THE CANETTI READING GROUP By Adam Knight
An essay in Elias Canetti's seminal work 'Crowds and Power' becomes the point of focus for a fictional reading group. Each character in the group inhabits six typologies of the crowd identified by Canetti. The work presented takes the form of a script; where moments of awareness and a strengthening relationship to the artwork reveal themselves.
 
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THE CANETTI READING GROUP
Characters and classifications A – The Chair (the crystal crowd) • • • • •
Establishes structure Is a constant Comfortable in role Objective perspective Medium interaction
B – The Provocateur (the baiting crowd) • • • • •
Relates to a quickly attainable goal Willing to risk little Has an agenda Engages in ‘pack’ behaviour Medium interaction
C – The Intellectual (the flight crowd) • • • • •
Reacts to threatening behaviour Is able to occupy/mimic other crowds Capable of more complex interactions Selfish/self-preservation High interaction
D – The Lurker (the prohibition crowd) • • • • •
Negative characteristics Refusal of participation General resistance Tendencies towards observation Low interaction
E – The Submissive (the reversal crowd) • • • • •
No.2 to the chair Relates and follows instructions In a state of tension towards the group Moves towards questioning authority (reversal) Medium interaction
F – The Opposer (the double crowd) • • • • •
Relates to another crowd type (the intellectual) Regards rivals as equals Is curious and expectant Has an aversion to shame and humiliation High interaction
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THE CANETTI READING GROUP INT. ROOM – DAY Six figures; A,B,C,D,E and F are seated around a make-shift table. The room is roughly square and slightly larger than the table. The chairs are arranged in a horse-shoe shape with A seated at the apex. There are various papers, pens and bottles strewn across the table. Murmuring voices around the table A Right, so um okay...is everyone here? Yes? Let’s get to it then, firstly, did you all do the reading I sent you? ALL Yes, yep D Um, well I mean I looked over it, but I didn’t give it much attention, but I do have some thoughts… A Great, um hold on a second; we’ll stick to the format. E Yes, yes let’s keep to the way we normally do things, should I begin, I mean if it’s okay with everyone? C Yes, sure go on E First of all, I found it a difficult reading to grasp, especially as we were only given a snippet, as a piece of text it is wildly out of context, it’s hard going from our usual fiction into non-fiction. C I totally disagree, I don’t think you necessarily need the rest of the book to get a grasp on what Canetti is talking about. Yes, there is this sense of abstraction, but he is really talking about actual things; how we behave in the crowd our psychic and physical state. A Please go on. C ‘The Crowd as a Ring’, straight away that’s potent symbolism and he continues to use these really poetic descriptors... ’An arena that is doubly closed.’ That line is something so beautiful I think.
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F Well let’s go back to what E said, this idea of a context. I think she has a point, this was written at a time where crowds and gatherings were dangerous, when things were at stake. B Is this not the case anymore? F Of course, I mean it would be pointless to list examples; but we can’t shy away - this is a political text, no? C I think that is too simplistic, um it is much more social ah, an exercise in er, what is the word? F Anthropology, people-watching. C Exactly. B But then, surely that is the basis of the political? C But we also must talk about the descriptive; Canetti is describing a scene, somehow making the scene very vivid. E A, are we not drifting too far away from the text here? We seem to be losing sight of the group’s purpose? B I’m not sure we have a purpose as such, and that’s why we find ourselves here. D Well not all of us. A D, I can see the text in front of you; circled and underlined, you must have had some initial ideas. D I’m not so comfortable in saying.
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A We should go back to the text directly I think, F are you happy to read out the first paragraph? F Actually, I’d like to look at the last paragraph first, maybe it would also, um help to bring our thoughts closer together. There is no break in the crowd which sits like this, exhibiting itself to itself it forms a closed ring from which nothing can escape. The tiered ring of fascinated faces has something strangely homogeneous about it. It embraces and contains everything which happens below; no-one relaxes his grip on this; no-one tries to get away. Any gap in the ring might remind him of disintegration and subsequent dispersal. But there is no gap; this crowd is doubly closed, to the world outside and in itself C The immovable force of the crowd, that nothing can enter, ideas can develop. F I see it more pessimistically, ‘...is doubly closed’ that the crowd eventually strangles itself, life in the crowd extinguishes. The inability to leave the crowd. C No, no the crowd has become a singular thing it has autonomy, surely this means something?! F But ‘strangely homogenous’ that denotes something a bit more, I dunno ominous. C ‘No-one tries to get away’, the emergence of the gap, which Canetti refers to, is a constant reminder of the fragility of the crowd, the precariousness of the situation. B I think at this point everyone is involved in this thing, that there is no willingness to let go, that we are all somehow invested within this process of erm... A Crowd-making(!) B Yes!... exactly crowd making.
