Attractions at the Zoo
Praise for the circus acrobats (so long as they are brave) in contrast to the babbling nonentities, those people who risk nothing and achieve nothing, who —with few exceptions— are actors! — Saw the motorcycle driver again who had made such an impression on me in the old days; he rides around a moderately large barrel made of thinly constructed boards, not just in a circle around the upright walls, but also, at last, up and down, concluding with a turn on the sharpest curve hard on the upper rim of the narrow, flimsily built, trembling barrel. The effect of the astonishingly bold and dangerous ride— upon which, in this case, he was accompanied by a very pretty girl — is just as great this time: Just as when I listen to certain music an intensity momentarily befalls me, I must actively fight against weeping. (For it seems to me: what this man does with his motorbike, another man does with his mind: the same danger, the same loneliness; in the midst of the incomprehension of the gapers.)
On the whole, at this fair or whatever it is, amid the stalls erected in the zoo, no different than anywhere else in the city: the same lack of attraction, the same people: they love to walk in circles, bound by chains, they love to gaze at the headless lady.
(Also from Varia) (Image: Hannah Höch, "Russian Dancer/My Double" -1928)
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