Postmodern Culture

Everything you want to know about postmodernism, postmodernity, and postmodern culture. Your guide to achieving postmodern literacy from The Notorious Dr. Rog and the class of ENG 335 at Rollins College.

Saturday, September 30, 2006

Mayo - Eco



"We accept the real so readily only because we sense that reality does not exist."
- Jorges Luis Borges

Umberto Eco states early in his essay, "The City Of Robots", that Las Vegas is not only a "fake" city, but a "message" city as well. Although we may not all agree what the "message" is, a few words that pop into my head, money, luck, decadence, American dream, chance, instant gratification, fit the collective bill well enough. And, although not quite the same thing, Disney World, is a "message" city in its own right... Promising the fulfillment of every child's deepest fantasy, and a nostalgic return to a time of innocence for adults.

Not to say the Disney World is less aware of it's grift. It is, in my opinion, even more contrived and calculating than the desert Mecca of sin, as it plays on the innocence of children, and a parent's compulsion to please... Walt's great achievement and legacy is even less a "real" city than Vegas, but functions in much the same way, that is, to separate you from your money, while providing the illusion of not only entertainment, but of tangible value.

Now, this is no secret. Whole families from all across the globe save and sacrifice for years on end for a mere weekend at either location, abstaining from other, more immediate forms of distraction and entertainment for the ultimate and synchronized moment of perfect, predetermined fantasy. The Jackpot. Tom Jones. Fireworks over Cinderella's Castle. Mickey Mouse. The Five Thousand Dollar an Hour Prostitute. These promised packages of symbolic pleasure appeal to different ages and cultures everywhere. The entertained know the falseness of the entertainment. The viewers know that the program is rehearsed, if it is even performed by an "actual" human at all. And, as Eco points out, many of the "actual" humans act as much like machines as their animatronic counterparts, as the patrons fall in line and act much like robots themselves.

A Heaven on Earth of sorts, manufactured by our own hands. If the Bomb transformed us into God, than it makes sense that we create our Heaven(s). Our current life a purgatory, that we must accumulate the monetary redemption to free ourselves from, if only for the duration of the "Three Park Family Pass". For the length of the weekend where all actions and accountability "stay in Vegas". Heaven indeed.

The ride is enjoyable because we are told it is.

We want a ball cap shaped like Pluto's head to prove our attendance, because it has "value" in its given context.

The casino promises a payoff that is seldom delivered, and gambling is mandatory.

Musicians and magicians and other performers who's artistic output is devoid of meaning or importance outside the city limits fill giant halls every night.

Having spent a small fortune, the entertained leave with products they will not use, with hundreds of photos to validate the experience, with a sense of accomplishment.

For what purpose does this serve us?

In addition, what of the "fake" cities that continue to be vomited from the mouths of corporate giants? What is their "message"?

Locally, Celebration and Baldwin Park, why do we go there? Why are these places so entrancing? The gentrification of Hannibal Square promises us what? Is the message of perfection, of instant "old neighborhood", so desirable that we look past its blatant deception? Do we collectively need such all encompassing conformity? Is the machine that we once created our ideal self? The loss of identity and individuality gains us the comfort of predictability, the safety of our own animatronic impression of self that is all things but true "Self".

Not only do we accept the Lie, but we will gladly overpay for it.

PetalswiththeWind 09/26/2006

Take simulacrum “with a grain of salt!”
All living matter originates from a cell. Farcically, the birth of simulacra is conceived in the same way; “The real is produced from miniaturized cells… and can be reproduced an indefinite number of times” (Baudrillard 454). Baudrillard persists further by undeniably declaring, “Never again will the real have a chance to produce itself”. Now even reality has expectations to live up to, warped ones, due to the inescapable mental invasion of the media. Recognizable reality, familiarized truths are derived from print media, the internet, television, and film. Media sets expectations for reality disabling it from functioning in its own rite. Ritualistic performances are hypnotically processed without a “grain” of original foresight; what Baudrillard describes as “operational”. Reality has to exist beyond itself, living as part of the hyper real. Synthesized signs, images and representations are misconstrued as an innate part of mankind, adapted as part of the natural human phenomenon. Meaning, independent of predisposed ideas is infinite on its own; complications arise with the idealization of truths.
According to Baudrillard, idealizations no longer exist, because they are substituted as fact, thus, becoming truth. Simulacrum is metaphorically the Universe staring at itself in a mirror, ensuring its tangibility. Nothing will appear in its reflection unless it’s popularized. The good news is (believe it or not there is good news), accordingly there should be no fear of being the “unusual”, because it will eventually become a trend, leaving no one out. The eclectic and esoteric will be the same referent, if it’s not already. On the contrary if no one else “gets it”, then one can actually be an “original”! Furthermore, if enough simulacra is concentrated, it is possible to reassemble or reconstruct multiple truths; there was never just one ideal to begin with anyways!
Joke: What besides mail is sorted, classified, stamped, labeled, delivered, and distributed?
Punch Line: Human Beings
:0(

Gary-Jenkins

I'll try to comment on Jenkins since he is the lucky name I drew on the Dr. Rog Postmodern Lottery game. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I could have drawn B-a-u-d-r-i-l-l-a-r-d. (Sorry, just working on my spelling for the midterm). I could have been lucky enough to draw my two favorite Germans, Colonel Klinck and Sgt. Schultz (Horkheimer and Adorno). Ok, Ok, enough kidding around. Time to get to this weeks issues.

Henry Jenkins, may hit it on the head in this weeks article (my head to be exact). Unfortunately, I am guilty of contributing to the immense wealth of George Lucas. Jenkins said that 'Lucas's decision to defer salary for the first Star Wars film in favor of maintaing ashare of ancillary profits has been widely cited as a turning point in the emergence of this new strategy of media production and distribution" (554). Lucas was the king at this mass marketing in my opinion. My son had every Star Wars action figure, spaceship, light saber, clothing, plates, mugs, etc that my money could buy. We did the same for Batman, Toy Story, etc. Guilty as charged, but I don't care!

The evolution of low cost technology has spawned a monster industry that continues to grow and expand. Amateur films, internet fan sites, etc follow the most popular films and television shows from Hollywood. Lucas tried to contain it by claiming copyright infringement, but in reality, I don't think he has enough lawyers to chase all of the amateur film producers in existence today. Obviously the internet and all of the tools available today has exploded amongst the ranks of amateur film producers.

Legal battles will never cease to exist. I read a story this week regarding the newest craze "You-Tube" and it's growing legal battle. The flamboyant Mark Cuban gave a speech (in a capitalistic attempt to discredit) about the royalty and copyright infringements happening on a daily basis on You-Tube. It seems that You-Tube is garnering over 30% market share on the internet, but a majority of the material posted violates copyright laws. Of course Mark's real motivation is the loss of revenue from his own internet venture (called HD-Net I believe).

A new film today, more specifically an action film, provides the opportunity maximize profits in venues way beyond the film itself. Lucas started it and i really don't see an end to it. Luckily my son is almost 16, and if he wants the action figure or light saber, he has to buy it himself.

RB 9/26

“That is the triumph of advertising in the culture industry: the compulsive imitation by consumers of cultural commodities which, at the same time, they recognize as false.”—Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno

***
What would I have done if I were in the Milgram Experiment? According to the experiment’s results, the chances are I would have applied enough electricity to the learner to murder him, despite hearing his screams and subsequent deathly silence as I increased the voltage. I would have questioned the ethical nature of what I was doing. But the experimenters would have encouraged me to continue, and this probably would have been enough to keep me going. My motivation would have been compliance.

The Milgram Experiment was conducted by Stanley Milgram at Yale between 1961 and 1962. Nazi Lt. Colonel Adolf Eichmann had just gone on trial for crimes against humanity, and Milgram, baffled by the large number of people who participated as soldiers in the Holocaust, sought to study obedience to authority.

Subjects were told to ask a learner a series of questions and to shock him when he answered incorrectly. The learner, actually a Milgram assistant, sat behind a wall, out of the subject’s view. The learner answered each question incorrectly, and the shock voltage was increased. The learner screamed and complained of a heart condition and eventually went silent. The subject was encouraged to keep shocking, despite the fact the learner was no longer answering. When a subject questioned the directions, he was given a scripted response.

First response: “Please continue.”
Second response: “The experiment requires you to continue. Please go on.”
Third response: “It is essential that you continue.”
Fourth response: “You have no choice. You must continue.”

The fifth time a subject questioned the directions, the experiment was stopped. Over sixty percent of the subjects, however, didn’t make it to the fifth response, and, instead, administered the shocks until they were told the experiment was complete.

This phenomenon of compliance despite evidence of destructive consequences is evident in “compulsive imitation by consumers of cultural commodities which, at the same time, they recognize as false” (Horkheimer and Adorno). In our culture, compulsive imitation of cultural commodities results in things like anorexia and depression, sweatshops and corporate fat cats, global warming and war.

So again I ask myself, what would I have done if I were in the Milgram Experiment? According to my credit card transaction history, the chances are I would have applied enough electricity to the learner to murder him, despite hearing his screams and subsequent deathly silence as I increased the voltage.

