Ruskin goes Stark Staring Mad. Part 1

After she rejected Ruskin's marriage proposal in 1872, Rose La Touche went totally and utterly mad. She became enthused with a kind of religious mania which led to her killing herself in 1875. She was totally insane.

Irreconcilable with grief, Ruskin started to go completely bonkers too. He started making public statements which were based on some fantasy shit that was going on in his head, and began to have hallucinations. His critical judgement at this time was basically all over the bloody place. He resigned his chair at Oxford University and went off to the Lakes to have a totally savage mental breakdown. Seven complete personality meltdowns later and he was a gibbering mentalist, incapable of putting pen to paper. The final tragedy was that he lived for a further ten years, incapacitated, inarticulate and silent.

He died mad sometime later.

Ruskin's Diary August 31th 1872

"August 31st Saturday. Very weary and sad. Woke up at two, morning. Got up, recovered heart, and wrote to Rose."

Andy Says: "So What"

Sometimes people let the same problem make them miserable for years when they could just say, "So what."

That's one of my favourite things to say. "So what."

"My mother didn't love me." So what.

"My husband won't ball me." So what.

"I'm a success but I'm still alone." So what.

I don't know how i made it through all the years before i learned how to do that trick.

Ruskin invents the Sideburn

John Ruskin; art theorist, critic, man of letters, painter, draughtsman, social critic, humanist and inventor of the Sideburn.

Nowadays we are more than used to the sight of fashionable young men displaying their sideburns, like those shown below:

It seems almost impossible to us now, to remember a time when sideburns were not the most fashionable expression of a mans attractiveness and all round general hipness. Indeed, sideburns seem to have been with us, showing the male face off to its best, for longer than anyone can remember. But in fact the sideburn has only been with us since 1840, when Ruskin invented it after a particularly long hiking trip in the Alps, followed by a rushed shave as he struggled to be on time for a dinner with his in-laws. Before Ruskin, the male facial fashion had been something like that shown below:

Fortunately Ruskin's new fashion caught on fast and soon everybody was wearing Sideburns, or Ruskinhair as they were originally called. Sideburns became hugely popular in the nineteenth century throughout the Western world and were later adopted in Japan, which had a near national obsession with all things Ruskin. Nineteenth-century sideburns were often much more extravagant than those seen today - very bushy and extending much further down, almost to the chin. Here is the great man himself, at the age of 35, with his sideburns in fine form. There truely is 'no wealth but life'

Ruskin's Diary, August 29th 1872

"August 29th. Thursday. CONISTON. Wet morning; and slow recovery from great despondency at waking."

Andy Says: Aura's

No one typifies Benjamin's idea of the loss of the 'aura' of artworks, in the age of mechanical reproduction, more than Andy Warhola. He made mass production his art. He didn't give a monkeys about uniqueness. He blatantly tried to destroy the idea of aura. He was also kinda flaky, obsessive, and generally weird as all hell. Here we are with a new regular feature, a kind of Wit and Wisdom of Warhol, lets start with him, ironically enough, talking about his 'aura':-

"Some company recently was interested in buying my "aura". They didn't want my product. They kept saying "we want your aura." I never figured out what they wanted. But they were willing to pay a lot for it.

I think "aura" is something that only someone else can see. You can only see an aura on people you don't know very well or don't know at all.

When you see somebody on the street, they can really have an aura. But then when they open their mouth, there goes the aura. "Aura" must be until you open your mouth."

Benjamin's Secret Life

Walter Benjamin's secret life as drummer in beat combo:"The things I never dared tell Teddy"

Ruskin's Diary August 24th 1872

Ruskin fell deeply in love with Rose la Touche in 1858 when she was only ten years old. He proposed to her eight years later, and was finally rejected by her in 1872. She died shortly afterwards.

