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Walter Benjamin’s “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” is written in an unfamiliar manner that left me totally confused. After reading the essay, I almost flew out the door to find the nearest bookstore to pick up a Cliff’s Notes to help me better understand the reading. Benjamin’s thought process is being constantly interrupted with ambiguous Roman numerals which stray from idea to idea. Instead of the paper flowing naturally from thought to thought the Roman numerals act as stopping points between each subject he talks about. The paper seems to be more of a documentation of quotes on art reproduction than an essay on art reproduction. His use of footnotes is especially intriguing because they are used for more than just documenting quotes or sections of the text. The footnotes on s