yellowdaisy4, 3/29/09

There were a few quotes we discussed in class from Jameson that I understood the most and could connect other things we discussed to. In the readings, Jameson talked about the “waning of affect” which means the going away or decreasing of feelings or of an emotive response. This quote relates to how the media, especially the news, bombards us with so many images constantly to a point where tragic events are no longer that shocking or moving and more of just a typical story. This reminds me of what Lyotard was talking about when he wrote how the media provides the correct images, narratives and the format so it is designed as “the appropriate remedy for the anxiety and depression the public experiences” (41). This quote relates because it describes how the media uses the same formula, like the mother of a missing child in suffering formula, that although depicts real pain uses the same formula as the other stories so viewers don’t feel as compassionate as they normally would because they are used to it. Instead of feeling sorry for the family, viewers would more likely be annoyed of too much coverage of that story.
I also found Jameson’s quotes about how “pastiche eclipses parody” and “parody finds itself without a vocation” (493) to be interesting because that definitely affects pop culture today. Television shows like Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and even Conan O’Brien are so popular and all they do is just piece actual clips of things people said together, usually politicians, which in themselves are so funny. It’s either hard to actually make fun of something or too easy because it’s already done for you by the actual person. This connects to another Lyotard quote of “so called realistic representations can no longer evoke reality except as nostalgia or mockery” (40). It’s entertaining for us to watch how silly our world is and see how others react to it.