Bloggrokker (Scott) Poster

I've got to wonder.
I've really got to wonder about the possibility that we're all living not in the physical, three-dimensional McDonald's/IBM/Rand Corporation/Daimler-Benz/Lockheed-Martin-dominated "old reality," but in a still-three-dimensional virtual environment of ironclad copyrights created and autocratically ruled by McDonald's and IBM and the Rand Corporation and Daimler-Benz and Lockheed-Martin.
Don't fear the lunatic's latest, as my grandfather liked to say. I'm not going to wax Matrix-ic or anything, and hail a blank-faced Neo to avenge the supposed wrongs of a ruthless "machinocracy."
Rather, I'll just leave it to Mark Poster, who writes "the response of our captains of industry is the absurd one of attempting vastly to extend the principle of property by promulgating new 'intellectual property laws,' flying in the face of the advance in the technologies of transmission and dissemination."
Contextually, Poster is here referring to the difficulties of the corporate Olympians in keeping their proprietaries intact within electronic communications. It's hard to disagree with this difficulty--this Internet thing's Anarchyland, don'cha know, kinda like an Emma Goldman fever-dream if she were a forward-thinking futurist.
And we like it that way! Testify, ladies and germs, testify!
And the corporate Olympians? They can't control their proprietaries within virtual e-communities--the e-communities being rife with postmodern pranksters equipped with PhotoShop and Mort Sahl mindsets.
And the corporate Olympian solution? Make the real world, the "old reality," a virtual community in terms of copyright.
I'll explain.
In a virtual environment, everything from the e-world inside those clunky, extinct techno-grotesqueries of virtual-reality helmets to military simulators to MUDs to, yes, the Rupert Murdoch-ized MySpace, somebody, somewhere has the rights to everything contained within those e-worlds.
And, lo and behold, look around, everything in the "old reality" is going copyright crazy, too.
Disney is considering enforcing endless copyrights for Mickey and Donald and Dumbo and everything else they've cranked out during the Waltocene epoch.
Marvel Comics is attempting to legally claim the term "superhero"--a term they didn't even coin.
Fox News wants to copyright "fair and balanced."
Trump tried to make "you're fired" difficult for anyone else to utter.
Union Pacific doesn't want their logo reproduced on anything non-Union Pacific--a real blow to model-train enthusiasts.
A maritime museum in England wants to prosecute anyone who takes a snapshot of anything within their walls--they argue the remnants of history belong to them.
A national park in Utah will do likewise if a photograph is taken--geographic copyrights?
And finally, Michelangelo's David--don't attempt any photographic reproductions in his museum of current residence. Wouldn't you rather throw your cash away on a mass-reproduced gift-shop pic taken by a museum-hired shutterbug?
And so in terms of some of the most totalitarian potential copyright enforcements imaginable, the "old reality" is twisted to mimic a virtual one, where everything, even the most anti-intellectual morsel, falls prey to IP laws reaching into misty infinities.
And Poster's "technologies of transmission and dissemination?"--ye olde Internet?
Who might gain IP control of the Web on a dark future day?
Don't think of the cable companies as mere cable companies anymore--think of 'em as cabal companies.
Just a thought.

E.M. 9/28/06 Post-class post.

Umberto Eco just happened to be my pick - I was the envy of some of my class mates/ Eco is easy to understand or easier compared to some of the others.
http://www.slate.com/?id=206020
This is an interesting article:
The Mosque to Commerce
Bin Laden's special complaint with the World Trade Center.
By Laurie Kerr
Posted Friday, Dec. 28, 2001, at 11:58 AM ET
Bin Launden's choice of Targets this article brings yet anothe piece of information into the mix. Yamasaki is the architect for the World Trade Center as well as the architect for the Dhahran Air Terminal.
Zizek's Terrorism article is like a trailer for a big budget disaster movie. Unfortunatly the hero does not get the people out alive. My take on this whole 911 tragety. Americans do not like un-happy endings between our disnification and our absolute inability to accept that people die sometimes tragically we ignore things. Unfortunatly until something of monumental proportions such as 911 happen for us to wake up. Then we have to make war one somebody. Terrosism is a frame of mine - a mind easy to mold mind and quick talking idealogue and you have a budding terrosist. That's just the first step. People are just dying to believe in something.

JOH 9/26

Greetings ~

Our last session seemed to be an act of glancing at the covered theorists, with a good deal of interaction between classmates - it was interesting. Something that stuck with me from our discussion was Baudrillard's statement that "The media are part of the event - a part of the terror, and they work in both directions." This quote has the potential for volatility, depending on who is interacting with it.

It seems that THE media has progressively perfected (by some perspective) the art of capturing viewership and ensuring its return. As discussed in class, turn on the evening central Florida news and you will, with great certainty, hear about the tensions, dangers, and general inconveniences of living in this area. Sure, the news stations do try to sprinkle, or lightly dust their presentations with something "feel good," however, even these attempts are recylced and have an insincere glean to them. When it comes to their big hitters, the news stations know they can always count on FEAR.

The news stations are not operating inside a vacuum; they are catering to the tastes and demands of all those who ritually tune in. A decent example of corporate efforts adjusting to meet the new demands of the consumer is the organic initiative in the Walmart universe. So good at giving people what they want - cheap, quick, easy stuff - or as one of our classmates asserted, giving people just what they pay for, Walmart has now rolled out a line of organic food items to cater to the growing desire. Much the same, if the majority of the viewers of local news stations shifted their tastes, from full carnage to a more balanced news menu, eliminating the high-fructose fillers of apartment fires in Palatka and breaking news! reports of an alligator nip on the St. Johns River, the information chefs would create a new, more appealing presentation that would be sure to sell. Product baby.

IF we are what we think about all day long, and what we think about is boy drowns in Ocoee and Stingray safety!, aren't we, the local news audience, driving our attention towards the more refined cuisine of terror? The media does play a role in the terror event, however, who are they feeding? I am not pretending that Baudrillard is working to wake up audiences to their responsibility here - just riffing a bit. Every Friday morning when I drop my daughter off at my mother's house, I ask her the same or similar question: "Mom, just how is watching this news program benefiting your life?" She's pretty tired of that question, rather, she's tired of not having an answer that justifies her attachment to the ritual.

sardine -- post-9/26 -- My Disney Confession

“You’re going to HELL!” Sherry screeched at Sue on the playground. “You’re going to HELL, because you killed Jesus!”

“And you!” She pointed at me. “You’re going to HELL too, because you weren’t baptized!”

Years later, Sue is still Jewish, although she did find Prozac. Me… I got dunked. I found Jesus for a while. But I quit going to church after Mel Gibson’s Jesus movie came out. My Christianity hangs up in the closet like an embarrassing dress I once wore. I still have a few of the souvenirs, a couple crosses, and a rosary blessed by John Paul II.

Remember that flick, Mel’s Passion. I went with my mother. The theater was packed. A lady came in with her young children and sat down in front of us with a bucket of popcorn. I watched the movie. I cried at the flaying scene. However, I didn’t leave glazed eyed and weeping. I had just spent over two hours watching a Jew blaming pseudo snuff film. I felt sticky with popcorn and Mel’s ejaculate.

Victimization is our trump card. We are victims. And it gets us hot. We idealize the Rambos and the Road Warriors. They are tortured and martyred, and they strike back with lots of guns blazing. 9/11 happened. We stuck flag decals on our trucks and watched the sanitized towers fall again and again. Then we went out to blast Osama with our big guns. We torture in the name of Jesus, 9/11, Democracy, and American Patriotism. We stay the course.

Why am I thinking of religion, torture, and sadomasochism? Oh that’s right. I am feeling victimized. Eco has brought it back to me like a bad acid flashback.

I recently hemorrhaged money at my last pilgrimage to Disney. Those free tickets cost a lot. We got the park hoppers. And we hopped. We did the Stations of Disney. The crowd wasn’t so bad. We got to pass quickly through the herding ropes for queuing people like the slaughter house does cattle. We did a couple of the rides three times. I bought the T-shirts of Mickey and the ears. For over seventy bucks, I bought the pictures of my kids’ faces superimposed on a young Darth Vader to put on the wall next to the dusty cross. We saw the animatronic presidents say, “Stay the course.” I took pictures of my kids in front of Buzz Lightyear. My feet hurt. My kids’ feet hurt. I spent more money and more money, and we left after the orgasm of fireworks.

I actually almost considered getting the annual pass. We could go all the time. But I didn’t. I still remember that embarrassing Christianity dress hanging in my closet. I can’t do it again, not even restyled into the Disney fashion. At heart I am still the heathen of my childhood. I am more comfortable with the uncomforting empty space. And yes I know... I am going to HELL!

Friday, September 29, 2006

ix 09/26

Maybe Umberto Eco was being a bit conservative when he was limiting his title, “The City of Robots,” to the landscape/cityscape of Disneyland/World. Maybe he should have expanded the title to include the U.S and called it something like, “The Country of Viewing Automatons”—not only do we like seeing robots, but we ourselves are robots that like to watch.

“[T]echnology can give us more reality than nature can” (Eco 203). This to me is nowhere more evident than in television in general, National Geographic and Animal Planet, but probably most particularly through the media, who with 5.1 surround sound and “Now in Hi Definition” can relay to us the immediate, and remote world aurally better and visually more defined than we can ever hope to see.

These heightened formats, HD & 5.1, of presenting one’s news, specifically our local media, only emphasizes the aims of our media, which is that of entertainment, rather than one of information. And as Adorno states, “to be entertained we must be in agreement,” and this must be true since all local news compete vehemently for more and more of our viewership by overmanufacturing coverage of sensationalist banality. If we were not in consent—in other, lay capitalist words, if we weren’t “buying what they were selling”—they would change the content, the core of the product, rather than just giving it another “new” shiny color. But, since we want/need to know the weather tomorrow, despite meteorologists’ notoriety for mediocral or completely inaccurate forcastings, we tune in and watch like mindless automatons, partaking in the theme park ride, of thrills, chills, and laughs, that is viewing of media. And when we get off the ride—actually, when the ride is over, we don’t get off the ride, the ride gets us off (it rids us and we rid ourselves: jouissance). Despite the ride ending, we still have to get through the gift shops (commercials) in order to completely leave.


Thankfully, TiVo is helping us gain control of the theme park ride, allowing us to elect what portions of the ride we want to partake of and for what length(s). So if I just want the weather update for tomorrow, I don’t have to be subjected to any “thrilling” loops (car chase/gator attack) nor corkscrew twists (abductions/rape). I just zoom past all that, past even the “ooh and awe” satellite-zooming-in-all-the-way-down-to-you-are-here affect at 85 degrees Fahrenheit in Orlando. The bonus besides getting my autonomy back: no more having to exit through the gift shop. Now that should be a cause of jouissance.

ginny t. 9/26

Observe, a snippet of an email I got today from an acquaintance:

"Hey! Ashley's* birthday is next Saturday and we're planning on having her a little party at Hooter's (she picked it- LOL)...hope you can come..."

