Walter Benjamin, The Storyteller: Esther Leslie, Sebastian Truskolaski and Gareth Evans
Thursday 23 June 2016, 6 p.m. · 67 minutesEditors and translators of Walter Benjamin’s stories Esther Leslie and Sebastian Truskolaski, curator Gareth Evans and actor Flossie Draper read from and discussed the fiction of the legendary critic and philosopher Walter Benjamin, published in The Storyteller (Verso) in English translation for the first time. His stories revel in the erotic tensions of city life, cross the threshold between rational and hallucinatory realms, celebrate the importance of games, delve into the peculiar relationship between gambling and fortune-telling, and explore, in an intriguingly different way, many of the themes that are familiar from Benjamin's philosophical work. The novellas, fables, histories, aphorisms, parables and riddles in this collection are brought to life by the playful imagery of Paul Klee. The Storyteller has been translated and edited by Sam Dolbear, Esther Leslie and Sebastian Truskolaski.