Dear Blog,
I have been thinking about Horkheimer and Adorno's Culture Industry piece since I read it the first time in the Spring of 2021. This quote has stuck with me,
"The whole world is passed through the filter of the culture industry. The familiar experience of the moviegoer, 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 ... the more easily it creates the illusion that the world outside is a seamless extension of the one which has been revealed in the cinema" (56).
Obviously I didn't memorize that quote a year ago but this idea has stuck with me, challenged me, freaked me out on many levels, etc. This quote makes me think of Benjamin's Mechanical Age of Reproduction, how film has allowed the reproduction of everyday life to be portrayed in fictional way but we believe it to be real. I can think of some examples in which film, and certain directors, use this and create films that really sit with the viewer and the "reality" of it can be uncomfortable. The first director I can think of is Tim Burton, who uses a ton of CGI and unrealistic images in his films but he sometimes places them in real "worlds." For example, in his film Big Fish (one of my top 3 favorite movies), he has a son who doesn't believe his fathers outlandish stories. Spoiler alert: at the end of the movie, the dad "dies" and becomes a big fish, it seems impossible but this story exists in a very tangible world for most viewers. Burton mixes a real life thing (a complicated father and son relationship, death, aging, grief, the list goes on) with some incredibly illusionary stories.
Anyways, what I'm trying to get at with this media example is the ways in which it is possible for artists to use the culture industry to their advantage. Some filmmakers can create media that makes us question what is real and what is not; in a way responding to this quote and denying that humans have any sort of agency. Our theorists are definitely pointing out the ways in which we are easily sucked up by media, and specifically film, but I think they also open a door for filmmakers to offer a counter argument.
On another hand, moviegoers can watch a movie and leave and not be able to tell what is real and what is still the movie. For my theory praxis I will be exploring this idea with the example of the early 20th century film Birth of a Nation. I hope to showcase the ways in which moviegoers were inspired by violent and racist acts in the film and carried them out in real life, ultimately resulting in the resurgence of the KKK.
All in all, I am in awe of Horkheimer and Adorno's brilliant theories for their time and enjoy thinking about them almost every day.
Signing off,
mg
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