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Thursday, March 15, 2007

File: Aspirations

"In February, 1925, as he prepared to submit the dissertation, [Walter] Benjamin admitted, 'I dread almost everything that would result from a positive resolution to all of this: I dread... lectures, students, etc.'

"He needn't have worried. Although the dissertation contains some of his most radical insights into language and literature, his examiners rejected it, admitting that they couldn't understand a single page."

- New Yorker, 21 Aug 06

2 comments:

Mrs. SeƱora Cobbey said...

That's hilarious.....

Is that how your dissertation is gonna be?

It reminds me of an anecdote you related long time ago about some of the papers Kari wrote for her masters. Basically, she was the only one who could understand it in the flam because it was filled with so many "hard" scientific terms....Maybe Dad understood....

karin said...

nice.

amen both to walt's dreads and to his incomprehensibility.