Pre Class Blog- Lyotard (Maura Imel)

After talking about Walter Benjamin in class on Monday morning, understanding his theories helped me to critically think about what Lyotard was writing about. On page 40, Lyotard writes, "But capitalism inherently possesses 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" (Lyotard, 40). He immediately points out that this theme is familiar to Walter Banjamin readers.
After talking about the Walter Benjamin article in class on Monday, it was brought to my attention that Benjamin believed art had changed. It was no longer art, it was Art with a capital "A". Meaning that, today when we talk about art , instead of focusing on the aura of the art, today when we think about a piece of art we automatically think about how expensive it is. The more expensive the art piece is, the more well-known the piece or artist must be.
I find it very interesting that he begins with this theme of Benjamins because he then goes on to talk about how he believes this interpretation is somewhat one-sided. Lyotard writes, "Stepping over Benjamin's and Adorno's reticences, it must be recalled that science and industry are no more free of the suspicion which concerns reality than are art and writing. To believe otherwise would be to entertain an excessively humanistic notion of the Mephistophelian functionalism of sciences and technologies"(Lyotard, 42). This is where I need clarification. I am not sure what point Lyotard is trying to make. He acknowledges the idea that "objects and the thoughts which originate in scientific knowledge and the capitalist economy convey with them one of the rules which supports their possibility: the rule that there is no reality unless testified by a consensus between partners over a certain knowledge and certain communities" (Lyotard, 42). I am unsure whether or not he is justifying mechanical and industrial production or if he is making some sort of other point.
I have focused on these first few pages of Lyotard's text because this was one of the main questions that stuck with me throughout the entirety of the piece.