Part 44 (2/2)
page 311 As Ronnie Butler wrote: As Ronnie Butler wrote: Ronnie Butler, Ronnie Butler, Balzac and the French Revolution Balzac and the French Revolution (London: Crown Helm, 1983), 242248. (London: Crown Helm, 1983), 242248.
page 311 ”Mother, have you noticed”: ”Mother, have you noticed”: This and subsequent quotes from ”Eugenie Grandet” are from Barthelme, This and subsequent quotes from ”Eugenie Grandet” are from Barthelme, Sixty Stories Sixty Stories, 236242.
page 311 ”grossly misperceived”: ”grossly misperceived”: Donald Barthelme, Donald Barthelme, Forty Stories Forty Stories (New York: Putnam, 1987), 211. (New York: Putnam, 1987), 211.
page 311 ”Vagabonds [are] always ready”: ”Vagabonds [are] always ready”: Theodore Homburg, Theodore Homburg, Etudes sur la Vagabondage Etudes sur la Vagabondage (Paris: Forestier, 1880), 243. (Paris: Forestier, 1880), 243.
page 312 ”Rimbaud's...resistance to work”: ”Rimbaud's...resistance to work”: Kristin Ross, Kristin Ross, The Emergence of Social s.p.a.ce: Rimbaud and the Paris Commune The Emergence of Social s.p.a.ce: Rimbaud and the Paris Commune (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1988), 20, 59. (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1988), 20, 59.
page 312 a group of dissident intellectuals called the Situationist International: a group of dissident intellectuals called the Situationist International: The group called themselves, first, the Lettrists, then the Situationist International. On principle, they refused steady jobs and sought to turn daily life into a ”mobile s.p.a.ce of play.” From the mid-1950s until the 1970s, they published a series of newsletters- The group called themselves, first, the Lettrists, then the Situationist International. On principle, they refused steady jobs and sought to turn daily life into a ”mobile s.p.a.ce of play.” From the mid-1950s until the 1970s, they published a series of newsletters-Potlatch, Situationist International-in which they outlined their views of the ”spectacle” and offered strategies for puncturing its facade. The spectacle was the vision created by the combined apparatus of the media, schools, economics, and urban planning, which, hand in hand with governments, allowed producers of commercial products to control citizen's desires. In The Society of the Spectacle The Society of the Spectacle, published in 1967, Guy Debord laid out the Situationist argument that life no longer holds ”free choices” and ”is subject, no longer to the natural order, but to a pseudo-nature constructed by means of alienated labor.” The individual must resist this rigid ordering, must seek chance perspectives, must pursue what Rimbaud called the ”rational disordering of all the senses.”
Debord worked with Henri Lefebvre on an appreciation of the 1871 Paris Commune. In a coauth.o.r.ed article, they praised the communards for reseizing Paris after the corrosive effects of Haussmannization. Debord and Lefebvre said that everyday life-what they also called ”social s.p.a.ce”-fell firmly under capital's control during the nineteenth century in Europe, when workers migrated to urban areas, and city planners arranged work centers and living quarters in ways that made these areas easy to manage. This involved eliminating chance perspectives, turning the avenues into straight lines, and, above all, separating industrial labor and domesticity, fracturing communities to make them dependent on centralized government.
Lefebvre and the Situationists proposed reorganizing social s.p.a.ce as a way of resisting the spectacle: taking trips ”with no destination, diverted arbitrarily,” breaking free ”from routes imposed” by traffic patterns, zoning laws, work routines. Debord saw the city as a carnival, loosed from ”functionalism” and the ”immediately useful”-to him, the urban environment was a ”terrain of partic.i.p.atory games.” When function falls away, and people find beauty in the everyday, the spectacle can be shaken. This was the vision, pa.s.sed from Lefebvre to the Situationist International, that erupted in the streets of Paris in May 1968. As Harold Rosenberg put it, in May 1968 a ”trumpet blast” of hope based in imagination and ”aroused desire” broke the ”power trance.” Art tumbled into the streets.
