Walter Benjamin (Critical Lives)

leondumoulin.nl: Walter Benjamin: A Critical Life (): Howard Eiland, Michael W. Jennings: Books.
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This excellent biography by Howard Eiland and Michael W.

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Jennings provides a contour of Benjamin's contradictions, resisting the temptation to simplify or polemicize, while setting his critical philosophy within the context of his sad, heroic life. Apropos of his final "Theses on the Philosophy of History," the authors remark, "For Walter Benjamin, history remained from first to last a Trauerspiel.

Mar 10, J. Dionysius Nicolello rated it it was amazing. Walter Benjamin is a key figure in terms of modern critical-educational inquiry. His name is pronounced Ben-a-mean, like amphetamine, my old German roommate informed me. Actually it was my friend's roommate. I was just there a lot so etc.

Goethe, of course, is Go-Tay. In layout, scope, and particularly linguistics, the big book is brilliant. I mean, just about everything is considered brilliant at one point or another, including my decision to confiscate a roll of toilet paper from the s Walter Benjamin is a key figure in terms of modern critical-educational inquiry. I mean, just about everything is considered brilliant at one point or another, including my decision to confiscate a roll of toilet paper from the supermarket earlier today.

I have long found Benjamin over-rated.


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I found him by accident in the San Francisco State University library and we spent the week together. Apparently he was one of Richard Brautigan's last living drinky-pals.


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Two liters of vodka per day kind of gig. I found Benjamin's life far less illuminating than the linguistic scope, cadence, architecture of the author s. A living writer entitled William Gass has made a career out of this.

David Ferris reviews Walter Benjamin: A Critical Life – Critical Inquiry

If you are curious about the actual biography, of course, it's pretty simple: For a lover of books, or for a relative you want to just shut the fuck up for a week or two. Mar 10, Geoff marked it as to-read Shelves: Mar 07, Hadrian marked it as read-parts-of. To return to once I've read more of Benjamin, and can therefore appreciate the author's analysis. Aug 22, Richard rated it really liked it Recommends it for: This is a scholar's book, detailed and thorough. It reveals rather more of Benjamin's life than he might have wished, but the mores of the moment, the haute bourgeois class within which he moved, and the peculiar stresses of the between-the-wars period go am long way toward explaining his behavior.

The book does give a very good sense of the life of a Jewish litterateur and emigre, one marginalized first of all by disposition and, second, by the lack of a settled position. Living hand-to-mouth, da This is a scholar's book, detailed and thorough. While much of this work is taken up with explication of WB's ideas, for me, it's major impact will be to send me back to his writings and his correspondence, especially that with Scholem and Adorno.

While these two and others were drawn to WB's genius, they both seemed to want to make him over into disciples, something unlikely in such an independent thinker. The depressing effect of the rise of Nazism and the uprooting of an entire intellectual class arises as one aspect of this biography as does the tie between Benjamin and his major subject, Baudelaire, both peripatetic outsiders in a unappreciative capitalist society. I certainly did like the book, but it fit into a special niche for me. I have biographies of Karl Kraus and Brecht here to read along with a second book on Weimar and its philosophical cast.

If I have a reservation the authors go out of their way to emphasize WB's eminence in the European intellectual life of his time, and, while they were thrown together early in their student days, WB's distaste for Heidegger never gets any development. One might think that the latter's association with Nazism a sufficient cause, but I do not agree; in the world of ideas, argument is essential.

Mar 20, Steven Hendrix rated it it was amazing. One of the best non-fiction books I've ever read. Incredible thinker to whom we owe much regarding the way we view social and historical movement, how we understand human experience through the lens of art and criticism, and how the past informs the present and vice versa. This book also paints a vivid and terrifying picture of what it meant to be a German Jew during the rise of the third reich and in exile as the walls closed in throughout Europe.

Benjamin is without doubt one of the most impor One of the best non-fiction books I've ever read.

Walter Benjamin: A Critical Life

Benjamin is without doubt one of the most important intellectuals of both the early 20th century and of all time. Mar 14, Gustavo Racy rated it really liked it. This is a precious, delicate and theoretical account of one of 20th century's most appraised cultural critique and philosopher. In this sense, it is an important piece of work, evidentely done with tremendous research effort, care, and sensibility. It is a book for those interested in the work of Benjamin himself, whether an amateur or a professional, and for those interested in the intellectual life of the Weimar Republic.

Michael Jennings on Walter Benjamin

May 22, Karen rated it it was amazing. The most beautiful and poetic work of a lifetime about the greatest thinker of the 20th century. May 11, Drenda rated it really liked it. See my review of Illuminations. Nov 23, Charles rated it it was amazing Shelves: Best critical biography I have read in a long, long time. Nov 23, Miguel marked it as to-read. Don Olson rated it it was amazing Jun 11, Jonnyh rated it really liked it Jul 17, Niki Palmen rated it it was amazing Dec 03, Sketches of Walter Benjamin.

Early on in the book, the authors — Howard Eiland and Michael W. However, they further remark: Constructing an appropriate biography for such an elusive character is obviously a great challenge. A certain duality is present in his thoughts and actions in this regard; for example, Benjamin opposed political Zionism, yet the prominent Zionist Gersholm Schloen remained one of his closest friends throughout his life Benjamin even gave a parting gift to his friend, wishing him well, as Scholen emigrated to Palestine in the s.

As a piece of text, the biography is very well written, featuring sparse, elegant prose — a lot is said, yet a lot is left to the imagination — and it is this characteristic that ultimately makes Walter Benjamin: A Critical Life such a great read. The reader is left with a real understanding of what makes Benjamin such a brilliantly enduring figure in the realm of European thought — yet the man himself remains elusive and enigmatic, as he was in life, even to his closest friends.

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