Philosophy and beyond Philosophy in Walter Benjamins One-Way Street - Essay Example

Philosophy and beyond Philosophy in Walter Benjamin’s “One-Way Street” EXCERPT “The power of a country road is different when one is walking along it from when one is flying over it by airplane. In the same way, the power of a text is different when it is read from when it is copied out. The airplane passenger sees only how the road pushes through the landscape, how it unfolds according to the same laws as the terrain surrounding it. Only he who walks the road on foot learns of the power it commands, and of how, from the very scenery that for the flier is only unfurled plain, it calls forth distances, belvederes, clearings, prospects at each of its turns like a commander deploying soldiers at a front. Only the copied text thus commands the soul of him who is occupied with it, whereas the mere reader never discovers the new aspects of his inner self that are opened by the text, that road cut through the interior jungle forever closing behind it: because the reader follows the movement of his mind in the free flight of daydreaming, whereas the copier submits it to command. The Chinese practice of copying books was thus an incomparable guarantee of literary culture, and the transcript a key to China's enigmas” (Benjamin 50). THESIS STATEMENT Walter Benjamin, a German philosophist, social critic and a renowned literary critic had been a center of conversation during the early and mid 20th century, owing to his revolutionary works on information literacy. Among his various contributions to modern German and French literature, his literary work in “One-Way Street”, translated by Edmund Jephcott and Kingsley Shorter, had marked the roots of an apparent insurgency in the imminent literatures focusing on the unification of philosophical modernity with reality experiences of life. The above selected excerpt presents a clear illustration to the idealistic fineness and individuality in the literary works of Walter Benjamin. This thesis will thus emphasize contextualizing the excerpt and correspondingly, interpret the philosophical meaning of the passage. CONTEXTUALIZING THE EXCERPT When assessing the individuality features imbibed in the literary works of Walter Benjamin, Osborne and Matthew suitably connote that “This [the narrations in “One-Way Street”] entails what Adorno describes as a “philosophy directed against philosophy”…or what Howard Caygill calls a “philosophizing beyond philosophy” (Osborne and Matthew, “Walter Benjamin”). Precisely, the text in “One-Way Street” can be regarded as a masterpiece in modern informative literature art. In the selected excerpt too, the reader shall find inferences drawn on the basis of real life experiences of a person, illustrating the disputable contexts of capitalism persisting in the modern society of humankind. In a benevolent, but equally strong and unambiguous manner, Benjamin addresses the issues faced by a common man at one end of the polarized capitalistic society in comparison with the elite enjoyed by another man with obvious greater purchasing power at the other end. Taking direct reference from the text, it can be argued that the man who possesses the power to afford an airplane is likely to have petite understanding regarding the hardships that a common man face, who actually works in the background to nurture and cultivate the benefits reaped by the capitalists. The common man is thus represented as a man who needs to travel the road on-foot and certainly faces greater difficulties in reaching his destination. Expanding the thought process of the excerpt, Walter Benjamin depicts a similar polarization tact followed in the field of informative literary writings where it is often witnessed that secondary writers attempt to copy from the work actually conducted by the primary writer. In this excerpt, Benjamin regards the primary writer or the true investigator as the common man who needs to walk down the road and experience all the pain in his way; while the copier, presents the rich possessing affordability to consume airplane service and escape from the odds of the real life. Notably, the entire text in “One-Way Street” dialects allusions from real life experiences of the modern humankind, as represented in the selected excerpt in the forms of a common man and a rich man of the capitalistic society and subsequently in the forms of an investigator and a copier. Without impeding the true essence of the text, Benjamin has been able to illustrate a clear relevance of the excerpt with the text by replicating the alleged Chinese literary culture of copying books. In this excerpt, Benjamin concludes on a critical note against the Chinese literary culture, in respect of “Chinese Curios”, the title of the passage. Explaining his grounds firmly, Benjamin thus argues that even though the Chinese tradition of copying books has enriched the cultural milieu, it has simultaneously played a key to the unsolved mysteries persisting in the Chinese literature. This is similar to the case of the airplane traveler and the pedestrian where the former was able to ensure his success till end but comprising experiences which even though are painful can yield a high level of satisfaction of achievements. Throughout the text, Benjamin has addressed various such traditional factors associated with the capitalism nature of the modern society, aligned it with the philosophical aspirations by conversing the early configurations of French Surrealism and Russian Constructivism (Buck-Morss 77-79). He not only contradicted the preconceived notions of philosophies, fermenting new ideologies, but also aimed at providing superiorly framed idealistic and realistic logical information to the readers, unveiling the subconscious feelings and experiences of the mankind in the modern capitalist society. Undoubtedly, the time period and the changes occurring in the surrounding periphery played a vital role in influencing Benjamin’s narration in the text. Alike features can also be observed in the excerpt selected, where connections with the real life inspired idealism are explained unambiguously. INTERPRETATION OF THE EXCERPT Phraseology, power of the syntax used to impress the readers along with the addressal of recurrent motifs throughout the text are considered as the few major and common attributes playing the key role to shape its contextual base in an attractive and comprehensive manner. One would certainly expect that a text based on such a sophisticated informative literary milieu, similar to that portrayed by Benjamin in “One-Way Street”, will dialect refined and complex words with the intention to develop an intellectual superiority in the passage. Disappointing such expectations, Benjamin’s used phraseology tactics and the syntax construction can be observed to replicate a naive and unambiguous plethora which is understandable by even a proletarian to the dimension of literary works. Additionally, developing apparent connections with the real life experiences, Benjamin had certainly been able to relate or rather convey the subconscious idealistic understanding of modern human characters. For instance, in the selected excerpt, Benjamin uses simple syntaxes to illustrate the luxury experiences of capitalists as against the hardships experienced by men who cannot afford such elite. Additionally, using words such as “pain” and “copying”, Benjamin has also been able to ensure that readers, irrespective of their doctrine or understanding of informative literary works, are able to relate with the fundamental intention of the text. Even delivering a direct unambiguous title to the passages, such as “Chinese Curios” in the excerpted text, Benjamin has been successful in conveying a clear idea to the readers regarding his intention of challenging modern philosophy developed in connection with traditional idealism. The informative nature of the narration is also clearly understandable from the selected excerpt, where the absence of unambiguity and meticulous wordings have added value to the literature. Portraying recurrent motifs, by using airplane services and pedestrian experiences as images of the distinct experiences of two polarized ends of the modern capitalist society, Benjamin has further been successful in satisfying his readers’ quest for meaning throughout the text. Works Cited Benjamin, Walter. One-Way Street and Other Writings. London: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1978. Print. Buck-Morss, Susan. “Walter Beniamin: Between Academic Fashion and the Avant-Garde.” Pandemonium Germanicum (2001):73-88. Print. Osborne, Peter, and Charles Matthew. Walter Benjamin. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2012. Web. 14 Sep. 2013. . Read More