Videotexts present a ceaseless random interaction of narrative signals contesting mental compartmentalization

Evidence

The matter grows more complicated, however, when we realize that none of these elements or new cultural signs or logos exists in isolation; the videotext itself is at virtually all moments a process of ceaseless, apparently random, interaction between them. This is clearly the structure which demands description and analysis, but it is a relationship between signs for which we have only the most approximate theoretical models. It is indeed a matter of apprehending a constant stream, or “total flow,” of multiple materials, each of which can be seen as something like a shorthand signal for a distinct type of narrative or a specific narrative process. But our immediate questions will be synchronic rather than diachronic: how do these various narrative signals or logos intersect? Is one to imagine a mental compartmentalization in which each is received in isolation, or does the mind somehow establish connections of some kind; and in that case, how can we describe those connections? How are these materials wired into one another, if at all? Or do we merely confront a simultaneity of distinct streams of elements which the senses grasp all together like a kaleidoscope? The measure of our conceptual weakness here is that we are tempted to begin with the most unsatisfactory methodological decision — the Cartesian point of departure — in which we begin by reducing the phenomenon to its simplest form, namely, the interaction of two such elements or signals (whereas dialectical thinking asks us to begin with the most complex form, of which the simpler ones are considered derivatives). — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 234

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines videotext as a ‘constant stream’ or ‘total flow’ of interlocking narrative signals — a key concept for understanding postmodern media structure.
• XREF: The ‘Cartesian point of departure’ vs ‘dialectical thinking’ critique connects to Milgrom’s rational-choice critiques and to Communication as Culture’s methodological debates. — connects to: Random affect-collages become necessary through repetition and desire — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 130; Baudrillard equated media saturation with the schizophrenic loss of interiority — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1112