Has anyone out there encountered this work? I am currently reading it for school. Exasperating, confusing, sprawling, labyrinthine, topical, tenuous, and oh so rewarding ....
i've got it and i've cracked it open a couple of times. not ready for it yet, i decided, so it sits on my shelf.
doesn't seem like something to read cover-to-cover, though, does it? it's rewrites/revisions of the same material repeated a few times. i gathered that studying it might be at least as much about understanding the process of writing it and trying to determine what benjamin was after as it would be reading it for content.
curious what your instructor(s)' take on it might be?
Well, the work is not a complete work (Benjamin abandoned it shortly before his suicide at Port Bou). It also reads as a type of hypertextual thing, replete with cross references and linkages (think of Cortazar's Hopscotch). The work is surprsingly architectural in that it delves into bits of history, theory, and criticism (the work cites Boullee, Perret, Le Duc, Quatremere de Quincy), and verges on being a eulogy for the arcades, as they are an architectural victim of the Hausmann program.
As for the class, it is offered in conjunction with the Comparative Literature and German departments at Yale. It is taught by a fellow named Henry Sussman, who I think is from SUNY-Buffalo. The class is entitled Urban Phantasmagorias: Berlin, Paris, Vienna, and we perform close readings of text in order to investigate these cities at the mid-19th c., as well as during the fin de siecle. The other books we study along with The Arcades Project are Louis Aragons Paysan de PAris. Zola's The Ladies' Paradise, as well as Musil's The Man Without Qualities. We are graded on a juried visual project at the end of the semester.
Rewarding? Well, I think so. Think of the class as a more literature-rooted Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping. The class tackles issues of burgeoning consumerism and its intersection with the built environment, viewed through the lens of these works. Also, we are encouraged to read Arcades as a type of filmic montage.
I vaguely recall some of the text...
'..infinite web of difference...' and the like.
Makes sense as a commentary on consumerism - I think I recall him writing exstensively about the 'thing' as a representation of the true (ultimate, impossible) 'thing'.
Of course I could be mistaking Benjamin for some other thing I've read (my memory sucks for specifics).
For some reason I always connect Benjamin with 'Nolly' maps (sp?).
...all in good fun? Whatever floats your boat.
Sep 21, 05 4:00 pm ·
·
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.
The Arcades Project, by Walter Benjamin
Has anyone out there encountered this work? I am currently reading it for school. Exasperating, confusing, sprawling, labyrinthine, topical, tenuous, and oh so rewarding ....
why is it rewarding?
i've got it and i've cracked it open a couple of times. not ready for it yet, i decided, so it sits on my shelf.
doesn't seem like something to read cover-to-cover, though, does it? it's rewrites/revisions of the same material repeated a few times. i gathered that studying it might be at least as much about understanding the process of writing it and trying to determine what benjamin was after as it would be reading it for content.
curious what your instructor(s)' take on it might be?
Well, the work is not a complete work (Benjamin abandoned it shortly before his suicide at Port Bou). It also reads as a type of hypertextual thing, replete with cross references and linkages (think of Cortazar's Hopscotch). The work is surprsingly architectural in that it delves into bits of history, theory, and criticism (the work cites Boullee, Perret, Le Duc, Quatremere de Quincy), and verges on being a eulogy for the arcades, as they are an architectural victim of the Hausmann program.
As for the class, it is offered in conjunction with the Comparative Literature and German departments at Yale. It is taught by a fellow named Henry Sussman, who I think is from SUNY-Buffalo. The class is entitled Urban Phantasmagorias: Berlin, Paris, Vienna, and we perform close readings of text in order to investigate these cities at the mid-19th c., as well as during the fin de siecle. The other books we study along with The Arcades Project are Louis Aragons Paysan de PAris. Zola's The Ladies' Paradise, as well as Musil's The Man Without Qualities. We are graded on a juried visual project at the end of the semester.
Rewarding? Well, I think so. Think of the class as a more literature-rooted Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping. The class tackles issues of burgeoning consumerism and its intersection with the built environment, viewed through the lens of these works. Also, we are encouraged to read Arcades as a type of filmic montage.
It's all in good fun.
I vaguely recall some of the text...
'..infinite web of difference...' and the like.
Makes sense as a commentary on consumerism - I think I recall him writing exstensively about the 'thing' as a representation of the true (ultimate, impossible) 'thing'.
Of course I could be mistaking Benjamin for some other thing I've read (my memory sucks for specifics).
For some reason I always connect Benjamin with 'Nolly' maps (sp?).
...all in good fun? Whatever floats your boat.
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.