Daisy, 9/9

While I found my understanding of this article to be a little blurry like the rest of the class I was able to pull out some main ideas. It is helpful that what we learn in class is built upon in each reading. Lyotard touched on many things we had previously talked about, such as silence, the technique of reproduction, and the concept of authentic and original.
One quote that I found to understand fairly well had to do with the constant reproduction of objects within our society. Lyotard says “what is advised, sometimes through one channel, sometimes through the other, is to offer works which, first, are relative to subjects which exist in the eyes of the public they address, and second, works so made (‘well made’) that the pubic will recognize what they are about, will understand what is signified, will be able to give or refuse its approval knowingly…” (42).
After reading this quote I thought of many things we had talked about in class. We talked about how many things claim to be original but in fact they are not. Also we struggle to understand what is real. For example, we talked about how we could close our eyes and be able to guess we were eating a grape. We can guess this because we have seen a grape before and have related the flavor to that object. In Lyotard’s quote he says that our culture has taught us what objects mean and to recognize them. Since we have been taught to recognize the flavor of a grape, we can also recognize the flavor of artificially flavored grape products such as Kool-Aid. Although, there is no aspect of a “real” grape in the drink, we can still recognize it is grape flavored and we think of a grape as something real. The Kool-Aid has been made to represent something we had previously experienced. But for some people, maybe they tried the grape Kool-Aid before the real grape, but they could still associate the two. Either way, they are both different things that we still associate together and approve them knowingly (42).
Lyotard also mentioned how realism and capitalism are associated. He said “realism accommodates all tendencies, just as capital accommodates all ‘needs” (42). To me this quote describes our culture pretty well. The motivation behind everything made is for money and everything that is made is targeted to be consumed by the population. We have become such an eclectic culture as Lyotard said by consuming anything that we can recognize.