Do share your lingering questions. These are difficult readings but well worth unpacking. If our collective intelligence cannot produce answers here, I promise to find them.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
More on Marx and Baudrillard
We didn't nearly have enough time to digest these two complex essays yesterday. To cut down on confusion somewhat, I posted my own notes on Baudrillard -- including connections to other course text in blue -- on Blackboard, under "content." Also, I've found this excellent summary of "commodity fetishism" -- much more succinct than my own notes: http://www.socialtheory.info/commodity_fetishism.htm.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Hello World!
For this blog post, I’d like to extrapolate a little bit on the distinctions made between cannibalism and parasitism in Crystal Bartolovich’s article “Consumerism, or the cultural logic of late capitalism.” First off, I think that it is a particularly productive distinction to make when we see these two terms operating in Greenaway’s The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover. Although I personally enjoyed the film very much, I agree with Bartolovich that there is a certain hypocrisy involved in the rift between the form and content of film, especially in relation to taste. As John Berger has famously argued in his book/BBC Television Series Ways of Seeing, the tradition of oil painting (concurrent with the early modern tradition of colonialism that Bartolovich describes) rendered objects in such a way that made them seem substantial, tangible, and ownable. Consider the above oil painting from Ch. 5 of his book, in which we get a pretty clear picture of what (or who) constituted a desirable object in this period:
In The Cook…, Greenaway approximates his visual design and camera movement to be very much in the style of this sort of oil painting – for instance, there is a definite, oil painting-like orientation to many of his horizontal tracking shots. However, while the viewer is invited to take pleasure in consuming the sensuousness of the sets, costumes, and props, the central allegory of cannibalism is still tied to excessive consumption. Thus, despite his critique of consumerism on the level of allegory, I find it interesting that Greenaway still subscribes to the deeply traditional notion that the sublime experience of encountering refined, works of high art somehow exists in a sphere outside consumption – even though original works are among the most valuable objects in the world. As Bartolovich points out, if the titular “thief” of the film truly is a cannibal because of his propensity to excessive consumption, than he is representative of a particular brand of mass, popular consumption which is distinct from the refined, civilized consumption of characters like Georgina, Michael, and the chef. When Bartolovich points out how western societies have historically constructed those subtle modulations between the excessive and savage consumption of the cannibal and the more refined, limited consumption of the parasite, I think she is pointing to the anxiety westerners have felt in seeing continuities between themselves and the “primitive” other.
On that note, I couldn’t help but remember an interesting passage from bell hooks’ “Eating the Other” which explicitly quotes the film. In one of the last scenes in the film, after Michael has been brutally slaughtered by Albert, Georgina has a conversation with a black chef about why black foods are so expensive. The chef responds that black foods are so desired because they remind the people who eat them of death, and to eat death is to conquer it through consumption, to assert one’s power. Perhaps it is on this level of refined, modern consumption that we get the clearest picture of its sinister undercurrent: how it exerts a relation of power similar to that of cannibalism and how it holds a desire to be excessive like it, but how it is also able to disavow that relationship under the banner of civilized taste and progress.
No Face in Spirited Away
Going along with what John has shown us in class, I recently re-watched Spirited Away, the Japanese anime created by Hayao Miyazaki. Interestingly, I found a character really similar to the monster portrayed in the video John shows us. The character's name is No Face. In the movie, he wanders around but he cannot speak because he is a ghost. But after the protagonist Chihiro lets him into the bathhouse, he begins to eat people and takes over their voices. In a way, he begins to take over the identities of the people he eats. He is a monster, but at the same time, he can also make gold. Because of that, people love him, thinking that he will give them gold if they can satisfy his appetite. Eventually, his appetite becomes so large that food cannot satisfy him anymore. And he starts to eat people who gets in his way to see Chihiro.
I cannot find a clip that shows the entire sequence on youtube, but this is a taste of how No Face looks like.
Of course, No Face is not exactly the same as the monster or Little Otik as he only eats greedy people, but I find it interesting that Japanese culture, especially animation, has so much to do with cannibalism and consumption. It is, for sure, no pure incidence, and I am certainly interested to talk more about this.
I cannot find a clip that shows the entire sequence on youtube, but this is a taste of how No Face looks like.
