Inspiration

Photograph by Ken Heyman, Sketches by Saul Steinberg, from They Became What They Beheld by Edmund Carpenter

Writing an essay in the style of Walter Benjamin is harder work than I thought it would be.

Though I’ve read it a thousand times, I can’t pretend to have the knowledge that Benjamin had. Deadline is tomorrow, and I’m still feeling blocked up. It is really hard to put on someone elses face, even for a little while.

But it’s not unnatural. As Edmund Carpenter says:

When feelings & thoughts are regarded as work of the lungs, what could be more natural than the work of “inspiration”: inhaling the essence of another person or spirit?

I’m having difficulty breathing!