Isolated moments of enjoyment divert attention from the whole and suspend critique of society.

Evidence

No longer do the partial moments serve as a critique of that whole; instead, they suspend the critique which the successful aesthetic totality exerts against the flawed one of society. The unitary synthesis is sacrificed to them; they no longer produce their own in place of the reified one, but show themselves complaisant to it. The isolated moments of enjoyment prove incompatible with the immanent constitution of the work of art, and whatever in the work goes beyond them to an essential perception is sacrificed to them. They are not bad in themselves but in their diversionary function. In the service of success they renounce that insubordinate character which was theirs. — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 70

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies the ‘diversionary function’ — the mechanism by which fragmented pleasure serves the culture industry, key to the reader’s stated purpose of running Adorno’s analysis on new objects.
• XREF: Connects directly to the earlier formulation that ‘free time’ is administered continuation of work — here the musical equivalent: isolated enjoyment is administered diversion.