“The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception”
Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno
“Culture today is infecting everything with sameness. Film, radio, and magazines form a system. Each branch of culture is unanimous within itself and all are unanimous together” (53).
“Films and radio no longer need to present themselves as art… They call themselves industries…” (53).
There is a price tag to all of this now, a price tag that was formed because of the relevance of the system itself. The world we live in became a product of the art we produce, while in turn being influenced by it (influenced the people within society itself and society as a whole).
“The unified standard of value consists in the level of conspicuous production, the amount of investment put on show” (55).
You need money to make money…
“Even during their leisure time, consumers must orient themselves according to the unity of production” (55).
“Something is provided for everyone so that no one can escape” (54).
“The whole world is passed through the filter of the culture industry. The familiar experience of the movie-goer, who perceives the street outside as a continuation of the film he has just left, because the film seeks strictly to reproduce the world of everyday perception, has become the guideline of production” (56).
This quote continues down the page and all of its entirety is amazing… boiling this section down to its simplest terms- “life is to be made indistinguishable” (56). [from the media the industry produces]
“The great artists were never those whose works embodied style in its least fractured, most perfect form but those who adopted style as a rigor to set against the chaotic expression of suffering, as a negative truth” (58).
Relates to the Avant Garde...
“In every work of art, style is a promise” (58).
“Amusement and all the other elements of the culture industry existed long before the industry itself” (60).
“Light” Art (60).
- Softer medium, easier to understand (Movies, TV substituting art, books, etc) (This brought me back to intro to film somehow- comparing diegetic sound to non-diegetic sound… I want to think more about this/ discuss it with you guys if you can relate/ connect this and contribute)
- Quick, efficient, universal
- Easy to simply spectate but SOME do go above and beyond and apply their spectatorship to their abilities to participate- it’s a matter of understanding the difference and more so balancing the two sides of the spectrum
“The culture industry remains the entertainment business… the flesh and blood of the public” (60).
The idea that these ideologies flow through our bodies and make us up as people and thusly supplies to the systems we ourselves partake in and also contribute to…
Great visual…
Fluidity…
“The only escape from the work process in factory and office is through adaptation to it in leisure time. This is the incurable sickness of all entertainment” (61).
A LOT OF CALL BACKS TO WRITER / READERLY TEXT
- Loved the discussion of different mediums… What my [video] essay is going to be about
- Very important concept to grasp and understand is- there’s a reason why every film is classified the way it is. Every genre does the same thing- tells a story. Its how the creators manipulate how the story is told that determines its genre and furthermore distinguishes it from those that are comparable in theme. It’s a formula…
“To present fulfillment in its brokenness” (62).
“The culture industry is pornographic and prudish” (62).
The examples that follow this quote are key to understanding it but very important nonetheless. I love the analogies/ the visuals they provide.
“Amusement was sustained by an unbroken belief in the future: things would stay the same yet get better” (63).
- This connection alone
- I think about this alot… The similarities between the Colosseum and modern day sports arenas- the purposes they serve (historically/ contextually) and the people it attracts/ produces
“To be entertained means to be in agreement” (64).
“The advance of stupidity must not lag behind the simultaneous advance of intelligence. In the age of statistics, the masses are too astute to identify with the millionaire on the screen and too obtuse to deviate even minutely the law of large numbers” (64).
The screen does not translate to reality, even though it is (to some degree) a reflection of it
“‘It is remarkable what can be done for the money’ has long since been adapted by the culture industry and elevated to the substance of production itself. Not only is a production always accompanied by triumphant celebration that it has been possible at all, but to a large extent it is that triumph itself. To put on a show means to show everyone what one has and can do. The show is still a fairground, but one incurably infected by culture” (70).
L’art pour l’art (72).
“Advertising is its [culture’s] elixir of life” (72).
Fuels the fire… Keeps the cycle rolling… $$$
Comments
Post a Comment