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January 16, 2006
Cyborg
"Answer calls directly on your eyewear..."
Posted by rsexton at 12:35 AM | Comments (1)
January 10, 2006
Similacra
Along the lines of what my mom is doing with her mini reviews, I'd like to start posting mini-essays that explore a single idea in a book. After almost 5 years of writing full-sized essays for school, I still have the desire to write about books--but only in small doses.
Here is an example of how a good book sticks with you... In one of the films we're doing dailies on at work, the word "Similac" is repeated ad nauseum* and it reminded me of SIMUVAC, in Don DeLillo's White Noise. I wondered when Similac rose to popularity as a brand of infant formula and if it would seem plausible** as an inspiration for DeLillo. A quick google search revealed that The Moores and Ross Milk Company (now Ross Products) of Columbus, Ohio created the brand in 1927--well before the baby boom and the branding boom that followed.
The way DeLillo draws a comparison between a mysterious government agency and the makers of infant formula underscores the paternalistic nature of both the state and big business. Furthermore, it adds significance to the book's suggestion that simulation has become the dominant mode of our (popular) culture: not only do we simulate everything including mothers' milk but simulation itself is what nourishes our culture.
*Apparently, before I worked at Technicolor, we did the dailies on the Michael Keaton film, White Noise. As some have found out, it has nothing to do with DeLillo's novel but it does have to do with the aura of audio tape and how even the dead can speak through it. Maybe DeLillo, though still alive and well, was speaking to me through the field recordings of The Wayans' midget-sploitation masterpiece?
**I've learned from my dad, who has read and written more essays than I could even fathom, that plausibility through chronology is a bread-and-butter technique in academia. What I like about this aspect of essay writing is that, at least in "cultural studies," the point of doing the historical research is not to prove that the author did make said reference but the he or she could have. BTW, I have written here before on the opposite effect in L'Homage A L'Avenir. Speaking of "cultural studies," I think that DeLillo's book is also very much concerned with the way "branding" has invaded academia as well as business and government. So, this post is not only inspired by my mom but also my dad. And I think that's what blogs are all about: making personal connections that radiate outwards in concentric circles throughout the whole culture like dropping a pebble in a puddle. Or a pond or an ocean.
Posted by rsexton at 03:41 AM | Comments (2)