For us at TheLeedsArcadesProject, it is 1872 and the two are communicating by letter, but all is not well in the relationship:-

"August 24th, Morning, Another letter. Black east wind. Black row of two-storied houses opposite me, and I very sad, discouraged, and wistfully wondering what to do. Is this Rose's fault, or mine, or Satan's - or none of these, but the working out of good?"

Kabbalah. Part 6

Kafka is coming

Walter Benjamin's best mate, Gershom Scholem made several comments hinting at kabalistic influences in Kafka's work. Toward the end of his article titled "Ten Unhistorical Statements about the Kabbalah", Scholem writes:"Although unaware of it himself, Kafka's writings are a secularized representation of the kabalistic conception of the world. This is why many of today's readers find something of the rigorous splendor of the canonical in them-a hint of the Absolute that breaks into pieces."

In his book on Walter Benjamin, "The Story of a Friendship", Scholem quotes himself: "I said then.., that one would have to read the works of Franz Kafka before one could understand the Kabbalah today, and particularly The Trial'.

Although he wrestled with the temptation of granting Kafka a prophetic eminence, Walter Benjamin however, desisted. For Benjamin, Kafka's "prescience" comes from a certain deep listening or understanding of tradition and not from some far-sightedness or prophetic vision. Despite Benjamin's disavowal, Holocaust literature has conferred upon Kafka a prophetic power.

Kabbalah. Part 5

The Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II

The Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II of Austria (1552-1612), moved the Holy Roman Empire to Prague and transformed Prague into a city filled with astronomers, alchemists, Kabbalists and humanists. He was fascinated with any sort of new knowledge, whether it was in science or the occult, a fact which was somewhat at odds with his position as head of the Catholic religion.

An eccentric man, his eldest son was called Julius Caesar. Emperor Rudolf was rumored to have many lovers, some of them men.

It is known that Emperor Rudolf met with leading Kabbalist Rabbi Loew. The Rabbi’s knowledge of the ancient texts was extensive and sometimes quite different from prevailing opinions, especially in his interpretation of the Sephirot, the ten aspects of God which we saw something of yesterday. The Rabbi was a leading member of the Jewish community in Prague just as Kafka's family would be, some century's later.

Rudolf II collected numerous Kabbalistic totems including The Holy Grail and a bell which could "summon the dead." Rudolf spared no expense in trying to find The Philosophers Stone, which is variously believed to be able to turn lead into gold and to allow the possessor to live forever. Unfortunately Rudolf never managed to find it and died alone in a prison cell having been deposed by his younger brother.

Kabbalah. Part 4

The Structure of the Universe
The Tree of Life
A Road Atlas for Heaven
The Structure of the Human Soul
The Sephiroth
The Pathways of the Kaballah.

As usual Superhero comic books are the most sensible way to learn about stuff.

The comic book Promethia by comic legend Alan Moore explains Kabbalistic philosophy. Sections of the comic map out Kabbala's Tree of Life, the map connecting the sephirot or spheres representing God's attributes (or states of mind). The Sefirot are useful as allegorical representations of the range of human experience. The conceit of "Promethea's" middle act is that Promethea, spends a chapter apiece traveling through metaphorical representations of each of the 10 Kabbalistic sephirot.

In fact, the Kabbala volumes of "Promethea" are thrilling, partly because they're total eye candy. Williams and Gray draw each chapter in a style of its own, with a color palette dominated by the part of the spectrum associated with that chapter's sphere. The panel backgrounds for the "Chesed" sphere are painted with blotchy, van Gogh-inspired brush strokes, suffused with blue; Binah, the realm of the whore of Babalon, is drenched in blacks and dark, tinted grays, with outlines that crinkle like woodcut prints. The colors of the highest sphere, Kether, are traditionally white and gold, and its chapter is illustrated almost entirely in shimmering, pointillist golden yellow.

Moore delights in revealing how everything ties together, all of human characteristics, history, religion and experience.

Ruskin's Diary August 22nd 1872

"August 22nd, Thursday. A letter came at tea, and i have been in a dream all the evening, answering it."

