http://www.metafilter.com/tags/zengotita Posts tagged with 'zengotita' at MetaFilter. Tue, 12 Apr 2005 10:45:21 -0800 Tue, 12 Apr 2005 10:45:21 -0800 en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 60 http://www.metafilter.com/41167/Like%2DFor%2DReal <a href="http://www.mediatedtdez.com">What's the difference between reality and unreality?</a> In real life you have no options. It's like when JFK is assassinated and you're in a method acting class, trying to become a mourning American citizen. Thomas De Zengotita's (<a href="http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/40316">reality is so pass&#0233;</a>) new book is out. tag:metafilter.com,2005:site.41167 Tue, 12 Apr 2005 10:45:21 -0800 books media mediated reality thomasdezengotita unreality zengotita prozaction http://www.metafilter.com/40316/Im%2Da%2Dphony%2Dand%2DI%2Dlove%2Dit%2DSalon%2DInterviews%2DThomas%2DDe%2DZengotita <small>Let's say you like cats. When you visit a friend's house and he happens to have a cat, you make a big deal about stroking it, picking it up, talking to it. And you do the same thing with every cat you encounter. It demonstrates to the people around you that you're a sensitive, sympathetic, tactile person. All these things are true of you, including your innate adoration of cats. But that doesn't mean to say you haven't cultivated your cat-fancying into a self-conscious, gushing performance that somehow represents you. This doesn't make you a phony; it makes you something else: mediated. </small> <a href="http://archive.salon.com/books/int/2005/03/04/de_zengotita/print.html" title="The core original thought in the book is this idea of representations being inherently flattering. Everyone knows that ads seek to flatter you, but as far as I know, no one has noted the significance of just being addressed, period. I mean this in the sense that an evolutionary psychologist might think of it: You're wired to respond when someone addresses you. Someone says hello, makes a token gesture, acknowledges your existence, and you respond. In this mediated environment, you're incessantly addressed in flattering ways just by virtue of the fact that you are surrounded by these representations. But it's in the nature of flattery to fail to satisfy you. That's where the motivation for what I call the virtual revolution comes from. As the technology became available, and even before, a class of spectators began to claim the status of celebrity. They felt entitled to it because they've been flattered so much. I think this idea is synthetic: It pulls together phenomena all the way from the popularity of memoirs and autobiographies of ordinary people, from reality TV to blogs, to taking pictures of your life on your cellphone. On and on.">"Me" culture</a> <strong>:</strong> <a href="http://csmonitor.com/2005/0308/p17s01-bogn.htm" title="'Reality is becoming indistinguishable from representation in a qualitatively new way,' de Zengotita claims. Reality TV and blogging, for example, conveniently close the loop on our narcissism, eliminating the middleman. Prenups and iPods represent the apotheosis of optionality in our lives. Whereas marriage was once forever and music was a special occasion, our experience of reality is now malleable, a customized environment, a virtual extension of our desires. And both of these strands tie together in our fascination with cloning - what could be more narcissistic than living among optional selves?">Reality is so pass&#0233;</a><br>Salon interviews Thomas De Zengotita, author of <a href="http://web.ionsys.com/~remedy/Numbing%20of%20the%20American%20Mind.htm" title="Culture as anesthetic">The Numbing Of The The American Mind</a> and <a href="http://www.logosjournal.com/issue_4.1/de_zengotita.htm" title="OK, you want closure? Wrap yourself in this: What would Nietzsche have to say about cloning if he were alive today? It's hard to know, but one thing's for sure; he would not be noodling around on the practical margins, he would not allow experts to reduce this fabulous eventuality to mere policy. He would plunge straight to the metaphysical heart of the matter, to the delicious and terrible dilemmas that cluster around the possibility of self-replication.">Closure for You, Jedermensch ein &#0220;bermensch</a>. tag:metafilter.com,2005:site.40316 Wed, 09 Mar 2005 13:13:45 -0800 cat meditation zengotita y2karl