Benjamin

I've read "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" a few times, and every time I come up with a different meaning for his concept of "aura". He talks about "aura" as being the work of art's "presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be". Perhaps the work of art as intersection between a specific set of cultural values and philosophical traditions, particularly as brought to it by its original viewers (though I wonder about the accuracy of that because not even all the "original" viewers of Impressionist art, say, would necessarily have the same cultural values). The question I have in particular, I guess, is whether Benjamin thinks "aura" is good or bad. Sometimes I think he likes aura as a sort of authenticity. Other times I think he criticizes it as elevating art above the masses (Marxist critique?). And then of course there's his epilogue about war as political aesthetics, which always puzzles me....