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The Poetics of Credit
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Jason Nichols
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DATE
THE POETICS OF CREDIT
By Jason Nichols
Thesis Abstract
In 2004, the online game World ofWarcraft was released. Populated by avatars,
online characters representing the human player, Warcraft established as part of its
game mechanic an economy that encouraged in-game labor, trade, and capital
exchange. Soon after, a monetary exchange proliferated so that players would
purchase in-game capital (Azerothian gold) by means of national currencies, most
commonly between China, the United States and Western Europe. This monetary
exchange between a gaming world's currency and national currencies is now a black
market of extranational capital exchange possible within an electronic medium that
poses significant challenges to claims of national borders and authority. The United
States' use of a fiat-currency and the proliferation of credit-money, also now utilizing
electronic mediums for its capital exchange, engages this study in an interrogation of
material claims of value, value as a component of signification, as well as the
metaphoric translation of the material into immaterial realms and vice versa. The
credit profile then becomes an avatar itself; a narrative copy of a referential person
placed within an immaterial language-game that determines a value of the individual.
This value commonly referred to as a credit score, makes a commodity of our
identities within capitalism, and its construction within a system of language makes
the use of semiotics necessary in its analysis - this is the poetics of credit.
Key Words: Semiotics, poetics, credit, signification, immaterial, language-game.
CONTENTS
FORWORD
11
PREFACE
IV
THE POETICS OF CREDIT
To Make ofNothing is Something
1
Then God Said, "Let There Be Stuff; and There Was Stuff'
3
Can You Lend Me an Invisible Hand to Move All This Stuff?
5
The Value of Stuff is in Your Head
6
The Big Wheel is Sublime
13
How a Pawn Might Equal a King
16
Along Came Scarlet
21
Go(l)d
28
It Began With a Naming-process
30
Did I Tell Ya the One About the President, the Chairman, and the
33
Warchief?
Baudrillard, the Prophet
38
Globalism that is Extranational
42
The Disembodiment of George Washington
45
A Signature Is Sooooo Inconvenient
47
I Am Become Credit, the Destroyer of Worlds
49
I Spend, Therefore I Am
52
Bibliography
54
11
Foreword
The machine that I compose this text with is quite the party crasher. The
boundaries of literature, safely relegated to the dominion of publishers, so often
restricted to the material of tree-skin (you call it paper) is threatened by the box
known as a computer. This electronic device is as familiar a childhood memory to
me as a book. Neither is superior, both are simply different. I realize that the technophobic might rally the cause of pen and paper, championing some imagined romantic
past when we suffered no ill of these machines - the incessant email, the terror of
copy/paste, and the ever watchful gaze of a youtuber. With the same ridiculous
voracity, the techno-phile would invoke the end of our slaughter of trees (paper),
abolish the inconvenience of meeting face-to-face, and find a technological solution
where none need be.
This discourse of digital discourses tends to be generational. I myself, being a
NOOB (neophyte) to the mythical community of 'scholars' am quite often associated
with the techno-philic demography of 'youth', often called upon to "make this stupid
thing work" by means of my techno-shaman abilities. Of course, to the technophobe, I pose a threat. I commune with these machines that threaten tradition, that
threaten intellectual property claims, and that threaten the very jobs of those
'scholars' whose authority is built ofless-flashy and less-noisy texts.
Please allow me to make clear that I am no techno-phile. Of course, I am no
techno-phobe. However, it is to techno-phobes that I most often must defend the
111
claim that texts associated with computers- often pejoratively dismissed as "video
games"- are indeed literature. The narratives of HALO, Zelda, or Fallout, are as
compelling and sophisticated as any of traditional Canon. Many scholars
unfortunately dismiss these texts. Not because the texts have no merit in the study of
literature, but because the scholars cannot read them. These texts require skills
requiring dexterity in order to access their narratives. And yet, rather than
acknowledging the scholar's ineptitude, the failing is so often placed upon these texts.
Video games are often dismissed as 'child's play', seen only as a 'corruption', studied
in the context ofhow they make children fat and violent. With all the research intent
upon demonstrating the ills of video games you'd think there were a barbarian horde
of obese murderers invading our cities- RUN!
Literature cannot be restricted to rhetoric originating from pen and press
alone. There is artistry, poetry oflanguage formed between electrons. Not restricted
to it, but so often materialized by selecting the imperative - PRINT. The following
review of such a text, demonstrates two very important claims.
Firstly, digital texts are literature. Those texts collectively known as video
games are not only worth review, but also contribute new understandings ofliterary
composition of not only electronic, but also 'traditional' texts.
Secondly, if you participate in today's economy (which is pretty likely), you
are already a gamer. Welcome to the party.
IV
Preface
I am a "gamer". The term gamer now translates as a person who regularly
participates in electronic gaming mediums. The term had once described an
individual that was athletically inclined and/or that hunted game for sport
1
.
For those
familiar to the contemporary conception of "gamer", there is a sense of irony in the
diachronic comparison. A gamer is no longer associated with physical prowess quite the opposite I assure you.
My eventual appropriation of the term gamer to describe a facet of my own
life began quite some time ago- girls still had the highly contagious and greatly
feared cooties disease. Cooties made life difficult, and it was at my friend Jimmy's
house that we would enjoy hours of escape from the terror that was our youth. With
joystick in hand, only one button in those days, we would defend our planet from
missiles, centipedes, and aliens. The technology of the time required quite a bit of
translation to make those threats real. Missiles, centipedes, and aliens had all the
detail of a line, a bunch of ovals, and an oval with lines. However, the ATARI
2600
was a god of gaming and its creations brought us Zen.