Ashley's having a birthday party at Hooters, you say? That's an odd choice for a girl...especially when the birthday girl in question is going to be turning six. Yeah, that's right...six. As in just-started-first-grade, training-wheels-using, Blues-clues-watching child. !!! How do you have a little girl's birthday party at Hooters?? It's not like people go there for the food. What kind of messages are being sent to this little girl? My guess is they're the same ones that she gets when her mom encourages her to "shake her booty." The "shaking of the booty" consists of some lascivious gyrating and shimmying on a pole (!!) on the back porch, while her mom and friends look on with delight (and in some cases, horror) cheering on her little "Angel" as she busts out the moves she learned from MTV. Someone find me a reality injector, quick; this mom need a dose. STAT!

The thing that struck me most about this weeks class was Dr. Rog's warning that our culture is on the brink of losing touch with reality. We are dangerously close to losing our humanity. The constant stream of media and images we are assaulted with dulls our senses and keeps our attention focused in short bursts on the surface. Oooh, shiny, pretty things! Images and The Media dictate our entire lives in Postmodernity. What to think, what to say, how to feel, who to hate, what to fear...it's all laid out for us in glossy pages and on screens that project sounds and images of life that other people are living--playing characters of themselves--projecting a reality designed by marketing firms and politicians.

What blows me away is the eagerness in which most people accept this projected reality. Myself included. I've never been to say, China, but I am certain it exists, because I've read about it in books, and seen pictures and videos of the country. Hell, I've even spent some time at the authentic Epcot version. I know China, even though I've never set foot in the country; I possess no tangible evidence that there is such a place. I just operate on the assumption that the media I consume is truthful and accurate. We are not a dumb race, we humans. We've created a highly advanced technological society, and yet we seem to have learned nothing from our own craftiness. Our reality reproduction is so precise that it's liable to swallow us whole, obliterating the lines between fact and fiction, and taking with it our ability and desire to know the difference.

It's time for The Two Minutes Hate. Repeat after me: "We've always been at war with Eurasia..."

*names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Gary 9/26

I felt a little out of touch the other night in class as we picked apart the latest issue of the week. I still feel that we have to take Disney for what it was designed to be, entertainment. It was built to entertain us, simple as that. Pay your fee and have some fun. Are we really trying to say that automated machines are better than humans? C'mon, give me a break. (Now in the "Westworld" movie back in the early 80's...That's a different story)

Zizek says that "the terrorists themselves did not do it primarily to provoke real material damage, but for the spectacular effect of it" (231). They did it for damage...real, implied etc. The damage lives on day after day primarily because we never let it rest. This wasn't the first bombing of the World Trade Center, just the first one to be truly successful. The effect was spectacular and we constantly relive it on television. We even make new movies and spin it new directions for political reasons. We build monuments, we put up signs, we wear NYPD and NYFD hats. I even saw a pickup truck with "Never Forget 911" painted on his back window with white shoe polish above a confederate flag sticker???

In class we discussed how many of the younger crowd may have lost touch with nature or reality. I think that is too broad of a statement. Afterall, we are responsible for everything that the young students learn. They spend the majority of their time in two places: home and school. It starts at home and it has to continue at school. If they have lost touch with reality...we need to look in the mirror.

CL 9/26

I have been considering what idea and theorist to post about this week, and have had a hard time chosing between Eco and Zizek. Both are extremely relevant, but Eco has so much to do with all of our lives as central Florida residents, I was leaning towards him. That was until I came across an online journal of a friend's friend, and I knew I could not write about anything else. This is what it said:

"so five years ago today i was one of those people in downtown nyc--very close to the wtc, close enough to have to waddle through the hurricane of ash and, yeah, body parts, to get home to east williamsburg. i never really figured out what happened, or went through the what-have-you in terms of processing the event on an emotional level. dealing with 9/11 politically was easy, but personally? i've spent the last five years totally avoiding "dealing" with what happened or how i really felt about it. this failure to do so catches up with me now and then, mostly taking the form of furiously switching the channel when i see teevee images of the carnage.
outside, i remember the people escaping across the bridge seemed no different than normal. the cops were no more or less grouchy than usual, the people walked across the bridge with as much leisure as if it were a transit strike. i could go on and on, and the point you would get would be how oh-so-matter-of-fact i remember it being. the split second of emotion i felt that day was when i bought a flask of vodka at a ghetto liquor store and when i went outside to open it, this old latina lady saw how filthy i was and gave me a little pat on the shoulder and i felt like sobbing, but that feeling quickly went away.
five years later i'm starting to realize i'd do myself a favor if i sat down and worked out how i feel emotionally about what i saw that day, or if there even is anything there at all. but it's something i constantly put off, like cleaning the fridge or going to yoga class."

He's a young professional who lives in Brooklyn. He was 23 when the WTC was hit. I cannot help but contrast this personal expiernce to the idea that, as Zizek says: "the unthinkable which happened was the object of fantasy, so that, in a way, America got what it fantasized about, and that was the biggest suprise" (pg 233).

Did we get what we fantasized about? What about the Americans who, myself included, so do watch these Hollywood catastrophe movies? I hate them. What about the young professional who was in the mist of the attack? Did he ask for it? Was it his fantasy? I don't have the answers to these questions, just more and more questions without answers.

I can understand what Zizek is saying. We, as a nation, love the drama and fantasim of these movies. But does that mean the same things to an American who lives in Iowa to the American who lives in Brooklyn? The American in Iowa was not there for this disaster, so is the Brooklynd-dweller being punished for where he lives? Again, these are not questions that are all going to have answers. They are simply questions I have been thinking about a mulling over in my head this week.

Captain PMS, 09/26

Captain’s Blog Stardate 09/29

I watched my friend’s honeymoon footage from Hawaii the other day. It was nice to see that there really are volcanoes, palm trees, and crystal clear water like I had heard, but I couldn’t help but notice that it just wasn’t as vibrant as the Polynesian Resort at Disney World. Go figure.

A while back I wrote on Benjamin’s quote from “The Work of Art” that said, “for the first time in world history, mechanical reproduction emancipates the work of art from its parasitical dependence on ritual.” I find this interesting when I think of what we talked about in class about “The City of Robots.” Disney is an institution that takes mechanical reproduction to a whole new level. They are also an institution that claims to make many art forms, especially in the film and animation genres. However, the themes presented to us when we visit one of Disney’s parks or view one of their films rely on ritual. Repetitive behavior, unchanging patterns, and formal behavior dictated by circumstance are all definitions of ritual and are all present in Disney’s animatronics and in the parental death themes of their cartoons. As Eco points out, “each robot obeys a program, can synchronize the movements of mouth and eyes with the words and sounds of the audio, repeating ad infinitum all day long his established part…” He goes on to say that “the pleasure of imitation, as the ancients knew, is one of the most innate in the human spirit.” What Benjamin considers a “parasitical dependence on ritual” Eco seems to think helps make Disney the world dominating success it has become.

If you ride the Spaceship Earth at Epcot you are treated to a journey through time that is suppose to exhibit man’s technological growth. It doesn’t end with man as cyborg but that might be where were headed. Robots may not need money though so don’t count on Disney’s support.

STEVE-O 9/26

As we finished discussing Horkheimer & Adorno, I continue to be amazed at the accuracy these men had in describing the state of culture for generations to come. At a time when consumers had not yet fully turned over their will and their lives to a power greater than themselves—ENTERTAINMENT, H & A had a glimpse of what it would be like if things progressed from the state in which they were living and they could not have been more precise in there predictions. They witnessed consumers, or participants, willingly sacrificing what was right in order to usher in a never-ending perception of pleasure. This pleasure or amusement is not really what it looks like…it is merely a mirage of the ideal, Because as H&A explain, “The liberation which amusement promises is from thinking as negation” (57). The consumer has handed over his ability to think objectively, he is reaffirming that “At its root…powerlessness” (57), is what we experience once we commit to being entertained. H & K write, “It is indeed escape, but not, as it claims, escape from bad reality but from the last thought of resisting that reality” (57). So basically consumers become complacent…Once we sign on the dotted line of amusement, we are admitting that we don’t have any control over the future and that we are willing to stay happy in the dismal state of affairs that is our reality, “Fortune will not smile on all”, and by agreement to the contract of entertainment, the consumer says he is ok with that. Whoever said that the sky is the limit, definitely did not sign the amusement contract. To question authority, to reach for the stars, to live democratically…all require some objection of the Status Quo…the good thing is that in America, at least, we can opt out of this contract and back in as many times as we want without fear of death or strong penalty…Nazi Germany was not so kind to its participants….


"Tradin' places wanna piece of the pie
Good guy, bad guy, we each gotta die
It's all a game, some'll make the Hall Of Fame
While others'll die in vain tryin' to front for a name" AZ

Deep Thunder- 9/26

The concept that stuck with me the most after this class was not from one of the Theorists we are reading, but rather, from the notorious Dr. ROG, himself. He cited a departure from nature in the present college generation and younger. This is a turning point in Mankind’s History, he asserted, because with the advent of nuclear weaponry and birth control we now have the power to blow ourselves up and control our reproduction; all for the first time. The danger lies in the crevice widening between simulacra and reality, or the natural. I am paraphrasing and I hope that I am accurate in my summary.
This is how I roll: Man must internalize this artificial environment, this systemization of the world, in order to ensure his survival. We seem to be in the beginning stages of computer technology (ask any science fiction writer) and media is wildly intrusive. Fragmented images assail us almost constantly. I believe that we are not wired for this. Perhaps many who do not assimilate well are not freaks or crazy, maybe it is just difficult for them to find an interface. A classmate mentioned to me that she thinks a lot of depression can be linked to this onslaught in that we can never meet the expectations of happiness that we are shown the people on media possess. I think she may have something there. But if the world outside of us continues to become more artificial, so must we, whether we like it or not. Those who are unable to adapt and interface will be those who will cease. This is the new survival of the fittest. Adaptability has always been necessary to carry on, but now we must go further: we must synthesize.

