Comments by jansch

  • Cited by the New York Times (12/6/09) as a military expression indicating a non-plussed response. The individual words are elements of the NATO phonetic alphabet and represent the letters WTF, which in this context stand for "What the Fuck?"

    December 8, 2009

  • Having to do with an aura. A term of art criticism coined c. 1930 by Walter Benjamin (originally in German: auratisch). The quality arises not from the object in itself, but from the way it is seen, and thus the meaning is close to that of "archetypal." A thing is auratic not for any inherent qualities of its own but because it is perceived as the center of hundreds of other gazes.

    December 8, 2009