ABSTRACT
The trope of reading as tasting is ancient, and versions of the figure were common in the early modern period, but both ancient and early modern iterations tend to work differently than the language of tasting scripture considered. A culture or religion that embraces iconoclasm will inevitably produce an iconoclastic aesthetics; this can take a variety of forms: from the austerity of the bare table or the abstract cross to the preservation of iconoclastic violence in the defaced image or broken statue. For Walter Benjamin the effects of mechanical reproduction are most evident in photography and film, especially the latter. And the "social significance" of film is inconceivable without its destructive, cathartic aspect, that is, the liquidation of the traditional value of the cultural heritage. In effect, the early Protestants have repurposed the trope, effectively using the language of smelling or tasting the gospel as a kind of shibboleth.