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A But we have rushed to the end, I would prefer it if we stuck to the order and structure of the text, don’t you think? E I don’t mind this deviation so much, and this seems to be apposite to the text itself. C I agree, there is definitely a kind of circling happening here. F And so we become trapped in the text, doubly-closed! A Okay, well let’s step back a minute, D you are being very quiet this week. D I just feel the group has, um I dunno, exhausted itself. F How do you mean? D Well, we introduce texts to think about what we are doing in our work. If anything I feel more detached from things. F But that I think has more to do with you, than anything else. A Are you talking about needing some sort of outcome? E Yes I think so, but this distancing, it is relentless. A So can we fix it to something more definite? E Canetti talks about the seated arena, this is a definite kind of space. F That seems odd, to consider the crowd as something seated, that implies passivity.
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C No, no much more, we are back into the metaphor thing again, it’s the spectacle of the thing, the arena. Who is being watched? B But can spectacle attain much? F But what else are we left with? A Too many rhetorical questions! F can you read out a passage of your choosing? B Um, ah, yes sure...just let me, here we are. Outside, facing the city, the arena displays a lifeless wall; inside is a wall of people. The spectators turn their backs to the city. They have been lifted out of its structure of walls and streets and, for the duration of their time in the arena, they do not care about anything which happens there; they have left behind all their associations, rules and habits. Their remaining together in large numbers for a stated period of time is secure and their excitement has been promised them. But only under one definite condition: the discharge must take place inside the arena. A Okay, so why that particular passage? B This for me, is where the crowd becomes an overwhelming force, here it says; they have left behind their associations, rules and habits. It’s an emancipation or something. But on the other hand, it sabotages itself, that somehow, somewhere there is the inevitability of collapse. C Not collapse, Canetti uses the word ‘discharge’, I suppose it is better to think of it as expelled energy, I guess any analogy would do; but essentially whatever is finite gets used up. F So then it becomes unstable, not only to the outside but in its interior as well? B Exactly. C The promise that remaining together allows for security or safety, but…
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F ...but then also creates this tension that threatens to overwhelm itself, its very presence. It is still a community of sorts, but one that must establish its own logic, its own structure. C I’m not sure, but within the crowd isn’t there a removal from certain duties, responsibilities? F Yes, but only to define itself as being separate. Going back to the text; the word ‘promise’, that seems to me to say something about deceit. A Ah. C That for all the good intention that surrounds the crowd, it is still somehow built on a lie. F Well, no a promise. C But then if that promise is unfulfilled then surely it becomes a lie. B But if the outcome, um sort of becomes more than that initial promise, surely the lie is vindicated? E But this comes back to my original worry, we are being far too general here, different crowds behave in different situations, Canetti doesn’t give us this information. F So then we must take this in isolation. C Is this not just an exercise in typology? Are we simply being shown the different characteristics, behaviours and attitudes of the crowd? He is writing an instruction manual. F But we are not being told how to behave in any instance, Canetti is considering these things as an observer might.
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C But can we trust this judgement? F I’m not sure. E Let’s move onto another paragraph... A Well, let’s hold on for a second, these issues of trust and judgement, how are these things apparent in the crowd? D You mean trust in one another or in the agency of the crowd? A Both. B I think they are one and the same thing. A Go on... B You um give yourself over to the crowd, to the form and direction it takes. E But then who leads this? A Is that necessary? E I’d feel happier returning to the text. A Very well. E I think I’ll start from the beginning; an arena contains a crowd which is doubly closed. On account of this curious quality its examination may not be entirely without value. The arena is well demarcated from the outside world. It is usually visible from far off and its situation in the city-the space which it occupies-is well known. People always feel where it is, even if they are not thinking of it. Shouts from the arena carry far and, when it is open at the top, something of the life which
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goes on inside communicates itself to the surrounding city. C Okay, so here we have a physical thing, something that can be seen, felt and encountered. It has proximity to the city, there is noise. F The overwhelming thing here seems to be visibility. The crowd needs to be seen, but also acknowledged by the other. C No, it has a presence, and that presence is known to the exterior, just out of our field of vision. F But you can only experience the crowd from two positions, and it becomes difficult to move between the two. A What do you mean? F Either I am inside and I have no perspective on distance, closeness or direction, or I am watching and I am helpless to participate. C In both instances you describe there is always a sense of hopelessness, I mean, you cannot affect the progression of the crowd. F I think only presence is required, your want to be there renders the helplessness thing redundant. C I said hopelessness. F Ah, this is different again. No, to be part of a crowd is always with hope. B I’m far more interested in this word communication. A Sorry? B The crowd communicates itself to the surrounding city. How does a crowd communicate?  
