On the indispensability of youth for experience - Time and experience in Paul Valery and Walter Benjamin

Drawing on the works of Paul Valery and Walter Benjamin I show in what way the change in the temporal rhythm of life in industrial modern society has affected the individual's mode of experience. In particular, what might be called 'authentic' experience, or in Benjamin's words experience of 'fulfilled time', finds itself increasingly at odds with everyday time. Under this condition, I argue, youth is viewed as a resource that enables the individual to step out of everyday time, and is thus valued as what makes the experience of fulfilment possible.