Imaginary investments

Brexit

Brexit no deal panic feels much like the Y2K bug - more induced than real. I wish with all my heart that the UK wasn't undertaking this act of national humiliation in the name of an imagined past. But today I said to myself 'there are bigger prizes than stopping Brexit'. The Guardian and the Observer came out yesterday in favour of a binary referendum (Chequers or stay in). Even if this was an acceptable scheme for a ballot, which it isn't, it's far too late in the day to be possible to hold a meaningful referendum. The Guardian posts up a picture of Saddiq Kahn, which means this is, as ever, part of the proxy war against Corbyn.

The work of art ...

From the introduction: Theses defining the developmental tendencies of art can therefore contribute to the political struggle in ways that it would be a mistake to underestimate. They neutralize a number of traditional concepts-such as creativity and genius, eternal value and mystery-which, used in an uncontrolled way (and controlling them is difficult today), allow factual material to be manipulated in the interests of fascism. In what follows, the concepts which are introduced into the theory of art differ from those now current in that they are completely useless for the purposes of fascism. On the other hand, they are useful for the formulation of revolutionary demands in the politics of art. (Walter Benjamin) Art is the most deep seated response

The work of art...

In the end, Walter Benjamin's Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction relies on a series of oppositions that one may simply agree with or disagree with. The critical ideas are introduced early, and so that the rest of the essay is built around them: authority, authenticity, aura. ' The authenticity of a thing' Benjamin writes, 'is the quintessence of all that is transmissible in it'. This is connoisseurship, and of course in Benjamin, it meets Brecht's Marxism.

Diary

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