Perhaps a tiny example of another one of Benjamin’s 'listening experiences' would be in its place. In his autobiographical Berlin Childhood around 1900 (final version written 1938 but not published in its entirety in Benjamin’s lifetime) Benjamin captures moments of his childhood, arranged in small, headlined sections. In one of the sections, "The Otter," Benjamin recalls his encounters with the otter in Berlin’s Zoological Garden. He combines three motifs: the deserted place, the otter and the rain. The otter is placed in the periphery of the garden. The nearest entry gate is the least used and it leads "into the most neglected part of the garden"[xiv]. The visitor entering through this gate must walk down an avenue which resembles "an abandoned promenade." But precisely because of its ruinous character, the neglected part of the Zoological Garden also becomes "a prophetic corner." Benjamin tells us that certain places – especially abandoned ones – can make you gain insight into the future: "In such places, it seems as if all that lies in store for us has become the past." So urban places that are still functioning in the present but are already in a state of decay is like a look into the future – a premonition of the ruinous state that is to come inevitably. 

This prophetic dimension gains special importance in connection with the otter. Zoological Gardens (at least in the beginning of the 20th century) could arguably be perceived as paradigmatic examples of the anthropocentric use and control of nature. Benjamin’s description of the otter’s cage is certainly in accordance with such a view: The otter’s cage is described as a prison cell: "And a cage it was, for strong iron bars rimmed the basin in which the animal lived."[xv] A construction of grottoes is intended as a shelter for the otter but significantly, the otter seems to refuse to comply with the human intentions of the construction – it is never seen in it. Most of the time the otter is underwater and in the phantasy of the young Benjamin, the otter’s underwater world is a mysterious place of "black and impenetrable depths," a "wet night," which contrasts the incarceration description of the cage. The otter is then (through the water motif) associated with rain. It is "the sacred animal of the rainwater." and it has a "close affinity with the rain." The young Benjamin loves rainy days and loves looking for the otter in the rain. When at home on such rainy days, the rain (and, by way of its association with the rain, also the otter) speaks to him: "In a good rain, I was securely hidden away. And it would whisper to me of my future [Und meine Zukunft rauschte es mir zu], as one sings a lullaby beside the cradle. How well I understood that it nurtures growth. In such hours passed behind the gray-gloomed window, I was at home with the otter."

A few points regarding the above quote should be noted. 

1) In German the verb ‘rauschen’ means something like to generate a roaring sound like that of rain, waves or waterfalls, so the sound of the rain is a secret language to which the young Benjamin listens. But the verb also contains the noun 'Rausch' which means intoxication. When listening to the rain that ‘rauschen’ to him, his consciousness may be in a slightly altered state. 

2) He is "at home with the otter" ("bei dem Fischotter zu Hause") which can mean that in spirit he is at the otter's dwelling place thus creating a parallel between the otter’s cage and the boy’s bourgeois home, both being places of imprisonment on the on hand and safety, perhaps even freedom on the other (at least there seems to be an affinity between the gray-gloomed ("trüben") window behind which the boy dreams himself away and the otter's mysterious dark waters). It can also mean that he feels at home, that he can be himself when he is with the otter. There seems to be an aspect of listening to non-human beings that has to do with becoming like them, i.e. to have a mimetic attitude toward them – in fact, Childhood in Berlin around 1900 is full of mimetic occurrences, e.g. in the section “Butterfly Hunt”[xvi] where he becomes the butterfly he chases. 

3) Given the blurred dividing line between listener and speaker in the mimetic act of listening, it is not only the boy's future of which the rain speaks. Also, the theme of the future connects the rain's speech to the aforementioned prophetic quality of abandoned urban places. Being a neglected and decaying place, the area itself that houses the otter speaks prophetically about the future ruin that the zoo will one day become – and not only the zoo. As the above-mentioned paradigmatic example of man's control of nature and self-interested attitude towards it, the zoo's future ruin is also the catastrophic downfall of human civilization itself. The boy and the otter/rain, man and nature share the same destiny. The cage of the animal and the dwelling-place of man are both confinements expressing a destructive violence that will ultimately lead to disaster for both. The prophecy of the abandoned place and the future of which the rain speaks are the same. 

4) But the coming catastrophe is enveloped in the redemptive act of the prophetic speech itself. There are two aspects of redemption. First, when listening to the prophetic speech of the abandoned place, "it seems as if all that lies in store for us has become the past" (as quoted above). Here, the act of listening transports the listener to a future viewpoint which lies beyond the desire and struggle, the violence and suffering, of all that lies ahead of her or him. In the terminology of Benjamin's language essay, this viewpoint is outside the fallen world that is cursed by the human language of the arbitrary sign. Since the language of the arbitrary sign is itself outside God’s good creation, the viewpoint that lies beyond everything that happens in life is the negation of the Fall’s negation of God’s good creation. It is a new hole in the hole of being. 

Secondly, the language of the rain (and by extension the otter) is not the language of the arbitrary sign. The message that the young Benjamin hears by listening to the sound of the rain cannot be separated from this sound (and therefore my lame attempt to translate it is hopelessly inadequate but hopefully it can inadequately point to a way of listening to Benjamin’s own text). In fact, the message is this sound and yet it is more: it is the spiritual content of the sound itself from which it is inseparable. The mimetic attitude towards the otter also transcends the logic of the arbitrary sign. The word mimetic should here be taken in its strongest sense. The young Benjamin does not imitate the otter. Instead, he becomes like the otter by being in contact with the essence or – more correctly – with the adamitic name of the otter. In the slightly rephrased words of the Marilyn Monroe song, he has got the otter under his skin. 5) Unfortunately, true listening has no practical consequences. It cannot be operationalized into an enlightened social program of true humaneness. The otter remains a captive of the zoo and an object of human entertainment. The boy remains trapped within the bourgeois culture of his parents. The practical world of human affairs goes on without ever having to know about, let alone take account of true listening. And yet there is freedom involved in listening. It is the freedom offered by a spiritual "place" in which listening beyond the logic of the arbitrary sign is possible within the world dominated by that very same logic. The psychological manifestation of this freedom is the boy’s fantasy of the dark and impenetrable depths of the otter’s underwater world, a fantasy that is also activated at home by the sight and sound of the rain beating against the window. A child’s fantasy can be more truthful than practical reality.