Benjamin Franklin

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN:
He was a German-Jewish writer. In the Introduction we are told about the childhood of Benjamin Franklin which set the background to look at his ideas and to understand the reason of his suicide. He belonged to a wealthy Jewish family but was unable to settle in his life as he was “wholly incapable of changing his life’s conditions even when they were about to crush him” (page 7). There was misfortune which enveloped his life and it even hit him when he got a chance to open his career as a writer. According to Benjamin the greatest goal he set for himself was to be “regarded as the foremost critic of German literature,” he further adds that “ the trouble is that for more than fifty years literary criticism in Germany has not been considered a serious genre. To create a place in criticism for oneself means to re-create it as a genre” (pages 23-24).

He was aware that he would never be able to make a living with his pen, according to Benjamin, “there are places in which I can earn a minimum and places in which I can live on a minimum, but there is no place where I can do both” (page 25). He was never able to do both in his lifetime.

Responses to questions raised in the summary of the reading:
Question: Considering the inherent problems of reading a translation, are we interpreting Benjamin's ideas accurately? A different translation of the same essay titles the essay Art Reproduction.

According to Benjamin, a piece of reading which is reproduced again and again and is not read in the context in which it was reproduced loses its authenticity so for a translation this would be one step less than reading the original article which was written thousands of years ago. In the translation, the translator cannot imagine the mind set in which the writer wrote his article and hence cannot translate it accurately no matter how much precision is taken in translating it.

Question: In The Public and its Problems, John Dewey describes the neccesary development of symbol systems that allow a community to connected through elevated communication. Do Film and photography introduce a whole new symbol system?

They introduce a whole new symbol system but not one of elevated communication but according to Benjamin the “quality is always depreciated.” The work of art is removed from its tradition and history when it is reproduced hence it is no longer authentic.

Question: Isn't social networking online an experience of establishing relationships without sensory input?

Social networking is an online experience of establishing relationships and it allows people living in different countries of the world to communicate with each other. It has its advantage of diminishing the physical distance between people but it’s difficult to see what Benjamin might have thought about online relationships. Considering his opinion on other aspects it seems that Benjamin wouldn’t have considered online relationships authentic but then people are physically present on both ends generally when they are networking so he might have thought of it as an authentic experience.

Question: Youtube and blogging now allow everyone to perform and write for their own audience. It is even easier to be a subject but do we now have more performers than audience members?

Now anyone who wishes to perform can do so easily with Youtube and blogging but we are all aware that quality is not always maintained in these performances and there are more performers than audience members and are the values of audience members also changed and they judge the quality of things in a different way altogether.

Question: Is a further development in film the use of brain imaging to see how those impulses look in space and time with cameras that can see brain activity?

Only if the public is interested in seeing brain activity will this development take place. Since the purpose of films is now to appeal to the public so they are made with this point of view and the goal is to capture the imagination of the man. Is this what we want the camera to capture?