| Subject: Reply and some Foucault comments |
Author:
Dave
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Date Posted: 13:05:29 11/08/02 Fri
In reply to:
Matt
's message, "Interesting view on commodities" on 11:47:26 11/07/02 Thu
We should all pitch in and find the student a copy on eBay. That is really interesting the way the student almost imagines the movie as a friend "talking to her" in its interactive mode. It is a strong demonstration of the ability of products and advertisement to create consumers rather than cater to them. There's also the interesting sense of buying experience that Bauman talked about. Have any of you seen that awful film, "The Beach," with Leonardo Dicaprio? The opening sequence, if I remember it rightly, shows him as the tourist who runs around just trying to consume the next experience.
Anyway, I'm reading Power/Knowledge and wanted to mention some things of interest. I'm very interested in this relationship between the theory of sovereignty and the theory of discipline. He seems to be suggesting that the theory of sovereignty has remained in the legal codes because it helps to mask the effects of discipline. Because sovereignty makes us feel as if we have inalienable legal rights we can't believe that we're actually tightly bound by a network of power. Foucault suggests on a number of occasions something like this: "What we need, however, is a political philosophy that isn't erected around the problem of sovereignty, nor therefore around the problems of law and prohibition. We need to cut off the King's head: in political theory that still has to be done." (121)
What do you all make of this? What would it mean to have a political philosophy not based on sovereignty? In terms of American politics, where is the concept of sovereignty, exactly? Is this the notion that we as individuals have rights that we hand over to our elected representatives? Or do you see Foucault talking about something entirely different?
>Here is a paragraph from one of my student's journal
>entries. I thought it was an interesting take on the
>power of the commodity and, of course, advertising.
>I'm not sure what to do with this from here or where
>to go, but maybe some one else will be able to relate
>this to theory in some way. I suppose it can
>definitely relate to _Noise_ in that she talks about
>stockpiling commodities just in case she wants them in
>the future. Anyway, here it is:
>
>"The best example of how a commercial influenced me
>was for the DVD version of Snow White and the Seven
>Dwarfs. I hated that movie so much as a little kid.
>The evil stepmother scared me, I had nightmares for
>days, and I could
>not watch the movie again until years later. My
>parents did buy it when it came out on VHS because it
>is a classic, being the first Disney animated movie.
>Yet I only watched it once. I still had no love for
>that movie. Yet when the DVD came out, I wanted to buy
>it. All those commercials made it sound so cool. The
>interactive menu section, the special features, the
>games, all made me want to buy this product. For
>instance, the commercial made it sound like it was the
>first and only DVD to have that interactive
>menu, and I wanted to see what it was like. I had
>visions of the DVD talking to me, and it looked so
>cool on the commercial. Another reason why I wanted
>to buy it was that the commercial made it sound like
>it was only going to be around for a limited time. If
>I didn't buy it now, I might never have the chance too
>since they will 'lock it up in the Disney vault.'
>They built up scarcity, or at least they made it sound
>like there was scarcity, with the hope to increase
>demand. This worked for me; better to have the movie
>and not watch it then to not have it and want it
>later. In other words, I did not want to lose the
>ability to buy it. One more aspect as to why I wanted
>to buy this DVD was the repetition. The commercial
>was played repeatedly throughout a show I was
>watching. Even though I hated the movie, I still
>considered buying it because of these aspects of the
>advertisement."
>
>PS. She ended up resisting the urge to buy it and thus
>escaped mastication in the foul jaws of capitalism.
>(Or something like that . . .)
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