Reification is not negative but rooted in commodity economy and irremediable

Evidence

Yet it is a quite superficial view, one at best held by sociologists of [Hanns] Eisler’s crudity, that this ‘reification’ is undialectically ‘negative’, socially irrelevant and arbitrarily correctable through some sort of community art. ‘Reification’ is itself much more an expressionof a fundamental social fact – one which can be discerned from the model of economy, specifically from the character of the commodity and the division of labour, and which necessarily remains in effect as long as the old ‘immediacy’ in the relationship between human being and thing (and our artworks are unavoidably things) has not been restored. While this restoration may be constantly desired by some anarchism-infected Marxists who have not understood Marx, I regard it as base and reactionary, and therefore regard attempts to modify the purpose of art as base and reactionary as well. Here, I am clearly opposed to Brechtand also tocertain intentions of Benjamin. — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 270

Categorization

• DEFINE: Sharply specifies the contested meaning of ‘reification’ — for Adorno it is an expression of a fundamental social fact (the commodity form and division of labour), not a correctable distortion of art.
• XREF: Connects to the broader revisionist claim in this chapter and to Lukács’s own account of reification as rooted in commodity structure — Adorno deepens rather than merely borrows it. — connects to: Lukács saw rationalization as reification caused by commodity fetishism — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism: A Marxist…, 379; Reification is an illusion, so grounds for refusal persist — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 884; Transcendent critique both requires and risks reproducing the reified world — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry: Selected Essays…, 300 (+1 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: The claim that reification ‘necessarily remains in effect’ until the re-establishment of old immediacy — which Adorno rejects as reactionary — collapses any simple hope of abolishing reification, directly answering the ‘pessimistic cul-de-sac’ reading this reader is investigating.

Broader Connections

• Reification is an illusion, so grounds for refusal persist #contradicts (0.95) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 884
• Transcendent critique both requires and risks reproducing the reified world #expands (0.80) — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 300