This book traces the concept of melancholy in Walter Benjamin's early writings. Rather than focusing on the overtly melancholic subject matter of Benjamin's work or the unhappy circumstances of his own fate, Ferber considers the concept's implications for his philosophy. Informed by Heidegger's discussion of moods and their importance for philosophical thought, she contends that a melancholic mood is the organizing principle or structure of Benjamin's early metaphysics and ontology. Her novel analysis of Benjamin's arguments about theater and language features a discussion of the Trauerspiel book that is amongst the first in English to scrutinize the baroque plays themselves. Philosophy and Melancholy also contributes to the history of philosophy by establishing a strong relationship between Benjamin and other philosophers, including Leibniz, Kant, Husserl, and Heidegger.

Are you looking for the perfect Easter picture book and a way to engage your children with the biblical story of Holy Week in a way they’ll remember? Learn about Jesus along with Benjamin as he follows Jesus through Jerusalem to find out who this man really is. When Jesus comes to Jerusalem, Benjamin first thinks he is a teacher, then a king. But as he follows Jesus throughout the week, filling his wooden box with special treasures along the way, he finally learns the REAL good news—Jesus is all about love. Benjamin’s Box: The Story of the Resurrection Eggs is: For ages 4–8 Beautifully illustrated, making this a book something to treasure Perfect for small group or individual reading experiences Ideal to use alongside Family Life’s Resurrection Eggs® or alone as a meaningful look at Jesus’ ministry and sacrifice Benjamin’s Box: The Story of the Resurrection Eggs brings the story of Jesus’ time in Jerusalem, his death, and resurrection to life for readers young and old.

A hamster's efforts to remove his paw print from a blank page of a book prove unsuccessful.

Benjamin's balloon carries him up and away to adventure.

This book is a simple book of letters written for you, a grieving loss dad, from other loss dads who are living and surviving after the death of their precious child. In the pages of this book, fathers from around the world share letters of love from their hearts to yours with the hope that, maybe, in the darkest, loneliest hours of grief, you will find a little bit of comfort in the words of another father who has been where you are now.Too often the father's grief and experience of loss is overshadowed or unacknowledged after the death of their children. This book offers acknowledgement and gives voice to the experience of fathers grieving their children. The fathers speaking through in these pages offer support and recognition to let you know that you are not alone. They are here with you.

A rabbit gets stranded on a deserted island with a trunk full of treasure and must find his way home.

“There is no world of thought that is not a world of language,” Walter Benjamin remarked, “and one only sees in the world what is preconditioned by language.” In this book, Samuel Weber, a leading theorist on literature and media, reveals a new and productive aspect of Benjamin’s thought by focusing on a little-discussed stylistic trait in his formulation of concepts. Weber’s focus is the critical suffix “-ability” that Benjamin so tellingly deploys in his work. The “-ability” (-barkeit, in German) of concepts and literary forms traverses the whole of Benjamin’s oeuvre, from “impartibility” and “criticizability” through the well-known formulations of “citability,” “translatability,” and, most famously, the “reproducibility” of “The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility.” Nouns formed with this suffix, Weber points out, refer to a possibility or potentiality, to a capacity rather than an existing reality. This insight allows for a consistent and enlightening reading of Benjamin’s writings. Weber first situates Benjamin’s engagement with the “-ability” of various concepts in the context of his entire corpus and in relation to the philosophical tradition, from Kant to Derrida. Subsequent chapters deepen the implications of the use of this suffix in a wide variety of contexts, including Benjamin’s Trauerspiel book, his relation to Carl Schmitt, and a reading of Wagner’s Ring. The result is an illuminating perspective on Benjamin’s thought by way of his language—and one of the most penetrating and comprehensive accounts of Benjamin’s work ever written.

"I've been in Florence for now two days, still brutally jet-lagged. I keep waking up at a 4 or 5 in the morning. These have been slow, long days. Already a pace aggressively different than the last few weeks in LA for me. It feels good though. There's a kind of whiplash, still reeling from the absurd, unnecessary non-stop-ness of my end-of-semester weeks in late April/early May. Many things to learn from, which is why it feels so good to be here. And why I write to you now, not simply because it's been far too long, but also because you are an inspiration! I cannot help but think about your travels and yes, your wisdom, when reeling slowly and pleasurably, freshly here in Tuscany." --Erik Benjamins, Butts of FlorenceIn 2006, Erik Benjamins, a Los Angeles-based artist, spent six months in Florence, Italy as an American student abroad. Eight years later, in 2014, he returned for six weeks to teach, walk, watch, think, eat, and learn. Butts of Florence, published now for the first time by No Style Press, is a collection of writing and photographs taken during this six-week stay. Formally stunning black and white photographs of the butts of various Florentine sculptures punctuate writing that adopts the forms of diaristic entries, appropriated letter writing, travel guide tips, restaurant reviews, and poetic prose. Together, text and image build the arc of a humorous, hungry, critical, introspective, romantic, and grateful visitor to one of the most storied cities in history."This compact volume packs a punch--the perfect literary companion for a jaunt to Italy. A game changer." --Dr. Anthony Martin, molecular biologist and director of PATAO

The acclaimed and now-classic biographical novel of Walter Benjamin's last days--adapted into screenplay by Jay Parini. It is 1940. For the past decade, Walter Benjamin--the German-Jewish critic and philosopher--has been writing his masterpiece in a library in Paris, a city he loves. Now Nazi tanks have overrun the suburbs, and Benjamin is forced to flee. With a battered briefcase that contains his precious manuscript of a thousand handwritten pages, he sets off for the border and is led by chance to a young anti-Nazi who is taking Jews and other refugees over the Pyrenees into Spain, where they may (with luck) make their way to freedom in Portugal or South America. Beloved biographical novelist Jay Parini's thrilling tale of escape is beautifully interwoven with vignettes of Benjamin's complex, cosmopolitan past: his privileged childhood in Berlin, his years with the German Youth Movement, his university days. His close friendship with Gershom Scholem, the eminent scholar of Jewish mysticism, and many other well-known artists and intellectuals who were part of Benjamin's intimate circle between the two world wars. Part tragedy, part dark comedy, this sharply realized historical novel tells one of the great and most moving peripheral stories of the Holocaust.

A philosopher finds himself at risk when his country begins punishing people for being different, a circumstance that forces him to escape over hills and valleys while carrying a mysterious, heavy suitcase.