tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5967476903991259470.post8179906317261381528..comments2023-12-06T04:34:53.474-05:00Comments on Works Cited: Children dressed as animals dressed as children (or, The Meaning of Christmas)Nataliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07898457401179147102noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5967476903991259470.post-14021586069327195682011-12-27T13:51:24.613-05:002011-12-27T13:51:24.613-05:00c: Thanks for your comment. I think it's not a...c: Thanks for your comment. I think it's not as simple as productive/anti-productive; see e.g. <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/53823956" rel="nofollow">Liu</a> or <a href="http://muse.jhu.edu.proxy.library.emory.edu/journals/social_text/v018/18.2terranova.html" rel="nofollow">Terranova</a>. The interstitial escapes of watching a YouTube video at work are a part of the the way that work also infiltrates "leisure time" (email on your phone, for example). As Liu argues, postmodern culture is necessarily already corporate culture. Neither is it as simple as pro-child/anti-child--that's why cuteness can be mobilized rhetorically against reproductive rights, as if we were making a better world "for the children" by bringing the bodies of half the population radically under state control. This rhetoric "for the children" imagines children who will never grow up, who are not and will never be political agents, and who will never, say, vote. Childhood is transient, which is why the Child (Edelman's capitalization) is always more powerful than any particular actual young humans. The Child isn't a human at all; it's a signifier.<br /><br />Charles: well trolled; I salute you.Nataliahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01954034499196842959noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5967476903991259470.post-75278918135664629782011-12-26T03:00:01.058-05:002011-12-26T03:00:01.058-05:00I completely understand this is social/cultural cr...I completely understand this is social/cultural criticism, but I could hardly keep myself from offering a brief theological (albeit Catholic) perspective on this idea cuteness, capitalism and christmas.<br /><br />I think this may be a good moment to reflect on the Queerness of Christ Himself - the manifestation of the epitome of queerness (the darkness cannot even <i>comprehend</i> it) - the incarnation of the Wholly Other. To understand incarnation is to understand substance turned in on itself: "He came unto his own, and his own received him not". Christ is the ultimate queer: rejected, disowned, and out of sync with the very essence, the very substance that constitutes himself. <br /><br />"He had not form or comeliness that we should look upon him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by all, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not." <br /><br /><i>Christ himself is not cute; he can't be, despite being the son of God. Transfigured, sometimes, yes, but not cute.</i><br /><br />Consider the notion that incarnation is <i>triple</i> mimesis - God dressed as a child who is dressed like animals dressed as children. How humiliating.Charlesnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5967476903991259470.post-52449346963571566322011-12-25T06:31:55.897-05:002011-12-25T06:31:55.897-05:00So where does this leave cuteoverload, icanhaschee...So where does this leave cuteoverload, icanhascheezburgr, et al.? Is their year-round animal/child synthesis (and really, since one of those sites has invented a distinct [and distinctly childlike] dialect 'for' cats, the anthro. process can be said to be..advanced) an extension of the Christian-Capitalist monoculture? I have this vague conception that an international (virtual) community specifically devoted to cheerful time-wasting instead of Productivity is somehow anti-Calvinist, anti-capitalist. (Yes, yes, I know, the icanhas empire is a vast and lucrative enterprise. And yet! It feels subversive, still.) And if, as your linked post argues, dressing up animals as children is an aggressive act, then aren't those sites <i>anti</i>-child/animal? Not Christmas-child-state-nation-future-loving at all, but anti-productivity, anti-child/animal, the unmeaning for (all) seasons(s)? Gah, need to think about this more. <br /><br />zunguzungu's link pointed me here; you'll probably have an influx soon. Looking forward to your archives!chttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03330723201580558110noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5967476903991259470.post-27022485954964803022011-12-21T09:06:55.847-05:002011-12-21T09:06:55.847-05:00Hi Trevor -- oh, right! I do know that book, but I...Hi Trevor -- oh, right! I do know that book, but I must confess it's fuzzy in my mind. I should revisit it.Nataliahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01954034499196842959noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5967476903991259470.post-55164370945479325462011-12-20T21:46:22.634-05:002011-12-20T21:46:22.634-05:00Nice post! There is a good chance your already fra...Nice post! There is a good chance your already frailer with it but any time I end up thinking about "the cute" I end up revisiting Garry Cross's Cute and the Cool. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0195156668 if memory serves me right he has a lot in there about Christmass. In his view the cool is constructed in juxtaposition to the cute. I'd be curious to consider what "the cool" do with the whole thing.Trevorhttp://trevorowens.orgnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5967476903991259470.post-42363459937177286442011-12-20T20:47:55.680-05:002011-12-20T20:47:55.680-05:00Oh, sweet Flying Spaghetti Monster, you are right....Oh, sweet Flying Spaghetti Monster, you are right. ...The Grinch even has horns. Minor head explosion here; thanks for the comment, A.Nataliahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01954034499196842959noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5967476903991259470.post-25388172441606022292011-12-20T20:23:45.237-05:002011-12-20T20:23:45.237-05:00I am now thinking about the particular queerness o...I am now thinking about the particular queerness of Jews at Christmas. Think of the crypto-Judaism of Scrooge (coupled with his eventual conversion and absorption into the dominant narrative of Christianity!) and the equally crypto-Jewish un-cute, sallow body of the Grinch. Rejecting Christmas and the Christ child and the normative family, they are effectively Jews- when Jews are imagined as the stubborn people who reject the truth of Christianity. <br /><br />As a Jew (a queer Jew!) who hates the inescapable incursions of Christmas music into supposedly neutral public spaces, I have to claim my identity as Scrooge. Minus the eventual conversion narrative.<br /><br />Great post, N.Andrea A Lnoreply@blogger.com