14} 82g a ‘LIVING AT THE EDGE OF OMe JHANs ULRICH TAI ; a 7 Py“A fascinating book. This is an undeniably brilliant, learned, and original treatment of the problem of representing history after the end of the grand narrative.” —Hayden White Travel back to the year 1926 and into the rush of experiences that made people feel they were living at the edge of time. Touch a world where speed seemed the very essence of life. It is a year for which we have no expectations. It was not 1066 or 1588 or 1945, yet it was the year A. A. Milne published Winnie-the-Pooh and Alfred Hitchcock released his first successful film, The Lodger. A set of modern masters was at work—Jorge luis Borges, Babe Ruth, Leni Riefenstahl, Ernest Hemingway, Josephine Baker, Greta Garbo, Franz Kafka, Gertrude Stein, Martin Heidegger— while factory workers, secretaries, engineers, architects, and Argentinian cattleranchers were performing their daily tasks. Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht opens up the spacetime continuum by exploring the realities of the day such as bars, boxing, movie palaces, elevators, automobiles, airplanes, brilliantine, bullfighting, film stardom, dance crazes, and the surprise reappearance of King Tut after a three-thousand- year absence. From the vantage points of Berlin, Buenos Aires, and New York, Gumbrecht ranges widely through the worlds of Spain, Italy, France, and Latin America. The reader is allowed multiple itineraries, following var- ious routes from one topic to another and ultimately becoming immersed in the activities, entertainments, and thought patterns of the citizens of 1926. Gumbrecht conveys these fragments of history as a living network of new sensibilities, evoking in us the excitement of another era Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht is Albert Guérard Professor of Literature at Stanford University. Harvard University Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England www-.hup.harvard.edu Cover design by lisa Clark Cover photos courtesy of Archive Photos ISBN 0-674-00055-2Copyright © 1997 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gumbrecht, Hans Ulrich. In 1926: living at the edge of time / Hans Ulrich Gumbreche, Pp. cm, Includes index. ISBN 0-674-00055-2 (alk. paper). — ISBN 0-674-00056-0 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. Givilization, Modern—20th century. 2. Popular culture—History—20th century. 3. Nineteen twenty-six, a.. 4. Civilization, Western—20th century. I. Title, CB427.G86 1997 909.82'2—de21 97-30904 LBs 2343396-40 For RickyCONTENTS User’s Manual - ix Arrays Airplanes - 3, Americans in Paris - 12, Assembly Lines - 22, Automobiles - 26, Bars - 34, Boxing - 42, Bullfighting - 54, Cremation - 62, Dancing - 66, Elevators - 75, Employees - 80, Endurance - 87, Engineers - 93, Gomina - 102, Gramophones - 108, Hunger Artists - 115, Jazz - 120, League of Nations - 126, Mountaineering : 132, Movie Palaces - 141, Mummies - 149, Murder - 155, Ocean Liners - 164, Polarities - 172, Railroads - 177, Reporters - 185, Revues - 191, Roof Gardens - 198, Six-Day Races - 203, Stars - 207, Strikes - 217, Telephones - 225, Timepieces - 233, Wireless Communication - 241 Codes Action vs. Impotence - 253, Authenticity vs. Artificiality - 262, Center vs. Periphery - 272, Immanence vs. Transcendence : 281, Individuality vs. Collectivity - 293, Male vs. Female - 303, Present vs. Past - 312, Silence vs. Noise - 320, Sobriety vs. Exuberance - 329, Uncertainty vs. Reality - 336 viiY CONTENTS Codes Collapsed Action = Impotence (Tragedy) - 351, Authenticity = Artificiality (Life) 358, Center = Periphery (Infinitude) - 364, Immanence = Transcendence (Death) - 372, Individuality = Collectivity (Leader) - 383, Male = Female (Gender Trouble) - 390, Present = Past (Eternity) - 400 Frames After Learning from History «411 Being-in-the-Worlds of 1926: Martin Heidegger, Hans Friedrich Blunck, Carl Van Vechten : 437 Notes + 481 Acknowledgments + 499 Index + 501 User’s Manual Where to Start Do not try “to start from the beginning,” for this book has no beginning in the sense that narratives or arguments have beginnings. Start with any of the fifty-one entries in any of the three sections entitled “Arrays,” “Codes,” and “Codes Collapsed” (the alphabeti- cal order of the subheadings shows that there isn’t any hierarchy among them). Simply start with an entry that particularly interests you. From each entry a web of cross-references will take you to other, related entries. Read as far as your interest carries you (and as long as your schedule allows). You’ll thus establish your individual read- ing path. Just as there is no obligatory beginning, there also is no obligatory or definitive end to the reading process. Regardless of where you enter or exit, any reading sequence of some length should produce the effect to which the book’s title alludes: you should feel “in 1926.” The more immediate and sensual this illusion becomes, the more your reading will fulfill the book’s chief aim. Note: you can, if you like, experience this effect without reading the last two chap- ters, “After Learning from History” and “Being-in-the-Worlds of 1926.” Mode(s) In the sections “Arrays,” “Codes,” and “Codes Collapsed,” the writ- ing aims at being strictly descriptive. This discourse is meant to bring out dominant surface perceptions as they were offered by certain ix