The commodity universe has passed from its mirror stage into mourning
Evidence
Whatever the subjugation of publicity to the management of capital (but this aspect of the question - that of the social and economic impact of publicity - always remains unresolved and fundamentally insoluble), it always had more than a subjugated function, it was a mirror held out to the universe of political economy and of the commodity, it was for a moment their glorious imaginary, that of a torn-up world, but an expanding one. But the universe of the commodity is no longer this one: it is a world both saturated and in involution. In one blow, it lost both its triumphal imaginary, and, from the mirror stage, it passed in some sense to the stage of mourning. — Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, 311
Categorization
- XREF: The ‘mirror stage’ borrowed from Lacan, and the shift to mourning directly parallels Jameson’s nostalgia and the loss of the triumphal imaginary in postmodernism. — connects to: The commodity has become buried, sepulchral, and withdrawn from display — Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, 315; Grief and desire can coexist in profound moments of reflection. — Lynch, Thomas, The undertaking-life studies from the…, 441; Grief can drain meaning from the surrounding world while leaving inner thought intact — Karl Ove Knausgaard, A Death in the Family, 1524 (+1 more)
- SHARE: For someone steeped in Jameson and Lacan: the commodity passing from a triumphal imaginary mirror stage into mourning is a bridge between the two thinkers worth discussing.
Broader Connections
- The commodity has become buried, sepulchral, and withdrawn from display
#expands(0.85) — Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, 315 - Grief and desire can coexist in profound moments of reflection.
#corroborates(0.75) — Lynch, Thomas, The undertaking-life studies from the…, 441 - Grief can drain meaning from the surrounding world while leaving inner thought intact
#corroborates(0.72) — Karl Ove Knausgaard, A Death in the Family, 1524