{"id":138628,"date":"2019-08-09T11:00:39","date_gmt":"2019-08-09T15:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=138628"},"modified":"2019-08-09T10:52:34","modified_gmt":"2019-08-09T14:52:34","slug":"dont-eat-and-read","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/08\/09\/dont-eat-and-read\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Eat and Read"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Walter Benjamin, 1928. Courtesy of the Walter Benjamin Archive at Akademie der K\u00fcnste, via Wikimedia Commons.<\/p><\/div>\n

All books should not be read in the same way. Novels, for instance, are there to be devoured. Reading them is a voluptuous act of absorption, not an act of empathy. The reader does not imagine himself in the hero\u2019s place, but assimilates what befalls him. The vivid report of these experiences is the appetizing trimmings in which a nourishing dish comes to the table.<\/p>\n

There is, to be sure, a raw diet of experience\u2014just as there is a raw diet for the stomach\u2014to wit: one\u2019s own experiences. But the art of the novel, like the culinary arts, begins beyond the raw ingredients. <\/p>\n

How many nourishing substances there are that are unappetizing in a raw state! How many experiences are advisable to read about, but not to have! Some readers are struck so forcefully, they would have been devastated had they suffered the experiences directly.<\/p>\n

In short, if there were a muse of the novel\u2014a tenth muse\u2014her emblem would be the cook. She raises the world from its raw state in order to create something fit to eat, to bring out the fullness of its flavor. One may, if necessary, read the newspaper while eating. But never a novel. These are two conflicting obligations.<\/p>\n

\u2014Translated from the German by Tess Lewis<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Walter Benjamin (1892\u20131940) was a philosopher, cultural critic, and essayist. Associated with the Frankfurt School, Benjamin influenced many of his contemporaries, including Bertolt Brecht, Gershom Scholem, and Theodor Adorno. Benjamin\u2019s best-known essays include \u201cThe Task of the Translator,\u201d \u201cThe Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,\u201d and \u201cTheses on the Philosophy of History.\u201d In 1940, he died by suicide in Portbou, on the French\u2013Spanish border, when his attempt to escape Nazi forces was thwarted.<\/em><\/p>\n

Tess Lewis has translated works from the French and German, including books by Peter Handke, Anselm Kiefer, Philippe Jaccottet, and Christine Angot<\/em>. Her awards include the 2017 PEN<\/small> Translation Prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She serves as the cochair of the PEN<\/small> Translation Committee and is an advisory editor for <\/em>The Hudson Review.<\/em><\/p>\n

From <\/em>The Storyteller Essays<\/a>,<\/em> by Walter Benjamin, translated by Tess Lewis, published by New York Review Books. Translation copyright \u00a9 2019 by Tess Lewis.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Walter Benjamin explains why it\u2019s impossible to enjoy a novel with a meal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":773,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[419],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-138628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-culture"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDon\u2019t Eat and Read by Walter Benjamin<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Walter Benjamin explains why it\u2019s impossible to enjoy a novel with a meal.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/08\/09\/dont-eat-and-read\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" 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