Postmodernity erases the boundary between commodity and its image

Evidence

In the gradual disappearance of the physical marketplace, of course, and the tendential identification of the commodity with its image (or brand name or logo), another, more intimate, symbiosis between the market and the media is effectuated, in which boundaries are washed over (in ways profoundly characteristic of the postmodern) and an indifferentiation of levels gradually takes the place of an older separation between thing and concept (or indeed, economics and culture, base and superstructure). — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 605

Categorization

• DEFINE: Concrete statement of the central thesis: postmodern ‘indifferentiation of levels’ dissolves base/superstructure, economics/culture separation.
• XREF: Directly serves the reader’s key idea that ‘style is the economy’s way of appearing.’ — connects to: Hyperreality is the totalizing implosion of commodity and culture into circulation — Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, 226; Publicity has become its own commodity rather than an image of commodities — Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, 303; The commodity has become buried, sepulchral, and withdrawn from display — Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, 315 (+3 more)