(Studies in German Literature Linguistics and Culture) Rolf J

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WOLFGANG BOCK
of books, again with a strong masculine approach. 26 After quotations
from Proust and Mallarmé he writes famous sentences like: “I. Bücher
und Dirnen kann man mit ins Bett nehmen” (“I. Books and harlots can
be taken to bed”); or “XIII. Bücher und Dirnen — Fußnoten sind bei
den einen, was bei den anderen Geldscheine im Strumpf” (GS IV.1:109–
10; “XIII. Books and harlots — footnotes in one are as banknotes in the
stockings of the other,” SW 1:460–61).
The Language of the Medium
Benjamin also anticipated the great influence of writing media such as
pens, paper, and mechanical typewriters on the production of texts.
In “Lehrmittel” (“Teaching Aids”) he follows his imagination in this
direction:
Die Schreibmaschine wird dem Federhalter die Hand des Literaten
erst dann entfremden, wenn die Genauigkeit typographischer
Formungen unmittelbar in die Konzeption seiner Bücher eingeht.
Vermutlich wird man dann neue Systeme mit variablerer Schriftgestaltung
benötigen. Sie werden die Innervation der befehlenden Finger
an die Stelle der geläufigen Hand setzen. (GS IV.1:105)
[The typewriter will alienate the hand of the man of letters from
the pen only when the precision of typographic forms has directly
entered the conception of his books. One might suppose that new
systems with more variable typefaces would then be needed. They
will replace the pliancy of the hand with the innervation of commanding
fingers. (SW 1:457)]
This seems to be a prediction of digitalization and new interfaces.
It seems to anticipate the work of scholars such as Friedrich Kittler;
but looked at more closely it still gives dominance to living handwriting
and demands a level of technique that even today is not reached. 27
A medium for Benjamin means much more than just a technical field;
in his piece “Briefmarkenhandlung” (“Stamp Shop”) he reflects a life
inside this medium.
This text contains twelve thoughts on the language of stamps, which
again are related to children’s fantasies: “Marken sind die Visitenkarten,
die die großen Staaten in der Kinderstube abgeben” (GS IV.1:137;
“Stamps are the visiting-cards that the great states leave in a children’s
room,” SW 1:480.) This is also a comment on and variation on a wellknown
surrealistic subject. He would translate parts of Aragon’s Paris
Peasant for the Feuilleton of the Literarische Welt in June 1928, where the
French poet writes in the same manner as Benjamin himself does about a
stamp-shop.