Deep Thunder- Eco

“Each robot obeys a program, can synchronise the movements of mouth and eyes with the words and sounds of the audio, repeating ad finitum all day long the established part…and the visitor, caught off guard by the succession of events, obliged to see several things at once…has not time to look back and observe that he has just seen is already repeating his external scenario.” (Eco 204)

In Eco’s The City of Robots, he asserts that animatronics are not equal to a human employee, but better. That they are not a simulation, but a simulacrum that is real and nearly perfect in its own rite. He also argues that the guests are robots as well. But what of the Cast? In my daily observations working at the House of Mouse, I have been struck by how much like a robot the ideal cast member is. But these robots are even more extreme than the animatronics and guests.
The ideal Disney Cast member is void of individuality. Shaving of the face is required (with the exception of mustaches like Walt’s, of course) for men so that they more closely resemble the women. The exact same clothing for men and women, cut and styled in ways that are intended not only to be surreal as is their explicit intent, but also in ways that are flattering neither to a man or woman. This is a move towards androgyny. Scripts are provided for each post within the parks, and you are to repeat them with enthusiasm always. The ideal employee does not apply critical thinking or intelligence in their position, however, a high tolerance for repetition and subservience comes in handy. You are to do what you are told and when you are told; this includes going on break or to the restroom in many positions. I could go on and on and probably will in my praxis essay but I will say this for now: If Walt had had the technology, there would be no humans working as Cast members and only robots. Oh wait, he did that already.

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Bloggrokker (Scott) 9/26

Zero = a po-mo paradox?
Is the concept of zero a totalizing meta-metanarrative?
And, if so, can zero, this totalizing meta-meta, be broken down into singular narratives, "little stories," as Lyotard prefers?
Hell, I don't think I can come near any kind of concrete solution here. All I can do is lay down the back-story to this headscratchin' shebang.
I'm currently whipping my way through a great book by Charles Seife called Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea. As you can probably gather, it's the controversial history of this oft-vilified number--or meta-number, as some future cases might re-define it. I really dig this read. If anyone out there is at all into the origin of the numerical and philosophical idea of nothing, and this idea's rejection in ancient Greek and Judeo-Christian cultures and its embracing in the Hindu and Muslim worldviews, all the way to zero's position as the Holy Grail of mathematical Mad Hatters in its potential to decode the origins--and the fateful ragnaroks--of the universe, then warm up your library card.
And, surprise, surprise, this is where the book spins paradoxical, where the book goes into the concept of zero's dual meaning, infinity and the void--in other words, everything and nothing.
I don't want to delve into the domain of theoretical physicists here, what with their chalk-dusted jacket-sleeves and longings for some kind of Atomsmasher Fantasy Camp, and plumb this paradox--I'll leave it to the chalk-dusted set. I can't. This is where the meta-metanarrativity thing kicks in.
It's simple. If zero encompasses everything, and if everything in turn encompasses every totalizing metanarrative--Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, capitalism, Marxism, science, even paleolithic cave paintings if you stretch things effectively enough--ever spun, isn't zero a totalizing meta-metanarrative?
And, if true, what does this say for Lyotard's battle-cry of "waging a war against totality?"
Lyotard, good li'l po-moist he is, wants to break zero down. He might want to turn to simple arithmetic for reinforcements, zero being largely of mathematical domain.
What happens when you subtract zero? Nothing changes. Void happens.
What happens when you divide by zero? An infinity of a repeated sequence appears. Is this a kind of mathematical simulacra? Is there such a thing as postmodern math? Postmathematics?
Sorry, Lyotard. Zero's not going anywhere. Zero's impervious to your postmodern lashings.
And if the idea of a totalizing meta-metanarrative is a totalizing fraud?
Zero's still got a lot of po-mo moxey.
Consider zero's image. Isn't it the very image of a return to the absent center?
Consider the idea of the void, the gap, the very place, Barthes tells us, to look for true meaning.
Consider the plurality of meanings spewing forth from zero's simple round shape. Everything from Oprah's nom de signifier "O" to a two-dimensional rendering of the known planets--deepest apologies to Pluto--leap to mind.
If not a totalizing meta-metanarrative, is zero perhaps a meta-signifier?
Then there's Ground Zero. Here he goes again, you might scream.
Ground Zero--where an architectural zeroing effect took place.
(A zeroing effect hatched from the cultural region of the world where we got sifr, the Arabic word "empty" and the translated root of the English zero. Don't worry. I'll stop here.)
Everything's got a scary angle to it.
Didn't T. S. Eliot write "I will show you fear in a handful of dust?"
Manhattan's streets were terribly dusty a few years ago.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

PetalswiththeWind Baudrillard

Jean Baudrillard’s theory is so intricately woven, every single word, grammar rule, and punctuation mark is infused with meaning; one can read him a hundred times and it still will not be enough. Baudrillard declares, “Lockdown and control increase in direct proportion to (and undoubtedly even faster than) liberating potentialities” (479). The potency in potential is weakened, diluted, watered down; truth is distorted with simulated emotion prior to what could be an original experience. Sporadic various moments of truth is mixed in with fiction and fantasy, replacing reality (Baudrillard 456-457). Absorbed as science, simulacrum prevails, attempting to preserve appearances for the outsiders looking in, to entertain. Perspectives are sometimes all for show, benefiting the observers the most, rather than the genuine life “experimenter”. With the elimination of simulation, one can actually experience reality as it is happening, without predispositions. Emotions that simulate a reality before it even can occur, limiting energy, and potential. Simulated reality’s gatekeeper is fear, of what could be, to its fullest distinctive capacity. Learn from the past don’t live in it, and plan for the future, but don’t wish past it. The practice and refinement of “something” should come from self, not what value another puts on it, the balancing should comes from civilization itself, enabling the unique extension of self as a unifying factor for society. When someone can not live up to the ideals that others put before a person, because its against his/her inborn character, often he/she are persecuted to the extent of the simulating abnormal conditions, making that person harbor feelings of abnormalities, thus, project symptoms (Baudrillard 454-455). Emotional conditioning based on the value system of another is restraint in its greatest form.

What matters most, the perspective that you hold in one another’s eyes, the ones you love, or instead do you prefer to take the whole world to bed with you? Then, I have that option not to be an image or representation, that is my free will, my pursuit of happiness, no one else can decide for me, when they give me limited options, and not enabling the totality to occur, then I know that they are not revealing all, if they are not revealing all there is only a part they want me to see, an intended message, saturated in all the present limited choices, an ulterior motive in the presenting skewed facts especially around the presence of the words said and the absence of the words that are not mentioned. What lies beyond what is mentioned, in the land of the forbidden: the reasons why it is unmentionable, fear of particular actions of the party when everything is pointed out, analyzed, and examined; controlling them with options, options that another has determined befitting, unquestionably, with arrogant certainty, as if they supply totalizing conditions on what is happiness, an encompassing basis or cause for what is simulated.

AM Eco

Even as I think about writing this blog, I have a hard time trying to get past the idea that no matter what I write, it will only be a second-hand interpretation of the real thing. It will be my authentic senses and my authentic feelings narrowed down to the humble words I call up to describe them. The words themselves are only descriptions of the sensations I once felt.

I think Umberto Eco needs to relax. Yes, yes his commentary on the, "realism of the reconstruction" (201) is an interesting perspective on the organized manipulations of Disney, but really, how will we really know what Disney's true intentions were. Were his intentions to create fantastic lands that pull of away from reality? Were his intentions to capitalize on that notion? If so, then what's so wrong with that?

Yes, yes, the "levels of illusion are numerous" but isn't it just art? Aren't we suspending our disbelief because we WANT to...because we PAID to. I think Eco notions are important to know and understand as contributing memebers to a postmodern culture, however I think this only furthers my curiosity. Why, then, is it necessary for Americans (or humans in general) to have fantasy...escape...to value reproductions rather than the real -because it's convenient. What is it about ourselves that finds value in these things? So, c'mon, Eco....what else ya got?

MC - Eco

I loved Eco's essay "The City of Robots" if only because it hit so close to home, I couldn't help but chuckle at many of his observations. I searched through flickr.com to find an appropriate picture to set off my response to this reading and wasintrigued (if not a little dismayed) to find an entire group devoted to "Orlando Vacation Best Spots". I won't complain abot the photos of man-made ponds, styrofoam statues and perfectly trimmed hedges (all well-taken, decent photographs). I am, however, troubled by the commentary that group members have made on the photos.


Take, for example, this photo of the inside of the Mexican pavillion at Epcot. According to the photographer, the illusion of being outside in Mexico was so convincing, he forgot he was actually eating dinner indoors. While I feel the urged to roll my eyes at the absurdity of being fooled by a couple of mist machines, I can also remember the hush that came over me when I first set foot on the Mexican soundstage. Then again, I was about 7 years old when I went to Epcot. Now that I've had the opportunity to read and travel, the entire concept of Epcot and Disney infuriates me.

It harkens back to the days of the World's Fair in the late 1800's in which it was hip to transport "savages" and other authentic "natives" from their homelands and into a mockup village for vacationers to pay and gawk at. At least at the time, it was actually authentic.

The tentacles of Disney are extensive, take a look at their monstrous creation Celebration, FL which could probably be renamed as Pleasantville or Generic-Midwest-Town-Lacking-Total-Imagination-And-Personality (but that's a little long). All sorts of rules and regulations are required in order for the citizens to live there: a certain income is required to afford the houses and the maitenence, cars and other motor vehicles are to be kept out of sight and out of the street, lawns are to properly groomed and pruned, it seems as though even bicycles are encouraged to be tucked away (along with their young riders). Oh, there's color at Celebration but it's definately all straitlaced black and white (or to be blunt, white and white).

I remember going to Disney World as a young preteen, about the age that I started developing a trusty thing called skepticism. I was standing with my family in the crowd just in front of the Magic Castle watching Mickey, Minnie and other Disney characters doing a Christmas preformance (complete with fake snow billowing out from cannons). At one point, the actress wearing the Minnie costume took a nasty stumble on the stage which prompted several Disney employees from behind the scenes to rush to her aid. While they were setting Ms. Minnie back on her feet (she was unhurt), her fellow ladies in waiting (Cinderella, Belle, Snow White etc) continued their charming charade without even flinching. Only a few other vacationers surrounding me made a murmur of acknowledgement to the incident but, like the actresses ignored it as well. Soon the show was over but I couldn't forget watching Minnie diving to the ground. I just kept thinking, "Who ignores that?"

I can understand that creating a land of make-believe for children is entertaining (and some argue it helps with emotional/mental development) but when adults are proactively suspending their belief to snap pictures of plaster carved trees, hallow marble statue replicas and shrubbery that would never naturally form into the shape of a mouse, they simply become part of the illusion.

