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LIGHT
The Great Light: A Münchhausen Breviary
Ghost Castles: A Light Haunting
The Light Club of Batavia: A Ladies’ Novelette
The Incomprehensible Sun: A Seal Story
Light Miracle
The Black Night
Laughing Giraffes: A Shadow Play
305
GLASS
The Glass Monstrosity
The Magnetic Mirror
At the Glass Exhibition in Peking: The Old Baron’s Diary Entries
Glass Architecture
The Glass Sphere: A Solar-Ring Novelette
The Clear Head: A Rosette
Flora Mohr: A Glass Flower Story
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MUSIC AND DANCE
The Fried Flounder:
A Dance-Poem of “Profound” Orientation
Never Before Seen! A Romantic Symbolist Song
The Old Dervishes: A Parable
Dancing Plants — Dancing Forests
The New Ballerina: A Tragic Pantomime
The Meadow of Earthly Delights: A Friendship Song
Clean! Clean! A Crown Song
Sawiga, the Loving Fairy: A Song of Reconciliation
The New Concert House
Hey! Dance with Me! A Daydream
Secrets: A Pantomime without Music
Sophie: A Marriage Pantomime with Music and Dance
Far! Far! A Love Song
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WHILE DRINKING
Hangover Poetry
Morning Notes
Hop! Hop! Hop!
I Have an Eye . . .
My Ink Is My Ink: A Blotosophicum
Delirium! Delirium! A Decadent Tableau
Bottoms Up: A Fantastical Royal Novel
The Little Fly: A Winter Idyll
Smoke and Fumes: A Night Piece
The Greedy One
Loscha: A Resignation Fantasy
Holy Crap!
The Curious One
Kikakokú! Ekoraláps!
Lompûschek: A Vision of a Loafer
The Seventeeen Cusps or The Square of the Ellipsoid
Brüllmeyer’s Treasure: The Tiny Fortress: Head Vignette
The Uncleared Table: A Conundrum
308
A Sensible Motto
Oh, That’s Right!
Singing Snakes
A Drunken Dream
The Roast Pigeon
The Worm
You Are with Me? An Alcoholic Dream
Bring Me Wine! A Despotic Piece
The Vulture: Portrait of a Temperament
He Was Vexed: An Irritable Tiger
Brilliant Intoxication: A Dream
The World Is a Cowshed! A Hangover Scene
309
POLITICIANS
Something Must Be Done . . .
Rakkóx the Billionaire: A Boastful Novel
Huge!
Oceanic Fortune: A Grotesque
The Satirical Magazine Editors
The Baron as Organizer: A Factory Story
The Downside of Work
The Future Revolutions: A Sylvan Story
The Dependent Ones
The Furious Hedgehog: Wisdom Idyll
The Earth’s Commodities: A Power Amusement
The End of Barbarian Revolutionary Garb
The Ruby Chamber: A Luxury Novelette
General von Baz: An Airborne Amusement
The Dangerous Millionaires
The Good King: A Cloister Story
Temples and Palaces: Babylonian Court Novelette
Audience with the King: Assyrian Morning Idyll
310
Fresh Human Meat: A Contemporary Proposal
Two World Creators: Sketch
The World of Iron: A Loud Grumbling
Red as a Crab! A Gentlemen’s Scherzo
The Hooligan Angel: A Nihilist Prank
The Gallant Robber or The Pleasant Manner: A Garden Scherzo
Münchhausen in African Slavery: A Story in Letter Form
The Workers of the Future
The Swindled Witch: A Capital Joke
The Fanatical Mayor: Cosmic Drama in Four Acts
The Genteel Robber Chief: A Stage Entertainment in Three Acts
The Silent Game of Courtly Society
The Roasted Ant: A Labor Amusement
Potentatehood and Secret Police
The Jolly Robbers: A Play in Five Acts
The Roots of Prosperity: A Simpleton Play in Five Acts
The Comfortable Society
The Giant’s Work: Philantropic Titanomachy
The Jackpot: A Capitalist Fairy Tale
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PROPHESY AND OUTRAGE
Laughing Is Prohibited . . .
