"Crude Thoughts"

In the introduction to Illuminations, Arendt writes about Benjamin's relationship to Brecht and discusses the way that these men valued "crude thinking." This thinking is contrasted with the subtleties of dialectical thinking, and is linked more closely to "reality." It is interesting to note that they valued crude thinking because it tended towards action. Dewey even wrote of the rift between theory and practice, sighting this as one thing to overcome in order for a public to pull itself together. Further, Benjamin valued crude thinking as "proverbial and idiomatic speech," and I hope this spirit is reflected in the above portrait.

The Liquidating Power of Film

We just read Walter Benjamin's essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction." In it he talks about film's relationship to mass movements and discusses the way that it liquidates the "traditional value of the cultural heritage." He explains this with a quote focusing on historical films, and I would attempt to explain it with the example of Rushdie's main characters in The Satanic Verses. The story focuses on Gabriel Farishta and Saladin Chamcha, who tumble out of a plane that is blown up by terrorists and undergo a wild metamorphosis into angel and devil.

Interestingly, before the incident in the plane both of these men worked in media. Gabriel was a movie star interpreting all sorts of Hindu deity roles while Saladin initially worked as voice talent, covering practically every accent ever needed for any type of advertisement. I think that these men embody what Benjamin calls the "liquidation of the traditional value of cultural heritage." At first, Chamcha is especially eager to rid himself of his Indian-ness and is horrified when he hears his native accent coming back. Transformed into a devil, he is forced to reconcile his fabricated life with his Indian roots and eventually returns to his dying (and estranged) father. Gabriel's story is also amusing as he grows up and finds the work that will eventually make him famous. When he returns as an angel, his "re-launch" into stardom is also pretty funny and plays with the notion of authenticity and the cult of celebrity. It makes me wonder if Rushdie had read Benjamin because in some ways they have very sympathetic ideas.

The Public Rallies, Finds Itself (cue Mark crying)

I saw Be Kind Rewind the other day. All in all it's a bit goofy, but it's also pretty fun. I enjoyed the way they present the collective creative endeavor as a way to bring people together. So much that I cried at the end. Well, not cried so much as involuntarily teared up and dripped a bit. It used to be embarrassing, but now I can pretty much guarantee that any scene showing people opening up and coming together will get me to cry. Some notable (and pretty cheesy) scenes are from Keeping Up With the Steins (when Benjamin decides to have his bar mitzvah at his house and is welcoming everybody) and Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? (when Pappy O'Daniel leads a country crowd in a rousing rendition of "You Are My Sunshine"). I'd like to think that these scenes may might have made Dewey cry, too. Then again...

The Public and the Role of Consequences

Dewey makes an interesting point in defining a public as a group of people who, through their actions, have effects on the world around them. He says that due to technology's rapid development and man's general lag, we see a public that has been able to effect immense indirect consequences that are difficult to trace back to an origin. This web of interactions is so vast and diffuse, the public can't create effective communities and identify itself, much less deal with itself. The whole thing reminded me of a Rube Goldberg device, one continually shifting shapes and growing exponentially! It would almost be too achingly simple if the public mechanism was as simple and defined as one of Goldberg's skewed machines.

Extraordinary Change

In the section "Discovery of the State," Dewey talks about how it isn't surprising or upsetting that human stupidities show up in the government since the state is made up of officials who are primarily human and not necessarily separate from their own private interests. Then he says that these facts should "protect us from the illusion of expecting extraordinary change to follow from a mere change in political agencies and methods" (68). His argument centers more around the relationship of indiviuals to associations and then focuses on the historical shift towards democracy, but I think that this quote is also pertinent in light of this year's already inescapable election and the ubiquitous mantra of "Change."

Associations

I enjoyed Dewey's writing on the difference between associations and communities and the way an individual works in the context of these groupings. Somehow it reminded me of Gestalt psychology, where the whole is more than the sum of its parts. A few of our earlier readings used organic metaphors to explain flows of capital as well as social structures. Dewey similarly contends, "Human beings combine in behavior as directly and unconsciously as do atoms, stellar masses and cells" and then goes on to say that these mere groupings or associations do not necessarily constitute a community (151). Communities depend on communication, thus presenting "an order of energies transmuted into one of meanings which are appreciated and mutually referred by each to every other on the part of those engaged in combined action" (153). In other words, communities use symbols based on mutual interest to regulate action. Even more simply, people have to learn to communicate and become a community.

We have gone through a couple of weeks reading bits and pieces about the current state of the world. We have read a sampling of bits about Global Warming, Poverty, Globalization, and the effects of new Communications Technologies. This week we took our jump back in time and started to outline some various theories of communication, beginning with Dewey's "The Public and Its Problems." Throughout this reading I was struck at how pertinent Dewey's ideas were, even 80 years after the fact. I plan to go through the book and present some of what I noticed and link it either to what I've read or other current events.