Abstract:
First delivered as a the last session of a Music and Censorship conf in Olso, its now a bit long and still jumps about, also I am only now working out how these discussions work - but the last one has been hugely productive. All comments and suggestions welcome.
This one is a discussion of Wagner, Adorno, Žižek, Badiou, Rancière, Lacoue-Labarthe Spivak, Marx a bit, and erscheinungsform (follows on from an earlier text on the first sentence of Capital).
First para: There are many kinds of censorship, of which the ‘plague’ of saturation media coverage is perhaps not the least significant. Marx, as far as we know, unfortunately never responded to requests for his views on Wagner, though he is already referred to without being named, as ‘musician of the future’, in Capital volume 1 (CW 35:179). As there is much at stake in the many and varied forms of censorship which could be discussed, we might start with this oblique and rare omission. And just as nearly everything has already been said of Wagner, as well as of censorship, this admission, or even admonition, that there is nothing to say is resonant. Marx in chapter 6 of Capital, with this cryptic reference, is talking of the inability of any, even the most futuristic virtuoso, to live upon future products. The political economists on the side of capital forget that the purchase of labour power will not be enough to produce value, it must be set to work, and even then the surplus value must be valourised through sale and circulation in the market. A source of much confusion, actual labour and actual exchange are necessary, but not sufficient explanations of the secret of value production.
Research Interests: Cultural Studies, Music, Music History, Media and Cultural Studies, Journalism, and 20 more
