Radio Benjamin

Walter Benjamin — 2014

Walter Benjamin was fascinated by the impact of new technology on culture, an interest that extended beyond his renowned critical essays. From 1927 to '33, he wrote and presented something in the region of eighty broadcasts using the new medium of radio. Radio Benjamin gathers the surviving transcripts, which appear here for the first time in English. This eclectic collection demonstrates the range of Benjamin's thinking and his enthusiasm for popular sensibilities. His celebrated “Enlightenment for Children” youth programs, his plays, readings, book reviews, and fiction reveal Benjamin in a creative, rather than critical, mode. They flesh out ideas elucidated in his essays, some of which are also represented here, where they cover topics as varied as getting a raise and the history of natural disasters, subjects chosen for broad appeal and examined with passion and acuity. Delightful and incisive, this is Walter Benjamin channeling his sophisticated thinking to a wide audience, allowing us to benefit from a new voice for one of the twentieth century's most respected thinkers.

Reviews

César Steven Toribio@cesarsteven

Dec 8, 2023

This has been such a fantastic and enjoyable read. As the title implies, it is a collection of works (short stories, radio plays, lessons for children, etc.) that were either broadcast on the radio, produced for it and never broadcast or theoretical essays written about the phenomenon of radio in the early twentieth century Germany and its implications. These vary in length and topic, but none are long, which makes for a quite fun and light read. They deal with a variety of themes, from life in Germany/Berlin, to fantasy-like plays going through literary theory, commentaries on history (like the destruction of Pompeii), places (Naples, the Berlin markets), sociopolitical realities (the Prohibition in the US, the Witch Trials, housing crisis) to even some German folk/fairy tales. I already had a healthy interest in Benjamin's life's work and this volume has only reaffirmed it. I'll be revisiting this book again and again in years to come.