Analogy of the flooring in A Block
- Benjamin as a seer – superstitious term (can he see into the future?)
- Traces of the past in objects of the present
- ***Infinite significance
- Any moment or object of historical significance
- ***Aphorisms or Maxims as an example of Benjamin’s later work (numbered paragraphs) as speculations or theories on history
Aphorism: a pithy observation which contains a general truth or a concise statement of a scientific principle, typically by a classical author.
Maxim: a short, pithy statement expressing a general truth or rule of conduct.
- ***Thesis on a philosophy of history
- Growing Benjamin archive
- Oppositional dialectical thinking and writing
- Adopted many form as a means to suit his topic and dialog within the text
Nietche and Kafka - Interest in fragments and fragmentation
- Citation of and from the past that culs seamlessly in alongside one another in a book format – without intervention from its author – relation to The Arcades Product (mosaic of ideas)
- Little attempt by Benjamin to give you an answer but to instead make you think
- What is history?
***Koan –
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a paradoxical anecdote or riddle without a solution, used in Zen Buddhism to demonstrate the inadequacy of logical reasoning and provoke enlightenment.
- History in relation to technology
- Issue of progress (positive or negative)
- History and Modernity as modern ideas that assumes that it is going somewhere, and somewhere better. Benjamin does not make this idea for granted, making these issues dominant themes in his work
- The end of history as a way to understand post-modern(ism) life post modernity
- Being modern means living historically
- Mordernity, production and process as products of history
- Promises of Communism (Utopian Society) and Fascism (1000 year Reich in the 3rd Reich)
- Jewish beliefs greatly reflected in Benjamin’s work – work encompasses many elements which become bound in context within his work
- ”Germany slept walked its way into Fascism” by politicians who would trick you with ‘accustomed’ thinking
- Monad (definition below) – see IX in printout
(in the philosophy of Leibniz) an indivisible and hence ultimately simple entity, such as an atom or a person.
Annotated Sheet (below)
Scans:
