Question
A friend of this essay’s author described its ideas as “all mysticism, mysticism in a posture opposed to mysticism.” This essay claims that a magician is the polar opposite of a surgeon, who “abstains from facing the patient man to man” by penetrating into his body. “You follow with your eyes a mountain range on the horizon” while experiencing a concept this essay defines as the “unique phenomenon of a distance, however close it may be.” This essay’s epilogue responds to the glorification of gas warfare in the (*) Futurist Manifesto by noting that fascism allows proletarians to express their frustration without changing property relations, so it introduces “aesthetics into political life.” This essay describes how “cult value” has been replaced with the “exhibition value” of lithographs, photographs, and films. For 10 points, the unique aura of paintings is described in what essay by Walter Benjamin? ■END■
ANSWER: “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” [or “The Work of Art in the Age of its Technical Reproducibility”; or “Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit”] (The first clue refers to Bertolt Brecht.)
<FW, Philosophy (19th/20th Century)>
= Average correct buzz position
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