I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm delighted by this conversation!
And Kyle, let me apologize for being flip. I was genuinely surprised though by your phrase "the trauma we call the 80s" and part of why is because I lived through it, but part of it is because we were almost the generation who lived without a major war (and one could argue that the surgical precision of Desert Storm precludes it from being declared a major war; which I note only because living through the cold war what we as a cultural group thought of in terms of war was annihilation/nuclear war, and I do not in any way mean to belittle the trauma of those who endured Dessert Storm)
So Kyle, tell me more about identities being forged out of cultural moods...because I think that's precisely what confuses me about this whole phenomenon...I mean; I know the people picking lead-in music for tv shows are probably people in their 30s or 40s, but the college freshmen are who confuse me with their appropriation of a culture that they really don't know the first thing about (a la Jan's story).
Tell me more!
Monday, October 1, 2007
Kyle adds even more
Lynda,
I had something a bit larger than Rod Stewart and rose-colored glasses
in mind when I called attention to the possibility that retro-fetishes
were melancholic. Think of it more in terms of identities forged out
of cultural moods (or the other way around) and then when those moods
shift unexpectedly, you could even say violently, these moods return
in our subjectivities is uneven ways such as a jingle in the Ford
Truck commercials or wherever they are showing up.
That these instances of retro-fetish produce emotional effects such as
pleasure, anger, or anxiety should indicate clearly enough that they
are viable aspects of our subjectivities: we come to define ourselves
or are invited to define ourselves in terms of a decade so that we can
locate ourselves on a cultural spectrum and restore order. Our emails
are clear enough indications of that: if you are from the 80's then
you articulate revile at the appropriation, and thereby locate
yourself in a certain space. If you are born in the 80's you write
about the appropriation of gangsta rap as I did way back in our first
year together, and most recently in a review forthcoming in Computers
and Composition.
All of this is to say that yes, I agree that using trauma to read 80's
retro fetish is a bit reckless given the topics that trauma usually
deals with. However, how else could you explain the return, almost
melancholic presence of past era's in our media? I propose that we
either have to do it in terms of psychoanalysis (which I admittedly
know little about) or in terms of new media theory, which as I said
before, is interested in explaining new media in terms of its
relationship to prior media.
All of this needs to be on the Blog.
KJ
I had something a bit larger than Rod Stewart and rose-colored glasses
in mind when I called attention to the possibility that retro-fetishes
were melancholic. Think of it more in terms of identities forged out
of cultural moods (or the other way around) and then when those moods
shift unexpectedly, you could even say violently, these moods return
in our subjectivities is uneven ways such as a jingle in the Ford
Truck commercials or wherever they are showing up.
That these instances of retro-fetish produce emotional effects such as
pleasure, anger, or anxiety should indicate clearly enough that they
are viable aspects of our subjectivities: we come to define ourselves
or are invited to define ourselves in terms of a decade so that we can
locate ourselves on a cultural spectrum and restore order. Our emails
are clear enough indications of that: if you are from the 80's then
you articulate revile at the appropriation, and thereby locate
yourself in a certain space. If you are born in the 80's you write
about the appropriation of gangsta rap as I did way back in our first
year together, and most recently in a review forthcoming in Computers
and Composition.
All of this is to say that yes, I agree that using trauma to read 80's
retro fetish is a bit reckless given the topics that trauma usually
deals with. However, how else could you explain the return, almost
melancholic presence of past era's in our media? I propose that we
either have to do it in terms of psychoanalysis (which I admittedly
know little about) or in terms of new media theory, which as I said
before, is interested in explaining new media in terms of its
relationship to prior media.
All of this needs to be on the Blog.
KJ
Jan adds to it too
You all have tapped into something that I groan about every time I
inadvertantly catch a commercial while grading my endless stack of papers.
I have found that I am fighting a middle-aged crisis early enough -
what with all the deaths in my family while at WWU and seeing the gray in
my hair and my newfound wrinkles flowing from the corners of my eyes.
To me, its simply a depressing reminder that everything I cherished once
upon a time is now the background noise to a f***ing commercial. To
me, it's as akin to being sinful as possible to desecrate decades of
things I used to get stoned to, simply to sell a friggin' pickup truck.
I graduated high school in 1980, so I have the most room to rant! Even
more depressing, I showed The U.S. vs John Lennon to a freshman class
at Campbell University last week and half of them not only did not know
who the man was, but when the shots fired out at the end of the film,
most of them jumped out of their seats. They had no idea he had been
gunned down and taken from us so early.
But, alas, I got them thinking.....
miss you guys and gals!
Jan
inadvertantly catch a commercial while grading my endless stack of papers.
I have found that I am fighting a middle-aged crisis early enough -
what with all the deaths in my family while at WWU and seeing the gray in
my hair and my newfound wrinkles flowing from the corners of my eyes.
