Adorno soured on Sohn-Rethel over his endless unfinished drafts

Evidence

In a 1937 letter to Benjamin, Adorno reveals himself to be disillusioned that ‘So’n-Rätsel’ – his new nickname for Benjamin’s ‘High Priest of Economics’, a slight corruption of Sohn-Rethel translating to ‘Such-a- Riddle’ – ‘is eagerly trying to rediscover the man who first started on the work in order to disable him completely, and that he is far more interested in spinningthingsoutintotheindeterminatefuturethanheisincompletinganything within a foreseeable period of time’. … In light of ever newer exposés177 arriving at lengthy intervals, Horkheimer’s scepticism of Sohn-Rethel’s ability to follow his own programme appeared to have been confirmed. — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 323

Categorization

• CANDY: Adorno’s nickname ‘So’n-Rätsel’ (‘such-a-riddle’) for Sohn-Rethel is a fun, tweetable detail about scholarly disdain.
• XREF: connects to: Adorno ranked Sohn-Rethel’s later exposé as his greatest philosophical shock since Benjamin — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 309; Adorno drafted books through notes, dictation, and up to four revisions — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2524