coobeans, Jameson

In his essay, Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, Frederic Jameson states that postmodernism has become more than just a style, but rather a cultural dominant, that allows many different aspects of society to coexists together. One example that Jameson cites is the fact that aesthetic production and commodity production have become integrated together in our culture today. “What has happened is that aesthetic production today has become integrated into commodity production generally: the frantic economy urgency of producing fresh rates of turnover, now assigns an increasingly essential structural function and position to aesthetic innovation and experimentation” (485). I took this quote to mean that the two aspects of culture of aesthetics and commodities coexist together in our society. The two seem to go hand in hand many times because often times aesthetics are used in the commodification of an object. An object is created to be aesthetically pleasing in order for people to be attracted to it and buy it. When a newer version is created then something has been added to the aesthetics in order for the product to be “new and improved”. The popularity and ability of the commodity to be sold is dependent on the aesthetic quality of the product. An example of this from the last class was when we talked about the cars and how they are ultimately the same car with different exterior accents or an updated hood but the interior remains the same. People will buy the cars based on the exterior that they like the best. Therefore the aesthetics aid in the commodification of the car. Another example of this is cellular phones. The basic idea of why people buy cellular phones is so that they have a means of communication. A cell phone is a cell phone, it is used to call people. As long as a cell phone functions in calling people the reason for why it is purchased is achieved. However, people want to buy phones that look nice, which is why certain phones are sold in more popularity than others.