Quick note on Values

Really quickly, just cause it keeps striking me and I add more as I finish the book, many of the contentions and positions taken in this book explicitly or implicitly rely on a value system or morality supplied by Shaviro’s prejudice. While politically I tend to agree with him (though sometimes dubious of his particular pop cultural taste and/or interpretations), his critique suffers greatly from his need to inject these politics to make his points. Becomes dogmatic and highly skewe(re)d. His need to define artists as people who do things a certain way is antithetical to the point he’d like to be making i.e. making a value judgement on how “actual artists” (65) feel about copyright. Especially in light of turning almost immediately around and taking Andy Warhol’s words at face value to prove his point “every emotional state is really just a performance.” (72) How can you take Warhol at word but call Beck an ironic hipster vagrant? Who makes that cultural judgement? Shaviro. He seems to be positioning himself as the ultimate academic hipster- player and player hater. Mixing pop culture and theory is dangerous. Needs hands off approach. Del the Funky Homo Sapien, whether Shaviro knows it or not, happens to be Ice Cube’s cousin. Access/Commerce become really important. Before even considering taste. Also, I am still slightly confused by his TS Eliot association. Does he identify with the “Wasteland?”