WebCT: Mass Production

Walter Benjamin, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction"
"The simultaneous contemplation of paintings by a large public, such as developed in the nineteenth century, is an early symptom of the crisis of painting, a crisis which was by no means occasioned exclusively by photography but rather in a relatively independent manner by the appeal of art works to the masses."

Adorno, Theodor and Horkheimer, Max "The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception"
"The assembly-line character of the culture industry, the synethetic, planned method of turning out its products...the easy yet catchy, the skillful yet simple; the object is to overpower the customer, who is conceived as absent-minded or resistant."

Bradbury, Ray, Fahrenheit 451
"The world was roomy. But then the world got full of eyes and elbows and mouths. Double, triple, quadruple population. Films and radios, magazines, books leveled down to a sort of pastepudding norm, do you follow me?"

Interesting discussion this week, concerning the Benjamin, Adorno, and Ray Bradbury’s quotes. Essentially, I do think that the quality of art, which encompasses the visual and performing, or actually anything really, is going down in standards due to mass production. Yes, I’m on that side of the fence.

My reasoning is because I’ve watched a lot of documentaries on the Discovery Channel of how items are stamped out by the millions by machines. Clothes, food, musical instruments, what have you. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen the same T-shirt on a person because they sell dozens of the same shirt at a particular store. Or what about food made in factories, like packaged or processed foods, where a human hand has never touched a single aspect of the cooking? I guess you can say I’m much more partial to products where a lot of care and attention has been paid to each individual item.

I realize that today’s big factory machines are programmed to ensure high quality standards and maintain consistency. And that most companies would lose money if things were manufactured without the machines, because of time and labor. But then it starts to become a cookie cutter. Wouldn’t we get bored of it after a while? Or are we already bored of it? The mass production that we have in America is a huge contributor to making us such a dominant country. The simple laws of supply and demand have made our lives a little simpler and have made everything more accessible to all people.

However, in David Harvey’s interview, which I thoroughly enjoyed for his magnificent insight into America’s future, he spoke of America’s dominance in production will eventually waver and no longer be the dominant. I just think if we keep simplifying everything, making everything cookie cutter, things lose their uniqueness.

(I recommend watching the last 20 minutes of this video).

We’re not currently in danger of losing our own individual identities and uniqueness, like the people in gray jumpsuits of Orwell's 1984, but I do think that it is a form of streamlining into something more uniform. Besides, cookie cutters are a necessary evil. So that when we do have something come out, a movie, for example, that is brilliant, it stands out among all the others. That’s what makes something special.

Dystopic Observation (updated to include reading)

I spent about an hour on Sunday afternoon, driving around my neighborhood in Eagle Rock. I stopped at a red light, just a mere half a block away from my apartment. I was in the middle lane and there were a few cars in the right lane. When the light turned green, the first car wasn’t moving, so the driver behind honked their horn, probably thinking they didn’t see that the light had turned green. The driver signaled for them to go on ahead. So the first car stayed stuck there at the light and turned on their emergency lights while everyone behind them passed by.

We have all had instances where we’ve passed someone who has car trouble and/or is stuck on the side of the road. What I think is dystopian about the actions of the drivers, and the point that I am trying to make is that here is just one example of our society. We can be more or less selfish; and care about our own actions and our individual selves—not necessarily a Good Samaritan type of world. I know that we’ve been talking about socialism and the egalitarian types of societies in dystopia, but this is the opposite of that. No one is really equal. Some people can afford to have their cars running in tip top shape. Some can’t afford to keep their cars reliable.

In a true dystopian society, I think that’s citizens might be; in fact, they may be even worse tenfold because under a totalitarian government, you would do everything you can to stay on the good side of the law, and disregard everyone else. There’s no equal ground. You’re out to save yourself from getting chained and to achieve your own individual success.

This is related to our reading in 1984, particularly the portions that describe the citizens of Oceania. They watch the beheadings and are completely desensitized by it. It's more like sport or entertainment. That's how we react to traffic accidents on the side of the freeway. It's just another thing that makes us spectators.

ENGL 312: WebCT post due 9/11

Note: This was posted on WebCT discussion board for my ENGL 312: Film & Literature. We are required to do weekly WebCT posts to explore a topic discussed in class. I am speaking in reference to George Orwell's novel, 1984, so if you aren't familiar with it, it might be confusing. However, it's also very relevant to modern pop culture.

Internet & 1984

First off, I just wanted to point out something that had occurred to me
last night. 1984 deals with these issues of Big Brother. He is always
watching you. In that world, someone is always watching your every move
and even your "comrades" are watching you. Children are trained from a
young to spy on their parents. It's a world that wants to create a state
of fear, or we talked about a state of war, to keep every single person
on an even playing field.

Last night, my friend encouraged me to join this network called Twitter.
(http://www.twitter.com). It's a website where you basically type in
your status update, like the status updates you might find on Facebook
or Myspace, but it's simply only a status update. They had told me a
story of a guy who was in prison abroad somewhere. He had his mobile
phone and used Twitter to send a message to all his friends that he was
in jail. He was able to get the American Embassy to intervene and he was
eventually freed from jail.

I joined Twitter. I did it possibly out of curiosity, boredom, or maybe
because of the fact that it's a way to let my friends know what I'm
doing. I think this relates to 1984 because it's basically a website
that lets your friends know what is going on in your life, especially
when you can't see or speak to them on an average basis. On social
networks like Myspace and Facebook, you usually add someone to your
Friends list to branch out your network. I was trying to figure out how
to befriend people on Twitter, when I realized that they didn't call
friends "friends." They are called followers. People who follow you are
your friends, and they can see your updates. You can also be followed so
that other people see your own updates.

I know this sounds like a bit of a stretch, but I thought it was somehow
connected to 1984. I said to my friend that it was a "sad world when
friendship was synonymous with following.' To me, "following," doesn't
sound like a quality of friendship. It sounds more like suspicion,
stalking, and just general insecurity of another person. This is exactly
the type of world that we see in 1984. Nobody has real friends. They're
all just followers or followed.