Scan barcode
motifenjoyer's review
4.0
"The tradition of the oppressed teaches us that the 'state of emergency' in which we live is not the exception but the rule. We must attain to a conception of history that is in keeping with this insight... One reason why Fascism has a chance is that in the name of progress its opponents treat it as a historical norm. The current amazement that the things we are experiencing are "still" possible in the twentieth century is not philosophical. This amazement is not the beginning of knowledge-unless it is. the knowledge that the view of history which gives rise to it is untenable."
jackhalfawake's review
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
It’s hard to judge this book, since it’s a pretty diverse collection. Benjamin is an interesting cultural critic, but he’s criticizing figures I have very little knowledge of. There were some essays that made my eyes glaze over, and there were some that I thought were totally brilliant.
I recommend, unreservedly the following: “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”, “Unpacking my Library,” and the introduction by Hannah Arendt. For the others, I suggest a discerning reader pick those relevant to their interests, and simply sample the rest. Perhaps they will hook you, perhaps not. We 21st century readers are not exactly Walter Benjamin’s target audience.
I recommend, unreservedly the following: “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”, “Unpacking my Library,” and the introduction by Hannah Arendt. For the others, I suggest a discerning reader pick those relevant to their interests, and simply sample the rest. Perhaps they will hook you, perhaps not. We 21st century readers are not exactly Walter Benjamin’s target audience.
gregbrown's review
5.0
Walter Benjamin is awesome, and any difficulties I had following the work, I ascribe to the translation and to my ignorance about some of the subjects (especially Baudelaire and Proust). He's wonderfully aphoristic, able to quickly sketch little metaphors that both illuminate and dramatize what he's talking about. He can be amazingly captivating, and absolutely rewards your attention. Very quotable, too!
adrianasturalvarez's review
5.0
Benjamin (pronounced BEN-ya-mean) is one of those writers you just can't help loving in a sort of "oh poor Walter" way. His longing for an "aura" even as it seems to be dissolving before his very eyes is so likable and so tragic that you just want to give the guy a hug.
Certainly his life's tragedy leans over the edge of the reader's shoulder and one really can't separate the ideas in these essays from the idea of Walter Benjamin: a guy who's been dealt none of the right cards, can't figure himself to be an employee, who just wants to be left alone to read great books, write great essays, and to lead the life of an homme de lettres, and of course, the final tragedy of his bad luck, when he's off by a single day. I can relate to his frustrations, as well as to the seeming impossibility of leading the life he wanted.
Poor, poor Benjamin.
Certainly his life's tragedy leans over the edge of the reader's shoulder and one really can't separate the ideas in these essays from the idea of Walter Benjamin: a guy who's been dealt none of the right cards, can't figure himself to be an employee, who just wants to be left alone to read great books, write great essays, and to lead the life of an homme de lettres, and of course, the final tragedy of his bad luck, when he's off by a single day. I can relate to his frustrations, as well as to the seeming impossibility of leading the life he wanted.
Poor, poor Benjamin.
beepbeepbooks's review
5.0
Mystical marvelous magic... Benjamin brings spirit back to the dusty tomes of literary theory and history. His work on Kafka is brilliant at the same time it's enigmatic, a fact Kafka himself would have been delighted about. Some of the sharpest insights on film, historical materialism and being a keeper of libraries. Long live the old, the dusty, the useless. Long live Benjamin
fuhhlarzablur's review against another edition
5.0
I've taken a long time to get around to reading this collection in full, having read a couple of the pieces (Work of Art, Philosophy of History) some years ago and snippets of others (Unpacking My Library, Kafka) more recently. Still others (The Storyteller, Proust) had long been on my list of subjects to investigate, thus more or less justifying a full read of the collection. I knew I enjoyed Benjamin's style, but what I didn't expect was that even the pieces on subjects in which I had little prior interest (Epic Theatre, Baudelaire) would turn out to be entirely riveting, and indeed to kindle in me a fierce fascination with those subjects. Throughout the pieces Benjamin moves across dense, even miserable subjects with due solemnity, but also with a humour so light as to make his touch feel weightless. It is evident how much of this effect is owed to Kafka, both from Benjamin's own comments on that author and from the close attention paid to their relationship in Arendt's introduction.
The introduction itself I left until last, undecided as to whether I would read it until the last page of the Theses on the Philosophy of History. It is the first work of Arendt's that I have bothered to read, but once again, a previously absent interest has been kindled, as I find she writes with equal authority and tenderness on the matters of literature, politics, biography, and history relevant to Benjamin's life and work.
The introduction itself I left until last, undecided as to whether I would read it until the last page of the Theses on the Philosophy of History. It is the first work of Arendt's that I have bothered to read, but once again, a previously absent interest has been kindled, as I find she writes with equal authority and tenderness on the matters of literature, politics, biography, and history relevant to Benjamin's life and work.
bearunderthecypresses's review
4.0
"At any rate, nothing was more characteristic of him in the thirties than the little notebooks with black covers which he always carried with him and in which he tirelessly entered in the form of quotations what daily living and reading netted him in the way of "pearls" and "coral." On occasion he read from them aloud, showed them around like items from a choice and precious collection...And this thinking, fed by the present, works with the "thought fragments" it can wrest from the past and gather about itself. Like a pearl diver who descends to the bottom of the sea, not to excavate the bottom and bring it to light but to pry loose the rich and strange..." pgs. 45 and 50.
quickreboot's review
Skipped the essays on Baudelaire and Proust as they were less relevant to my interests. Benjamin is a brilliant thinker.