Human Blood: A Social Fable
The Great Battle: A Dualisticum
The Development of Aerial Militarism and the Demobilization of
the European Ground Forces, Fortresses, and Naval Fleets
Humor as the Elixir of Life: An Anamitic Story
The Rough Path: A Brutality Farce
A Modern Kassandra: A Story of the Future
Professor Grobleben on the “World War”
Militarism in the Time of Revolution: A Debate for Generals
Flying Dynamite: Department Store Novelette
The Idols Are Growing Old: A Misery Tableau
Not Laughing Anymore? Wel ?
A Dangerous Invention
We, the True, Great People!
The Sport of Stripping-Bombing
Who Is Killing Them? A Society Fable
Of People Who Lost Their Heads: Palmyran Torch Dance Novelette
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GHOSTS
Liwûna and Kaidôh: A Novel of Souls
The Great-Grandmother: A Tragicomedy in One Act
Ghost Dance: A Motion Study
The Realm of Eternal Torment
The Love of Souls: A Spiritualistic Scene from a Novel
Question Mark: An Immortality Capriccio
Laughing Ghosts: A Play Between Black Wal s
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HOPE
Audacious: A Morning Study
The Broken Windowpane: A Mournful Mood
Among Wild Animals: A Story of Despair
In All Seriousness!
Air Jellyfish: Story of a Discovery
The World Is Loud . . .
That Way!
Nightmares: A Tormented Mood
Banner Song of the Neoanarchists
The Great Longing
Question Mark: An Immortality Capriccio
The Miracle: A Dramatic Scene
Be Gentle and Scornful! A Character Cycle
Fire Flowers: A Ruins Amusement
The Good Sheep: An Exhausting Poem
The Ocean Sanatorium for Hay Fever: A Telegram Novelette
The New Abyss: A Transformation Novelette
The Roast Pigeon: Legend of a Painter
The Boldest Ones: An Emancipation Novelette
314
PERPETUALLY FAR AWAY
Gal ery of the Beyond
Perpetual Motion: The Story of an Invention
Lesabéndio: An Asteroid Novel
Behind the Mountains of Resentment: A Prose Rondel
The Journey to the Beyond: A Speculator’s Novelette
Laughing Gods: Novelette of the Future
The World Perishes: A Tableau
315
Josiah McElheny, Scheerbart Hand-Colors Taut’s Stairway to the Exhibition Room, 2014.
Drawing with retouching pencil on silver gelatin photograph, 20 × 16 inches.
Credits
Cover: Illustration by Ottomar Starke, from the first edition of Das Perpetuum Mobile: Die Geschichte
einer Erfindung (Perpetual Motion: The Story of an Invention) by Paul Scheerbart (Leipzig: Ernst
Rowohlt Ve
rlag, 1910).
Page 10: Münchner Stadtmuseum, Sammlung Fotografie, Archiv Kester
Page 21: Collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York
Pages 27 and 79: Josiah McElheny, Three Screens for Looking at Abstraction(detail), 2012. Aluminum,
low-iron mirror, projection cloth, film transferred to video (variable program), video projectors
with stands, wood and metal hardware, dimensions variable. Page 27 photograph by Mark
Steele; page 79 photograph by Charles Mayer Photography
Pages 39, 86, and 91: Josiah McElheny, The Alpine Cathedral and the City-Crown (detail), 2007.
Handblown molded glass, metal, wood, metal hardware, Plexiglas, and mechanically animated
colored lighting system, 168 × 96 × 117 inches. Photographs by Robin Holland
Pages 46–47: Josiah McElheny, Bruno Taut’s Monument to Socialist Spirituality (After Mies van der
Rohe) (detail), 2009. Handblown molded glass, wood, and metal hardware, 1053⁄4 × 75 × 55
inches. Photograph by Jason Mandella
Page 58: Josiah McElheny, Crystalline Landscape After Hablik and Luckhardt III (detail), 2011.
Handblown molded glass, colored sheet glass laminated to low-iron mirror, two-way mirror,
glass diffuser, electric lighting, birch plywood and steel display structure, 56 × 57 × 30 inches.