To me, its simply a depressing reminder that everything I cherished once
upon a time is now the background noise to a f***ing commercial. To
me, it's as akin to being sinful as possible to desecrate decades of
things I used to get stoned to, simply to sell a friggin' pickup truck.
I graduated high school in 1980, so I have the most room to rant! Even
more depressing, I showed The U.S. vs John Lennon to a freshman class
at Campbell University last week and half of them not only did not know
who the man was, but when the shots fired out at the end of the film,
most of them jumped out of their seats. They had no idea he had been
gunned down and taken from us so early.
But, alas, I got them thinking.....
miss you guys and gals!
Jan
Kyle adds to it
Drew and Lynda - although Derrida would be proud of you (drew) for
generating the term "ghostmodernity," I think what you are discussing
is a necessary condition of remediation, the inscription of prior
media onto "new" media, which is material not spectral.
Of course, you could always go psychoanalytic and call it a
melancholic response to the trauma we call the 80's.
But I was a toddler then so I couldn't really say.
generating the term "ghostmodernity," I think what you are discussing
is a necessary condition of remediation, the inscription of prior
media onto "new" media, which is material not spectral.
Of course, you could always go psychoanalytic and call it a
melancholic response to the trauma we call the 80's.
But I was a toddler then so I couldn't really say.
Lynda responds...
Andrew,
I don't feel adequate to speak to the appropriation of
80's music by the media and college freshmen, but I
was staring at my unread books on my bookcases today
and grabbed Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves To Death
and I think that it speaks to this issue...if only
insofar as it further complicates your question. What
does it say that today's culture is reaching back for
the things the amused previous generations rather than
(or while concurrently) create (creating) their own
amusements? (and what does it say about me that I'm
using someone else's intellectual work from the same
time period to address your question? ;) )
"Today, we must look to the city of Las Vegas, Nevada,
as a metaphor of our national character and
aspiration. . . . For Las Vegas is a city entirely
devoted to the idea of entertainment, and as such
proclaims the spirit of a culture in which all public
discourse increasingly takes the form of
entertainment. Our politics, religion, news,
athletics, education and commerce have been
transformed into congenial adjuncts of show business,
largely without protest or even much popular notice.
The result is that we are a people on the verge of
amusing ourselves to death." ~Neil Postman
. . . if, in the 80's, we were a people on the verge
of amusing ourselves to death: what's going on now?
I don't feel adequate to speak to the appropriation of
80's music by the media and college freshmen, but I
was staring at my unread books on my bookcases today
and grabbed Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves To Death
and I think that it speaks to this issue...if only
insofar as it further complicates your question. What
does it say that today's culture is reaching back for
the things the amused previous generations rather than
(or while concurrently) create (creating) their own
amusements? (and what does it say about me that I'm
using someone else's intellectual work from the same
time period to address your question? ;) )
"Today, we must look to the city of Las Vegas, Nevada,
as a metaphor of our national character and
aspiration. . . . For Las Vegas is a city entirely
devoted to the idea of entertainment, and as such
proclaims the spirit of a culture in which all public
discourse increasingly takes the form of
entertainment. Our politics, religion, news,
athletics, education and commerce have been
transformed into congenial adjuncts of show business,
largely without protest or even much popular notice.
The result is that we are a people on the verge of
amusing ourselves to death." ~Neil Postman
. . . if, in the 80's, we were a people on the verge
of amusing ourselves to death: what's going on now?
Andrew's Delayed Email
the structure of feeling that inspired my initial
subject-heading seems to be growing, or is this just a
gen-x paraonoid reaction (Jim, Linda?)?
that structure is the resurfacing of 80s, and some
late 70s, tunes in the promotion of forthcoming season
premieres on tv: the cure for without a trace, cyndi
lauper for something, everybody wants to rule the
world for kid nation, and it goes on...thoughts??
also, i know this is one of the first signs of
schizophrenia, but it was as if owen wilson was
reading my mind/emails, leaving these millenial stars
to coke-car accidents and meditation retreats in rural
minnesota.
lastly, at rose's prompting, one of the best novels of
my past year:
*Christie Malry's Own Double Entry* by BS Johnson. A
rare gem indeed and certain to reenter circulation in
literature programs!!
A.
subject-heading seems to be growing, or is this just a
gen-x paraonoid reaction (Jim, Linda?)?
that structure is the resurfacing of 80s, and some
late 70s, tunes in the promotion of forthcoming season
premieres on tv: the cure for without a trace, cyndi
lauper for something, everybody wants to rule the
world for kid nation, and it goes on...thoughts??
also, i know this is one of the first signs of
schizophrenia, but it was as if owen wilson was
reading my mind/emails, leaving these millenial stars
to coke-car accidents and meditation retreats in rural
minnesota.
lastly, at rose's prompting, one of the best novels of
my past year:
*Christie Malry's Own Double Entry* by BS Johnson. A
rare gem indeed and certain to reenter circulation in
literature programs!!
A.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)