Chapter 30

This chapter revolves around Marshall McLuhan's ideas of Hot and Cool Media. He breaks up media into two groups that define what it is and how it function. Hot media often has high definition and is filled with data. It extends a single sense with examples of a photograph or the radio. Hot media does not require interaction because all of the information is given to you. This is often used in first world countries and films. Other examples are the "city slicker" and any type of media past mechanical age. Another example of hot media is a lecture.

Cool media is different than hot media, because cool media requires interaction. It is often is low definition and has little data provided. With this form of media, no sense is dominant and it can be viewed as a cartoon. Cool media is communicated with a telephone. It is used in third world countries where it can be seen on television. It is rustic and is prevalent in the present TV age. Another example of cool media is a seminar.

This is an example of cold media, because you must interact with it.

This is an example of hot media, because everything you need to know is given to you. There is no interaction.

Chapter 50

In this chapter, Stuart Hall discusses representation and difference. There are four theoretical accounts concerning this difference. The first is linguistics which has the approach "associated with Saussure and the use of language as a model of how culture works". The main argument here is that "difference matters because it is essential to meaning: without it nothing could not exist". The second account comes from theories of language. This argument is that "we need difference because we can only construct meaning through a dialogue with the other". The third explanation is an anthropological argument backed by the ideas of Mary Douglas. This argument states that "culture depends on giving things meaning by assigning them to different positions within a classificatory system". The fourth and final explanation is psychoanalytic and relates to the role of "difference" in our psychic life. The argument for this explanation is that the "other is fundamental to the constitution of the self, to us as subjects and to sexual identity." Another theory of difference is from the Russian linguist, Mikhail Bakhtin. He suggested that "meaning stems from dialogism". In this theory, meaning comes from the "give and take between different speakers." Difference can be included in many other theories and will be seen very often in our society.

Chapter 49

Debord states that our current society "prefers the sign to the thing signified, the copy to the original, fancy to reality, and the appearance to the essence". He is basically saying that our society wants whatever is fashionable or acceptable at the current time period. I agree with this statement because I think Debord is very true. For example, how many times have musicians or artists used a piece of art or song and changed it around to what is popular in society. There have been many renditions to songs where the original melody or the refrain has been taken from an older song and has been altered to the music we like today. Also, the architecture of different buildings have been changed to different styles that are culturally acceptable. McDonalds is one example of this. In the south, McDonalds has flat screen televisions and comfy lounge chairs and it is almost an elegant restaurant. In small towns, McDonalds can be portrayed as a dump or trashy place to eat. The McDonalds in Chicago has two stories and an escalator. There are McDonalds buildings that differ from the traditional building. This chapter focuses on the society of spectacle. A spectacle is an "immense accumulation" or representation of everything that moved away. It is a "social relation among people mediated by images". A spectacle is the "present model of socially dominant live". It follows the decisions and actions already made. Debord is a Marxist theorist and is from a society where spectacles are dominant. He said the base or mode of production shapes is the superstructure, which refers to the institutions in a society that shape the consciousness of its members. His ideas were very prevalent for his time and many postmodernist theorists related their ideas to his.

Chapter 48

This chapter mainly focuses on the different interpretations of art. Susan Sontag raises some creative points.
If we have to look at something and think about what it means, or interpret it, then there really is such thing as the content of a work of art. In this chapter, Nietzsche states that "There are no facts, only interpretations." Sontag also brings in the theories of Freud. "Observable phenomena" are considered manifest content and and the true meaning behind the manifest content is the latent content. Almost every event in history is given meaning with interpretation. Wars, dedications, ceremonies, etc. all have a significant meaning behind them and a reason why they happened. It is up to all the creative, brilliant thinkers in the world to interpret and decipher these meanings.

Chapter 47

 People often argue whether an object is considered art or not. It is hard to tell what is actually art. There really is no true answer. Who gets to decide whether artwork is art or not? It is impossible to put a definition and standard to what art can be, especially when disagreeing with someone's creative ideas. Alan Gowens states that rather than asking "What is art?", we need to ask, "What kinds of things have been done by that activity traditionally called Art?". Art performs four functions which include substitute imagery, illustration, conviction and persuasion, and beautification. Substitute imagery are works such as photographs, paintings, and any "art piece" that captures reality. Illustrations are works that tell stories or help tell stories. Conviction and persuasion are works that show beliefs and sell products. Beautification are works that please the eye or gratify the mind. These four functions of art are very important and can be compared to different theories of art. For example, substitute imagery is comparable to a mimetic theory, illustration is related to an objective theory of art, persuasion is considered pragmatic, and beautification is emotive. By focusing on what art does, we are able to examine so many more possiblilities and creative ideas than if we were to think about what art is. Not very many people consider themselves as artists, but in reality, every single person can be an artist. Art has no boundaries, limits, or rules. Just put your mind to it, and you will be able to be your own artist!

Chapter 44

Psychoanalysis "has investigated the very aspects of man's nature with which the greatest writers of fiction have been preoccupied: the emotional unconscious or only partly comprehended bases of our behavior". Simon O. Lesser explains that the use of psychoanalysis is very important when examining fiction. He believed that psychology could reach the deepest level of meaning in the greatest fiction. He knows that the human race gets pleasure from understanding, especially when trying to reach great insights while reading fiction

Chapter 28

This chapter was a little confusing because I really did not know what Robinson Crusoe was. The chapter says that we don't think of Robinson Crusoe as a novel, but rather a myth, along with Faust, Don Juan, and Don Quixote. All of these myths are very similar. They have basic plots and enduring images, and they "all exhibit a single-minded pursuit by the protagonist of one of the characteristic aspirations of Western man". Robinson Crusoe is related to three different themes: "Back to Nature", "The Dignity of Labor", and Economic Man". Because he represents all three of these ideas, Robinson Crusoe has become one of our cultural heros. This great myth is based on the single-minded pursuit of achievement and enterprise (business success).

Chapter 31

Chapter thirty-one emphasizes the difference between cultural aspects such art, ideology, and social class today versus what it used to be. This is the idea of postmodernism. These ideas from Fredric Jameson state that all of the exquisite works of art from one hundred years ago are becoming replaced with a new, modern idea of art. Jameson calls this era "empirical, chaotic, and heterogeneous". Modern art has been replaced with postmodern art such as Andy Warhol, new expressionism, and punk and new wave rock (such as the Beatles). Jameson believes that the fundamental feature of all the postmodernisms is the "effacement in them of the older (high-modernist) frontier between high culture and mass or commercial culture". This means that all of the postmodernisms, or postmodernist music or art, are based off of different things in our culture that are "degrading" and pointless to our education and appreciation of artwork. Some of these things include reality t.v., magazines, comedy shows, non-educational movies, etc. This is true because many things are influenced by our postmodern culture. For example, the book Twilight was filmed as a movie, and now there are several television shows and other movies that are all about vampires (such as Vampire Diaries, True Blood, Vampires Suck, etc.) There are also commercials that use vampires to advertise their products (such as Bing). Nowadays, whenever popular movies come out, there are clothing lines with the characters from the movie, as well as lunch boxes, pencils, blankets, lamps, and really any other object you could think of.

Postmodernism started to replace "an aesthetic style and approach to culture and life" known as modernism around 1960. Postmodernism is different than modernism because it includes local narratives, fragmented style, it is eclectic and anarchical, it merges high culture and pop culture, and includes pop art, photorealism, punk, and schlock art. Modernism has master (meta) narratives and a unified style, it is harmonious, hierarchical, it separates high culture over pop culture, and it includes abstract expressionism, classical music styles, and "serious" art.