Kabbalah. Part 3

Today a few Kabbalah related products available to buy:

Merkaba: Merkaba is a sacred, healing shape seen here in a Smoky Quartz colour which is a wonderful colour to help with deflecting negativity.



Kabbalah candles, one sniff of which will help to charge you up with natural energy, or perhaps help you relax and attune your energy to that of the invisible sphere. Also included here is the Kabbalah Red String, instruction for which are as follows and it is strongly recommended that you follow the instructions closely:

Have someone you love tie the Red Kabbalah String to your left wrist. First, have them tie the string closely around your wrist with a simple knot. Repeat by knotting the string six more times for a total of seven knots. Now, refrain from negative thoughts or talking about others (referred to as 'Loshen Hara'). Simply recite the 'BenPorat Prayer' (included) and focus on positive character traits to develop during this important meditation.

Kabbalah oil, which contains pure kabbalah water, diluted in jojoba oil.

Ruskin's Diary August 21st 1872

It is 1872 and Ruskin is in love with the much younger Rose La Touche. He anxiously waits for her to write to him:-
"August 21st. Wednesday. Beaten down again, with uncertainty. No letters."

Kabbalah. Part 2

It's Kabbalah week here on The Leeds Arcades Project, which means that all this week's blogs will be exclusively devoted to The Kabbalah (well and Ruskin waiting for that underage girl to write back to him).

So what is Kabbalah? Whats going on with this modern, Hollywood encouraged religious movement? Here's a few bullet points:-

Kabbalists believe in the power of a £20 Red String bracelet — said to deflect "envious stares and looks of ill will"

They can also purchase "empowered" stones, a fizzy energy drink (made with water blessed by a Rabbi) and soul-cleansing water.

Perhaps the most famous modern proponent of Kabbalah is the attention seeking, waste of space; Madonna. Madonna has bought into the modern version of Kabbalah, hook, line and sinker. She recently announced that she will not allow her adopted Malawian son a haircut until he is three. 16-month-old David Banda, is brought up in accordance with the teachings of Kabbalah and, as a result, his hair will remain untouched until a special ceremony on his third birthday. "When the time comes it will be a big ceremony and lots of men in the Kabbalah community will gather round and each of them will cut a bit of hair off."

Madonna and her husband Guy Ritchie have also been busy lobbying the British government and nuclear industry over a scheme to clean up radioactive waste with a supposedly magic Kabbalah fluid. The couple have approached Downing Street, Whitehall and British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) promoting a “mystical” liquid tested in a Ukrainian lake. The miraculous water can also be used to treat gynaecological problems in cows and sheep. Because of their celebrity, civil servants at the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and scientists at BNFL have been obliged to take the couple seriously.

The Kabbalah Centre, believes water is a uniquely important substance that can be given magic healing powers through “meditations and the consciousness of sharing”. Undercover reporters who attended a Kabbalah Centre dinner in London recently described how Madonna and Ritchie were among guests who turned east towards Chernobyl and began shouting its name. Madonna has said “I can write the greatest songs and make the most fabulous films and be a fashion icon and conquer the world, but if there isn’t a world to conquer, what’s the point?"

Madonna is currently trying to buy a house overlooking the Sea of Galilee at the place where followers of her Kabbalist faith expect the Messiah to reappear to herald world peace. Madonna believes that she should be one of the first people to greet the Messiah when he does finally return to earth.

Kabbalah. Part1

This week is Kabbalah week here on The Leeds Arcades Project, which means that all this weeks blogs will be exclusively devoted to the glory and good sense of the Kabbalah (well except perhaps for checking in with Ruskin to see if that young girl wrote back to him yet). So lets kick off this week long special event with Benjamin's best mate: Gershom Scholem!