No, dude, you're not really outside eating dinner next to ancient Mayan ruins. For the complete and total illusion to work, you'd need homeless mexican children begging for pesos, spanish speaking waiters, actual mexican food that induces Traveler's diarrhea and that fantastic view of the Mayan ruins would actually be obstructed by the recently built Wal-Mart.

E.M. 9/28/06 Pre-class post.

I just took family to Disney World on Sunday. As I was watching them go on the Barn Stormer Roller coaster for the 3 or fourth time. I looked around - people watched - Employee watched. Every one was having fun or seemed to be having fun. I knew the real truth they had spent so much money - they dared not have fun. To have paid thousands to take the children to the Rat for the day and have it be a bust was just plain bad parenting. To parents bigger is better - fast slick Disney rides. Yet what did the children want to spend the most time on the fountains that splash out of the ground or feed the ducks -- all things they could do for free at a city park. Now mind you I have season passes for the young - they enjoy the experience and I need the exercise. To me the rat is a giant forced ho chi min march in hot sticky weather. It beats sitting at home in front of the TV. At the character breakfast I saw six and seven foot high character hug children who looked like they wanted to pee in fear. Just like Robin Williams said to a Kid --Mickey Mouse is a giant six foot rat. Going home we pass by the ultimate disnification experiment - Celebration - Their neighborhood association informs them of the color to paint their house to the fact that they cannot wear short shorts to jog around the planned community.
After Katrina in the aftermath of New Orleans - journalists wrote about their concerns for New Orleans - they spoke about their concern that New Orleans would go though a Disneyfication phase. Cute pastel southern houses. The city would loose its raw dark flavor and in its place would be Disney's idea of a nice safe place to visit. Would they have voodoo franchises? Who knows - I just want to know what they employee training program would be like.

cc- Baudrillard i.e the death of your feeble hopes

So they say “punk is dead,” and I’ve never had a problem agreeing with “them” on this issue.

For some reason I have been getting a lot of really awful magazines in the mail (Glamour, Star, Entertainment Weekly, GQ, some stupid car magazine). Usually I just throw them away so that I don’t get a brain aneurism trying to make sense of where the actual articles are located, since these magazines are usually over 90% ads. But the other day my boyfriend actually kept GQ because there was an article called “Mind Your Bollocks! 30 Years of Punk.” I don’t think he took it seriously, but as a publisher of his own magazine these things perk his curiosity. I ranted and raved about how the article would just piss him off, and it did, but he looked anyway. Sure enough, the table of contents (which was on like page 40 and took us forever to find) listed the article with this caption, “GQ’s fast, loud, and occasionally filthy guide to all things punk.” Occasionally filthy?! Oh how daringly “punk” of GQ magazine. After that, I gave up. I didn’t even want to know what kind of categorized, sanitized, watered down sort of “punk” I was going to get from this article. I think punk died the second someone called it punk. And it seems Jean Baudrillard would agree. How can anarchy and rebellion ever be packaged and sold? Obviously, it can and it has, but its just a simulacra. If someone is “punk” they should be living under a bridge, not wearing $70 tight jeans and going on MTV with a few tattoos and a “bad attitude,” and posing this as punk because they play songs with the same three cord changes. It’s dead. It is a total simulacrum of what the original was, “a copy of an imitation.”

Well, this is all too obvious and has been since probably the 80’s. But what isn’t so apparent is Baudrillard’s notion that not just punk, but a lot of other things are also these hyper realities, and by “a lot of things” I mean everything. Ouch. This one hurts my brain meats in a big way (even though I love it).

Baudrillard is a great deal more readable than some of the other theorists we’ve encountered this semester, and perhaps that is because his themes are more familiar to me (I studied him last year and I saw the Matrix). Yet, even though I get almost everything he is saying, I don’t get it. Because I read something like “truth, reference, [and] objective cause have ceased to exist” (455) and it isn’t too difficult to interpret, it even sounds right, but then it sort of melts away in my brain and leaves me with nothing but questions.

If everything is a giant simulacrum and nothing is real, nothing is true, then why does Baudrillard even write? To say that nothing is true except for the fact that nothing is true, means that SOMETHING is true… nothing. Oh man, headaches again. How can Baudrillard assert that it is an “impossibility” to have “a determined discursive position” (464) while he is trying to state one? He covers this by saying in a simulated society seemingly opposite things can be “simultaneously true” (464), but how if NOTHING is true. Further, if nothing is true than there is no good or evil. Scratch that. Let's go bigger, there is not even such a thing as right and wrong. So then the “monstrous unprincipled enterprise” (463) of capital isn’t really “monstrous” or “unprincipled” at all. How can it be? Everything is dead and neutral. We are left standing in front of this beast of a simulated society with no weapons. Baudrillard was trying to arm us against it, but it seems he did the exact opposite. He says it is impossible to return to the real at this point, and if we can’t get there we have no solid ground to fight on. This is the only think I dislike about Baudrillard, its complete hopelessness. But the fact that I search for a “truth” and an “answer” to these extremely complex problems is perhaps part of the actual problem itself. I’m looking for a way out when there isn’t one.

Wouldn’t it be nice if there was?

Preclass blog September 26 E.M.

I just took family to Disney World on Sunday. As I was watching them go on the Barn Stormer Roller coaster for the 3 or fourth time. I looked around - people watched - Employee watched. Every one was having fun or seemed to be having fun. I knew the real truth they had spent so much money - they dared not have fun. to have paid thousands to take the children to the Rat for the day and have it be a bust was just plain bad parenting. To parents bigger is better - fast slick disney rides. Yet what did the children want to spend the most time on the fountains that spash out of the gournd or feed the ducks -- all things they could do for free at a city park. Now mind you I have season passes for the young - they enjoy the experience and I need the exercise. To me the rat is a giant forced ho che min march in hot sticky weather. It beats sitting at home in front of the TV. At the character breakfast I saw six and seven foot high character hug children who looked like they wanted to pee in fear. Just like Robin Williams said to a Kid --Mickey mouse is a giant six foot rat. Going home we pass by the ultimate disnification experiment - Celebration - Their neigborood association informs them of the color to paint thier house to the fact that they cannot wear short shorts to jog around the planned community.
After Katerina in the aftermath of New Orleans - journalists wrote about their concerns for New Orleans - they spoke about their concern that New Orleans would go though a Disneyfication phase. cute pastel southern houses. The city would loose its raw dark flavor and in its place would be Disney's idea of a nice safe place to visit. Would they have voodoo franchises? Who knows - I just want to know what they employee training program would be like.

AM Post 9/19

There's a benefit to being late all the time. Really. You see, this blog enables a postmodern culture reader, like yourself, to review information that was presented last week immediately before new information is posted! In a way, this diversifies the chronological order of the blog continuum. It's actually a very postmodern way of presenting a format. Even if I doooo post my after-class blogs on time, wouldn't it be necessary for the reader to actually be in class with me so that I may be validated authentic?

I was into the Benjamin quotes presented in class. They are something definitely better pondered over for a great length of time.... marinating, sort of, in a stew of contemplation. The fourth quote says, "Everybody who witnesses its accomplishments is somewhat of an expert...At any moment the reader is ready to turn into a writer."(27-8) How empowering! We can all become educated experts! But like the trophies distributed to all the pre-K winners at soccer games...how would we begin to distinguish who is the REAL winner?



That's very American, isn't it? That sense of competition. I get a sense of anxiety just thinking about my son, there on the soccer field, racing his little heart out to kick the damn ball only to have little Tommy's team come by, kicking harder, faster and scoring. But it's just a game, right?

Or is it? Benjamin certainly makes me aware that we, in a democratized society, ALL have the opportunity to utilize our education and experience in such a way that enables us to be competitive -on the soccer field or in the global economy. Remember -the process of reproduction is democratizing because it puts us in a position to utilize.
Utilize.
Utilize.
Utilize.
....perfect segway to Eco & Dorfman...

E.M. After Class 9-19 Post

"To be entertained is to be in agreement" - from our Benjamin/Adorno lecture last week. So in other words - if I reach for the national enquirer and I read it even if I'm just standing in the check out line. And it says that Paris Hilton is a alien - I am entertained -this must mean that I am in agreement. Paris Hilton is part of what I call " cult of the personality" people who are famous for being famous. They set fashion trends. Our class last week reminded me of a marketing tool. They look for the alpha teenagers - those who set styles and give them free clothes. They then set fashion and in turn sales of certain clothes go up. Fashion is one part of the Post modern culture that changes quickly - that which is hip cool and in fashion. Once this happens and you see it on the hangers at kmark then it is out. The avant guard concept - once it becomes avant guard it is no longer in fashion it becomes old and dated. I was watching Aeon Flux the movie - Her hair changed color at each point of the movie depending on her mood or her surroundings. Will this be the new trend to keep jaded over stimulated people from becoming burned out. Our future is often portrayed as harsh and manipulated by corporations and goverment. Are we being conditioned to believe that this is inevidable or are we being warned so we can stop the process. I beleive to try to stop this process is futile.

MC - 9/19

After disucssing last class with my boyfriend, he sent me an interesting PDF of an article entitled "E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction" by David Foster Wallace. The article is long (44 pages) and covers a lot of topics but I felt the first ten pages really said a lot about watching and being watched (also look for sections on metafiction and irony). Television, Wallace says, "is an absolute godsend for a human subspecies that loves to watch people but hates being watched".

This might explain why I get a huge kick out of watching Lindsay Lohan doing strange exercises in the middle of an empty parking lot while I'm at home thanking my lucky stars that papparazzi aren't snapping pics of me doing my own song and dance routine or why I spend hours upon precious hours of watching old Laguna Beach reruns (What? The new cast blows!).

Wallace emphasizes that "We can see Them; They can't see Us". But this doesn't really explain the whole Myspace and Youtube phenomenon. Obviously, even lonely people (especially lonely people) want to be seen and heard no matter how ridiculous they may appear. In fact, I think that's why these two websites are so unbelieveably popular. We've reinvented concepts of what is socially awkward. Case in point, the unforgettable Numa Numa Fan or the Star Wars Kid immortalized by shows like Family Guy and The Colbert Report. I think if Youtube were to launch it's own television network on cable, it might actually be a huge success but since we already have reality shows that make gigantic fools out of people, it might be a little redundant.

