In fact this graphic artist (whom Surrealists as well as silent filmmakers recognized as their precursor) made visible the ‘ambivalence between the utopian and cynical element’ in the bourgeois idealist attempt to subsume nature under its own, subjective categories. [...] - etesien

Benjamin clarifies: 'Grandville’s fantasies transfer the commodity character onto the universe'. They modernize it. Comets, planets, flowers, the moon, and the evening star are animated, only to receive the 'human attribute' of being transformed into commodity. But in depicting the 'battle between fashion and nature', Grandville allows nature to gain the upper hand. An active, rebellious nature takes its revenge on humans who would fetishize it as a commodity." from Susan Buck-Morss, The Dialectics of Seeing. - etesien

PDF: http://www.columbia.edu/itc... - etesien

Image: "Animals Acting Human" from Grandville's series "Metamorphoses du Jour" (1840) - etesien

Görmenin Diyalektiği adıyla Metis'ten çıkmıştı 3 yıl önce bu kitap http://www.metiskitap.com/catalog... - lairocse

Tesekkürler...Daha önce görmemiştim... - etesien

“Mecâz oldu hakîkat, hakîkat oldu mecâz / Yıkıldı belki esasından eski mâlûmat”. Sadullah Paşa'nın (1838-91) “19. Asır” başlıklı şiirinden..:) - etesien