walter benjamin's post war career

horsemouth's ears pricked up when he heard of walter benjamin's post war career - there was a slight snicker in the speakers voice so possibly it could have been a joke at the expense of his listeners, or benjamin's posthumous re-writers and anthologisers perhaps. anyway. all at once horsemouth was reminded of richard rorty's remix of heidegger's career - in which heidegger fled fascism and in general came round to rorty's way of thinking and was an all round much nicer person.

horsemouth imagined walter benjamin not halting at the spanish border but spectacularly blagging his way across it by sheer charm alone, through spain to portugal to the azores and thus by flying boat to new york where he was to remain for the rest of his life. his embrace of positivist sociology and statistical methods, his falling out with adorno and the german set in L.A. his enthusiasm for jazz records, baseball cards, the mass produced ephemera of american life, his championing of be-bop and charlie parker (and later john coltrane) after being taken out to harlem by anais nin.

of course in america he got enormously fat but remained somewhat owlish behind his spectacles to the end of his days.