I can see how "the gaze of millions" could work similarly in terms of fiction. Writers and readers might stick with a more strict role of observer vs. the observed. But even in fanfiction, the roles can be interchanged.

But I think in Wallace's article he acknowledges that the "rebel postmodernists" are the ones who

"risk the yawn, the rolled eyes, the cool smile, the nudged ribs, the parody of gifted ironists the "How Banal."


How banal, indeed.

AS Eco, Dorfman & Mattelart

I have never been to Disney. Whew, there, I said it. My childhood soldiered on without a spin on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, without the mind-decaying sweetness of a Mickey and Minnie sandwich hug, and yes, even without a life-affirming trip through It’s a Small World After All. Unfortunately, I can still hum the tune. That is how pervasive Disney is. Children are indoctrinated to Disney culture from their infancy. Disney movies, Disney pajamas, Disney sippy-cups, and the Disney Channel; kids are fed Disney propaganda telling them it is the happiest place on earth and if their mommy and daddy loved them, they’d take them on a 4night, 5day vacation to the Magic Kingdom. The mad scary thing is that the ideals of Disney Utopia are spreading to the “real” world. Celebration is the ultimate example of a toy city spawning a toy neighborhood. Think Stepford with mouse ears.

24/7 happiness and good cheer is just creepy, in my humble, adult-of-a-Disney-deprived-childhood opinion. I am not alone. I loved this week’s readings, probably because I could relate to them and their questioning the plastic perfection of Disney. Dorfman and Mattelart were on to something when they wrote:

“Even to whisper anything against Walt is to undermine the happy and innocent palace of childhood, for which he is both guardian and guide.” (123)

Walt Disney, the man behind the mouse, is the guardian of innocence? Here I thought he was a businessman. The creators of “Robot Chicken” would approve of Dorfman and Eco and their ilk. For those of you still innocent of Adult Swim, “Robot Chicken” is a stop-motion animation series that gleefully skewers pop-culture and its icons. One episode features what happens to the dying Walt Disney deep in the underground tunnels he built. Instead of awaiting advanced medical knowledge in a state of icy slumber, good old Walt has his head removed and incorporated into an animatronic body. He becomes one of those freaky robots with the addition of an unquenchable thirst for the blood of small children. Not that far off the mark. Advertisers know that if you hook consumers young, you keep them forever. Disney exploits, in the warmest and fuzziest way, children’s creativity, imagination, and piggy banks.

Monday, September 25, 2006

sardine -- pre-9/26 -- ps: baudrillard

Thank you to my babysitter; I am finally catching up. Yes, I am still pissed off. And now for a note on this week’s readings:

“In order for ethnology to live, its object must die; by dying, the object takes revenge for being 'discovered' and with its death defies the science that wants to grasp it” (Baudrillard, p. 457).

It is science itself that assumes the pretense of authentic objectivity. I will put you under a microscope and objectively objectify you. Because I am Scientist, I can also objectify myself without subjectification. What power it is to objectify! Those who objectify also define.

“Ethnology” in itself is rather ridiculous concept. No longer is it mere anthropology, ethnology takes a step further into a meta objectivity.

I, the Ethnologist, will step into your culture. We will both be subject. I will objectively subjectify you through your own eyes. Now I will take notes for a thesis I will try to build a career on. I will objectively subjectify your sexual practices, your cannibalism, your language, your rituals, your war making, your religious beliefs, your genital mutilations, and your medicine.

Ooops! Excuse me for that sneeze and the streptococcal droplets with which I just decimated half your population. Now I will go home and write theory.

Baudrillard is yummy!

RB Eco

Learning about Audio-Animatronics is the kind of thing I do at 3 am when nothing is on TV but the History Channel’s Modern Marvels. Walt Disney’s favorite president, I learn, was Abraham Lincoln. Recreating the Great Emancipator became Disney’s obsession, and the result is magic.* Animatronic Lincoln recites “The Gettysburg Address” in a way the Emancipator himself never could. Like a robot.

“The pleasure of imitation," writes Umberto Eco, "as the ancients knew, is one of the most innate in the human spirit.” This quote’s context in “The City of Robots” gives the word “spirit” an ironic spin. Eco’s essay has an M.-Night-Shyamalan-style twist toward the end. Not only are Disney theme parks full of animatronic robots, they’re full of living robots—the people.

The amusement park is a false reality created to falsify within the consumers a desire to spend. Therefore the only thing that is real, according to Eco, is merchandise. Amusement parks are three-dimensional advertisements we pay in order to be apart of the advertisement itself.

The three-dimensional advertisement’s financial success has resulted in its duplication all over the world.** “The pleasure of imitation” is motivated and enhanced by profit. And Honest Abe helps sell tickets.

* Disney magic.
**Even France.

Mony-Eco would love this...

Five years ago, I saved hundreds of New Yorkers from a 60-foot ravenous beast by shooting it in the chest with a rifle.

After the kill, the screaming passengers never stopped me from a perfect landing into Roosevelt Island station, with not so much as a scratch on my police badge. Crying children thanked me for saving them from this mammoth being, while grown men shook from the shock of the experience. You see - I was Captain Mony and it was my job to evacuate hundreds of tourists daily from King Kong at Universal Studios Orlando (not to be confused with Universal Studios Tokyo).

The amount of "reconstructed” and “hyperealistic details” on the Kong Experience was nauseating. As the “robots” entered the “maze of metal railings”, the smell of propane, the censored graffiti, and the strategically placed litter would suddenly transport them to NYC. The tourists were amazed over this. I would overhear them commenting on how “realistic” the setting was, and what a good job Universal did at replicating New York
Even some New Yorkers were astounded at what Eco would call the "reconstructed truth”. The real truth is that they spent thousands of dollars and two hours in line just to see a reproduction of home. But what attracts the crowds the most is what Baudrillard said" is without a doubt the social microcosm, the religious, miniaturized pleasure of real America."

The “Animatronic” Kong would have “technical difficulties” daily. This is probably why the ride has now been replaced with The Mummy. His body parts were constantly deflating and the guides would have to play it off like he had been shot in those areas. On one of my rides, Kong’s nipple just popped off. In my headphones I was told to act like Kong was sick. Hmm, with what- Gorilla de-nippiling disease. I laughed hysterically and was fired the next day.

I would much rather be stuck in the reality of I-4 traffic, and then working on the days when the “absolute iconism” of Kong would malfunction. These were the days when a place of ‘total passivity” turned to a place of pissed off tourists.

I wish that Eco had been on the "nipple" ride with me -we would have had a good laugh.

ix Dorfman & Mattelart, Zizek

A lot of material to cover this week. I’m merely touching upon some observations I had while reading the above-mentioned authors.

I enjoyed reading Dorfman and Mattelart’s “Instructions,” particularly the parts where they discuss the implied perception of “‘pure entertainment,’ especially those designed for children of tender years,” and in this specific case Disney, as strictly apolitical and “asocial” (M 124). Immediately upon reading that paragraph, I recalled a scene in the movie Fantasia, which probably, not accidentally, is mentioned in the quote at the top of page as “a prodigious feat of cinematic art” (124). The quote from La Segunda went on to laud how a particular scene, with elephants performing “The Dance of the Dragonflies,” was one “of the utmost splendor and realism” (124). The scene of “utmost…realism” that popped in my mind was the socially and politically influenced, if not directly motivated, scene where a black, course-haired wooly centaur is kneeling while (s)he? polishes the hooves of the white, platinum blonde, silken centaur “princess” sitting on her haunches admiring her painted fingernails. In order for Disney to maintain their fabricated apolitical and asocial stance, current versions of Fantasia are being released with all the scenes containing the servile black centaur edited out. If it no longer is on celluloid, then it no longer further exists, and hopefully as time goes by people will forget and it will be as if it never had existed.

This is a perfect segue to Zizek, who discusses “captured images” and the derealizing power they have over us the viewer. He accurately states that for “the great majority of the public, the WTC explosions were events on the TV screen, and when we watched the oft-repeated shot of frightened people running towards the camera ahead of the giant cloud of dust from the collapse of the tower” we could not help but be reminded of scenes from films or TV and thus experienced jouissance (C 231).

Incongruous as it may seem and however impertinent it may be, this reminded me of a situation at work. One early morning, while I was at the front of the store, I hear my manager yelling out my name from the back room followed by a “HURRY, HURRY, COME HERE!!” I run back there, and as I round the corner I see, in slow motion of course (cinematic term for a cinematic remembrance of an event), ten or more heavy stacked boxes topple on and over my boss, clip the fire extinguisher, breaking the seal at the base of the hose. As my manager quickly turns running towards me, a gigantic white powdery cloud instantly forms behind him. I take off back towards the front of the store (everyman for himself) and run to the store entrance and wait for him while I hold the door partially open. He barely emerges from the narrow back room when the billowing cloud sodium and potassium bicarbonate overtakes him. Being in a bigger more open space the cloud quickly dissipates, but not before layering the entire store in an extra-fine white/gray powder that took several weeks to clear out of every nook and cranny. Later that day as we recounted the story to our coworkers and customers my manager would liken his running away from the cloud to the infamous scene who’s images, Zizek says, “transfixed” us. Talk about being so derealized to the “spectacular” scenes of people running from the dust cloud in lower Manhattan, that not only could my manager liken our plebian event to that one, but also elicit laughs from us and the customers as well.

STEVE-O ECO

Echo...echo........echo....

Can you hear it?

The reverberation of Postmodernism which is Disney-World/Land...take your pick.

