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mxunsmiley's review
4.0
Fascinating; the most pertinent essay to me, and I think it retains extraordinary relevance today as well, was "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction." The ideas it puts forth about film and generally, on the meaning and purpose of art itself, lent themselves well to other things he said about the masses in his discussion of Baudelaire in "On Some Motifs in Baudelaire." He also got me to rethink Poe's short story "The Man of the Crowd" as he mentions it in that essay as well; there's so much to think about regarding the perception of civilization and subsequent alienation.
It was a great idea to open the collection with his reflections on being a book collector, "Unpacking My Library." It primed the reader for a real struggle, honestly, because Benjamin can be a tad esoteric at times.
I honestly wish he went deeper in his two essays on Kafka because I found them that interesting, and some of the vagueness had me wanting more.
I have never read Leskov, nor had I heard of him until this essay collection, but his essay on storytelling and its decline also got me to think about engagement with the written word, and the value placed on oral tradition and its dissemination.
Poor Proust, though, Benjamin essentially called him a sad strange little man, though not without affection most likely... so now I have to read In Search of Lost Time.
My final verdict is that I have to read more of Benjamin's work. Some of his writing is definitely more accessible in certain passages, while in others I truly have to reach to slightly grasp what he's trying to say, giving reason to reread.
It was a great idea to open the collection with his reflections on being a book collector, "Unpacking My Library." It primed the reader for a real struggle, honestly, because Benjamin can be a tad esoteric at times.
I honestly wish he went deeper in his two essays on Kafka because I found them that interesting, and some of the vagueness had me wanting more.
I have never read Leskov, nor had I heard of him until this essay collection, but his essay on storytelling and its decline also got me to think about engagement with the written word, and the value placed on oral tradition and its dissemination.
Poor Proust, though, Benjamin essentially called him a sad strange little man, though not without affection most likely... so now I have to read In Search of Lost Time.
My final verdict is that I have to read more of Benjamin's work. Some of his writing is definitely more accessible in certain passages, while in others I truly have to reach to slightly grasp what he's trying to say, giving reason to reread.
lizawall's review
5.0
So good! The angel of history faces backwards! One time I stole this book from my friend's bookshelf because I felt I needed to have it. (The only time I ever stole anything.) Then she stole it back from my shelf when I wasn't looking. Now I can afford to buy my own copy! Vague memories (probably mis-remembered) of some of these essays inform my work now. I feel a personal love for Walter Benjamin, like I'd like to give him a hug in heaven.
alanffm's review
5.0
There is nothing like Benjamin. Perhaps one of the most citeable media critics of the 20th century, Benjamin's collection of essays explores the works of great names like Kafka, Proust, and Baudelaire (among many). His essay on the role of art in the age of mechanical reproduction is also a masterpiece. His original thoughts continue to resonate into the 21st century and I strongly believe anyone who studies literature or film is missing out should they choose to not read this classic collection.
cvall96's review
5.0
Brilliant and evergreen, obviously. Only ruined by that vile forward by Leon Wieseltier which goes against all of Benjamin’s principles and philosophies entirely.
“Thus, for contemporary man [sic] the representation of reality by the film is incomparably more significant than that of the painter, since it offers, precisely because of the thoroughgoing permeation of reality with mechanical equipment, an aspect of reality which is free of all equipment. And that is what one is entitled to ask from a work of art.”
“I have made my most memorable purchases on trips, as a transient. Property and possession belong to the tactical sphere. Collectors are people with a tactical instinct; their experience teaches them that when they capture a strange city, the smallest antique shop can be a fortress, the most remote stationery store a key position. How many cities have revealed themselves to me in the marches I undertook in the pursuit of books!”
“To articulate the past does not mean to recognize it ‘the way it really was’ (Ranke). It means to seize hold of a memory as it flashes up at a moment of danger.”
“The true picture of the past flits by. The past can be seized only as an image which flashes up at the instant when it can be recognized and is never seen again.”
