alex ross on using the critical theory of benjamin and adorno to take the distractions of pop culture seriously.
Their dialectic of doubt prods us to pursue connections between what troubles us and what distracts us, to see the riven world behind the seamless screen.
— Alex Ross on Walter Benjamin, Theodor Adorno, and the critical theory of the Frankfurt School, in “The Naysayers,” New Yorker, 15 September 2014
Illustration by Patrick Bremer / left: ullstein bild / akg; right: imagno / akg.