A KABBALISTIC DEFINITION OF FIN-DE-SIÈCLE ENNUI

"'It is unavoidable that as the efficiency of the means of production (Marx) and promotion (Debord) increases, the level of accuracy with which the man in the street can shoot for his goals will decrease.' After proving this relation with an obsessive thoroughness, Breyer states a result: that if achieving is the same as living, then life will ultimately, and almost certainly within the next twenty years, slow down and finally stop, except in pockets the irrelevance of whose present-day prototypes--arts communities--is already in its tenth year of being narrated ad nauseam.

"Here is of course the guts of dystopia wrenched from its palatable (or, equally valuably, totally uncomestible) romanticism. What, Breyer asks, might be done with a nightmare scenario that could be digested and analyzed, even proven to a truism? Archives is a simple and seemingly complete validation of the simple disgust with the present and horror of the future that have informed, consciously or discreetly unconsciously, so much of art since the Industrial Revolution--impulses which are considered so tacky in scientistic, instinct-despising academia as to be unworthy of consideration, let alone experience.... For those unwilling to feel with the times, Archives is trouble: it is eating your own indigestion."

--Parabola review of The Archives of Saturday Night by John Breyer (Vantage, 1998)

Here is the story of the remarkable conjoinment/disjuncture troubles of Pores and Lint Wilcox. It is mostly the narration of a verbal attack on their person/s from on high. It finishes with their successful rebuttal of said malediction, of which it can be said that it was the chunkiest of maledictions, one that lurched and lolled off the tongue, such as it might be, like so much homeless pantomime off the backs of urbane but cheery young Doctors of Freedom; it can be said as well, in contrast, that it was the very least chunky of maledictions, one that fused itself with the governing malady and, through ministrations dexter and sinister of fluidsfervid and lax, excreted itself (calling into question any agency, ever, of doctor, politician or priest) in damaging, noisome gushes:

"You fucking drain on the socialist fervor of our forebears, the descendent more moderate fervor for simple joys on the part of those catapulted to stardom, and the eternal and unchanging fervor of mean machines for their meanness!" yelled the fully automated, articulated and self-realized voice.

Pores and Lint Wilcox were surrounded by fields of hospital machinery and potency tests, midriff-swathing devices and photos of shoulder-length tears, and they could see no orifice in the stretches, there was nothing emitting anything and in fact nothing capable thereof, so Pores and Lint looked up, they raised their chins to the distances and their eyes to the zenith, so that while their chins gazed forward their eyes gazed up, and the voice repeated itself but in bas-relief, with visual references designed to keep the subject thread clear on through to the twenty-first century:

"You may look to all the world like Siamese twins, you may enjoy a communication in the torsi (PDR-IV), your fluids may join and part like so much spaghetti in the dining halls of a sinking Michelangelo, but there is nothing shielding me and my eyes from the fact that you are a difficulty for the proper functioning of our world. That is what you are and that is your relation to the world. It is the world's you and you are that to the world. Because of conjoinment, trouble. As a cause for trouble, conjoinment."

Pores and Lint turned their eyes as far as they would go towards each other and expressed certain things in great rambling sentences. There wasn't anything holding them back, they were hooting and yacking and shoving this monkey down that there camel's benignity, there was sameness all over, there was a sheer stretch of uninhibited revelry between those two fellows, who also, it must be said, communicated in the torsi.

"Perhaps," said Pores, "it really doesn't matter."

"Right," said Lint, "I'll bet you're right about that."

BELLE ÉPOQUE EUROPEAN SOCIETY

At the turn of the 19th-20th century:

European society is decadent and promiscuous. European society encourages intermingling between classes, friendships on equal terms between men and women, more creativity, and a more open discussion of sexuality.

Basically, European society is a 1960’s flower child.

Europeans as decadent and immoral.

European culture?

freedom and individuality in Europe.

For middle-class white women, sexual mores began to change, with birth control emerging as a discussible issue in some circles and pleasure in sexual relations starting to be recognized as a female, not just a male, possibility. Hemlines were rising, corsets were being discarded, hair was being worn shorter. So widespread and sweeping were the changes that even by the early 1890s the term "New Woman" - evoking the image of a confident, self-reliant, young adult capable of playing a public as well as a private role in society - had become commonplace. Not everyone was pleased about the advent of the New Woman, and not all women had access to the ideal. Furthermore, the ideal itself often varied depending on race, class, ethnicity, religion, region, or politics. Despite such differences, however, economic, social, and political change was finally taking place for many women.

 mainstream European values supported free love and creativity when it comes to sex, divorce, and marital fidelity. And as regards artists, Bohemians, and "people who write".

