Brainstorming Discussion for The Arcades Project

[Jim]

This discussion is about approaches to reading and discussing Walter Benjamin's The Arcades Project.

Weighing in at over 1000 pages, The Arcades Project defies simple description. For now let's call it a book that fits our Brain Pain tendencies, and see where it takes us.

If you're familiar with the book, please share your ideas about how we might want to discuss Benjamin's work.

[Joaquín]

I have the Suhrkamp Edition,Gesammelte Schriften V. Das Passagen- Werk. 2 Bde. , which consist of the article "Paris, capital of the 19th Century" and the diverse materials organized by main themes. I would suggest, when the English edition is so organized as well, that we make a lecture from the very first page to the last one, but I would be glad to explore new possibilities :)

[Anne]

1000 pages+ seems daunting. I have a copy of The Archive but a friend has borrowed it. I'll get it back and see if it sparks any ideas. It contains extracts and scans from his notebooks. It might be a bit 'coffee-table' for this group!

[Jim]

Anne wrote: "1000 pages+ seems daunting. I have a copy of The Archive but a friend has borrowed it. I'll get it back and see if it sparks any ideas. It contains extracts and scans from his notebooks. It might b..."

Only 1000+? Practically a novella around here, LOL!

Perusing reviews and online sources, I'm imagining this as a long-term, open reading project, with various side-reads springing up as we go. I already came across this Derrida book which my instincts tell me will be germane to our exploration of The Arcades Project: Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression

Then there's Edmund White's The Flaneur: A Stroll Through the Paradoxes of Paris, maybe dipping into some Baudelaire, Rimbaud, some art history from that time, such as The Painting of Modern Life: Paris in the Art of Manet and His Followers, etc, and so on...


@Joaquín - Yes, we'll definitely discuss the whole book. It will take about 10 days for my copy to arrive and then we can plan our strategies together.

[Jim]

A possible concurrent read:
The Dialectics of Seeing: Walter Benjamin and the Arcades Project

And another that might be tangential: The Poetics of Space

[Jim]

My copy is expected next Tuesday the 12th. After I skim how it's organized, we can start talking schedules, etc. Anyone with any specific ideas about how to read and discuss, please opine ici...


Edit: My copy arrived this morning, a few days early!

[Jim]

Alright, so glancing through the contents, it seems to be divided up fairly neatly. Two Exposés followed by the "Convolutes", which are split into sections.

First possibility is to read and discuss one section per week for approximately 40 weeks or so. Rather than having a hard schedule, we could keep posting a new section each week, and people can drop in and comment when and where they choose.

Another possibility is to post 40 threads all at once, but then that might scatter us a bit. I can't tell if the Convolutes are in any important sequence that needs to be followed or not.

[MarkB]

I think the 1st alternative seems best.