After discussing Jameson in class on Wednesday,
his concepts became much more clear to me. His ideas of culture,
commodification and capitalist corporations relate to Benjamin's concepts of
the loss of aura through mechanical reproduction. Jameson states: "What
has happened is that aesthetic production today has become integrated into
commodity production generally: the frantic economic urgency of producing fresh
waves of ever more novel-seeming goods (from clothing to airplanes), at ever
greater rates of turnover, now assigns an increasingly essential structural
function" (Jameson 209). This has to do with culture's new depthlessness
of commodity fetishes. This instantly reminded me of the Mona Lisa and how
something that used to be aesthetically pleasing and rare to see is now an
image that has been mechanically reproduced more and more over the years and
can now be seen on coffee mugs, tshirts, and post cards. And today, if someone
visits the Louvre in Paris, you don't just walk out of the museum empty handed.
You can purchase your self a Mona Lisa memento to signify your visit, not just
hold on to the memory of seeing the original work by da Vinci.
This quote also connects with
Habermas’ cult of the new where corporations are trying to keep up with the
ever changing and adapting culture of the new and improved and all for
commodity and capitalist gain. Jameson is arguing that something is intended to
blow reality out of the water and is then redone and replicated and is then
compared to reality in the future.
No comments:
Post a Comment