Juice15, Jameson

This post is over the section of the reading titled “The Hysterical Sublime.” This section of the reading I felt could be tied back into other readings and themes that were prevalent in those readings. “…where automobile wrecks gleam with some new hallucinatory splendor” (Jameson 504.) This was part of when Jameson was discussing the transition that is occurring now from things such as Hopper’s buildings to new surfaces. I feel this can be tied into Zizek and how things today look like they are straight from a movie. Zizek was talking about the 9/11 attacks and how the pictures taken were framed to make it look like it was not even real. Which I feel is what Jameson is trying to get at here also by talking about hallucinatory exhilaration. Also I feel it ties into Benjamin and how we are absent minded observers and just accept what we are given and how we live for those types of splendors.

The next tie back to other theorists is when how Jameson says “newer art is radically anti-anthropomorphic” (504). This goes back to Jencks. Anthropomorphism is giving human characteristics to something that is not human. Jameson says the newer art is getting away from this and later in the reading he talks about how technology has no capacity for representation or emblematic and visual power.

The last part of this section deals with technology and can be tied back into Poster. The part that talks about grasping power and control. I look at as being tied into when Poster talks about how technology defines the character of power. With the explosion of new technology I feel that this idea of “high tech paranoia” will become more prevalent here soon especially concerning themes of authenticity, virtual communities and the idea of what is real or normal.