Of course, No Face is not exactly the same as the monster or Little Otik as he only eats greedy people, but I find it interesting that Japanese culture, especially animation, has so much to do with cannibalism and consumption. It is, for sure, no pure incidence, and I am certainly interested to talk more about this.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
"Monster" and "Eejanaika"
I wanted to point everyone to a somewhat relevant clip from Naoki Urasawa's "Monster." If you have a spare five minutes, this is a reading of a supposedly Czech fairytale done in a style and dealing with themes that reminded me of "Little Otik." I'm not sure if Urasawa pulled from a specific fairy tale for this iteration and adapted it to suit his story, but it certainly seems like he had heard an "Otasanek"-like story before writing it. Its contemplation of identity through consumption (and being consumed) and the negative connotations of consuming the other are particularly relevant.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nk8Il0gKhig
I also wanted to suggest watching or reading up on a film by Shohei Imamura called "Eejanaika" (1980). Imamura often dealt with how the lower classes consume media (pornography in "The Pornographers," schlock crime reports in "Vengeance is Mine") and "Eejanaika" is particularly relevant to our discussion of the festival. The film, while admittedly playing around with some historical details, concerns a number of wild carnivals that broke out across the Japanese countryside on the eve of the Meiji Restoration in the early 1850s. In this particular historical example, the festival becomes a reaction to the threat of modernism and almost a political statement against it. In a sense, the model of consumption without reservation was threatened by the coming modernization, and the people reacted with excess celebration.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nk8Il0gKhig
I also wanted to suggest watching or reading up on a film by Shohei Imamura called "Eejanaika" (1980). Imamura often dealt with how the lower classes consume media (pornography in "The Pornographers," schlock crime reports in "Vengeance is Mine") and "Eejanaika" is particularly relevant to our discussion of the festival. The film, while admittedly playing around with some historical details, concerns a number of wild carnivals that broke out across the Japanese countryside on the eve of the Meiji Restoration in the early 1850s. In this particular historical example, the festival becomes a reaction to the threat of modernism and almost a political statement against it. In a sense, the model of consumption without reservation was threatened by the coming modernization, and the people reacted with excess celebration.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Disney, Cannibal Holocaust, and a German Computer Technician
I'm not quite sure how much these posts are supposed to reflect just our thoughts on the readings, so I thought I'd post some of the more tangential things that the readings on cannibalism made me think about - operating under the assumption that we'll talk about the readings more particularly during class.
While I've always been intrigued by metaphors of cannibalism, I think it's most salient within particular industries. In the interview we had to read, Svenkmajer mentions Disney and its practice of creating art for children. Cannibalism seems to be fairly representative of Disney's relationship to the fairy tales it re-presents/re-creates. The stories are broken down to their basic elements, appropriated by Disney, digested, and re-presented to the world to continue the tradition of folk tales - now devoid of some of their intrigue, uniqueness, and nutritional value. I think the metaphor is even clearer in film - especially when dealing a bit more explicitly with cannibalism.
In Ruggero Deodato’s 1980 film Cannibal Holocaust, a group of American academics and researchers travel to South America to study and film a savage tribe. They are motivated by a fascination with the Other, and the desire to reduce them to objects of knowledge, as many of us are today. Indeed, they succeed in filming the cannibals, creating a product ready for consumption and study. However, their metaphorical cannibalism is no match for the tribe, which captures the Americans and kills them in a variety of horrifically gory ways. The film problematizes cannibalism and humanity, making an argument for retributive justice as revenge against the colonialists and their unjust dehumanization.
This seems to reflect the words of C. Richard King, who says, "[Cannibalism] deals with human difference in the most direct way, not merely by doing away with it, but by taking it in completely, metabolizing it, transforming it into shit, and eliminating it. In myriad domains, consumption absorbs difference, simultaneously appropriating and nullifying it. While this may be most visible in the worlds where tourists and ex-primitives encounter one another or in the contexts in which consumers endeavor to inject meaning, pleasure, or interconnection into their lives.”
Cannibal Holocaust is particularly interesting in its portrayal of cannibalism when reflected in this light, as the film's narrative structure mirrors the theme, beginning with the discovery of the film by another American team. Knowing what it probably contains, they still watch the film, along with we the viewers—both groups situated as cannibals. Perhaps not surprisingly, this narrative technique was cannibalized 20 years later by American filmmakers and used to generate unprecedented profits in The Blair Witch Project.
________________
As an aside, I think it's really interesting that while we mostly think of cannibalism as pure metaphor, there are cases of its literal occurrence in modern, Western society. Armin Meiwes, for example, was a German computer technician who placed an Internet ad seeking “a well-built male ready to be slaughtered and consumed.” In March 2001, 44-year-old Bernt-Jurgen Brandes answered it. Later that month, in Meiwes' home, Meiwes amputated Brandes' penis and sautéed it with salt, pepper and garlic. Brandes tried to eat his share of his own penis rare, but he couldn't eat it because it was too tough and, as he put it, "chewy". A video of Meiwes’ subsequent killing of Brandes exists, which was so disturbing that the detectives working on the case needed counseling after viewing it. Meiwes was arrested in December 2002; his second trial for manslaughter—since Germany has no law against cannibalism—is currently in process (or was last time I checked).
