the Althusserian belief that "our desires, choices, intentions, preferences, judgments and so forth are the consequences of social practices"
Our desires, choices, intentions, preferences, judgments and so forth are the consequences of physiological demands forming social practices. Boris Shoshensky To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Berger: Chapter Two - Politics: Th e Apparatus of Commisioned Po rtrai ture Date: Wed, 6 Jan 2010 14:12:10 GMT > The commission, possession , and exhibition of the painting was a part of its cultural importance. The pleasure of looking at the painting was more complicated than the childlike happiness leading to disneyish reverie earlier described by Miller as his own standard of visual success. Here's how the 16th C. " Book of the Courtier" describes the pleasure afforded by painting: "Thus you see how a knowledge of painting is a source of very great pleasure. And let those think of this who so delight in contemplating a woman's beauty that they seem to be in paradise, and yet cannot paint; which if they could do, they would have much greater pleasure, they would more perfectly appreciate that beauty which engenders such satisfaction in their hearts" How is this more complicated than "childlike happiness leading to disneyish reverie" ? > Could Miller please explain roughly why he describes Berger as "Berger and his fellow Althussarians." "Apparatus" is foundational to Berger's discussion of "Rembrandt against the Italian Renaissance" - and as Berger notes on page 77, "My interpretation of the term conforms roughly to that of the second group whose critical position closely resembles what I take to be Rembrandt's quarrel with the scopic regime of mimetic idealism" That "second group" is the one which "extends the notion in a more or less Althusserian manner to the ideological, semiotic, politico-economic, and metapsychological construction of the subject of cinema" My own experience with Louis Althusser is limited to Wikipedia, which rather thoroughly documents its discussion with 71 references to his various books, especially his magnus opus, "Reading Capital". And so far, in my reading of "Fictions of the Pose", I've found nothing that would contradict the Althusserian belief that "our desires, choices, intentions, preferences, judgements and so forth are the consequences of social practices" BTW, Berger's use of the term "scopic" seems to follow the psychology of Althusser's fellow post-war French intellectual, Jacques Lacan. ____________________________________________________________ Weight Loss Program Best Weight Loss Program - Click Here! http://thirdpartyoffers.netzero.net/TGL2231/c?cp=5uBVDjQmR29jPaxo0Ic1dgAAJz6c l_zTaptgNR5c8Mer1v9kAAYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAEUgAAAAA=
