Understanding Gurney (& Eastlake)

A Palace for the People: The Crystal Palace and Consumer Culture in Victorian England by Peter Gurney outlines various view points of the Crystal Palace.

What I was especially interested in was the opening quotation from Elizabeth Eastlake, referring to Prometheus.

Prometheus: A Titan God, son of Themis, brother of Atlas, champion of mankind known for wily intelligence, stole fire from Zeus and gave it to man (because he loved man)

In order to make sense of Eastlake's quote that "more than ever do we wonder at the quanitiy, not of fire, but of air, which this modern Prometheus has stolen from on high," I did a little research and found an article titled The Air we breathe: Capitalism & Mythology. I didn't read the entire article, but I focused on the section titled This is the Air. Here, the author, Jakub Jerzy Macewicz, basically states that air is something so natural to us (as humans) that we fail to notice it.

When I relate this idea to Eastlake's quote, I feel that, maybe, she is stating that the modern Prometheus is the Crystal Palace (and its contributors) and air is capitalism/consumerism. At the time of the Crystal Palace consumerism was just beginning. Consumerism (air) was not as natural as it is now. It is the Crystal Palace that set the working of capitalism into motion.

Just a thought.

What I got from the reading:

What was Brought to the Modern Era
capitalism
social division based on money
commercialization
mass advertising
un-censorship
new shopping habits

Negative Perspectives of the Crystal Palace
seductive
intellect dulling abilities
"renders the majority apathetic and easily duped"

[of course Gurney disagrees]
"This essay questions these rather condescending interpretations and argues instead for a more nuanced and complex reading of the relationship between a developing consumer culture and "the people" during the second half of the nineteenth century."

Uses for the Crystal Palace
consumption
pleasure
"hedonism"
music
exhibitions
overindulgence
education (? @ Sydenham)

Concepts Introduced
utopia
idealism
capitalism
consumerism
demand

[again this idea of utopia arises, just like in the queen's journal]

Other Names Used to Describe the Crystal Palace
Temple
Metropolis

Gurney's Main Points
1. This is the first (?) instance where the public, including lower class, has the ability to consume and "enjoy the benefits [of] free-trade"
2. "paternalistic attempt to moralize the market by regulating the consuming desires of the majority."

To his point #2, I definitely found a hint of morality throughout this essay. Eastlake says there was a "wonderment...of the vulgar," possibly referring to the nude statues or "stuffed natives." (?) It sort of appears that this was the first instance where other cultures could showcase their works...what is vulgar to one culture may be perfectly fine to another...could be the first example of cross-cultural understanding...possibly an unsheltering of England, shaping the future...because so many of us now believe that sheltering is "wrong." (?)

Not sure if that makes sense.

:)



[Victorian Literature]