"I am a Camera"

"Christian Schad (1894-1982) was another leading figure of the Neue Sachlichkeit group. His sharp-focused, mysteriously erotic portraits epitomize the decadent glamour of the Weimar era. Considered as a group, Schad's portraits form an extraordinary record of life in Vienna and Berlin in the years following World War I. Yet even when his paintings are apparently at their most objective, there is nevertheless a complex theater of illusion at play."

(from the Neue Galerie description of the Shad exhibit)

I must quote my friend from an email discussion of the period?

"Fucking everyone in Weimar must have been fun."

Am I allowed to quote from the novel I'm reading?  Am I?  The heroine of the novel is pretty and lucky as Fritz the Cat, and she gets a job in the theater after losing her clerical job because she is no good at it and has flirted with the boss to keep it but finally, when he presses the matter, she won't. . . so she's out.  She steals a fur coat because she loves it and feels she deserves it and goes to Berlin where she is staying with a blind man and his wife.  The blind man likes to massage her feet in the ugly kitchen that he cannot see while his wife is at work.  That is the set up (only half-way through the novel).  One night, while rubbing her feet (and no more), he asks:

"Dear voice of a folk song, where did you go today?"


"I was on the Kurfurstendamm."  


"What did you see?"


And I must have seen lots of colors there:  "I saw--men standing at the corners selling perfume, without a coat and a pert face and a gray cap on--and posters with naked ad rosy girls on them and nobody looking at them--a restaurant with more chrome than an operating room--they even have oysters there--and famous photographers photos in showcases displaying enormous people without any beauty.  And sometimes with."  


A cockroach is crawling around--it is always the same one?--and there's no air in the apartment--let's smoke a cigarette--


"What did you see?"  


"I saw--a man with a sign around his neck, "I will accept any work" with "any" underlined three time in red--a spiteful mouth, the corners of which were drawn increasingly down--and when a woman gave him ten pfennings, they were yellow and he rolled them on the pavement in which they were reflected because of the cinemas and nightclubs."  


"What else did you see, what else?"  


"I see--swirling lights with lightbulbs right next to each other--women without veils with hari blown into their faces.  That's the new hairstyle--its called 'windblown'--and the corners of heir mouths are like actresses before they take on a big role and black furs and fancy gowns underneath--and shiny eyes--and they are either a black drama or a blonde cinema.  Cinemas are primarily blonde--I'm moving right along with them with my fur that is so gray and soft--and my feet are racing, my skin is turning pink, the air is chilly and the lights are hot--I'm looking, I'm looking--my eyes are expecting the impossible--I'm dying to eat something wonderful like a rumpsteak, brown and with white horse-radish and pommes frites.  Those are the elongated --and sometimes i love food so much that I just want to grab it with my hands and bite into it, and not have to eat with forks and knives--"


"What else did you see, what else did you see?"


"I see myself--mirrored in windows and when I do, I like the way I look and then I look at men that look back at me--and black coats and dark blue and a lot of disdain in their faces--that's so important--and I see--there's the Memorial Church and with turrets that look like oyster shells--I know how to eat oysters, very elegant--the sky is pink gold when it's foggy out--it's pushing me toward it--but you can't get near it because of the cars--and in the middle of all this, there's a red carpet because there was one of those dumb weddings this afternoon--the Gloria Palast is shimmering--it's a castle, a castle--but really it's a movie theater and a cafe and Berlin W--the church is surrounded by black iron chains--and across the street from it is the Romanisches Cafe with long-haired men!  And one night, I passed an evening there with the intellectual elite, which means 'selection,' as every educated individuality know from doing crossword puzzles.  And we all form a circle.  But really that Romanisches Cafe is unacceptable.  And they all say: 'My God, that dive with those degenerate literary types.  We should stop going there.'  And then they all go there after all.  It was very educational for me, and like learning a foreign language.  


"And nobody has much money there, but they're alive and part of the elite and instead of having money they play chess, which is a checkered board with black and blonde squares.  They have kings too.  And ladies.  And it takes a long time, which is the whole point of it.  Of course, the waiters don't like it, because a cup of coffee only has a five-pfenning tip in it, which is very little for a chess guest of seven hours.  But it's the cheapest occupation for the elite, because they're not working and that's why they're keeping busy.  And they are very literary, and the literary elite is incredibly busy with their coffee and chess and talking and all that intellect, so they won't let onto themselves that they are lazy.  Some are from the theater too, and very colorful girls that are very self-assured, and a couple of older men with trembling bodies that have something to do with math.  And most of them are desperate to get published.  And they criticize everything.  

It goes on, but I am weary of typing and I really wanted more than anything to get to the last paragraph I copied here.  She is a camera, of sorts, the kind C.C. reminded me that Christopher Isherwood wrote about in a short story that was the genesis for "Cabaret."  Which I have never seen but will soon enough now.

I hope you are intrigued, but you need to read about the Weimar Kultur first and see who all came out of this brief period (of course, I am stupid to think you might not have).  Many Jews, of course, which drove Hitler mad.  No, you must go and read it now for yourself.  What good fun it is.  What incredible fun.