Pages 577-580

This page-by-page annotation is organized by sections, as delineated by the seven squares (sprockets) which separate each section. The page numbers for this page-by-page annotation are for the original Viking edition (760 pages). Editions by other publishers vary in pagination — the newer Penguin editions are 776 pages; the Bantam edition is 886 pages.

Contributors: Please use a 760-page edition (either the original Viking edition with the orange cover or the Penguin USA edition with the blue cover and rocket diagram — there are plenty on Ebay for around $10) or search the Google edition for the correct page number. Readers: To calculate the Bantam edition use this formula: Bantam page # x 1.165. Before p.50 it's about a page earlier; as you get later in the book, add a page.

Finally, profound thanks to Prof. Don Larsson for providing the foundation for this page-by-page annotation.

Page 578

Rottwang in Metropolis

While Weisenburger’s first edition notes on the film, following Kracauer, are accurate, they overlook the importance of Rottwang’s role in the movie. Rottwang is the element of the irrational on which the entire rationalized bureaucratic system of the city is based. The mad inventor is responsible for the running of the city but lives in a small, organic-looking cottage, decorated with mystic symbols, and plans to bring down the very structure that he himself helped to create.

Klein-Rogge as Attila the Hun

See note at 159.19. Pokler, drifting in and out of sleep at the movies, has trouble linking the details of Nibelungen together.