(Studies in German Literature Linguistics and Culture) Rolf J

PARIS ON THE AMAZON?
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and illustrator Jean-Ignace-Isidore Gérard, 1803–47) in his design “The
Bridge of Planets,” which is a part of his book Un autre monde (Another
World, 1844), on which Benjamin comments in fragments M,2 and
F1,7. It shows bourgeois citizens contemplating the universe from the
panoramic platform of the Saturn balcony or promenading in the midst
of the planets as if they were crossing a bridge on the river Seine. This
image illustrates how the European bourgeoisie was projecting its dream
of global expansion.
The first technological system that materialized the dream of global
power, the telegraphic system, is presented in fragment T3,1, with a quotation
from Jacques Fabien’s Paris en songe (1863). Instead of reproducing
the central part of this text in a conventional way, I propose to cut it
into five pieces and comment on them by means of an imaginary voyage
around four continents of our planet. 15 First quote:
Nos gros bonnets de la finance, de l’industrie, du haut négoce, ont
trouvé bon . . . de faire . . . le tour du globe à leur pensée, eux restant
au repos . . .
[Our great heads of finance, industry, big business have seen fit . . .
to send . . . their thoughts around the world, while they themselves
remain at rest . . . ]
To illustrate this quote, let us start our tour du monde in South America,
for example, in the city of São Paulo, whose ancient status as a colonial
foundation is still present in such downtown buildings as the Pátio
do Colégio. From this typically peripheral metropolis we may fly to the
“authentic” metropolis of Paris. The second quote —
Pour cela, chacun d’eux a cloué, dans son cabinet de travail, sur un
coin du bureau, les fils électriques . . .
[To this end, each of them has nailed up, in a corner of his office,
electric wires . . . ]
— may be supplemented by a trip from Paris to Calcutta. In this city on
the Ganges River we focus on a building from colonial times: Government
House. While we read the third quotation —
. . . les fils életriques, qui rattachent sa caisse avec nos colonies
d’Afrique, d’Asie, d’Amérique.
[ . . . electric wires connecting his executive desk with our colonies
in Africa, Asia, and the Americas.]
— we continue our trip to the matrix of the ancient colony, to London,
choosing the place where formerly stood the palace of the East India