After class on Wednesday, Lyotard made much more sense to
me. I came to understand that what Lyotard was critical of in Habermas and
Benjamin was similar to the saying “things just aren’t how they used to be.” We
discussed how Lyotard presents the idea that we create things in an attempt to
relive the past that may or may not have ever been that way.
We talked about films and TV shows that attempt to do this,
while simultaneously skewing our view of reality through their creation. Such
nostalgic TV shows are That 70’s Show, Band
of Brothers, Mad Men etc. in which some of the viewers that watch the
shows, have not actually lived through the era. In this case, the creators of
the film are skewing the audience’s perception of reality through the way in
which they show the audience the past. They choose what is put into the show,
how it is shot, from which angle, etc. which all creates varying feelings about
whichever things are being filmed. Lyotard stated that the belief in the
stability of the referent, as in photography and film, leads to the fantasies
of realism.
Different “reality” shows also do this due to the untrue
nature of television. An audience is led to believe something is real, but how
are they to know for sure? Most “reality” shows have slews of writers, screen
directors, and others that manipulate situations in order to create something
that is most appealing to the widest audience.
This reading put into perspective much of todays current
culture obsession with shows, as well as specific technologies of the past,
such as All That and the Nintendo 64,
that Alex addressed in his post.
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