Jameson & "capital"

Dennis R Redmond dredmond at OREGON.UOREGON.EDU
Wed Oct 14 01:48:37 PDT 1998


On Tue, 13 Oct 1998, Chuck Grimes wrote:


> As writers, they merge into a sea of other cultural expressions
> turning social critique into just another style, rather than an
> altogether different intellectual domain such as philosophy. As
> stylists, then, they give themselves over to purely aesthetic
> enjoyments, something like a tasty brie on crackers.

And it's not even particularly toothsome brie, more like endless sheets of Velveeta on Wonder Bread. The truly great works of postmodern art -- Bill Burroughs' "Nova Express", Patrich McGoohan's "The Prisoner" TV series, Heiner Mueller's "Hamletmachine", William Gibson's "Neuromancer" -- practice a very different set of aesthetics, a style which bites back at History, negating the mass-cultural forcefields constantly active around us, and opening up a space for genuine transformation. Jameson is the converse case: a great and original theorist who's also one hell of a stylist. Maybe the two go together.

-- Dennis



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