Month: May 2021

Guernica, 1937 by Pablo Picasso
Knowing that this was an anti-war piece made by an anti-war individual is one thing, but to what extent does that political messaging resonate today?

Let me begin with two questions. The first of which asks whether it is possible for writing to be political, and with that in mind, be revolutionary in its content. The second of which asks whether it is possible for reading to be political, and with that in mind, be revolutionary in its outcome.

Let these questions stew in your head for a time, as these are questions that have, are, and will be asked in either the colloquial everyday small talk or in the hallowed halls of an academy. Or so I would like to believe, and proven correct shortly after once a new video game causes some manner of controversy. In any case, the first of the two questions were asked, and addressed in some way or form, by thinkers and artists from Bertolt Brecht, Walter Benjamin, Theodor Adorno, Jean-Paul Sartre, Roland Barthes, and many more. A question that remains charged with varying sentiments, roughly divisible between two distinct camps.

Continue reading “Notes on the Death of the Author”

Originally posted at Black Fire Notes on Feb 19, 2021

A brief inquiry into the diagnosis provided by Walter Benjamin.

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A religion may be discerned in capitalism – that is to say, capitalism serves essentially to allay the same anxieties, torments, and disturbances to which the so-called religions offered answers.”

“Capitalism is probably the first instance of a cult that creates guilt, not atonement.”
– Walter Benjamin, Capitalism as Religion

“Myth does not deny things, on the contrary, its function is to talk about them; simply, it purifies them, it makes them innocent, it gives them a natural and eternal justification, it gives them a clarity which is not that of an explanation but that of a statement of fact.”
– Roland Barthes, Mythologies: Myth Today

Continue reading “Capitalism as Religion and The Myth of Capitalist Nature”