"The cultural work done in the past by gods and epic sagas is now done by laundry-detergent commercials and comic-strip...

I disagree. The only overaching narrative or mythos in the West seems to be progress: technological, economical, social and ethical progress. Who's writing these stories?

swag

In a way, if that's what's on [our] minds. Internets has made culture a more relative issue than it was in even Barthes' day, however. Nonetheless the underlying idea is correct. If the Gods are on your mind, if a laundry detergent jingle is on your mind, if the writings of Sam Harris are on your mind, 'cultural' work is being done in terms of how you see, and place yourself in the world.
Makes me think of Benjamin's essay on Leskov, and Spengler's entire enterprise (as a kind of foil for this way of thinking).

Two things:
1. Can we really say that a laundry detergent ad holds the same amount of existential information and gravity as an ancient epic?
2. And what did you mean by the spengler comment? I havent read him but would be interested in what you mean by what you said, even if it's brief.

it's not done by anything

wow really made me think

Answer to 1: Yes, anything can work as a cathartic object and trying to put x or y above a or b is an attempt to justify your own choices

upvoted, good sir xD

>art is unnecessary on a practical level
no shit sherlock

I'm talking about mythos

>premise 1: B happened after A
>premise 2: B is better than A
>premise 3: C happened after B
>conclusion: C is better than B
I love how progress can make us smarter!

Thanks for posting this, now I know I can safely skip reading anything by Roland Barthes.

dilettantes gtfo this board

>THING A IS LIKE THING B HUUUUURRRR

Yea I'm good

what are you trying to get out of posting that?

if you disagree with something have the courage to write out a sincere post you fucking coward

That was my sincere post.
That's all the effort required to dismantle this tripe.

Art is unnecessary on a theoretical level, as well as a practical one. Those myths and sagas had a reason to be beyond mere entertainment.

Could someone please shoop those two faggots on that nicest person you'll ever know / twisted fucking psychopath meme with Barthes as good and Bataille as bad?

>one of the most influential thinkers of the mid 20th century
>dismantled by that nothing post

stop what you are doing, you pseud

To answer-
1. Absolutely not. But the process is one of 'cultural immersion'. Consider the 'savage' in Brave New World. If his mind's on Shakespeare but everyone else's is on the orgy-porgy then the deeper fellow becomes the insufferable freak in orgy-porgy culture. By 'culturally relative' I mean that contemporary telecommunications has enabled the emergence of MANY cultural niches. Not everyone is watching (for instance) the same commercials anymore on the same few tv networks..
2. Spengler distinguishes the very use of the word Culture from what he calls Civilization, and applies them to a large swathe of people. There's an upbuilding cultural phase that sets things up (itself divided into phases) then a Civilization phase where these cultural forms are used and used until worn out. In despite of the myth of progress, we're deep into a civilization phase (with respect to his rather uncommon way of thinking) in the West, and there can be no 'culture' per se. The West is famished- what holds it together are comparable to drugs, short term solutions to insurmountable problems. Well, not REALLY insurmountable, but impossible so long as the Western 'forms' remain in play.
Spengler's an easy, even a cozy read. Check him out this Fall.

Fuck off to facebook

>imagine being that one cave man who didn't buy into the whole 'gods' theory

got a new atheist over here boys.

Most of your childhood memories are tied to old fast food ad campaigns and cartoons written to sell toy lines, so yes.

If he's implying everyone in the past cared about those cultural works he's incorrect. Not much has changed.

wtf

unnecessary to what exactly?

Yes. Culture is being replaced by pop culture. We now worship brands instead of gods. We're groomed into being obedient consumers, owned by corporations.

>groomed, husbanded, cultivated
in other words, we're groomed away from being human beings, and towards being consumers..