Walter Benjamin
May 8, 2026 · 58 min · 18 segments
Peter E. Gordon Walter Benjamin: The Pearl Diver. https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300289459/walter-benjamin/
May 8, 2026 · 58 min · 18 segments
Peter E. Gordon Walter Benjamin: The Pearl Diver. https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300289459/walter-benjamin/
And how was, how was that? I'm, I'm imagining that the advantage of doing a biography would be maybe somebody I haven't read all of their things or don't know them too well, and so this will give me a chance to, to read everything and make my own opinions.
Well, I should say that I've operated in the general field of Frankfurt School critical theory for some time now, though I've written a great deal more about Theodor Adorno.
My, my own manner of thinking is perhaps more rationalist than his, and he's a thinker who's highly inclined toward metaphor, which some-- and those metaphors sometimes trip me up a little bit.
They, they, they, they lead me into ways of thinking that aren't perhaps natural for me.
But I found writing about him really of interest, in part because as a biog- as a bi-biography, I found myself stretching my skills with a genre that isn't typical for me.
I mean, B-Benjamin, because he is such a literary and metaphorical writer, encourages us when we're reading him to think in more literary terms.
And although I don't think I naturally incline toward those skills, it was a real joy for me to stretch myself a bit and to see if I could write in a way that honored, in some respects, his own literary sensitivities, his own gift for metaphor, and his own gift for literary experimentation.
So one of the things I permitted myself to do in this book was think in a more literary and perhaps nonlinear fashion.
The book is composed with some, some rather strange gestures that play with chronology here and there, in part because I wanted to honor Benjamin's own conflicted attitude about linear temporality.
Inhabiting another thinker's mind completely may not be entirely suitable for someone whose main interest is philosophical analysis and the rational assessment of ideas.
And how was, how was that? I'm, I'm imagining that the advantage of doing a biography would be maybe somebody I haven't read all of their things or don't know them too well, and so this will give me a chance to, to read everything and make my own opinions.
Well, I should say that I've operated in the general field of Frankfurt School critical theory for some time now, though I've written a great deal more about Theodor Adorno.
My, my own manner of thinking is perhaps more rationalist than his, and he's a thinker who's highly inclined toward metaphor, which some-- and those metaphors sometimes trip me up a little bit.
They, they, they, they lead me into ways of thinking that aren't perhaps natural for me.
But I found writing about him really of interest, in part because as a biog- as a bi-biography, I found myself stretching my skills with a genre that isn't typical for me.
I mean, B-Benjamin, because he is such a literary and metaphorical writer, encourages us when we're reading him to think in more literary terms.
And although I don't think I naturally incline toward those skills, it was a real joy for me to stretch myself a bit and to see if I could write in a way that honored, in some respects, his own literary sensitivities, his own gift for metaphor, and his own gift for literary experimentation.
So one of the things I permitted myself to do in this book was think in a more literary and perhaps nonlinear fashion.
The book is composed with some, some rather strange gestures that play with chronology here and there, in part because I wanted to honor Benjamin's own conflicted attitude about linear temporality.
Inhabiting another thinker's mind completely may not be entirely suitable for someone whose main interest is philosophical analysis and the rational assessment of ideas.
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