Post 11/7 blog -RS

After our discussion of Jameson and subcultures during Thursday's course, I have a better understanding of how society's current state of culture interacts with their dismissal of violence and injustice abroad.  Jameson uses such critical language, because the situation is urgent and demands a shift in thinking. As he notes starkly, "the underside of culture is...blood, torture, death, and horror" (p. 410). When we live in such a culture where "depth is replaced by surface," we don't see the whole picture nor care to see the whole picture. We are in a world of recycling, copying of style, and pastiche. Everything lacks depth, originality is practically non-existent, and nostalgia is ever present.

Jameson says that we have a sort of nostalgia for things in the past that we never even experienced. I think this is more prevalent than ever, especially with a surge in "retro" and "vintage" style that is reviving bell bottom jeans, mom jeans, scrunchies, vinyl, polaroids, etc. This is also extremely present in modern day media with remakes and continuations of past series' (e.g. Spiderman, live-action Cinderella, live-action The Lion King, Star Wars, etc.). It seems that we are in a state in the film industry to borrow and try to make the classics that we once knew even grander. As we iterated in class, Jameson believes that this nostalgia for the past comes from a dissatisfaction with the present and our own state of society.

I appreciated however, that although most aspects of society are ingrained in this pattern, the creative industry is one that attempts to reveal or free individuals of the constraints of society and culture. It seems that those in the art industry particularly aim to point out the invisible forces that dictate how we function and live in society. Although I think there is sometimes a lack of accessibility in this realm, artists have come a long way in portraying, affecting, and changing society.


On my honor, I have not given, nor received, nor witnessed any unauthorized assistance on this work.
-Renee Sang