Cited above: ”free choices”; ”is subject no longer”: ”free choices”; ”is subject no longer”: Guy Debord, Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle The Society of the Spectacle, trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith (1967; reprint, New York: Zone Books, 1994), 110111; taking trips ”with no destination”: taking trips ”with no destination”: The ideas are Guy Debord's, but the wording here is from Michele Bernstein, ”Derive by the Mile” in The ideas are Guy Debord's, but the wording here is from Michele Bernstein, ”Derive by the Mile” in Potlatch Potlatch 9 (August 31, 1954): 11; 9 (August 31, 1954): 11; a ”trumpet blast” of ”hope”: a ”trumpet blast” of ”hope”: Harold Rosenberg, Harold Rosenberg, The De-Definition of Art The De-Definition of Art (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972), 53. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972), 53.
page 312 ”Sometimes I wish we were a purely literary magazine”: ”Sometimes I wish we were a purely literary magazine”: Roger Angell, letter to Donald Barthelme, May 7, 1968, Ma.n.u.scripts and Archives Division, New York Public Library. Roger Angell, letter to Donald Barthelme, May 7, 1968, Ma.n.u.scripts and Archives Division, New York Public Library.
page 312 ”explanatory note”; ”I thought you might want to look at it again”: ”explanatory note”; ”I thought you might want to look at it again”: Donald Barthelme, letter to Roger Angell, undated (May 1968), Ma.n.u.scripts and Archives Division, New York Public Library. Donald Barthelme, letter to Roger Angell, undated (May 1968), Ma.n.u.scripts and Archives Division, New York Public Library.
35. City Life (I) page 314 ”My father made a wonderful toy”: ”My father made a wonderful toy”: This and subsequent Anne Barthelme quotes are from a conversation with the author, June 19, 2004. This and subsequent Anne Barthelme quotes are from a conversation with the author, June 19, 2004.
page 315 ”used to howl at the moon”: ”used to howl at the moon”: See ”Moondog Biography,” posted at See ”Moondog Biography,” posted at /moondogmadness/biography.html.
page 315 ”This city!”: ”This city!”: This and subsequent quotes from early drafts of ”City Life” are from Donald Barthelme, ”City Life,” drafts, Special Collections and Archives, University of Houston Libraries. This and subsequent quotes from early drafts of ”City Life” are from Donald Barthelme, ”City Life,” drafts, Special Collections and Archives, University of Houston Libraries.
page 315 one of the few places in the city that offered a view of the sunset: one of the few places in the city that offered a view of the sunset: Noted in Grace Paley, ”Life and Literature in a City That Speaks Volumes,” Noted in Grace Paley, ”Life and Literature in a City That Speaks Volumes,” New York Times Book Review New York Times Book Review, September 25, 1998, back page.
page 316 ”new image”; ”I wanted the dog's face”: ”new image”; ”I wanted the dog's face”: Donald Barthelme, Donald Barthelme, Sixty Stories Sixty Stories (New York: Putnam, 1981), 166167. (New York: Putnam, 1981), 166167.
page 316 On a Monday afternoon in early June 1968: On a Monday afternoon in early June 1968: For more on the Andy Warhol shooting, see Ultra Violet [Isabella Collin Dufresne], For more on the Andy Warhol shooting, see Ultra Violet [Isabella Collin Dufresne], Famous for Fifteen Minutes: My Years with Andy Warhol Famous for Fifteen Minutes: My Years with Andy Warhol (San Diego and New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1988), 168, 179. (San Diego and New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1988), 168, 179.
page 316 ”[M]aleness is a deficiency disease”: ”[M]aleness is a deficiency disease”: Valerie Solanas, Valerie Solanas, Sc.u.m Manifesto Sc.u.m Manifesto (London, Verso, 2004), 3536, 66. (London, Verso, 2004), 3536, 66.
page 316 ”[T]he kid...want[s] Daddy's approval”: ”[T]he kid...want[s] Daddy's approval”: ibid., 4344. ibid., 4344.
page 316 ”dignity and hysteria”: ”dignity and hysteria”: Ernest Trova quoted in ”The Uses of Ingenuity,” Ernest Trova quoted in ”The Uses of Ingenuity,” Time Time, January 6, 1967, 76.
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