HISTOCRACY - Culture towards Revolution

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Tragedies written by tragedians and French theater were a delight for all of France to enjoy. Voltaire would produce his first play, a modern interpretation of Sophocles's Oedipus, while imprisoned in the Bastille. Fiction would also court fact, as the historical proclivities for incestuous topics were mirrored by gossip of the day involving the Regent and his own dalliances within his family.

As a cultural instrument, the stories being told were historical, covering the ancient Greeks and Romans. Pierre de Marivaux was a crafter of comedies, more refined in satire and social commentary that emphasized manners.

Bourgeois (middle-class) pieces arose in parallel, depicting the lives of the third estate, a move beyond the mythical, historical, and aristocratic depictions of love.

An innovation by mid-century came with the tantrums of Rousseau, who pitted French and Italian tastes against one another through the Guerre des Coins. These were indeed socio-political changes, but they were not the only innovations occurring in the arts. Jean-Philippe Rameau, one of the most popular composers of his time, was deeply committed to music theory. His approach to music was both a consequence and an inspiration of the new Newtonian worldview that was reshaping the world.

Playing cards and Tarot decks had been sources of leisure and frivolity for centuries. Two emergent personas simultaneously transformed the Tarot from a courtly game into an occult artifact with deep historical significance.

Etteilla and Court de Gébelin infused ancient Egyptian lore, astrology, and systematic symbolism into the cards, creating a prototype of the Major and Minor Arcana widely known and popular today.

Cards like the Fool, Death, and the Emperor trace their origins back to the Renaissance Visconti-Sforza deck. However, the addition of systematic structure, occult historicity synthesized with the Egyptian Book of Thoth, combined with the Encyclopedic flair that was taking hold in the intellectual zeitgeist, mutated Tarot from a salon social pastime into a newly christened tool of divination. Cartomancy became mainstream.

With this creation, displeasure, critique, and hyperbole ensued.

One hundred years before 'Cinema' was created, Phantasmagoria roamed the German and French cosmopolitan circles. Building upon the long-established 'Magic Lantern' and 'camera obscura,' the thematic power of these presentations aligned perfectly with the ongoing tension in Paris during the continuous anxiety of the Reign of Terror.

Part show, part theater, part therapy, and part modern spectacle of technical innovation, the work by Philidor and Robertson provided a perfect prelude to the Gothic novel.

SLIDE 1

https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_2CU7AAAAcAAJ

SLIDE 2

https://archive.org/details/traitdelharmon00rame/page/n37/mode/2up?view=theater&q=newton

SLIDE 3

https://archive.org/details/imslp-roi-et-le-fermier-monsigny-pierre-alexandre/page/n5/mode/thumb?view=theater

SLIDE 4

https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k622723/f30.item.r=etteilla.langFR.zoom

https://archive.org/details/mondeprimitifana08cour/page/390/mode/1up?q=Rive&view=theater

https://archive.org/details/MiriamLichtheimAncientEgyptianLiteratureVolIII/page/n67/mode/1up?view=theater&q=thoth

SLIDE 5

https://archive.org/details/castoretpollux1700rame/page/n3/mode/1up?view=theater

SLIDE 6

https://archive.org/details/memoiresrecreati01robe/page/n5/mode/2up?view=theater