Alright, so I’ve powered through Guy Debord’s “Society of the Spectacle” as best I could. I had to read some of it in undergrad and I didn’t have the easiest time with it then either. So I’m looking forward to hearing everyone else’s thoughts in class tomorrow. So my thoughts may seem little disorganized for the time being.
I agree with Ann that he sometimes seems as if he is writing almost to purposefully frustate you…or at least get your head spinning. It is as if he is writing in paradoxes at certain times or with the intention of leading you further down the rabbit hole, if that makes sense. As she said, maybe my philosophy background is not as strong as it could be. Maybe not, though, because the translator, Ken Knabb, acknowledges right in the beginning that the piece has a formidable reputation. Albeit, he seems to think its reputation is unwarranted.
Debord writes in 24 that mass media “are the most glaring superficial example” of the spectacle and there were a lot of instances throughout were I kept thinking of examples of mass media (one which I’ll get to shortly), but it all seems to go so beyond that since he says that spectacle can be considered as such in “the limited sense.” When I think of the concept of “the spectacle” I usually think of it within the mass media sphere. I was reminded a lot Chomsky’s “Manufacturing Consent” at the beginning of 24 when Debord says that “the spectacle is the ruling order’s nonstop discourse about itself,” since I was thinking about this all mainly in relation to the mass media.
In theses 67-70, I just kept thinking of the same example over and over again. At this point Debord is talking about the “fetishism of commodities” and he has already mentioned by that point that this fetishism is fulfilled within the spectacle (36). My mind kept going back to Apple and the iPhone in particular as I was reading those four sections. The “fetishism” of commodities creates “moments of fervent exaltation,” which Debord likens to religious mania. Apple devotees are often considered part of the “cult of Apple” and line up for days to get these new products, especially the phone. The release dates are usually even covered by news networks and I’ve seen far too many interviews with people in lines that wind around New York City blocks. Debord goes on to say that these “prestigious” objects become “mundane” once they are taken back home. This is because everyone now has them and there is more prestige. Debord concludes with saying that “meanwhile some other object is already replacing it…” Once Apple releases one phone (sometimes even before the release) there’s already a huge amount of speculation as to what the next one will entail and that conversation then begins to overshadow the just released phone. That’s the sort of spectacle I think of.
Sorry if that iPhone tangent went on too long. That ended up being longer than I anticipated!
Interventionist Aesthetics 