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F Through action and not language I suppose. C I disagree - I think text and speech is important. It helps to give form to the crowd. E How so? C The crowd is connected by speech, repetition, mimesis and rehearsal acted out in the arena. F Acting, so we return to something that is staged or concerned with spectacle. C I think the crowd demands a form of performativity. F So can one be oneself in this instance? B No, a role must be assumed. F So then these are characters? B Too crude, but yes, somehow
…………… (fade to black)
E Okay, I think we should move on to the next paragraph, in time we could return again? A Er, yeah sure okay, who would like to read something out? E I think you should go.
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A Well, okay then, I’ll move onto the second paragraph... ...But however exciting these communications may be, an uninhibited flow into the arena is not possible. The number of seats it contains is limited; its maximum density is fixed in advance. The seats are arranged so that people are not too closely crushed. The occupants are meant to be comfortable in them and to be able to watch, each from his own seat, without disturbing others. B So we’re back to the seating again... F Yes, but crucially Canetti is saying that the crowd is ordered, or rather there is a form of behaviour... its density is fixed in advance... E Well this makes sense; a crowd has to inhabit a fixed space; squares, streets, pages etcetera. In this instance the arena. Movements too have to be restricted. C And Canetti goes on to say that each occupant is able to watch without disturbing the other, this seems to describe a far more private than communal space that we speculated upon earler. F It is true that the spectator, spectates alone, is concerned only with themselves. C In this position the spectator is also unable to fully view the crowd – this goes back to our understanding of perspectives inside the arena. F And so certain spectators are privileged certain positions, are able to understand more of the crowd than others. C Then this cannot be something egalitarian, the crowd is composed of these inequalities. A But this still does not prevent the ecstatic nature of the crowd, its willful Dionysiun energy. B I think Canetti is presenting something more sober, controlled and structured.
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A But if we scan down the page, there was uh where was it? Yes here... The seats are arranged in tiers around the arena so everyone can see what is happening below. The format of the arena, is to present both the privacy of the spectator and to emphasise the force of the crowd. F Exactly and he goes on to say... The consequence of this is that the crowd is seated opposite itself So this then becomes a reflective device, where the crowds own condition is continually held up in front of them. B Then the behaviour becomes something much more self-aware and knowing. F Mmmm, but also there is still this anonymity, that you are part of this crowd, however much you feel detached from it, not excluded as such, but definitely detached. B So there is still this ability to remain autonomous as individual but to also allow oneself to become subsumed into the crowd. D Every spectator has a thousand in front of him, a thousand heads... F The crowd becomes infinite, a never-ending ourobic circle, the spectator ahead is you. As long as he is there, all the others are there too; B Yes! F And I think Canetti makes this much more evident in the line: They are seated some distance away from him, so that differing details which make individuals of them are blurred; A ..and we are back to the experience of seeing the crowd... C Yes, but this time the metaphor becomes solid, we see the crowd as entity.  
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F Their visible excitement.., again an emphasis on the perceptible element of the crowd C And its reciprocation... Their visible excitement increases his own. F But the crowd cannot experience itself as crowd, it is only the individual that can achieve this. C He notices in them only the things which he himself is full of. B This is recognition, a recognition of a shared experience. F And that experience becomes more immersive, greater as this recognition process unfolds. C This could then lead onto the crowd as ring... E Go on... C So that metaphorically and literally the doubly closing crowd forms a solid ring, and gains autonomy. F Doubly closing, doubly closing... D Of course, repetition, the text itself seems to be doing this, taking the first line and repeating lastly. A Sorry? D A crowd which is doubly closed, the opening and closing of the text. C Yes, this is very interesting indeed.  
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F So the text is creating this structure, and one which we appear to be acting out! C Greater than a structure - a density, this comes back to you, E and that initial difficulty in grasping the text. Your very entry into the text was inhibited by this ‘closed ring’.. E Then that also suggests a difficulty in exiting the arena, exiting the text, how do we leave? Fade to Black
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