ENGA11 LECTURE 08 12-04-19 2:49 PM
ANXIETY
DEPRESSION
modern
Postmodern
Fragments
pastiche
Memory
Nostalgia
Original
Copy
Sacred
Sublime
Doubt
Suspicion
Sacrifice
Investment
Debt
Leverage
Representation
Simulation
Crisis
Risk
Belief
Prediction
• Issue for today: shift from the
“modern” to the “post-modern”
• White noise: insistent,
undifferentiating; so much so
that it ceases to register as
noise
o White noise cannot vary;
can be used to block out
noise
o Paradox: it’s a noise that
blocks out noise; a noise
that doesn’t call attention to
itself, doesn’t signify
anything
o We’ve moved from
significance, the search of
significance, to white noise
! the significance of
everything is relative to the
significance of everything
else; everything is worthless
" To the point where a
word is not what it claims
to signify
• Language has always been
arbitrary
signifier
tree
signified
• Language is the
conventionalization of the
arbitrary
• Dorian Grey becomes a
sociopath; no capacity to feel
the pain of others