The real question for the metaphor of cannibalism, then, would seem to be, "So, when do we get to see the movie version of the Armin Meiwes story?" Well, a German film about him called Your Heart in My Head premiered at the Montreal Film Festival in 2005. Meanwhile, Meiwes is suing the producers of another film, called Butterfly, which he claims plagiarizes his life. In a statement, Meiwes' lawyer called the film a “slavish re-enactment” of the real-life events and says his client did not give permission to producer Atlantic Streamline to fictionalize his story. In a BBC News article about the suit, Meiwes aptly comments, "I feel used.” One can hardly blame him.
~Charlie
While I've always been intrigued by metaphors of cannibalism, I think it's most salient within particular industries. In the interview we had to read, Svenkmajer mentions Disney and its practice of creating art for children. Cannibalism seems to be fairly representative of Disney's relationship to the fairy tales it re-presents/re-creates. The stories are broken down to their basic elements, appropriated by Disney, digested, and re-presented to the world to continue the tradition of folk tales - now devoid of some of their intrigue, uniqueness, and nutritional value. I think the metaphor is even clearer in film - especially when dealing a bit more explicitly with cannibalism.
In Ruggero Deodato’s 1980 film Cannibal Holocaust, a group of American academics and researchers travel to South America to study and film a savage tribe. They are motivated by a fascination with the Other, and the desire to reduce them to objects of knowledge, as many of us are today. Indeed, they succeed in filming the cannibals, creating a product ready for consumption and study. However, their metaphorical cannibalism is no match for the tribe, which captures the Americans and kills them in a variety of horrifically gory ways. The film problematizes cannibalism and humanity, making an argument for retributive justice as revenge against the colonialists and their unjust dehumanization.
This seems to reflect the words of C. Richard King, who says, "[Cannibalism] deals with human difference in the most direct way, not merely by doing away with it, but by taking it in completely, metabolizing it, transforming it into shit, and eliminating it. In myriad domains, consumption absorbs difference, simultaneously appropriating and nullifying it. While this may be most visible in the worlds where tourists and ex-primitives encounter one another or in the contexts in which consumers endeavor to inject meaning, pleasure, or interconnection into their lives.”
Cannibal Holocaust is particularly interesting in its portrayal of cannibalism when reflected in this light, as the film's narrative structure mirrors the theme, beginning with the discovery of the film by another American team. Knowing what it probably contains, they still watch the film, along with we the viewers—both groups situated as cannibals. Perhaps not surprisingly, this narrative technique was cannibalized 20 years later by American filmmakers and used to generate unprecedented profits in The Blair Witch Project.
________________
As an aside, I think it's really interesting that while we mostly think of cannibalism as pure metaphor, there are cases of its literal occurrence in modern, Western society. Armin Meiwes, for example, was a German computer technician who placed an Internet ad seeking “a well-built male ready to be slaughtered and consumed.” In March 2001, 44-year-old Bernt-Jurgen Brandes answered it. Later that month, in Meiwes' home, Meiwes amputated Brandes' penis and sautéed it with salt, pepper and garlic. Brandes tried to eat his share of his own penis rare, but he couldn't eat it because it was too tough and, as he put it, "chewy". A video of Meiwes’ subsequent killing of Brandes exists, which was so disturbing that the detectives working on the case needed counseling after viewing it. Meiwes was arrested in December 2002; his second trial for manslaughter—since Germany has no law against cannibalism—is currently in process (or was last time I checked).
The real question for the metaphor of cannibalism, then, would seem to be, "So, when do we get to see the movie version of the Armin Meiwes story?" Well, a German film about him called Your Heart in My Head premiered at the Montreal Film Festival in 2005. Meanwhile, Meiwes is suing the producers of another film, called Butterfly, which he claims plagiarizes his life. In a statement, Meiwes' lawyer called the film a “slavish re-enactment” of the real-life events and says his client did not give permission to producer Atlantic Streamline to fictionalize his story. In a BBC News article about the suit, Meiwes aptly comments, "I feel used.” One can hardly blame him.
~Charlie
Monday, January 18, 2010
Cannibal Manifesto & The Folk Festive
Hello class! I hope everyone is enjoying their MLK holiday despite the rain. I wanted to post some thoughts on the readings for this week:
Oswaldo de Andrade’s “Cannibal Manifesto” seemed to be very manic and scatterbrained poetry, but also an urgent and emotional critique of contemporary consumerism expressed through the metaphor of cannibalism.
I noticed that the short, fragmented sentences made a particularly strong anti-structuralist statement, especially when de Andrade refers to a “tearing up” of various institutions. A few times, he mockingly referred to “grammatical structures” and “grammatical forms.” To me, the frantic nature of his prose echoed the idea that the deep structures of language only give the illusion of control over an otherwise chaotic existence. I also liked his few references to Freud- as cannibalism does bring to mind Freud’s oral phase of childhood development, whereby an infant brings the frightening excesses of the world into the “prison of the body” as a form of establishing control.