Gershom Scholem (1897–1982), was a Jewish philosopher and historian raised in Germany. He is widely regarded as the modern founder of the scholarly study of Kabbalah, becoming the first Professor of Jewish Mysticism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He studied mathematics, philosophy, and Hebrew at the University of Berlin, where he came into contact with Benjamin. Less notable in his academic career was his establishment of the fictive University of Muri with Benjamin.

Scholem first met Benjamin in 1915, when Benjamin delivered a speech to a meeting of the youth movement Scholem was a member of. Scholem recalls that Benjamin delivered the entire speech without once looking at the audience, but stared at a spot on the ceiling throughout the speech.

Scholem believed in the power of language to invoke supernatural phenomena. In contrast to Benjamin, he put the Hebrew language in a privileged position with respect to other languages, as the only language capable of revealing the divine truth. Scholem considered the Kabbalists as interpreters of a pre-existent linguistic revelation.

Scholem believed that Kafka's works were somehow mysteriously connected with the Kabbalah, saying "to understand the Kabbalah nowadays one has to read Kafka first, particularly The Trial."

According to its adherents, intimate understanding and mastery of the Kabbalah brings man spiritually closer to God and as a result humanity can be empowered with higher insight into the inner-workings of God’s creation.

According to Kabbalist tradition, the Kabbalah was, in around the 10th century BCE, an open knowledge practiced by over a million people in ancient Israel.

Originally, Kabbalistic knowledge was believed to be an integral part of the law given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai around 13th century BCE, though there is a view that Kabbalah began with Adam.

The Destructive Character

One of Benjamin's most well known works is 'The Destructive Character'. In the piece Benjamin explains that the destructive character "is anything but goal-orientated and devoid of an overarching vision of the way the world should be. He has few needs, and the least of them is to know what will replace the world after the catastrophe." Wait a minute, thinks TheLeedsArcadesProject, am I a Destructive Character?

to be continued.........

Ruskin's Diary August 17th 1872

Ruskin is in love with the much younger Rose La Touche. It is 1872 and he is anxiously waiting for letters from her:-

"August 17th. Saturday. More and More anxious. Disturbed night with strange dreams.

This morning better, and read Rose's letter of 28th July, dated 28th June.

Oh me, that ever such thoughts and rest should be granted me once more."

Ever the Optimist

How Benjamin saw himself:-

"Like a shipwrecked man who keeps afloat by climbing to the top of a mast that is already disintegrating. But from there he has a chance to signal for his rescue."

What is the Arcades Project?

Benjamin scholar, Pierre Missac states of The Arcades Project, that one can "use the fragments of the Arcades Project like shards of glass that have survived the catastrophe and that flash forth with the brilliance of gems."

Ruskin's Diary August 16th 1872

After his separation from his wife, Ruskin met and fell in love with Rose La Touche. The relationship has led to claims that he had paedophilic inclinations, on the grounds that he stated that he fell in love with her when she was nine.

Here he is in 1872 anxiously waiting for her to write back to him:-

August 16th. Friday. NORFOLK STREET. Yesterday letter in the morning. Went dreaming about Norfolk Street and Grosvenor Square all day. To-day a little trembling and anxious; do the best i can.

Max and Gustave's Adventures in Egypt. Part 6

From a letter by Flaubert to Louis Bouilhet 15th January 1850:-

Speaking of bardashes, this is what I know about them. Here it is quite accepted. One admits one's sodomy, and it is spoken of at table in the hotel. Travelling, we have considered it our duty to indulge in this form of ejaculation. It's at the baths that such things take place. You reserve the bath for yourself and you skewer your lad in one of the rooms. All the bath boys are bardashes. We had our eye on one in an establishment very near our hotel.
Yesterday, my kellaa was rubbing me gently, he began to pull with his right hand on my prick, and as he drew it up and down he leaned over my shoulder and said "baksheesh, baksheesh". He was a man in his fifties, ignoble, disgusting - imagine the effect. I pushed him away a little, he smiled a smile that meant, 'You're not fooling me - you like it as much as anybody, but today you've decided against it for some reason'.