Photograph by Tom Van Eynde
Page 69: Josiah McElheny, Model for a Film Set (The Light Spa at the Bottom of a Mine) (detail),
2008. Handblown molded glass, painted cement, mortar, and wood, 37 × 68 × 371⁄2 inches.
Photograph by Jason Mandella
Pages 93, 99, 106, 108–109, 110, 112, 113, 115, 116,122, 265, 266, 273: Baukunstarchive, Akademie
der Künste, Berlin
Page 115: Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal
Pages 131, 134, 138, 141: Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University
Pages 144, 147: Archive Marzona, Berlin. Photograph Marcus Schneider, Berlin
Pages 211, 224, 226, 228, 232–33, 244–45, and 249: Josiah McElheny, silver gelatin photograms from
handblown, ground and polished glass, 2014, 11 × 14 inches. Page 211: Scheerbart’s Diagrams
for Perpetual Motion Machine Number 1 (detail) ; page 224: Scheerbart’s Diagrams for Perpetual
Motion Machine Number 6 (detail); page 226: Scheerbart’s Diagram for Perpetual Motion Machine
Number 10 (detail); page 228: Scheerbart’s Diagram for Perpetual Motion Machine Number 11
(detail); pages 232–33: Scheerbart’s Diagram for Perpetual Motion Machine Number 13 (detail);
pages 244–45: Scheerbart’s Diagram for Perpetual Motion Machine Number 19 (detail); page
249: Scheerbart’s Diagram for Perpetual Motion Machine Number 26 (detail).
Page 255: Kurt Wolff Archive, Yale Collection of German Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and
Manuscript Library, Yale University
Page 262: Archive Marzona, Berlin. Photograph Marcus Schneider, Berlin
Page 274: Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Walter Benjamin Archiv, WBA Ms 836
Pages 290, 286–95: Archive Marzona, Berlin. Photograph Marcus Schneider, Berlin
318
Acknowledgments
First, our gratitude to Paul Scheerbart himself, our inspiration, for being
so big. A special thanks to: John A. Stuart, translator of The Gray Cloth by
Scheerbart, without his book, this edition would never have been started.
We thank our many collaborators for their tireless work on this proj-
ect: Susan Bernofsky and Anne Posten for their new translations; Jason
Burch and Mark Shortliffe for extensive work on the images; Susan
Bielstein, Anthony Burton, Ruth Goring, Helen Graves, and Margaret
Mahan for extensive (and sympathetic) editing and literary guidance;
Purtill Family Business and Conny Purtill for the hand-drawn cover
lettering and other aspects of the design; finally, our gratitude to Laura
at Laura Lindgren Design, for editorial and translation support, design,
layout, and composition, and the magic of bringing the book together.
We could not have laid out this history without the help of these
fantastic (and generous) scholars: Rosemarie Haag Bletter for her bound-
less knowledge of historical dates and Scheerbart’s oeuvre; Hollyamber
Kennedy for bringing the Frühlicht Glass House Letters to our attention;
Noam Elcott for discovering the architecture of the kaleidoscope; Chris
Turner for making Scheerbart both strange and not; Gary Indiana for
placing Scheerbart within the history of letters and humor; Guy Maddin
for reminding us of the cinematic nature of Perpetual Motion and Bill
Horrigan, for incisive commentary on Guy Maddin’s work and writing;
Hubertus von Amelunxen for his knowledge of and introductions to the
archives of the Akademie der Künste, Berlin, and the collection of Egidio
Marzona; and Egidio Marzona himself for sharing his memories and
allowing us access to his unparalleled collection of Scheerbart material.
For their expert assistance with historical documents and their respective
collections, thanks to Dr. Petra Alprecht of the Baukunstarchiv, Akademie
der Künste, Berlin; Louise Désy and Caroline Dagbert of the Canadian
Centre for Architecture, Montréal; Jason Escalante and Janet S. Parks at
the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University; Nancy
Kuhl and Kevin Repp at the Beinecke Library, Yale University; and Dr.
Erdmut Wizisla from the Walter Benjamin Archive, Berlin.
With special thanks to William Wegman and Susanne DesRoches for
their unflagging support whenever we were off in the uncharted wilds
of Scheerbartland, and in gratitude to Donald Young for encouraging
and inspiring our collaboration. We are all Scheerbartians now.
319