Continuing on Benjamin's "Critique of Violence" (1921). Mark, Wes, and Seth keep trying to figure out this difficult essay. Is Benjamin really advocating a workers' revolution to end the state, or just reflecting on a hypothetical to explore the limits of the concept of violence? According to Judith Butler's interpretation of the essay, the takeaway is the alternative to Continue Reading …
Ep. 237: Walter Benjamin Analyzes Violence (Part One)
On Benjamin's "Critique of Violence" (1921). What is violence? Walter Benjamin (pronounced "Ben-Ya-Meen") breaks down the phenomenon into four types and then shows why these are not really distinct after all. First, any state is always established, he says, through at least some violent acts, so this is law-making violence. Not only does one group subdue another, but then Continue Reading …
Ep. 237: Walter Benjamin Analyzes Violence (Citizen Edition)
On Benjamin's "Critique of Violence" (1921). What is violence? Walter Benjamin (pronounced "Ben-Ya-Meen") breaks down the phenomenon into four types and then shows why these are not really distinct after all. First, any state is always established, he says, through at least some violent acts, so this is law-making violence. Not only does one group subdue another, but then Continue Reading …
Ep. 189: Authorial Intent (Barthes, Foucault, Beardsley, et al) (Part One)
On four essays about how to interpret artworks: “The Intentional Fallacy” by W. K. Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley (1946), "The Death of the Author" by Roland Barthes (1967), "What Is an Author?" by Michel Foucault (1969), and “Against Theory” by Steven Knapp and Walter Benn Michaels (1982). When you're trying to figure out what, say, a poem means, isn't the best way to do that Continue Reading …
Ep. 189: Authorial Intent (Barthes, Foucault, Beardsley, et al) (Citizen Edition)
On four essays about how to interpret artworks: “The Intentional Fallacy” by W. K. Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley (1946), "The Death of the Author" by Roland Barthes (1967), "What Is an Author?" by Michel Foucault (1969), and “Against Theory” by Steven Knapp and Walter Benn Michaels (1982). When you're trying to figure out what, say, a poem means, isn't the best way to do that Continue Reading …
Episode 136: Adorno on the Culture Industry
On Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer's "The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception" from Dialectic of Enlightenment (1944), plus Adorno's essay "Culture Industry Reconsidered" (1963). How does the entertainment industry affect us? Adorno and Horkheimer (who co-authored the book, but it looks like Adorno mainly wrote the essay we read) are founding figures of the Continue Reading …
Ep. 136: Adorno on the Culture Industry (Citizen Edition)
On Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer's "The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception" from Dialectic of Enlightenment (1944), plus Adorno's essay "Culture Industry Reconsidered" (1963). How does the entertainment industry affect us? Adorno and Horkheimer (who co-authored the book, but it looks like Adorno mainly wrote the essay we read) are founding figures of the Continue Reading …