeny Bop Idol, Suedehead (a longer-haired offshoot of skinheads) , Smoothies (an even longer-haired offshoot of skinheads), Sorts (female versions of Smoothies), and Glam. The collected works of Richard Allen have been reissued in a six volume set by ST Publishing.

A BBC TV documentary about his life, “Skinhead Farewell”, aired in 1996. Allen’s formulaic and sensationalist writing style has been frequently mimicked by Neoist writer Stewart Home. —http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Moffat [Oct 2006]

See also: British literature

The Assault on Culture (1988) – Stewart Home

The Assault on Culture: Utopian Currents from Lettrisme to Class War (1988) – Stewart Home
[Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

Stewart Home (born 1962) is a British fiction writer, subcultural pamphleteer, underground art historian, and activist. His mother, Julia Callan-Thompson, was a model and hostess who was associated with the radical arts scene in Notting Hill Gate. She knew such people as the writer and situationist Alexander Trocchi. Stewart was put up for adoption soon after his birth.

The Assault on Culture, originally written but rejected as a B.A. thesis, is an underground art history sketching Stewart Home’s ultimately personal history of ideas and influences in post-World War II fringe radical art and political currents, and including – for the first time in a book – a tactically manipulated history of Neoism (including character assassinations of individual Neoist) that was continued in the later book Neoism, Plagiarism and Praxis. Despite its highly personal perspective and agenda, The Assault on Culture: Utopian currents from Lettrisme to Class War (Aporia Press and Unpopular Books, London, 1988) is considered a useful art-history work, providing an introduction to a range of cultural currents which had, at that time at least, been under-documented. Like Home’s other publications of that time, it played an influential part in renewing interest in the Situationist International. —http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stewart_Home

See also: Lettrism – Situationism – assault – culture – 1988

Punk Rock: So What? (1999) – Roger Sabin

Punk Rock: So What? (1999) – Roger Sabin
[Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

From the publisher

It’s now over twenty years since punk first pogoed its way into our consciousness. Punk Rock: So What? brings together a new generation of writers, journalists and scholars to provide the first comprehensive assessment of punk and its place in popular music history, culture and myth. Combining new research, methodologies and exclusive interviews, Punk Rock: So What? brings a fresh perspective to the analysis of punk culture, and kicks over many of the established beliefs about the meaning of punk.

Punk Rock: So What? re-situates punk in its historical context, analyzing the possible origins of punk in the New York art scene and Manchester clubs as well as in Malcolm McClaren’s brain. The contributors question whether punk deserves its reputation as an anti-fascist, anti-sexist movement, challenging standard views of punk prevalent since the 1970s, and discussing the role played by such key figures as Johnny Rotten, Richard Hell, Malcolm McLaren.

Tracing punk’s legacy in comics, literature, art and cinema as well as music and fashion–from films such as Sid and Nancy and The Great Rock `n’ Roll Swindle to the work of contemporary artists such as Gavin Turk and Sarah Lucas–the contributors establish that, if anything, punk was more culturally significant than anyone has yet suggested.

Contributors: Frank Cartledge, Paul Cobley, Robert Garnett, David Huxley, David Kerekes, Guy Lawley, George McKay, Andy Medhurst, Suzanne Moore, Lucy O’Brien, Bill Osgerby, Miriam Rivett, Roger Sabin, Mark Sinker. Roger Sabin is a Lecturer in Cultural Studies at Central St. Martin’s College of Art and Design.

Roger Sabin also edited Below Critical Radar : Fanzines and Alternative Comics from 1976 to Now (2001) – Roger Sabin [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK] and Adult Comics: An Introduction (1993) – Roger Sabin [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

See also: punk rock – 1999