Actually the west coast example can't come close to the quality of the reproduction of fakeness, as does its east coast sister. I remember as a kid, riding the matterhorn (Disney California) and still having the idea that I hadn't left Los Angeles, You could see the building on either side of the park. But Disney World was a WORLD OF ITS OWN! You really felt like you were in another planet. The mind of those Imagineers...I always wondered why Disney never drug tests its employees. Horkheimer and Adorno’s (H & A) ideas come to life in Eco’s Essay, as if they were Disney’s animatronics. The first quote by H & A I want to echo onto this text is, “The advance of stupidity must not lag behind the simultaneous advance of intelligence” (M 57). What a great quote! But now think about this, “Disneyland tells us that technology can give us more reality than nature can” (Eco 203). So the advancement in knowledge can exploit our reality and make us believe that we are in fantasy even though we have proof that we are in reality…(the good ol’ pinch test)..OUCH this is real. Eco writes, “hallucinatory is the confusion between copy and original” (202). Under Eco’s theory, when we know we are in the imaginary, I mean fully immersed in it, there is a tendency to believe the fakeness is reality… “and where it is credible, the reduction serves to make it attractive to the imagination” (204). We allow our own undermining, H & A write, “Their lack of resistance certifies them as reliable customers” (M 63). So, we pay admission in order to be taken advantage of…err…I mean Amused. Thus we “insist unwaveringly on the ideology by which they [we] are enslaved” (H&A 50). “Their [Disney’s] ideology is business” (H&A 52). And, “The quantity of organized amusement is converted into the quality of organized cruelty”(H&A 53). Furthermore, “Amusement itself becomes an ideal, taking the place of the higher values it eradicates from the masses by repeating them in an even more stereotyped form than the advertising slogans…” (H&A 56). This realized Ideology is the “degenerate utopia” described in Eco’s essay. Just as Vegas has been “faked it, till you maked it” into a quasi-city, Disney has blended “the reality of trade with the play of fiction” (201). This happens to such an extreme where the consumer is “distracted” into the mindset that play is reality and trade is fiction…. The only thing authentic is the consumer,

The Main street facades are presented to us as toy houses and invite us to enter the, but their interior is always a disguised supermarket, where you buy obsessively, believing that you are still playing

Your on a this ride, following a character named Figment, with an addictive jingle playing that repeats “Imagination” to the point that imaginary is real and real is imaginary…and you want to believe it…your kids do for sure...and you wouldn’t want to spoil it for them...right? Because in life we are always looking for that next object of unattainability…Whether that be material or emotional…and Disney gives it to us, on a silver platter…and even though it looks like shit and tastes like shit and smells like shit…it feels good…and we want more.


“It's like that, you know it's like that
I got at him, now you never get the mic back
When I attack, there ain't an army that could strike back” Nas


ONE

frouella, Baudrillard

"The image consumes the event, in the sense that it absorbs it and offers it for consumption. Admittedly, it gives it unprecedented impact, but impact as image-event."

And that would explain the handful of movies that have already been released about 9/11 -- World Trade Center, United 93, Flight 93, etc. It makes me wonder, does the real-life event have to be made into a movie for people to grasp its importance? Or maybe the reality is more "real" when it's fake, as the other authors in this week's readings have said.

I remember thinking much the same thing as M. Baudrillard does in this article, shortly after 9/11 (and hey, how often can a person say that?). After watching the news footage of the jets slamming into the towers over and over again, I remember thinking that it seemed...obscene, almost masochistic really, for the news channels to keep repeating those images.

Cue Baudrillard: "...the media are part of the event, they are part of the terror, and they work in both directions."

Well that's a comforting thought. And people wonder why I don't have cable. But this quote does make me wonder what 9/11 would have been like without streaming video coverage and newscaster play-by-play. It's impossible to say, and, now that I think about it, it's a pretty stupid question really; a world that didn't have television news probably wouldn't have jumbo jets to crash into buildings in the first place.

Random PoMoment:
So apparently in Japan, there's a commercial out for cod-roe pasta sauce that has such a catchy jingle that the public actually asked the company to write the whole song. Here, we fast-forward through the commercials; there, they ask for the extended remix. O.o

I tried to attach the cool little YouTube player-thingie to this post, but alas, it did not work, for I am not tech-savvy. Which means you can still watch the video, but you have to do it the old-fashioned way and go to YouTube.com and search for "kigurumi tarako." It's cute/creepy capitalism -- enjoy!

Try this and see if the link works now...

ginny t.: Eco

When I was a kid, my most favorite thing to do on the weekends was to visit this place called the "Discovery Center." It was this awesome learning/Science Center-y place that had all kinds of hands-on learning stations set up to teach kids things like the function of the 5 senses and how bubbles are made...but the real reason I loved the Discovery Center was their "imaginary town." It was this wonderful fantasy land of reality. They had a grocery store, bank, diner, dentist office, sewer system, plane cockpit, and archeological dig, all perfectly to scale and all perfectly real. These rooms were equipped with everything you would (presumably) find at say, a bank or diner. I would spend hours running from room to room, scanning empty Nilla Wafer boxes and rubber apples at the real "working" cash register in the grocery store, giddily taking a deposit and putting it safely in the vault in the bank, and cheerily serving my imaginary customers silicone steaks and mashed potatoes. I loved this toy city. It made me feel grown up and competent and insanely important.

Now that I'm 26 and immersed in "real" reality, I no longer have the same feelings of bliss when I run my daily errands. Playing at being a "grown-up" in the Discovery Center has trained me to be a robot in my real world. I sure as Hell don't get giddy about going to the grocery store, or bank, or dentist. And there is certainly nothing jolly about the most soul-crushing job I've ever had...waitressing. The things I loved pretending to do as a child because they seemed so real have become the drudgery that makes up my adult reality. Now I go through these tasks as if on auto-pilot--a real life Audio-Animatron--imagining what it would be like to freed from the responsibilities of reality. Things happen, time passes, but it is all pretty much a blur, and I'm left wandering the isles, wondering where the drudgery of reality ends and the excitement of living begins.

CL Eco

In the words of GOB Bluth "Oh, come on! You're going to tell the guy in $1,700 suit that he's not going to write about Eco when he grew up in Orlando, Florida? Come on!"

Okay, maybe that isn't quite as relatable as I was hoping, especially if you re not an Arrested Development fan. But anyways....

So, Eco. I found myself absolutely captivated by the entire article, as I am sure many of my classmates did as well. How could we not be? This is our day-to-day culture. We "get" it. Maybe it has something to do with everything we have learned thus far in class this semester, or maybe this particular article was not that hard to digest, but I was captivated. There were a few lines in particular that stood out to me, including "Disneyland tells us that technology can give us more reality that nature can" (pg 203). I found this to be particularly interesting because not only is this what Disney tells us, it is what our culture has told us to believe.

When I was a kid my family would come down to visit us here in Florida from Kentucky. We would drive down Highway 50 until we got to one of those road-side airboat rides. Awesome! We would pill into those rickety little boats and speed around the swamp, always on the look for alligators. My cousins from up north did not see gators except when they came to visit us down here. Ususally we would spot one or tow, and it was always a good time for the kids and adults alike. But not near as good of a time as the trip to Disney the next day. There wild (fake) animals we in abundance, and we could see almost in sort of exotic and/or imaginary animal we could imagine without the risk of a leak or turning over in the rickety old airboat somewhere in the middle of the swamp.

The parents liked this because we were guaranteed to be satisfied little kids. With the airboat ride we ran the risk of not seeing any actual, live gators. But at Disney we were GUARANTEED to see wildlife. The "adventure" was a sure thing, unlike the real adventure in the swamp. The real had been replaced by the fake, and we took the fake to become the "real experience"- verisimilitude. Technology was able to give us more reality- guaranteed reality- than nature could.

Of curse now as an adult I am thankful for both experiences with all my cousins. But the ones I will always remember more is all of us piled into one of those rickety old airboats flying across the Florida swamp, screaming with fear and delight whenever we came across a giant gator sunning on the shore.

JOH Eco

Greetings ~

Growing up in Phoenix for some time, the place to go for me, the magical place that captured my imagination and made me, even at six, consider the past, was Tombstone. I remember driving through the desert in my baby sitter's boyfriend's old muscle car (probably a Nova - purely speculation), riding on her lap and steering through the loose, golden sand as we fish-tailed down the road (probably listening to Journey - purely speculation). The car had a T-Top - not speculation. Anyways, on many a weekend we would drive to Tombstone to wander the streets, purchasing rock candy, touring the OK Coral, and sipping rootbeer at the saloon. Hearing an argument outside, we would rush to the walkway to see the "Sheriff" ordering some "guy in black" to "throw down his weapon!" Well, no luck this time, everytime, as the bad guy would pull and fire, the Sheriff and his deputies would exchange a hearty dose of violence, as invariably, some man would yelp and roll off of the roof of an unmarked building. Exciting. Until I realized that the "Sheriff" lived down the street from us, and, though he was a real Sheriff in our town, the whole thing was a hoax. Good thing we left that God forsaken fake town and moved to Orlando, Florida - nothing fake in Orlando.

Reading Eco made me think about a cultural anthropology class I took that addressed the Vietnam war. Initially, we studied the Viet culture, which was quite interesting - actually, more so now with PoMo in my pocket. Anyways, the second half of the semester we studied American culture, reading a book by Richard Slotkin called Gunfighter Nation. Much of the content concerning Am. Culture related to the "frontier myth," an energy perpetuated in great part by T. Roosevelt. The idea was that in order for man to continue to cultivate himself, he must search out challenges and overcome the savages of the world. When the frontier filled, rather than calling it a day, the U.S. sought to liberate, teach, dominate, or whatever other nations - starting, I believe, with the Philippines.

I swear I'm still here ...

The hero continuum (Regeneration through Regression in most American films follows the pattern of:
a) things are fine
b) things decline [challenge]
c) choice is made [by hero]
d) all others bail
e) hero stays the course, fights
f) hero wins [usually involves a blonde]
and he is better than when he began

The clearest examples of this continuum are western films. Here, the town is superficial, held up by 2X4's, the story is predictable, and the audience is enthralled by the strife of the star as he defeats the savages (bad guys) and the bugs (towns people), wins the girl, and saves the day. Ahhhh America. We are STILL loving this. With the predictability of the fake towns, this story line, told well through the westerns, skims the surface of reality and distracts the observer. Don't buy it? Some guy, from Texas, can't talk for S, but he's out there "fighting over there so we don't have to fight over here," defeating the savages (radical Islamists), spreading the truth, while attempting to win lady liberty's hand.

Going and going and going and going ...

Captain PMS, Dorfman, Mattelart

Captain’s Blog Stardate 09/25

I wrote my previous blog only to turn around and read Zizek and discover that he is talking about the same thing only he’s about five-thousand times smarter than me. I feel like a child trying to grasp Lincoln logs while the dude instructing me is building a cathedral.

