amazing historian and translator shawn wilbur sends the following email, which requires me to make a decision, so i’m somewhat arbitrarily going with the first two, the intro and the garlic one (’cause YOU KNOW), and if folks are into it, we can always read the rest–we could have a month of fourier, semi-curated by shawn!
The obvious intro piece by Fourier, from my perspective at least, is “Note A” from “The Theory of Four Movements.” It’s very short, but explains how individuals will organize according to the passions in Harmony. There is a translation in the Cambridge edition, but I’ve made one that can be used freely.
You might also be amused by “Intermeshing of the Series by Cabalistic Gastronomy,” which includes the amusing episode of the girl who loved garlic, but not grammar:
Fourier, “Intermeshing of the Series by Cabalistic Gastronomy”
re: the first reading, here are some questions/thoughts i had:
what is brought out of people when they try to create utopias (or just, better systems)? A practical, practice-based way of thinking of what is truly human – so what is fourier saying about what is deeply human?
What does the penultimate paragraph say about our current system of capitalism?
relationship to bolo’bolo (limited size, based on some level of intentional/understanding of desire)