From a letter by Flaubert to Louis Bouilhet 2nd June 1850:-

By the way, you ask me if I consummated that business at the baths. Yes- and on a pockmarked young rascal wearing a white turban. It made me laugh, that's all. But I'll be at it again. To be done well, an experiment must be repeated.

Edgar Allan Poe

Benjamin saw Edgar Allen Poe (1809-1849) as a nineteenth-century flaneur - or strolling urban observer. Benjamin fleshes this idea out in his discussion of Baudelaire. Baudelaire loved Poe's work and had tried to write like him. Many of the same themes can be found in their work.

Poe was a fascinating character; he married his own thirteen-year-old cousin. She died 12 years later and Poe had a morbid sexual obsession with female corpses from then on. Poe was obsessed with death and suicide, whenever he could not get his own way he would threaten to kill himself. He was a racist, a junkie, a sponger, a self-pitying snob, and a drunk.

On October 3, 1849, Poe was found on the streets of Baltimore delirious and "in great distress, and... in need of immediate assistance". He was taken to the Washington College Hospital, where he died early on the morning of October 7. Poe was never coherent long enough to explain how he came to be in his dire condition, and, oddly, was wearing clothes that were not his own. Poe is said to have repeatedly called out the name "Reynolds" on the night before his death.

The True Messianic aspect must be returned to the concept of the classless society

Benjamin's favourite picture was 'Angelus Novus' by Paul Klee.

Benjamin believed that the Angelus Novus is looking at the past "which lies in ruins before its gaze. The Angelus Novus is being propelled into the future, to which its back is turned, by the storm, the explosion, of progress - the manifestation of a historical consciousness with an understanding of time where every second is the strait gate through which the Messiah might enter. History's true messianic aspect must be returned to the concept of the classless society in the interest of the revolutionary politics of the proletariat itself."

Benjamin Loved Small Things

Benjamin loved really, really small stuff. His friend Scholem:

"For Benjamin everything small exerted the greatest attraction. In August 1927 he - absolutely spellbound - dragged me to the Musee Cluny in Paris in order to draw my attention to two grains of wheat on which a fellow spirit had inscribed the entire Shma Israel (a religious verse)."

He tried to write as small as possible and was enthralled by the smallness of ground coffee. Benjamin:

"No one should be able to lay claim to the title of philosopher who is incapable of reflecting for a moment on what complex significance is concealed in the apparently elementary phenomenon of coffee grounds. A philosophy that is unable to incorporate and elucidate the possibility of prophesying from coffee grounds cannot be a true philosophy."

Ruskin's Diary August 10th 1867

"And tonight I have dreamt of Rose, which I hardly ever do; but not worthily, though not painfully. I cannot understand why my dreams are not nobler, nor consistent; must watch this.

'For thou are the God of my strength. Why hast thou put me from thee?'"

EVER the optimist

Benjamin on Hope:-
"There is an infinite amount of hope, but not for us."

Walter sends some Postcards

A Selection of postcards which Walter sent to his buddies:

Caricatures of Benjamin

Being a funny looking, little fat man, led to Benjamin being Caricatured by his contemporaries:

The Stalkers Club, part 2

Inspired by Benjamin's idea of the Flaneur, we formed a Flaneurs Club. After a dull afternoon spent gazing in the windows of Bradford's many pound shops The Flaneurs Club looked like a none starter. It was just as we were thinking of giving up that one of our members suggested that instead we become a Stalkers Club. Instantly the group recognised this as a far more attractive proposition and so The Stalkers Club was born.

