According to Jean-Francois Lyotard,
Post-Modernism is a careful dismantling of Modernism, observing how its
systematic measurement of high and low art, and construction of universal
meaning fails to hold any weight. There are in fact no hard and fast rules to
the structure of art, representation, and meaning. Thus Post-Modernism is
incredulous of any master narrative. It mixes different existing narratives to create
a pastiche, resulting in something entirely new that purposely loses any feel
of “reality” and embraces self-reflectivity. Lyotard elaborates in Defining the Postmodern: “…there is no
longer a horizon of universalization, of general emancipation before the eyes
of postmodern man, or in particular… The disappearance of this idea of progress
within rationality and freedom would explain a certain tone, style or modus
which are specific to postmodern architecture. I would say a sort of bricolage:
the high frequency of quotations of elements from previous styles or periods
(classical or modern), giving up the consideration of environment, and so on.”
(1466).
The television show Community, depicting an unlikely group
of friends that form a study group at Greendale Community College, has become a successful and unique cult
classic due to its foundation of post-modern ideology in story and character
structure. It typically bases its episodes on preexisting shows or genres: Muppetry,
Claymation, Law and Order, Civil War
Documentaries, to name a few. In this manner, the characters—especially the
emotionally unavailable Abed Nadir, who chooses to only understand the world
through movie and television references—seem to know that they are in a
television show, and that their reality is constructed by means of preexisting
media.
In Community’s episode “Contemporary American Poultry” (AKA: the
Chicken Finger Episode), the camera freezes about a few minutes in to the
action, and we hear a voiceover narration of Abed, revealing that this will be
a mafia-themed episode. Thus through this style of narration, the show is
self-reflective and self-aware, utilizing bricolage/pastiche to tell their
story through “previous styles or periods.”
In The Precession of Simulacra, Jean Baudrillard extrapolates on
Lyotard’s concept of the “loss of the real”, by labeling this new reality as a
hyperreality, which is formed when we enter a simulation/simulacra (“murderers
of the real”). In short, post-modernism forms representations of reality, which
now become the reality; viewers are unaware that the original reality is gone,
because the representation becomes its own reality. This is summarized in his
four successive phases of the image/sign on page 1560:
1) The reflection of a basic
reality
2) The masking and perversion of
the basic reality
3) The masking the absence of a
basic reality
4) The image bears no relation to
any reality whatsoever. It is its own pure simulacrum.
Baudrillard labels contemporary
consumer culture as the main culprit for society being bought (quite literally)
into the simulacrum, totally unaware that the original reality (where you make
choices and are in control of signs and signifiers, which is how you perceive
all people, places, and things) has been replaced by a system ruled by the
hyppereal: a culturally produced state of reality that is generated to provide
work and profits. Here, the world is remade in the image of our desires. Consumer
society provides a “precession of simulacra”: a parade of images that project a
life that consumers are encouraged to try to live.
This is shown in this episode of Community because the study group uses
the exploitation of the popular chicken fingers at lunch to create their own
system of wants, needs, and functions. In simulacra, our natural needs or
desires are essentially eliminated by desire stimulated by cultural discourse
(advertising, media, etc.) The signs take priority over the thing signified. At
Greendale, the chicken fingers became the need/desire for everyone at the
school, so they became the sign of power. Just as in consumer culture, Abed
points out that if you control what the people want (chicken), you can control
what they will do to get it.
This leads to a loss of the real.
For example, Shirley only receives attention by the sexy dreadlocks man because
she is part of the power force possesses the chicken. He is essentially using
her to get to the chicken, and Shirley is buying into this “new” reality,
thinking that he actually likes her for her. But the loss of the real goes both
ways: Abed says about the chicken “It was their food. And we were stealing it
and giving it back to them like it was a favor.” The students outside the study
group (the power force) were falling deeper into the simulacra and were now
unaware that they did not HAVE to buy into their system of supply and demand;
they were brainwashed into thinking that in order to get the chicken, they had
to provide their own services (extra points on a test, tutoring, buying Troy a
monkey, joining Pierce’s entourage, providing pampering services, etc.) and
became sucked into the hyperreal. As Jeff says, “The universe goes by supply
and demand. The more you take and use, the more it sends back to you.”
This
episode exemplifies how all authority and political economy is performative in
nature. It is a myth. Power is just a simulation, where signs are given new
signifiers, and due to consumerism, we let it happen. Here, the chicken
represents power. Thus those possessing the chicken become a simulation of
power, which they exploit. Their downfall and return to “the norm” reveals the
effects of how hyperreality creates certain signs and signifiers, and then
loses all sense of reality. Abed’s statement: “It turns out everyone has needs
and everyone has functions” is reality, yet the hyperreality is that the functions
and needs are decided for you, and you are unaware that you have surrendered
your ability to assign meanings and value to things on your own.
This all relates back to Lyotard’s
explanation of Post-Modern ideology: the loss of reality, a self-reflective
narrative (art being able to comment on art, hyperrealities commenting on
reality), incredulity to a master narrative (not wanting to give something one
set meaning, therefore using many genres at once) and choosing the mix and
match preexisting forms to create something new, that is free of one universal
meaning or clear measure of progress or high/low art. Therefore Community is a perfect example of
Post-Modernist ideals thriving in the formation of an ever-changing,
self-reflective narrative that abandons the “real” and chooses to explore the
multiple “meanings” behind different signs and signifiers in movies and other
forms of media.
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