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[FROM 1935: "THE WORK OF ART IN THE AGE OF MECHANICAL REPRODUCTION"]
Walter Benjamin quotes the following passage in his famous 1935 essay, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction."
"For twenty-seven years we Futurists have rebelled against the branding of war as antiaesthetic... Accordingly we state: ... War is beautiful because it establishes man's dominion over the subjugated machinery by means of gas masks, terrifying megaphones, flame throwers, and small tanks. War is beautiful because it initiates the dreamt-of metalization of the human body. War is beautiful because it enriches a flowering meadow with the fiery orchids of machine guns. War is beautiful because it combines the gunfire, the cannonades, the cease-fire, the scents, and the stench of putrefaction into a symphony. War is beautiful because it creates new architecture, like that of the big tanks, the geometrical formation flights, the smoke spirals from burning villages, and many others... Poets and artists of Futurism! ... remember these principles of an aesthetics of war so that your struggle for a new literature and a new graphic art... may be illumined by them!" —Marinetti
Walter Benjamin writes: "... This manifesto (by Marinetti on the Ethiopian colonial war) has the virtue of clarity. Its formulations deserve to be accepted by dialecticians."
"Mankind, which in Homer's time was an object of contemplation for the Olympian gods, now is one for itself. Its self-alienation has reached such a degree that it can experience its own destruction as an aesthetic pleasure of the first order. This is the situation of politics which Fascism is rendering aesthetic. Communism responds by politicizing art." *
—Walter Benjamin, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," 1935.
* PAINPANG.COM'S RESPONSE TO THE COMPELLING ESTHETICS OF CONFLICT: "Democracy responds with laughter. Painpang.com loves the pain and passion of high art, serious art. Painpang.com enjoys the great drama and graphic violence of spectacular war movies and sensational battle scenes. And Painpang.com suspects that all depictions of violence glorify violence ... in some way ... to some degree. The rage of angels... the rage of devils... glorious rage... glorious energy... glorious action... glorious violence... glorious terror... glorious courage... glory abounds. But far more terror than glory sounds. Thus Painpang.com relishes black humor: the safest antidote to the explosive violence and hate it suspects rumbles within every great passion and energy of mankind. Desire is energy. Hatred is energy. Violence is energy. Listen closely... You can hear it roaring. Everywhere.
• Energy is glorious. Glorious energy is everywhere.
"All art is drama. All art is dramatic... if it possesses even a drop of blood, of energy... vitality... force. Every art that has the slightest impact on this world makes this impact, this impression, because it is charged with energy —the energy ($) of the artist, the energy ($) of his materials, the energy ($) of the spectator, the energy ($$...) of promoters— and has force. This energy is drama because it is the force behind all dramatic impressions. And the art that makes the deepest impact makes the most dramatic impression.
• Energy is big money.
"There is no art but dramatic art. But not all drama is good art. Drama needs a good midwife to deliver good art. Otherwise, 'drama' merely becomes satire's name for the worthless birth of senseless, needless, unwanted emotional turmoil and physical violence—the first to be unloved, the first bastard, the first to be abandoned, the nameless firstborn no one wants to know... no one wants to be... no one wants to be known for. How so?
"Drama is war. Drama is conflict. And conflict is energy. Conflict is violence—violent energy. The esthetics of drama is the esthetics of energy, violent energy. Drama is compelling energy. Drama is compelling because of the appearance of uncontrollable energy, dangerous energy. Drama is compelling only because it has force(s) that seem unpredictable and dangerous. Drama is the esthetics of energy that results in conflict and energy that is derived from conflict. It is the esthetics of controlled chaos. It is the illusion of controlled chaos. It is the esthetics of violence and war—good midwife to the tortured, unwanted birth of violence and war in the world: trying to save the world and find a home for its unwanted: trying to transform the world and its unwanted through love. It is the good midwife that tries to deliver pain... conflict... passion... energy... emotional energy... violent energy... violent emotions... violent thoughts... physical violence... all violence... into the arms of love and save them by turning it all into a labor of love. Drama is the esthetics of a mind disturbed by violence. It is the esthetics of a distubed mind in search of love... peace... rest. And death if it is hopeless. Consciousness is energy, conscious energy, violent energy, energy disturbed by violence. And consciousness, energy,... is everywhere.
• Passion is energy. Passion, energy,... is everywhere!
"Desire is everywhere. Hatred is everywhere. Violence is everywhere. Everywhere there is danger... hope... fearful hopes... hope amidst danger...
brainstorm
"Desire is energy! Fear is energy! Pain is energy! Hatred is energy! Violence is energy! Every great desire is a great struggle—a violent struggle with violent energy. Every great desire is a great stuggle to control this energy... to control its own defiant, uncontrollable energy. This uncontrollable violence of energy —its hate-filled destructiveness and hateful destructiveness— exists just below the surface of all great seriousness, all great ambitions, all great loves, all great art.
• Big money controls energy (or think it does).
"Never trust a politician further than you can forcibly strip search and disarm him with irreverent laughter. Never trust a man without a sense of humor. Never trust man. Never trust yourself." (Painpang.com)
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