Teets, 11/1

In class this week we covered Hebdige (Tuesday) and Horkheimer and Adorno (Thursday). In discussing Hebdige we looked at the idea of sameness, and how deviant behavior has been redefined as normal. A great example we looked at in class is body art. Body art in our culture 30 years ago is much different than body art today. It is still seen as deviant behavior to an extent, but it is normalized as well. When more and more people deviate from what is normal, their deviation becomes normalized. A loose connection can be made to Horkheimer and Adorno with regards to the trivialization of deviance.

“Mass culture gives tragedy permanent employment as routine” (62).

Tragedy and deviance are similar in this comparison because once they become normalized and broadcasted by the media they lose their significance. They become completely trivialized because of mass reproduction through the media. This relates to Barthes notion of Authenticity. When an idea, product, theory, etc, becomes mass reproduced it loses its aura, its authenticity. All types of media trivialize certain aspects of society without intending to. An example of an idea loses its authenticity would be the graffiti artist we talked about in class. His work became famous through the media and he eventually made a lot of money from his works on buildings and trains. His original works, on the sides of trains and buildings, lost its authenticity when it became reproduced in many ways. The aura of the original was lost, as Barthes would say.

The way we covered Horkheimer and Adorno on Thursday was different than normal, but it seemed to get more people engaged in discussion. It was beneficial in that each person or group of persons learned a very specific part of Horkheimer and Adorno’s argument. Switching up the daily routine forced people to be active participants in discussion, which should help people understand Horkheimer and Adorno a little bit better. I think switching up the routine should be done more often. Not too often though, because then it would be trivialized and lose its authenticity.