VAGABOND, Habermas

In Habermas' text, I thought about fashion and how the styles keep coming back. What is vintage now was "hip" back then, yet we are all about dressing vintage because it is in style. Isn't it interesting?
To start with, I thought it was interesting how many theorists try to define “modernity” and its relationship and importance with the traditional and the present. I suppose I still believe that something that is modern is more or less sophisticated and tasteful (white, ivory, dark brown decor). I also suppose it could imply that - after reading Habermas - something modern is something classic because “a modern work becomes a classic because it has once been authentically modern” (99).

When I think of modern, I think of contemporary, something that is a break from the traditional. Perhaps classicism has been around for so long that we have grown accustomed and bored that we need something more eye-catching because it is refreshing. If I were to think of a modernity, I would think of technology. Why? I suppose it is because of how the simple idea of a phone can be transformed into something like the BlackBerry or the iPhone. Just the concept these gadgets try to sell as are ridiculous a decade ago. Seriously, "there's an app for everything" would not be comprehended by the population back then. Also, the QWERTY pad function would probably only confuse people because we would just think it is unnecessary and too unnecessarily complex.

“Modernity revolts against the normalizing functions of tradition; modernity lives on the experience of rebelling against all that is normative” (100). This quote reminds me of historical movements where every idea is eventually replaced by another. For example, as I've responded to Jackson's response to my post, racism and sexism were so "normal" that no one gave it much thought. Eventually though, it was protested against and now it is "wrong" to do so.

Ultimately, what I derived from the Habermas reading is how intertextuality plays a role between him, Macherey, and Benjamin regarding the notion of mass reproduction, modernity, and fashion.