His essay also made me reconsider what constituted an “act of cannibalism,” as he seems to incorporate almost all elements of human existence into this metaphor. He condemns politics as nothing more than “the science of distribution,” chastises the screenplay for making the signs of consumption visible, and even alludes that love itself is an act of cannibalism. Despite wanting to believe in the more romantic notion that all love is selfless, I can see how there is an inherent cannibalistic desire to literally “possess” someone else’s love, and use them to fulfill your own deep void of loneliness. All in all, I found Oswaldo de Andrade’s “Cannibal Manifesto” extremely evocative.
As for Michael Nottingham’s “Downing the Folk Festive,” this essay made me reflect on my own experience studying abroad in the Czech Republic this past spring. I was lucky enough to be in Prague during their Easter festivities, and learned about some of the non-traditional ways that the Czech people celebrate this holiday. One custom, for example, involves the young boys of the town making whips out of reeds, and then slapping the young girls on Easter morning as a way of wishing them fertility. Then, the girls pour buckets of cold water on the boys to literally cool down their raging hormones. I learned that this is more of a provincial ritual in small towns outside of Prague, but it really fits with Mikhail Bakhtin’s understanding of the folk festival as a way to promote the unrestrained spontaneity of the masses by inverting social norms.
Jan Svankmajer’s bleaker and more modern approach to this idea of festivity truly seems to reflect the disillusioned history that the Czech people have endured throughout Communism. For me, “Little Otik” captured the dark humor that is typical of many other Czech films that I have seen. I’m eager to hear what the rest of you thought about the movie and the readings. Enjoy the rest of the holiday!
--Allison
Oswaldo de Andrade’s “Cannibal Manifesto” seemed to be very manic and scatterbrained poetry, but also an urgent and emotional critique of contemporary consumerism expressed through the metaphor of cannibalism.
I noticed that the short, fragmented sentences made a particularly strong anti-structuralist statement, especially when de Andrade refers to a “tearing up” of various institutions. A few times, he mockingly referred to “grammatical structures” and “grammatical forms.” To me, the frantic nature of his prose echoed the idea that the deep structures of language only give the illusion of control over an otherwise chaotic existence. I also liked his few references to Freud- as cannibalism does bring to mind Freud’s oral phase of childhood development, whereby an infant brings the frightening excesses of the world into the “prison of the body” as a form of establishing control.
His essay also made me reconsider what constituted an “act of cannibalism,” as he seems to incorporate almost all elements of human existence into this metaphor. He condemns politics as nothing more than “the science of distribution,” chastises the screenplay for making the signs of consumption visible, and even alludes that love itself is an act of cannibalism. Despite wanting to believe in the more romantic notion that all love is selfless, I can see how there is an inherent cannibalistic desire to literally “possess” someone else’s love, and use them to fulfill your own deep void of loneliness. All in all, I found Oswaldo de Andrade’s “Cannibal Manifesto” extremely evocative.
As for Michael Nottingham’s “Downing the Folk Festive,” this essay made me reflect on my own experience studying abroad in the Czech Republic this past spring. I was lucky enough to be in Prague during their Easter festivities, and learned about some of the non-traditional ways that the Czech people celebrate this holiday. One custom, for example, involves the young boys of the town making whips out of reeds, and then slapping the young girls on Easter morning as a way of wishing them fertility. Then, the girls pour buckets of cold water on the boys to literally cool down their raging hormones. I learned that this is more of a provincial ritual in small towns outside of Prague, but it really fits with Mikhail Bakhtin’s understanding of the folk festival as a way to promote the unrestrained spontaneity of the masses by inverting social norms.
Jan Svankmajer’s bleaker and more modern approach to this idea of festivity truly seems to reflect the disillusioned history that the Czech people have endured throughout Communism. For me, “Little Otik” captured the dark humor that is typical of many other Czech films that I have seen. I’m eager to hear what the rest of you thought about the movie and the readings. Enjoy the rest of the holiday!
--Allison
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Welcome to the CTCS 495 blog for Consuming Media
In our era of global capitalism, consumption and consumerism are considered to be key to managing a healthy global economy and a healthy self alike. Consumer activities and flows are thoroughly mediatized. This course explores how the intertwined operations of media and consumption have impacted contemporary lives and given rise to revised theoretical, political and ethical configurations in the past decades. Some of the major sites we will explore are films that foreground eating and other forms of consumption; television, particularly reality programming, soap opera and advertising; memory and history; travel; citizenship and politics; friendship; fashion; fandom; and youth culture. We will draw on a range of media texts and an interdisciplinary collection of theoretical and critical readings related to consumerism and consumption encompassing cultural studies, film and television studies, communication, feminist and postfeminist approaches, tourism studies, history and studies of political economy.
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