Benjamin reading in the Bibliothèque Nationale,
Paris 1937
Narration
"And the non-reading of books, you will object,
should be characteristic of collectors? This is news
to me, you may say. It is not news at all. Experts will
bear me out when I say that it is the oldest thing in
the world. Suffice it to quote the answer which Anatole
France gave to a philistine who admired his library
and then finished with the standard question, ‘And
you have read all these books, Monsieur France?’
‘Not one-tenth of them. I don’t suppose
you use your Sèvres china every day?’"
(P.488)
Narration
"One may start from the fact that the true collector
detaches the object from its functional relations."
Author's Note
Eric Desmazières, "Wunderkammer II"
(1998). Etching and aquatint. Private Collection, New
York. This work, like the engravings of Piranesi is a
highly informed fantasy. It evokes the many seventeenth-century
engravings of collections, especially of naturalia, like
those of Cospi, Imperato and Worm. And like Piranesi’s
it is an ideal: composed of all the things that ought
to be have been present if they could not, at the time,
have all been present.
Narration
It must be kept in mind that, for the collector, the
world is present, and indeed ordered, in each of his
objects. We need only recall what importance a particular
collector attaches not only to his object but also to
its entire past, whether this concerns the origin and
objective characteristics of the thing or the details
of its ostensibly external history: previous owners,
price of purchase, current value, and so on. All of
these—the ‘objective’ data together
with the other—come together, for the true collector,
in every single one of his possessions, to form a whole
magic encyclopedia, a world order whose outline is the
fate of his object. ("The Collector" [H2,7]
[H2a,1])
Narration
greyscaled Paul
"Here, therefore, within this circumscribed field,
we can understand how great physiognomists (and collectors
are physiognomists of the world of things) become interpreters
of fate. It suffices to observe just one collector as
he handles the items in his showcase. No sooner does he
hold them in his hand than he appears inspired by them
and seems to look through them into their distance, like
an augur." ("The Collector", [H2,7] [H2a,1])
a page of Benjamin’s writing Narration
"One thing should be noted: the phenomenon of collecting
loses its meaning as it loses its personal owner. Even
though public collections may be less objectionable
socially and more useful academically than private collections,
the objects get their due only in the latter. I do know
that time is running out for the type that I am discussing
here and have been representing before you a bit ex
officio. But, as Hegel put it, only when it is dark
does the owl of Minerva begin its flight. Only in extinction
is the collector comprehended." (p.491-2)
Author's Note
I haven’t seen Paul at his old location for the
past few months. . .
Dani Karavan’s memorial for Walter Benjamin outside
the cemetery at Port Bou where Benjamin lies buried in
an unmarked, pauper’s, grave. The music used in
this movie is a late nineteenth-century travesty of the
oldest Catholic church dedication song. "Urs beata
Jerusalem" has become "Das neue Jerusalem",
with its images of David playing the harp and Benjamin
the flute, of Isaac dancing with Rebecca and Jacob with
Rachel, of coffee, chocolate and tobacco being served,
and wine flowing like the Danube.
Multi-Media Essay Notes To help bridge the space between art and scholarship
each author has put together a series of notes to
his and her film.
These include the voiced-over words of Benjamin
(Narration) with appropriate
citation, other text where appropriate, and a discussion of the author's
intent (Author's Note).
H.
The Collector Notes
The flea market at Avenue A between 11th and 12th Streets,
on a Sunday morning in March
Narration
"Broken down matter" Arcades Project, The
Collector [H,6].
Author's Note
Benjamin wrote about the phenomenon of collecting while
being a collector himself. What makes these observations
so rich is the nuance that, drawing on his knowledge of
the history of collecting, he is able to tease out.
Narration
"Allegories are in the realm of thoughts, what
ruins are in the realm of things." "The Origins
of German Tragic Drama", pt. II [sec. 6]
Author's Note
"The Origins of German Tragic Drama" is really
an intellectual history of seventeenth-century Europe,
as framed by the issues that matter most for an understanding
of this particularly German dramatic genre. If not based
on deep reading, this work nevertheless remains one of
the seminal studies of the time and place. In it, Benjamin
delves into the "mood" of the times and, in
particular, the combination of encyclopedic erudition,
collecting and taste for allegory. His view that a theological
and psychological principle—a created world plagued
by Original Sin manifested in the melancholy of those
who know their fate but cannot alter it in the slightest—was
manifested in an intellectual taste for collecting things
which was, in turn, reflected in the profusion of allegory
in the arts, remains compelling if always open to refutation.
Narrartion
"I am unpacking my library. . . I must ask you
to join me in the disorder of crates that have been
wrenched open, the air saturated with the dust of wood,
the floor covered with torn paper, to join me among
piles of volumes that are seeing daylight again after
two years of darkness, so that you may be ready to share
with me a bit of the mood—it is certainly not
an elegaic mood but, rather, one of anticipation—which
these books arouse in a genuine collector. For such
a man is speaking to you. . . what I am really concerned
with is giving you some insight into the relationship
of a book collector to his possessions, into collecting
rather than a collector." [p.486]
Author's
Note
1:38 I met Paul at the Flea Market one Sunday. I walked
around to the different tables filled with flotsam and
jetsam (read: "junk") and talked with the vendors.
I asked them about their things; where they came from;
what, if anything they thought about the objects, etc.
I had in mind some of Benjamin’s answers to these
questions. Paul immediately responded constructively,
full of thoughts and ideas. We arranged to meet a few
days later at what was then his regular location, on the
east side of Avenue A between 7th and 6th Streets in the
East Village.
Photographs are of Benjamin as a child.
Narration
"For childhood is the divining rod of melancholy"
("Marseilles")
"The collector’s passion is a divining rod
that guides him to new sources....." ("Eduard
Fuchs")
this photograph of Franz Kafka as a child was owned by
Benjamin
Narration
"Each stone he finds, each flower he picks, and
each butterfly he catches is already the start of a
collection, and every single thing he owns makes up
one great collection. In him this passion shows its
true face, the stern Indian expression that lingers
on, but with a dimmed and manic glow, in antiquarians,
researchers, bibliomaniacs." ("Untidy Child",
"One-Way Street")
Author's Note
Dürer’s "Melancolia I"
This engraving and its theme were of central importance
to Aby Warburg’s "Pagan-Antique Prophecy in
Words and Images in the Age of Luther" [1920], a
work Benjamin cites at crucial locations towards the end
of The Origins of German Tragic Drama, but also to other,
closer members of the Warburg Circle. Fritz Saxl and Erwin
Panofsky published their study of Melancolia I as the
second of the Warburg Library Studies (1923) and this
work, too, was cited with passion by Benjamin (he urged
his friend Scholem, at the time librarian of The Hebrew
University of Jerusalem, to buy it as soon as possible).
Benjamin in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris 1937
Narration
"The purchasing done by a book collector has very
little in common with that done in a bookshop. . . I
have made my most memorable purchases on trips, as a
transient." (p.488)
The flea market at Avenue A between 11th and 12th Streets,
on a Sunday morning in March
