France Is Bored Analysis

The societal and collective notion that art is more valuable in its original state has pervaded our culture. So much so that certain original works of art sells for millions upon millions of dollars, and copies sell for mere pittances. Interestingly, there is no tangible difference between a copy, or a photo of the original, and the original itself. But for whatever reason, the culture of art places arbitrary value on what was originally and painstakingly crafted by the artist. Walter Benjamin, in his unfinished work The Arcade Projects, inventively quotes other people in a thematic archive of sort, and synthesizes it with his own thought. Benjamin’s innovative magnum opus challenges cultural norms, forcing his audience to question whether

To most readers, one might ask the intellectual or literary importance of including the words of another author. One of his quotes simply reads “France is bored” (16). At first glance, the quote lacks any academic worth, not only for its inconsequentiality, but because the quote is the word of somebody else. However, one begins to see the quote as intellectually and artistically worthy in context of the entire collection. This particular collection of quotes is archived according to the topic of boredom, specifically as it relates to Paris and France. Another of his quotes reads “the crowd appears as the supreme remedy for boredom” (17). With these two quotes looked at together, Benjamin creatively constructs a revealing juxtaposition and oxymoron. That is, the crowds of France and Paris perhaps gather around these arcades as a solution for their own perpetual boredom. Still, these two quotes together are absurdly paradoxical. If a crowd is the solution to boredom, how can the crowded city of Paris still be bored? The dichotomy is most telling when one considers that these two quotes are the words of separate authors, a testament to the complexity of Benjamin’s archive and the themes it