Current Reading - Books best thread
I'm not so sure on Benjamin. I had a spell at Goldsmiths college where he was required reading. The guy teaching the course was in love with Benjamin, but even he conceded that he was a writher had the power to divide in terms of those who believed him to be THE greatest thinker ever and those who thought it was random, esoteric clap-trap (in a sense Benjamin is a bit like Mark E. Smith and the Fall)
I remember being confronted by the Arcades Project in the college library and failing completely to see it's merit... or even to understand it. That said I'm a fan of Benjamin's quote about Klee's Angelus Novus - and having since worked in Local Government I can concur that his view of progress is incredibly spot-on
I guess, that I'm a bit conflicted here and maybe one day I'll return to look at Benjamin - curious to know what other people's takes on him are though.
MsD wrote: My favourite non-fiction book (apart from the art books) in the last year has been the Arcades Project by Walter Benjamin, a wonderful book you can dip into at random as if browsing a website. Susan Buck-Morss's book on Benjamin, The Dialectics of Seeing, makes a good companion. I wish I'd found the Arcades years ago.
I remember being confronted by the Arcades Project in the college library and failing completely to see it's merit... or even to understand it. That said I'm a fan of Benjamin's quote about Klee's Angelus Novus - and having since worked in Local Government I can concur that his view of progress is incredibly spot-on
I guess, that I'm a bit conflicted here and maybe one day I'll return to look at Benjamin - curious to know what other people's takes on him are though.
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