LightningBolt, Jameson

“What happened is that aesthetic production today has become integrated into commodity production generally: the frantic economic urgency of producing fresh waves of ever more novel-seeming goods (from clothing to airplanes), at ever greater rates of turn over, now assigns an increasingly essential structural function and position to aesthetic innovation and experimentation” (485)

This Jameson quote reminds me of Habermas and the Cult of the New. Jameson is arguing that our culture thrives on new and different goods, from clothing to airplanes. At first thought clothing is a more obvious argument than airplanes: we are attracted to clothes that are new and slightly original. An aesthetically pleasing airplane makes people more comfortable, and a new and original airplane keeps people satisfied because new must instantly equal better. For example Jet Blue has TV ‘s on the seat in front of your chair, so their flight service must be better than Southwest’s.

Since goods have started to gain a fast turn over rate, people expect it to continue. If the Iphone has released updates once every two months for the past two years, and they suddenly stop people will become upset. They desire the new product and know the company is capable of producing something new. Aesthetics of products are important to people because they serve as a status symbol. For example, if you have the white cased Iphone, everyone will know that you spent more money than people with a black case. The publics desire for constantly having new aesthetically pleasing goods causes companies to produce goods at a fast pace. How long can a product that is considered aesthetically pleasing stay that way? Our culture gets tired of the same look and feels the need for a new look. This is interesting because as Horkheimer and Adorno stated, our culture craves sameness and rejects anything new or different. This means that as a culture we need products that are similar enough to what we know with a new sparkle to it.