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I'm sure you're right and it does seem to explain the reverence for Adorno amongst Cambridge-influenced poets. However, the phrase, "Theodor Adorno, he's just this guy, you know?" keeps circling in my head. From an article in a PN Review - and I don't know how much credence to give this story - Adorno helped Benjamin in a lot of things but apparently *not the most important: getting to a US institution of learning in the early 40s. Benjamin - a Jew - allegedly committed suicide trying to escape the Nazis soon after, although the whole deal, including his missing last manuscript, is shrouded in mystery. Adorno went on to teach Benjamin's work in Frankfurt. Umm. We could have like weekly discussions on salient points of Adorno's and Benjamin's work. That'd be cool. Does anyone know where I can find Benjamin's essay "The Task Of A Translator"? Roger On 28/05/06, [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Roger: > > >"I wonder what it is about Adorno that induces so much ... reverence. > After all, wasn't he an exegete for Benjamin, with a more snobby > twist? What was his relationship with Benjamin?"< > > Any discussion concerning the relatioonship between the arts and capitalism > or low and high art and class needs to read Adorno. His take is weird > though, one moment he has you thinking what a snob and that everything he > says is so out of date as to be meaningless - particularly to the boomer and > post-boomer generations - and then suddenly what he has to say takes on huge > meaning and seems as vital as ever. > > His relationship with Benjamin? He gave him a hard time basically, I don't > think he really understood Benjamin even though he was probably in a better > position than anyone else to understand him. He also helped Benjamin, a lot, > so, usual contradictions of life etc. > > Tim A. > > -- http://www.badstep.net/ http://www.cb1poetry.org.uk/ "You better watch out, you better beware Albert says E=MC square"