"Only the expressionless completes the work" as a work of art, Benjamin argues, and it does so by shattering the work's semblance of unity, the false appearance of totality pertaining to it.
Meanwhile, his family and his supporters in Mauritania wait for some semblance of justice, despite years of false starts and heartbreaking setbacks.
Something that is legal has the semblance of safety, he said, giving people a false sense of reassurance.
With a false persona, a user could discredit opponents, or create the semblance of consensus.
And with each successive false lead we became even more anxious and uncoupled from any semblance of normal life.
For this reason, as far as the eye can see and despair can stretch, the Israelis and Palestinians are doomed to play out their wretched parts: Israel possessed of the hubris of demanding control of and security in the whole Holy Land in the false colours of a mutually beneficial peace treaty; the Palestinians denied any realistic semblance of self-determination or self-respect.
The Iraq war was followed by the false hopes that Arab uprisings in Syrian, Libya, Egypt and Yemen would lead to stability and a semblance of democracy.
And it's still only a semblance.
Over time, a semblance of normalcy returned.
A semblance of normal life has returned.
Some semblance of spring had momentarily arrived.
