#WhatisAura?

A surplus of questions surface when discussing the essence of TEXT. First of all, what the heck is it? Pinning down one precise definition is altogether impossible, and yet that's exactly what people try to do. They attempt to define an abstract idea the same way one would pin down a cloud - with much effort and little results. Walter Benjamin attaches his belief of TEXT to the existence of a textual aura in The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, wherein he explicates the idea that the aura of something, the innate essence of a work, depletes over time as technology "substitutes a plurality of copies for a unique existence" and that the
"uniqueness of a work [...] is inseparable from [...] the fabric of tradition (II/IV).

On a more approachable level, aura is the originality of something, whether that be holding a manuscript in your hands, looking at the Mona Lisa directly, listening to the original composition of Mozart's Requiem, etc. For Benjamin, aura constitutes the quality of a work before mass production has taken affect. To him, the factory-produced version of a work/art/text fails in comparison to the original. It lacks the aura that the original work contained. On some levels, I agree with Benjamin. A photocopied version of a Renoir painting does not embody the same experience as standing in front of the original. The colors are brighter. The scenes are more real. The atmosphere appears touchable. An imprint in a textbook or as a poster lacks the same veracity. But like Alberto Manguel, author of Library as Mind, I believe that each printed book, while manufactured to be exactly like the original, gains a new, fantastic aura that the original never possessed. In our technological world, the mass production of objects allows them to reach a greater audience; consequently, these materials bring with them the capability to forge new auras, unique to the individuals that come across them. These texts develop throughout the years, earning dog-eared pages, highlighted passages, underlined phrases, notes squished in the corners, darkened edges from overuse and smudges from fingers flipping from page to page. This aura isn't destroyed or l'art pour l'art, but a unique aura unto itself.