Thought and contemplation

"Admittedly this access to a wider range of material in English will complicate the received picture of Benjamin even as it offers greater scope to track the development of his thought and the concepts through which it was expressed."1

Undoubtedly, Benjamin was a multifaceted thinker; a complex thinker compiled of constellations and intertexts. To me, I find it hard to understand his overall trajectory, however upon seeming research it is evident that his major works of interest surround "History, modernity, the rise of mass culture in an interrelation of art and technology"2. His thoughts were provoked by the crisis of traditions and the social and technological changes which saw an evident change in the structure of experience.  To attempt to blog a mere reflection of his intellectual writings poses as threatening because it is obvious that such a kaleidoscope of knowledges and expansive thinking cannot be briefly summed up in to a neat and tidy package. Instead, I will try my hand at providing a dysfunctional synopsis of some of his more enthusiastic and well-known knowledges.

Benjamin's complexity of thought is reflected in writer's who have come after him; those who attempt to piece together the difficulty found in his scribbles, collaborative writings. His writing encompasses that in which he seeks; levels and layers of meaning and how and why they come about. It has been suggested that his fragmented writing and collaborations of unfinished bundles in effect create a style of presentation which host a pause of breath to indicate a new level of meaning.  Reading Benjamin's writing requires a certain level of engagement , more appropriately, a "process of contemplation". By such method of madness(?) "contemplation is here understood as a process in which the different levels of meaning that can be attached to the original object are recognized and experienced"1. This provides the gateway to  to the ways in which objects, subjects have been made significant to us and how they have been made. This line of enquiry opens the forum to Benjamin's interests; what such layers mean.

Benjamin's metaphoric association of the mosaic to contemplation again is confusing, baffling but yet a beautiful remnant of what he attempts for others to grasp. He looks at the commonalities between the artisitic medium that is the medium and the written mosaic, and then asks how an understanding is to be conveyed1. According to Benjamin, the material in which the artistic mosaic uses to convey its meanings makes interpretation much simpler. Where, with the process of thought and it's relation to writing, it is difficult as there is no clear and defined path between the pieces of the written mosaic and the mind. This to me, is a very truthful response. It is difficult to create a clear line of enquiry that will suit the tastes of all readers. How does one gauge a writing style that will suit the tastes, understandings and knowledges of all viewers?

Anyhow, my thought and contemplation has led me on to Benjamin's idea's surrounding cultural and historical artifacts and the ways in which they are bound to promote an explanation for "political and human catastrophes of the interwar period"3. I have began to think deeply about how objects play a role in representation. Motifs of power, symbols of struggle, origins of family. I am starting to think this has now led me on to the path of understanding the connective path between Benjamin's critiques and writings surrounding Marx. The cultural representations and the signifying practices which Benjamin spoke of, have opened up a new level of understanding to delve into. Evidently, Benjamin's work is timeless. He was writing before his time, whilst still establishing works that were relevant to the current standings of the period in which he lived.

"In classically ‘modern’ terms, the present is defined as a time of crisis and transition, and philosophical experience (truth) is associated with the glimpse within the present, via the past, of a utopian political future that would bring history to an end. More immediately, the crisis is given political meaning by two possible resolutions: the one destructive; the other constructive/ emancipatory—fascism and communism, respectively"3.

1. Ferris, David S. (3004) "Introduction: Reading Benjamin" in David, S Ferris (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Walter Benjamin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.1-17.
2. The European Graduate School, viewed * August 9, 2011,<http://www.egs.edu/library/walter-benjamin/biography/>
3.McCole, John J. 1993, Walter benjamin and the antinomies of tradition, Cornell University Press, New York.