Story tellers and satyrs

The storyteller Illuminations Walter benjamin [I-VI]

So in the third essay we have progressed from books in themselves and from books as carriers of meaning that are esoteric to a concrete essay concerning stories that actually exist, but it seems we are still very distant from them in otherness.

His subject first appears to be a Nikolai Leskov who wrote stories concerning russian life but the essay is more a mercurial decree of the shameful descent of literature into some Nietzsche like mirror and how newspaper descriptions are national lore rather than the likes of Leskov.

Leskov is not only described as this shadowy literary figure we can barely relate to--the psychological distance Benjamin describes is likened to the distance Leskov physically had to travel to collect themes for his stories. Benjamin puts a lot of value in distance as a key to unlock genuine human understanding.

 
In this I detect scents of vulgarity. He lambastes the poverty of news paper information but so far has shared only tidbits and I know more about Leskov's mercantile career more than I do about the subjects of his stories. Also the themes he talked about in his first essay seem to contradict his love of 'story telling'. Previously he was relating his love of books and his notion you could divine intrinsic meaning by looking the information listed on the auction house listing.

There seems to be a lack of sincerity to him or definitely a lack of awareness that he might be projecting his dislike of his own rational side on to what he sees going on in the world.

Satyrs Imagines Philostratus

In this little description we see Olympus who is a youth that seems to exist in harmony with nature around him. As he rests in a bed of flowers his sweat becomes indistinguishable from the dew perspired from the flowers.

But as he rests his oneness with natural beauty cause odd figures to appear that are described not as beautiful but rather as creepy. They do not commune with nature like Olympus does and their focus is directed at his beauty. Rather than commune with nature themselves they harvest it and place it around Olympus and are fascinated with objects he's been in contact with using it as a surrogate to show signs of love without him being conscious of it. 

There is a contrast with one who's love is innocent and happens without effort and one that is lusty and nasty.