“So the comics show the child as a miniature adult, enjoying an idealized, gilded infancy which is really nothing but the adult projection of some magic era beyond the reach of the discord of daily life.” - Dorfman, Mattelart

I’ll get back to the quote in a minute. Many years ago, when I was quite little, my parents belonged to a cult. I’m not going to reveal its name here because I don’t want to risk offending anyone’s beliefs. Also the word “cult” is controversial when applied to certain groups, but trust me like simulacra you know one when you see it. If you have actually been in one and aren’t anymore, than you know the only way to recover yourself is to call a spade a spade and acknowledge the truth of what you were a part of. My parents unplugged themselves so to speak. They swallowed the pill, and I have been forever grateful.

That said, people in the cult my parents were once a part of, love Disney World. They go a lot. Almost every family vacation I can remember as a child was spent in a theme park. They love the idea of it, I believe because it represents the ideal of what they want life to be. They drag the kids around and take pictures of them all happy and sticky-faced and then they send those pictures to other family members so they can see how happy everyone is. Then they sit down and plan their next trip to Disney World because it is the only place where everything is what they want it to be. They don’t complain about the prices, to them it’s worth every penny.

So now for the quote above. The biggest misconception about Disney World, in my experience, is that it exists for the children. It is the opposite. The Magic Kingdom reminds adults of what they once imagined the grown up world to be like, all clean, neat, and fun. For the ultra-religious members of my family, those who consume God until he is all they know, the Magic Kingdom is a heaven they can already see. It gives them a goal. Work hard, obey, and fear and you too shall have all this. A Main Street of your own filled with shiny idols and five-dollar penny candy.

TyG - Baudrillard - God, It's True, I Love PoMo.

But wait.

It seems there is no God. Baudrillard proclaims that there has never been a God, "that deep down God never existed, that only the simulacrum ever existed, [. . .] that God himself was never anything but his own simulacrum" (455).
B. claims further that "if God himself can be simulated [. . .] then the whole system becomes weightless, it is no longer itself anything but a gigantic simulacrum [. . .] in an uninterrupted circuit without reference or circumference" (456).
And what is "true?" No God, no truth, huh? It's all just a golem, created out of mud, the stuff of fairy-tales. Likewise, "love" -- can there be "love" if there's no God and nothing is true? Isn't love just another instance of simulacra running amok; don't we just love what we imagine our love object to be?

Wow.

I do not speak English.

I do not understand English.

I once thought I did, and that I was reasonably well-equipped to read and understand and communicate messages as well. No longer.

I must learn French.

French is clearly the language of the thinker, the philospher, the sage, and Baudrillard is most certainly the modern-day prophet around which today's society must revolve. Even the brilliant Frederick Jameson, a mere American, must bow down in adoration to the thoughts of this exceptional man.

OK, turn sarcasm switch off.

I must confess that I do not follow the vast majority of B's arguments. Small bits and pieces seem to make sense, to communicate, but huge swaths appear to be the ramblings of a human being in desperate need of medication.

Why does Disneyworld have to "mean" anything, other than the obvious-to-any-central-Floridian blatant carny, separate-the-mark-from-his-money message?
Walt Disney was something of a creative genius, a "dreamer and do-er," but I somehow doubt he followed any of the far-out logical rabbit trails that B. argues.

B's thoughts on nuclear deterrence takes us down an argument that will only be countered if some lunatic finally pushes the button, so I hope he's right on this one, but I doubt it. I've met enough of humanity in my few years on earth to have confidence in our ability to commit stupid, self-destructive acts; so why does this man make pretty statements like "Deterrence precludes (makes IMPOSSIBLE) war" and "The balance of terror is the terror of balance"? All it takes is one nut-job (read: chemically-imbalanced individual) who goes into work at the missle silo with a migraine and the means to coerce the other key-holder and we have Armageddon, Ragnarok, Apocalypse, pick your end-of-the-world scenario.

Even granting that a philosopher's job is to come up with questions, not answers, why does B. insist on trying to reinvent the language and twist it into knots of non-meaning? I have a mental image of old Jean, sitting in a corner by himself, just thinking himself into frisson after frisson: "oooh-la-la, that's a good one, that'll really stir up some shit." Maybe his thoughts on lack-of-god are arranged so he can aptheosize himself into the omnipotent not-god of his dreams.

I wish I felt better after getting this all off my chest. Maybe I should have written on Eco.

Gary--Eco

Disneyland/Disneyworld? What an easy target! Are you trying to tell me that the "Wild West World" really wasn't like this? Main Street USA is fake? I was aware of the buildings becoming 2/3 their size as they went up to the second and third floor, but did you know that every business name on top of the buildings on Main Steet was the original owner of the land that Disney acquired to build the park?? (Warning: Useless trivia)

The most relevant statement made by Eco is that these are indeed "Toy Cities". Disneyland does give us the impression of the past re-visited, but does not try to hide that this is pure fantasy. Everything is based on the consumer having a "magical" visit. Everything is also based on acquiring every dollar possible from the consumers pocket during their magical visit.

Eco says that "the audio-animatronic technique is used in many other parts of Disneyland [...] but in the pirates cave, more than anywhere else, it demonstrates all its miraculous efficacy. Humans could do no better, and would cost more (pg 204). Ouch....humans would demand wages, breaks, health insurance, shorter hours, while a computerized machine runs endlessly without complaint. Too bad we still need the humans to create, build, and maintain the computerized drone, or we could eliminate them all together. Why do I hear the Hale 2000 speaking somewhere?

At the gate when they told me that it was "required" for us to have our fingerprints electronically scanned into their database. I first questioned why this was necessary and received the coded answer from the Disney drone at the entry gate "Its our rules" I told them that it was not required and that I know there is an alternative. I was not having my fingerprint scanned by Disney, nor my five year old daughter. Where is the ACLU when you need them? After she conferred with the Hale 2000, I was allowed to enter by showing my ID, but I was informed that I would not be able to use a "speedpass"-my penalty for keeping my prints out of the Disney database...Damn.

Life is about choice, we still have it for the most part. If you go to Disney or any of the other "toy" cities as Eco calls them, enjoy them for what they are. On the other hand maybe I should just do what the guy held up in the line behind me at Disney yelled and "Get a life dude" I'll bet he was going to have a "magical" visit.....

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Bloggrokker (Scott) Zizek

I harbor no problems with Slavoj Zizek's arguments. I agree 100% with his ideas regarding the ways Tinseltown had prepared us for 9/11 through a steady--and, nearly every time, rather clumsily-handled--stream of decibel-decimating disaster films, and the ways the media's repeated replayings of the terrible event--replayings out-frequenting the MTV appearances of Duran Duran in their high-rotation heydays during the 80s--derealizes its impact in the real world, and perhaps I even agree more or less with his statements that America "got what it deserved" in terms of a collective film industry-fueled disaster fantasy--and, if true, there's a monkey's paw scratching here, kids, a lesson in not wishing too hard for something lest it should come true. Whew! Long sentence. Sorry.
Yes, agree I might with all of this, but there's still a ridiculous stretch in Zizek's argument. This stretch rears its head when Zizek invokes Hitchcock's name.
He opines "Is not the endlessly repeated shot of the plane approaching and hitting the second WTC tower the real-life version of the famous scene from Hitchcock's The Birds." Referring to the shot of a seagull whamming into Tippi Hedren's head, Zizek is clearly, to my mind, straining to find a pre-disaster-film-era classic from which to find a 9/11 parallel in something other than a cgi-dripping cine-catastrophe like Deep Impact or Dante's Peak.
Let me just say here I went beyond the call. His parallel got my hair up enough to slip Hitchcock's film into the DVD player and check things out. Yeah, I saw where his thoughts were, but even with his parallel in mind I still didn't see it.
I did see another film, truthfully I've seen it several times, that would've strengthened Zizek's 9/11 parallel. To my mind, no film prematurely parallels images of 9/11 more disturbingly.
You know the film. Is there anyone who's seen Fight Club's finale, who's watched along over the silhouetted shoulders of Edward Norton and Helena Bonham-Carter in the film as they stand before the crumbling skyline of Delaware as it falls before the deeds of what amounts to a terrorist plot? Is there anyone who can't see in this an eerie semblance to the collapsing World Trade Center? I didn't think so. Me? I believe I recalled Fight Club as early as 6pm on September 11, 2001.
Fight Club's postmodern technology-gone-awry merits go beyond its evident crystal-balling of 9/11. Remember all the Y2K hype? Fight Club played right into the corrupted microprocessors of the Millennium Bug's fearful grasp. System failure, everyone going back to zero, and a huge whomping Ground Zero in downtown Delaware--yeah. were I Zizek, I would've gone the path of Tyler Durden for emphasis.
And, before I forget, I should say something regarding the current media-fetishizing of the possible death of that sadistic and sandblasted St. Nick of Smashed Skylines, Osama bin-Laden.
First, if he's truly dead of typhoid as some say, we should award typhoid the Nobel Peace Prize in Karmic Excellence.
Second, it's difficult to know with certainty, but it appears as if bin-Laden's possible death isn't receiving as much media reportage as, say, Woody Allen's daughterly trespasses years ago or Paris Hilton's latest nonsenserie. Is this a result of bin-Laden's existing in the disaster-film-fantasy realm of megaplex megavillains where, for all intents and purposes, the megavillain resides safely in a mental cage along with Auric Goldfinger and the Klingons whenever the final reels roll?
Finally, does anyone remember not long after 9/11, and all those strange reports of bin-Laden perhaps receiving plastic surgery to elude capture? Humorous, I know, but to my mind, such reports, whether misguided fearmongering or not, only cast bin-Laden in the mould of a celebrity, as a cash-stuffed Somebody with the means and the m. o. to tweak his look. Capture means cameras, and cameras mean potentially unflattering lights, right? Considering current programs like Extreme Makeover and nip/tuck, I'm almost convinced to think of those reports of jihadist rhinoplasties as market research clandestinely done through Homeland Security. Something like that could never happen, not in a million years. Not in the Postmodern Age.
Sarcasm be damned.