from the above discussion, there are a couple of ideas about what religion is: "irrational thinking", "intense emotional experience", a question of "faith", the religion of orthodox "science", a "pre-packaged metaphysic" - and one could add countless more. trying to relate some of theses ideas togewther, irrational thinking is a pronoucement from 'outside' i.e.the person whos thought it is presumably doens't belive it is irrational, it is rationalised to themselves in whatever way. pre-packaged metaphysic is also an 'outside' pronouncement. by contrast emotional experiecne is 'inside', the experience is respected and valued as being of that person experiencing it. similarly with faith. and then the science-religion contrast doesn't go anywhere, apples and pears, literal and figurative - unbless you're comparing similar and dissimilar elements between the paradigms, but that also reduces to who is inside/outside which paradigm.
it don't think the inside/outside binary works that well because ultimately it comes down to competing subjectivities and the object is lost. perhaps a more useful model is the triangular relationship between production, consumption and the artefatc being produced and consumed, in this case religion. perhaps it is in the tensions, contestations between these different poles that the authenticity of the arrtefact is negotiated, and then not for all tiem, but until a new tension or contestation is introduces.
out there in the world, in the market place for gods and symbols, meaning and their symbolic representations are continuously appropriated, co-opted, alliances are made and broken, constantly under negotiation. think about burning a national flag, illegal sacrilege and the height of incitement when islamic militants burn the US flag in lebanon, a civil religious celebration when ritually burned under the auspices of the US government when 'decommitioned'. what are the contestations of meaning happening here? how are these different meanings produced and consumed and how does it construct the artefact?
another idea to play with, this is the digital age, infobahns, hyperways, hyper reality, reality is superceding itself. umberto eco played this up nicely in his commentry in the 1970s on american popular culture's obsession with themeparks and holographic meauseums, where you can experience the mona lisa better than if you were in the louvre. more real than the real thing, in this meuseum you walk into a holographic reproduction of leonardo's studio. there he sits at the easle, adding the final touches to his masterpiece, while his model sits in her chair, holding the smile. this is more real than looking at the artefact hanging on the wall, you're there, in the scene. this is hyperreality. same with themeparks, total immersion in the davey crocket wild frontier, there he is doind his davey thing etc and so on. this is hyperreality where the fake supercedes the real,the fake is more real than the real. and mapped onto the production-consumption-artefact model, hmmm, i don't know,any takers?
(eco's book is called "faith in fakes: travels in hyperreality" and is still in print, if anyone is interested.)
[editted to remove some typo's]
[ 04-08-2001: Message edited by: T ] |
