Post Class post...

I feel like we always have at least one quote that especially sparks conversation in class. For Tuesday's class I must say it was definitely the one from Adorno and Horkheimer: "Countless people use words and expressions which they either have ceased to understand at all or use only...as trademarks." (70)

This is when we began talking about how brand names are slipping into our ‘day-to-day lingo’ without us at all even being, if at all, aware of it. I remember when I took English classes at home in Switzerland and we were learning the German translation of “Taschentuch” (tissue) I told my teacher it’s a ‘kleenex’. She said to me there was no such word as ‘kleenex’ in the English language. I was so mad at her because I was sure that we always used that word…when I went home that day to my parents I told them about it and they explained to me that Kleenex is actually just one of the main brand names that has replaced the term tissue in Northamerica. I was so surprised by that because I literally was oblivious even to that brand…it was so unconsciously engraved in my head.

It’s pretty amazing and at the same time scary how advertising can get into our heads so unconsciously. I wonder if in 50 years from now such words as tissue will even exist. Maybe the word tissue will be ‘privatized from history’ as Barthes would refer to. Just like the sayings “It costs an arm and a leg” have been privatized from history. I would have never known where that saying actually came from if it weren’t for Katy (I believe) who explained it to us. This leads us to another one of Adorno and Horkheimers points…”For a few coins you can see the film which cost millions, for even less you can buy the chewing gum behind which stand the entire riches of the world, and the sales of which increase these riches still further.” (64) Just as words are privatized so are almost all of our commodities nowadays. When we buy a pack of chewing gum, there is little thought put into where it has ‘actually’ come from. ‘What’ the history behind it?” We could almost refer this to Machere’s ‘rupture’ or what is not said is just as important as what is not said. The history that is hidden behind all of these commodities that we consume is just as important as the commodities themselves.

AHC - Geena Krueger