Gorretti: Postmodernism and Consumer Society by F. Jameson

Notes:

“... postmodernisms is the effacement... of some key boundaries or separations, most notable the erosions of the older distinction between high culture and so-called mass popular culture. This is perhaps the most distressing development of all from an academic standpoint, which has traditionally had vested interest in preserving a real of high or elite culture against the surrounding environment of philistinism” (165)

"... stylistic diversity and heterogeneity... that is the moment at which pastiche appears and parody has become impossible." (167)

Definitions:
1. Pastiche: an incongruous combination of materials, forms, motifs, etc., taken from different sources; hodgepodge.
2. Parody: to imitate (a composition, author, etc.) for purposes of ridicule or satire.
3. Philistinism: (sometimes initial capital letter) a person who is lacking in or hostile or smugly indifferent to cultural values, intellectual pursuits, aesthetic refinement, etc., or is contentedly commonplace in ideas and tastes.

This quotation taken from page 165 from Jameson's article places this idea of the effacement of boundaries between high culture and mass popular culture in a negative light. He begins to elude that their merging brings an unavoidable end to elitism and perpetuates the lower class of mass popular culture. However I argue that the collision of the two worlds may be more beneficial to the culture than realized.

The Louis Purse
Designers such as Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Dolce and Gabana have for decades now claimed their mark in high fashion. However, in the past 7 years a they have become more popular than ever. Thanks to the merchants selling knockoff designer bags and the mass popular culture that buys them, their names are not only uttered by fashionistas but by "regular" people as well. Does this merger between high and low class mean that Louis Vuitton purses will now be sold at your local Walmart? No, it simply means that what was once popular among a small group of people is now popular among a larger group of people.