Before I go any further, if it isn't clear, I think one of _the_ big points of "relations of production" as a conceptualisation not to exclude "culture" but to _preclude_reliance_ on any discussion of culture when it wasn't needed. Of course these things can't be separated in the real world, but isn't that why we have academics? It's simply not possible to discuss everything and I can't think of many contexts where one's religious denomination or the particular version of football one follows is relevant to the rate at which surplus value is being accrued by ones employers.
> In each case I could say they event in itself and a representation of
> that are obviously qualitatively different.
Agreed.
> But in each case I could also argue
> that the event is only an "event" insofar as it is experienced through
> representation
But I would argue that "primary" events like every day relations of production and the Bali bombing are both represented and experienced quite differently to "secondary" events like Star Wars Epi. 5 In fact, given how entertainment-saturated the media is, we hardly ever see primary events. Especially the relations of production.
> What? Wow, that's savage. An entire season, for one post in which I failed
to
> adequately inflect my response? One game would be extreme...
Don't be such a baby ;-)
> But the football thing, not being perceived as training for labour, is so
much
> more effective at doing it. Oh, the teamwork, the sportsmanship, the
focus, the
> training regimens...
All of these also being why many leftists think sport should be encouraged ...
And I couldn't help noticing these words in your post to Carrol:
>Unless you want jettison
> everything Marxism has actually offered to the analysis of all those
relations-
> of-production you cannot dismiss or sideline "culture". Economics as a
> discipline, Marxism as a field of theories -- "culture".
An interesting concept of "Marxism"; it sounds more like Weber, or postmoder nism ... or at a stretch, I suppose, some varieties of neo-marxism.
Then again I suppose a lot of "marxist" cultural studies makes me think "I am not a marxist".
Regards,
Grant.