Brain Pain discussion

Can you read a book that hasn’t been written?

This is a question we’ll be exploring as we begin a long-term reading/discussion of Walter Benjamin’s, The Arcades Project. On Monday, May 27, 2013, we will begin reading and discussing this “book” in approximately 46 short weekly installments which should end around late-April, 2014. Several supplemental books will be included in our discussion.

Benjamin began this book project in 1927, and it remained unfinished upon his death in 1940 by suicide. Consisting of some written passages and many notes and comments, The Arcades Project is an interesting look at Benjamin’s scholarship and work process as he assembled his unfinished manuscript. The Arcades Benjamin refers to are the 19th century iron-and-glass covered shopping "arcades" of Paris. These can be thought of as early versions of shopping malls. Benjamin explored the life of the Parisian streets, specifically as represented in the “arcades”. For our purposes, we might also explore how Benjamin’s work might relate to the digital arcades of Amazon dot com – the ultimate global arcade…

I don’t normally include disclaimers for our reading projects, but given the unusual nature of this book, I would suggest that members take a look at the description here and on Wikipedia. You might also consider doing a search on ‘the arcades project free download’ which will bring up several sites offering free pdf files. You could then browse the file and see if it interests you before buying the book. I don’t wish to discourage anyone, but The Arcades Project is a serious challenge to read and discuss, but I’m sure the Brain Pain members are up for this degree of difficulty.

You can find our planned reading schedule and the project description here:

Schedule
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...

Description
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...


Let the brain pain begin!

Jim