Before the first real adventure of The Stalkers club can be told, I should tell you about a little bit of stalking I had been doing on my own time. I’d somehow stared corresponding by email with a friend of a friend and we’d been getting on rather well. The mutual friend had thought we’d get on and hooked us up with each others email addresses. What had felt like Cyber-Stalking soon turned into a whole lotta flirting and some really wonderful conversations. We corresponded for months, with the frequency increasing all the time. After about 7 or 8 months like this she revealed that she was coming to Bradford on business and would have a spare hour at about 3pm on Sunday for a quick drink before she had to catch the train to London. I was ecstatic, the sexual tension between us had been palpable (if remote) and we were both pretty damn excited to be meeting each other face to face.

As Sunday rolled around, a couple of friends of mine invited me to play football in the nearby park. Off we went but with the very first kick I managed to land the damn ball in the park lake. With the ball lodged against a tree branch in the centre of the lake, totally out of our reach, we were all ready to go home and give up on the football idea.

At that time I had been reading a biography of Sir Sidney Smith (1764 –1840), a British Admiral of whom Napoleon said, "That man made me miss my destiny". Smith was a great hero who triumphed over incredible odds and who never surrendered, never gave up. Imprisoned in a Paris Jail during the Napoleonic Wars he had managed, against unbelievable odds, to escape and make his way back to England. In many ways he seemed unstoppable.

Inspired by Smith I thought, “What would Smith do at a moment like this? He wouldn’t just give in and go home. He would find a way to get that ball out of that lake, and he’d bloody well play football even if it half killed him”. Filled with such inspirational rhetoric I managed to persuade my friends to likewise make an effort to get the ball.

To cut a long story short, after about 2 hours of throwing sticks and bricks at the ball, trying to dislodge it, a group of local Pakistani toughs saw us and started to give us some grief. “What you doing? Can we join in?” It didn’t go well and culminated with me getting pushed into the lake as they ran off laughing.

I skulked off back home to have a shower to get rid of the rank smell of the stagnant lake. I had my date in about half an hour but now all the bravado and enthusiasm had drained out of me. Far from feeling like The Man, like a potential lover, meeting his Cyber lover, I now felt like a man who’d been pushed in a lake by some kids and who still hadn’t managed to get his ball back. I was pathetic, and it was in that state of mind that I went off on my date.

Ah, it didn’t go well, I was restrained and felt under confident, I’d been standing up to my knee's in a lake only an hour before. She was nice, pretty, but my despondency showed and there was no spark. After that day our emails got fewer and fewer. I regretted my mood and tried to get the cyber passion back, but I really was becoming a cyber stalker, so after a while, unlike Sidney Smith I had to give up and just let it lie.

Hitler's Diminished Masculinity

Benjamin did not write much about Hitler and the Nazi's. What we do have, which relates directly to Hitler, is the short article "Hitler's Diminished Masculinity". In the essay Benjamin compares Hitler with the feminine cast of The Little Tramp as portrayed by Charlie Chaplin. Those who do not believe that Benjamin is ripe for a comedic interpretation should read this audacious article.

It is important to note that Benjamin's essay was written in 1934 and Chaplin's film parodying Hitler did not come out until 1940. As usual Benjamin was ahead of the game.

Benjamin points out the lack of humour in the Third Reich and amongst fascists generally; pointing out that puppets were banned in Italy under Mussolini as he feared they would be used to ridicule him.

Of course, one could argue that Hitler had the last laugh, as it was in trying to escape the Nazi's that Benjamin became so despondent, he ended his own life.

The Arcades as Utopia. Part 4

Charles Fourier (1772—1837) envisaged a bizarre futuristic utopia in the form of an entire City of Arcades.

"As a result of efficient co-operative labour, four moons would illuminate the earthly night, the ice would recede from the poles, sea water would no longer taste salty, and beasts of prey would do man's bidding."

Ever the Optimist

Benjamin was known amongst his friends for his sense of humour and optimistic outlook. Here he is demonstrating his view of modern life and dispelling the idea that Europe was headed for a catastrophe: "That things have gone this far is the catastrophe. Catastrophe is not what threatens to occur at any given moment but what is given at any given moment."