Weezy27/Benjamin

In class on Tuesday we discussed Walter Benjamin’s writing on the concept of value in terms of mass production. Throughout the discussion we touched on many points regarding mass reproduction.  One quote by Walter Benjamin states “The presence of the original is the prerequisite to the concept of authenticity.” Here, Benjamin is saying that in mass production, do all the products have the same authenticity as the original? In my opinion, I think that the original product is usually the most “valuable.” But then again, what is value? We talked about the fact that nothing is really worth any value unless someone is willing to buy it. I agree with this. Also, when we were talking about value and reproduction, the one product that stood out to me was Beanie Babies. The Beanie Baby craze happened a while back and almost every child of any age was dying to get the hands on the newest beanie babies. I remember my mom telling me that one day these beanie babies were going to be worth a bunch of money. Well, obviously they aren’t. How can a product as mass produced be worth anything when almost everyone these days still has a collection of at least 50 of them? Beanie babies are not rare; therefore, they are of no interest or value.  The discussion in class Tuesday was really interesting me because it makes you think about how much of the “value” of things we buy into each day. The Mono Lisa is the best example of this concept of originality. This famous painting that everyone wants to see, that hangs in a museum and brings in tons of money, but no one really knows if what they are looking at is original. And what makes something original? If a painting has been refurbished is it still original? Who knows…its just an interesting idea that everyone seems to buy into.