Greatness comparisons between artists only make sense across different paradigms.

Evidence

But descriptions like these seem not only to involve the obligatory comparison with the modern as such, they also let questions back in by way of the “canon”: surely only a very old-fashioned critic or cultural journalist would be interested in proving the obvious, that Yeats is “greater” than Paul Muldoon, or Auden than Bob Perelman — unless the word great is simply an expression of enthusiasm, in which case you might well sometimes want to do it the other way round. The rejoinder here is the rather different one that you cannot even realistically “compare” the “greatness” of “great writers” within a single paradigm or period. — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 657

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies that ‘greatness’ is paradigm-relative, which supports the reader’s core task of distinguishing period-bound aesthetic categories.
• DEEPTHINKING: The reframing of aesthetic judgment — ranking is not about quality but about ‘the political unconscious’ comparing modes of production — is a dense, paradigm-level move central to the chapter’s thesis.
• XREF: connects to: Aesthetic comparisons secretly express contests between modes of production. — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 658; Even identical aesthetic features differ in meaning across economic epochs. — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 45; Measuring a concept by its own logic yields different rankings than standard indices. — Gary Goertz, Social Science Concepts: A User’s Guide, 115 (+2 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Aesthetic comparisons secretly express contests between modes of production. — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 658; Even identical aesthetic features differ in meaning across economic epochs. — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 45; Measuring a concept by its own logic yields different rankings than standard indices. — Gary Goertz, Social Science Concepts: A User’s Guide, 115 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Aesthetic comparisons across eras secretly measure the whole mode of production #expands (0.95) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 659
• Aesthetic comparisons secretly express contests between modes of production. #expands (0.92) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 658