After reading this article I am
convinced of one thing. Jean-Francois Lyotard doesn’t want anyone to understand
his work. It worries me to say that I did not understand his theories at all.
It was as if I was reading in Latin, so needless to say I am very much looking
forward to tomorrow’s discussion it hope I will gain some clarification. I did
get excited at one part of the article when he said, “The answer is:” only to
be let down when I continued to read, “Let us wage war on totality; let us be
witness to the unpreventable; lets us activate the differences and save the
honor of the name” (46). What
does that mean?! There was other quote that stuck my interest, “But capitalism
inherently posses the power to derealize familiar objects, social roles, and institutions
to such a degree that the so-called realistic representations can no longer
evoke reality except as nostalgia or mockery, as an occasion for suffering
rather than for satisfaction” (40). Still I don’t understand exactly what he is
trying to say but for some reason it stood out to me. A parallel can be drawn
from this to what Benjamin was talking about when discussing painting and
photographs. There is the notion that the previous representations, in this
case paintings, are no longer relevant for the fact that pictures were developed
and not make a mockery of what a painting can do in comparison. Lyotard has
some completing ideas, and I look forward to ascertaining the meaning of his theories
within our subject matter.
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