Adam Kirsch in NYRB in 2014: ‘Raised in the expectation that his upper-middle-class family would support his scholarly pursuits, Arendt writes, he never adapted to the necessity of making a living. He was unable to make professional connections and allies; he could not fit himself into the German university system; he could not protect himself from the dangers of history. “With a precision suggesting a sleepwalker,” Arendt writes, “his clumsiness invariably guided him to the very center of a misfortune.” Even his death, she suggests, was a proof of his bad luck: he happened to try to cross the Spanish border at just the moment when it was impossible.’

And: ‘In particular, Sontag dwells on Benjamin’s melancholy, the saturnine temperament that informs his work.’

As well: ‘Benjamin—the man who dwelled constantly on ruin, while never ruling out the possibility of redemption.’

Redemption requires ruins. Lots of ruins.

(a sf 2192)