#uzanne

[blackswaneuroparedux]

Sans l’amour, qu’est-ce que la vie ? C’est un dîner sans cure-dents.

- Octave Uzanne, Le bric-à-brac de l’amour

The hardest thing is to do nothing and do it well. Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are. Skiing in Verbier or Zermatt can be expensive but it’s still cheaper than therapy.

[stromain]

Octave Uzanne, Dictionnaire bibliophilosophique, 1896. Illustration de Paul Berthon (1872-1909)

Source: bit.ly/1P1N4R9 et bit.ly/1TrzpZ0

[timqln]

L'amour n'est qu'une étape, un arrêt momentané sur la route de la vie

octave uzanne

[vertigious]

“I take my stand, therefore, upon this incontestable fact, that the man of leisure becomes daily more reluctant to undergo fatigue, that he eagerly seeks for what he calls the comfortable, that is to say for every means of sparing himself the play and the waste of the organs. You will surely agree with me that reading, as we practise it today, soon brings on great weariness; for not only does it require of the brain a sustained attention which consumes a large proportion of the cerebral phosphates, but it also forces our bodies into various fatiguing attitudes. If we are reading one of our great newspapers it constrains us to acquire a certain dexterity in the art of turning and folding the sheets; if we hold the paper wide open it is not long before the muscles of tension are overtaxed, and finally, if we address ourselves to the book, the necessity of cutting the leaves and turning them one after another, ends by producing an enervated condition very distressing in the long run. “The art of being moved by the wit, the gayety, and the thought of others must soon demand greater facilities. I believe, then, in the success of everything which will favor and encourage the indolence and selfishness of men; the elevator has done away with the toilsome climbing of stairs; phonography will probably be the destruction of printing. Our eyes are made to see and reflect the beauties of nature, and not to wear themselves out in the reading of texts; they have been too long abused, and I like to fancy that some one will soon discover the need there is that they should be relieved by laying a greater burden upon our ears. This will be to establish an equitable compensation in our general physical economy

La Fin des Livres

[vertigious]

[diktats]

During the later years of the French Revolution (1789–99) at the end of the eighteenth century, many fashionable young people of the upper and middle classes adopted a style called à la victime, or "like the victim." This fashion imitated the look of the thousands of people who were executed by the government during the bloodiest period of the revolution. Sporting scarlet ribbons to symbolize the blood of the dead, and cutting their hair short the way the executioners cut their victims' hair.

This rare fashion plate from 1797 shows such a young lady wearing "ceinture à la victime" and is available at our bookstore.

[teenwolflestat]

Chicago awed visitors, and terrified them. [...] Uzanne called it 'that Gordian city, so excessive, so satanic.' Paul Lindau [...] described it as a gigantic peepshow of utter horror, but extraordinarily to the point.'

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America (Erik Larson)