Fertile Verges, Belle Epoques and Salons

"Salons are an example of what the historian Daniel Boorstin would have called "the Fertile Verge" - "a place of encounter between something and something else." Boorstin (and here I am wholly indebted to Virginia Postrel) pinpointed such "verges" as being nothing short of the secret to American creativity.

Postrel sums up what Boorstin was saying as follows:

"A verge is not a sharp border but a frontier region: where the forest meets the prairie or the mountains meet the flatlands, where ecosystems or ideas mingle . Verges between land and sea, between civilization and wilderness, between black and white, between immigrants and natives...between state and national governments, between city and countryside - all mark the American experience." - Jeremy Geelan (oh, I tweaked one teeny word, exchanging salons for Web 2.0, in above snippet)

The next salon is an afternoon tea nestled in a Belle Epoque evoking tearoom in downtown San Jose kitty-corner from the upcoming Central Place, part of the future urban revival of San Jose (imagine highrise penthouses, tree-lined promenades, shops, outdoor cafes, public art, galleries).

"There are few hours more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea." - Henry James

Why Monday? Galleries, restaurants, fashion boutiques, chocolatiers, jewelers, jazz clubs are often closed and thereby these artists are free to salon Monday evenings, and the intent of a salon is to hand-select an "eclectic combustible crowd of people that aren't "supposed" to go together like the fusion chefs mix ingredients into culinary taste explosions." What happens next is unpredictable: renaissances, movements, improvisations, belle epoques perhaps.

"Occurring at the midpoint of the Third Republic, the Belle Époque was considered a golden time of beauty, innovation, and peace between France and its European neighbors. New inventions made life easier at all social levels, the cultural scene thrived, cabaret, cancan, and the cinema were born, and art took new forms with Impressionism and Art Nouveau. Art and architecture in the style of this era in other nations is also sometimes called "Belle Époque" style." - Wikipedia entry

Gwendolyn: You have filled my tea with lumps of sugar, and though I asked most distinctly for bread and butter, you have given me cake. I am known for the gentleness of my disposition, and the extraordinary sweetness of my nature, but I warn you, Miss Cardew, you may go too far. - Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Ernest

Let's go too far: Let's verge to beauty, innovation, peace. Details: Date: Monday, September 18th, 4 to 7:30 pm Location: Chic Chateau, 96 S. 3rd Street, San Jose, CA (corner of San Fernando and 3rd) Map Please request an invitation if you are to grace us with your charm, wit and artful verging banter. Limited to an intimate prime number 23. RSVP required. Yes, by all means, your confidants, collaborators, muses, lovers, and aseres (Afrocaribbean/Cuban slang for soul sibling) are warmly invited too. Cost: $15 includes exquisite teas, delectable old-world inspired treats served by owner Luvi Navarro whom left high-tech corporate HR to share her trio of passions with us at her new boutique: fashion, tea, and home decor. (Includes all tax & gratuities.) p.s. Look for upcoming salon at the gorgeous "live in the moment, live in the season" Tanglewood Restaurant, Santana Row, San Jose.

Wordplay: (I love etymology)

verge (n.)

"edge, rim," 1459, from M.Fr. verge "rod or wand of office," hence "scope, territory dominated," from L. virga "shoot, rod stick," of unknown origin. Earliest attested sense in Eng. is now-obsolete meaning "male member, penis" ( c.1400). Modern sense is from the notion of within the verge (1509, also as Anglo-Fr. dedeinz la verge), i.e. "subject to the Lord High Steward's authority" (as symbolized by the rod of office), originally a 12-mile radius round the king's court. Sense shifted to "the outermost edge of an expanse or area." Meaning "point at which something happens" (as in on the verge of) is first attested 1602. "A very curious sense development." [Weekley]

verge (v.)

"tend, incline," 1610, from L. vergere "to bend, turn, tend toward, incline," from PIE *werg- "to turn," from base *wer- "to turn, bend" (see versus). Much influenced by verge (n.) in its verbal form meaning "to be adjacent to" (1787).

image Closeup of the Chic Chateau tearoom.

Comments

[rama]

Even in ecology, for instance in the region between land and sea, which is both land and sea - its a very rich and complex ecosystem. Best, rama

[Amy Lenzo]

Brilliant post about the power of conversation and the pleasures of salon, Evelyn! Thank you.

I focused much of my own lit study (BA & MA at Sussex, UK - Hurrah! :-) on the turn of century, where salons were such a vital part of the creative life. I long for that kind of co-creation in today's creative/cultural scene, and love seeing it blossom like this.

I'm also a nature freak and in another life, I co-founded an environmental non-profit focusing on rivers & oceans, so I particularly appreciated Rama bringing the biological 'liminial zone' into this conversation.