The class might examine social customs, marriage, money, justice, love, or gender. 
Historical context or references may also support or contradict a thematic 
interpretation. Explore the theme of "innocence" to begin your discussion. 
Students can research how writers, artists, and intellectuals might have defined 
this theme in 1875. Students can also examine how this theme is defined 

in Europe circa 1875. 

divorce and unconventional European living arrangements

all that is unknown and exotic in European society

European values and sensibilities.

 easy, free-spirited European charm.

élan and style would be at home in Europe,

a single woman's life in Paris. She was presumably able to savor the life of art museums, parties long into the night, possible lovers, wine, and exquisite food. This broader, more passionate life

Notes for 2016 Dermark Othello graphic mise-en-scène:

Setting:

Belle Époque or Progressive Era - Villas de Benicàssim in summer (September for imagining)

Mediterranean European pre-Wars society in summer, with its leniency towards free love and alternate lifestyles, as well as the context of armed peace, provide the perfect counterpart to Shakespeare's sunny Cyprus:
in these times, Germany provided the first welfare state ever and women's rights began to be recognized - no one realised the Great War was brewing beneath the surface - but still brightly coloured uniforms, eaves, and horse-drawn carriages were part of the everyday setting.

Male characters:

Only civilian male character - Roderigo -18/20-ish young former society man (student/ golden bohemian) with spectacles, boater hat and white suit, shy and insecure

all others military men, wearing Spanish uniforms of the Belle Époque

Othello - 30-ish colonel, Romany or Moorish descent, introverted and scarred war veteran; sinister and mysterious air. Des was the first who loved him for who he is, not for what he is: as such, he loves his friends dearly because they are the only true ones. When he snaps, he becomes uncontrollable and driven by what he calls righteous anger; will not listen to reason

Iago - 30-ish sergeant major, scarred psychopathic war veteran, closeted gay, only sinister in private; also envies all the others for being able to feel positive emotions (can only see and feel the dark side, like an adult version of Kai in TSQ): main motivation; to shatter the lives of those men who have not returned his secret love (gay military man)

Cassio - 18/20-ish lieutenant, the third wheel in the ménage à 3- freshly-commissioned officer, extraverted and gentlemanly (right-hand-kissing), innocent and intelligent by-the-book stripling, childhood friend to Desdemona, then betrothed to Bianca... cohabits with her at the end of the story at the estate, a broken man (changes radically from the start of the story to the finale, as one of the two survivors and his military career blown to smithereens) comforted by his demi-mondaine mistress. 

Female characters:

Desdemona: the neo-Romantic heiress: 18-19 golden blond (Nordic traits), society heiress that embraces aestheticism and bohemian life, usually wears clothes with an Art Nouveau/Pre-Raphaelite flair; empire waist and an elaborate flower hairpin/headdress on her Josephine hairstyle (but sometimes switches to a boater, or even a shako, and riding breeches), a determined free spirit / dreamer raised in an eccentric manner, who discarded the trappings of high nobility to marry a mysterious military man and want "more than this provincial life". Kindly, friendly, yet so innocent that she is naive. Surely "Fredish (half French, half Swedish)."

Emilia: the desperate army wife: dark or auburn, wears maid's tuque or boater hat with maid's uniform and spectacles. Chignon hairstyle. The only middle-aged female in the cast, a savvy aunt or older sister figure (oneesama) to Des and a mistreated wife who will finally lash against her tyrant of a husband. 

Bianca: the middle-class New Woman: 18-19 reddish auburn, bohemian tomboy, wears boater hat and (usually) biking or riding breeches. A biker. Wears a queue or single French braid. Even more of a free spirit and more assertive than Desdemona. A hothead/tsundere. Sometimes aggressive with Cassio (tsundere dynamics). They cohabit at the estate in the ending.

Prelude: Left Bank in winter (Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Champs Élysées, Place des Invalides, five-story townhouses, Métro, cafés and restaurants, grey sky, lots of snow); most characters if not all seven are introduced, as well as the relationships between them. Same European values and sensibilities; a different, more rigid setting (white winter in a cold townscape) to show what these characters are like in their usual everyday cold-season lives.