Living substance conquers the frenzy of destruction only in the ecstasy of procreation.
Walter BenjaminRead
The illiterate of the future will not be the man who cannot read the alphabet, but the one who cannot take a photograph.
Interpretation
What this quote means
True literacy in the modern world involves visual communication and media skills rather than just reading and writing.
Walter Benjamin's quote suggests that in the future, conventional literacy, defined by the ability to read and write, will be overshadowed by the need for visual literacy. This means that the ability to effectively communicate and interpret images, which include photographs and visual media, will be essential for engagement and understanding in an increasingly image-saturated society.
Themes
LiteracyPhotographCommunicationMediaVisual
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about the importance of visual media in education.
More from Walter Benjamin
All quotes →If mythic violence is lawmaking, divine violence is law-destroying; if the former sets boundaries, the latter boundlessly destroys them; if mythic violence brings at once guilt and retribution, divine power only expiates; if the former threatens, the latter strikes; if the former is bloody, the latter is lethal without spilling blood
Walter BenjaminRead
Writers are really people who write books not because they are poor, but because they are dissatisfied with the books which they could buy but do not like.
Walter BenjaminRead
Nothing is poorer than a truth expressed as it was thought. Committed to writing in such cases, it is not even a bad photograph. Truth wants to be startled abruptly, at one stroke, from her self-immersion, whether by uproar, music or cries for help.
Walter BenjaminRead
I am unpacking my library. Yes I am. The books are not yet on the shelves, not yet touched by the mild boredom of order.
Walter BenjaminRead
How many cities have revealed themselves to me in the marches I undertook in the pursuit of books!
Walter BenjaminRead
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