“Fascism [and neoliberalism] attempts to organize the newly created proletarian masses without affecting the property structure which the masses strive to eliminate. Fascism sees its salvation in giving these masses not their right, but instead a chance to express themselves.. . . [Fascism] expects war to supply the artistic gratification of a sense perception that has been changed by technology. This is evidently the consummation of ‘l’art pour l’art.’ Mankind’s self-alienation has reached such a degree that it can experience its own destruction as an aesthetic pleasure of the first order. This is the situation of politics which Fascism is rendering aesthetic. Communism responds by politicizing art.”
“Thus, for contemporary man [sic] the representation of reality by the film is incomparably more significant than that of the painter, since it offers, precisely because of the thoroughgoing permeation of reality with mechanical equipment, an aspect of reality which is free of all equipment. And that is what one is entitled to ask from a work of art.”
“I have made my most memorable purchases on trips, as a transient. Property and possession belong to the tactical sphere. Collectors are people with a tactical instinct; their experience teaches them that when they capture a strange city, the smallest antique shop can be a fortress, the most remote stationery store a key position. How many cities have revealed themselves to me in the marches I undertook in the pursuit of books!”
“To articulate the past does not mean to recognize it ‘the way it really was’ (Ranke). It means to seize hold of a memory as it flashes up at a moment of danger.”
“The true picture of the past flits by. The past can be seized only as an image which flashes up at the instant when it can be recognized and is never seen again.”
“Fascism [and neoliberalism] attempts to organize the newly created proletarian masses without affecting the property structure which the masses strive to eliminate. Fascism sees its salvation in giving these masses not their right, but instead a chance to express themselves.. . . [Fascism] expects war to supply the artistic gratification of a sense perception that has been changed by technology. This is evidently the consummation of ‘l’art pour l’art.’ Mankind’s self-alienation has reached such a degree that it can experience its own destruction as an aesthetic pleasure of the first order. This is the situation of politics which Fascism is rendering aesthetic. Communism responds by politicizing art.”
brice_mo's review
4.0
Did not appreciate all of these essays due to my lack of cultural knowledge, but I still love "The Task of the Translator" and regularly think about it in my writing and teaching.
benthewriter's review against another edition
challenging
informative
4.0
This dude was a legit intellectual with a bunch of interesting takes. I also appreciate the way he sizes the sections of his essays.
a_novel_femme's review
5.0
the two most widely read pieces from this collection are probably "the work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction" and "theses on the philosophy of history," both of which are, in my opinion, absolutely necessary works to scrutinize for any student of cultural studies, be it in the guise of film, literature, history, and whathaveyou.
benjamins prose is lean; as with many theorists, there are parts that will leave you scratching your head and reading over and over again to make sense of his crazy, confusing symbolisms. yet what never falters is his precise parsing out, at least in those two essays, of how modernity affects the production of a cultural memory and/or forgetting, and specifically how memories are made into histories on a collective, state level.
this is not a fun read, per se. it is not a book youll want to read on a lazy sunday afternoon after eating brunch with a group of friends and cackling about the stupidity that went down on the dancefloor the night before (and those brunches are always the most fun!). but it is a book to be read when writing papers, analyzing films, or simply thinking big thoughts.
benjamins prose is lean; as with many theorists, there are parts that will leave you scratching your head and reading over and over again to make sense of his crazy, confusing symbolisms. yet what never falters is his precise parsing out, at least in those two essays, of how modernity affects the production of a cultural memory and/or forgetting, and specifically how memories are made into histories on a collective, state level.
this is not a fun read, per se. it is not a book youll want to read on a lazy sunday afternoon after eating brunch with a group of friends and cackling about the stupidity that went down on the dancefloor the night before (and those brunches are always the most fun!). but it is a book to be read when writing papers, analyzing films, or simply thinking big thoughts.
zurvanite's review
The Kafka essays + the last two essays in particular were very good.
aria_izikdzurko's review
4.0
The first chapters I felt I missed the value because I haven’t read much of Baudelaire or Proust, but the last chapters on the modern transformation of art were quite interesting.