Benjamin’s machines lead to a theory of aura, not of causality

Evidence

For this reason the preoccupation with machines and inventions in Benjamin does not lead to a theory of historical causality; rather, it finds its completion elsewhere, in a theory of the modern object, in the notion of “aura.” Aura for Benjamin is the equivalent in the modern world, where it still persists, of what anthropologists call the “sacred” in primitive societies; it is to the world of things what “mystery” is to the world of human events, what “charisma” is to the world of human beings. In a secularized universe it is perhaps easier to locate at the moment of its disappearance, the cause of which lies in general technical invention, the replacement of human perception with those substitutes for and mechanical extensions of perception which are machines. — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 163

Categorization

• XREF: Directly connects to Benjamin’s ‘Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’ and the Frankfurt-School lineage the reader is tracing. — connects to: Benjamin saw the masses as perceiving reproducible art through a dream-like consciousness — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 850; Benjamin’s historical analyses of machinery are actually allegorical emblems for psychological states. — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 162; Benjamin’s machine catalogue psychologically embodies Baudelaire’s modern subject rather than analyzing machinery. — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 162 (+2 more)
• DEFINE: Defines aura by situating it against the sacred, mystery, and charisma — and by locating it at its disappearance via technical invention.

Broader Connections

• Benjamin saw the masses as perceiving reproducible art through a dream-like consciousness #expands (0.75) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 850