Of course, I begged my folks for an ATARI2600ofmy own. They were all
too happy to dangle that carrot in front of me as I mowed the lawn with zeal, raked
1
Oxford English Dictionary: Gamer- a. A gamester, an athlete (obs. ). b. One who hunts game, a
sportsman (nonce-use). 1887 Sci. Amer. 15 Jan. 37 "[Labrador] certainly deserves the attention of
garners, fishers [etc.]".
v
every leaf, bagged every weed, and were shot in the leg by a thousand 'pokies'.
Pokies were the worst; a weed whose seeds look like pea sized porcupines and flew
from the lawn mower or weed-wacker like bird shot. Hawaii has injurious lawn
chores available the year round. For several months, no dandelion dare show itself or
face certain doom. And then, in December, I saw the box. Covered in the icons of
the holiday, the snowmen and Christmas trees taunted me for weeks. I locked onto
the image of ripping them to pieces as I release the ATARI2600 from its prison.
Then the day came.
Before the sun came up my brother and I made every attempt to be just loud
enough to wake everyone, but not so loud that we'd be denied our treasure. And
success - within minutes I'd managed to wake my parents. With eyes half-shut they
fought the desire to return to bed and allowed my brother and me our victory. Like
starved animals we tore apart the boxes with our names, paper filling the air like
confetti. The screams of those boxes would occasionally pause as my brother and I
remembered to say "thank you" in the most sincere manner possible by a mad-crazed
slaughterer. And I had my box.
The snowmen and Christmas trees were felled in a sweep of my hand.
I was a GOD in that moment.
The destroyer of worlds!
And then I saw it
Speak
&Spell
Vl
"Fuuuuuuuuuuck!!!"
My Christmas dinner would be soap that day.
I had lost my chance to defend the world from missiles, centipedes, and aliens.
I did make an effort to explore all the possibilities of fun with Speak &
Spell, but there was little beyond the naughty words my pubescent cousins had taught
me.
I'll admit, for those of you non-garners (my parents included) that the differences
between either machine seems little if any. Both machines translated my actions into
some magical world that provided an electronic visual and auditory cue that gave me
a sense of control. And, let's be honest, looking back at the graphics of each display
is like comparing one road-kill to another to determine which is cuter. Between the
ATARI 2600 and the Speak & Spell, there's little difference in the sensory
experience. But then and now, there was a component of narrative that made that
2
Missile Command. Video game. Atari, Inc: 1980.
Centipede. Video game. Atari, Inc.: 1980.
4
Space Invaders. Video game. Midway: 1978.
3
Vll
small difference the measure of worlds. Both electronic devices translated signconcept-symbol. Both provided a means of negotiating signified signifiers. But the
ATARI2600, by means of narrative, was able to transform the digital lines and
ovals of B0 0 B IE S into transcendent worlds where a boy could escape the ravages of
cooties.
In regards to my development as a gamer, I had not moved beyond breastfeeding. Meanwhile, at this time as I was suckling the digital nipple Jean-Francois
Lyotard, well-versed in the Postmodern Condition asserts in his Report on Knowledge
that "Knowledge is and will be produced in order to be sold, it is and will be
consumed in order to be valorized in a new production: in both cases, the gold is
exchange. Knowledge ceases to be an end in itself; it loses its 'use-value'" (5).
The "use-value" of destroying missiles, centipedes, and aliens is still a bit
difficult to assert. At that time, the escape from the reality of the dread-disease
cooties was psychologically beneficial, but each morning I knew I had to return to
school and dodge the infected hosts we called girls. Both the ATARI
Speak
&Spell did little to aid that particular cause.
2600 and
Hand-eye coordination does ya
no good when ya need them legs to move. Like I said from the start, a gamer is not
associated with physical prowess.
Over the next few decades, the worlds of escape would exponentially grow
in complexity. The term gamer, now part of our vernacular, would be applied to an
ever-increasing number of people (who had ever-increasing belt sizes). The gaming-
V111
space now includes entire worlds peopled with people. That sounds a bit stupid, but
realize that these people have representations of themselves in a world removed of
physicality and its inconveniences - geography is now reduced to the space between
electrons. These gaming worlds have populations, languages, social practices, and
economies that rival and surpass those of nations. But most remarkable is that this
immaterial space interacts with the material space translating immaterial-knowledge
to material-commodity, and material-commodity into immaterial-knowledge -a
digitized dialectic.
Not in some off-removed location in the middle of the night, or behind-thescenes; these worlds meet in the everyday. When you click PRINT, when you swipe
your card, when you pay a bill, and if you're a gamer- when you play, you are
translating materiality (matter-reality) with immateriality. Most remarkable is that
you are being translated. Your interactions with this immaterial space are recorded,
deposited, and form a history-narrative that represents YOU. In capitalism this
representation of YOU displaces you and finally turns you into a commodity. This
Avatar, a representation of you in a gaming space, is known as the Credit-Profile and
commands with that semantic distinction a conception of objective reality to be held
with respect and serious concern. However, its "use-value" is difficult to assert,
especially given the current economic crisis. Missiles, centipedes, and aliens replaced
by the APR of cars, houses, and the impulsive decision. Our notions of value now
challenged by the display on the screen reflecting what has become of our own
identities - 8 D0 8 IE 5.
1
The Poetics of Credit
To Make ofNothing is Something
Dante placed usurers - money lenders who charged interest- in the Seventh
Circle, Third Ring, ofthe Inferno (Canto XVII) to be scorched by flames and the
burning soil they sat upon while fixated upon the purses around their necks that
embodied the greed Dante believed was the cause for their heresy against God. Ouch.
Given the current economic climate and disdain toward money-lenders considered by
many to be "predatory", we might find a return of such sentiment to Western
metaphysic discourse; the condemnation of ones' soul by passive-aggressive
Florentine poets - Priceless.
The United States' dollar is currently distributed via a mechanism of usury by
the Federal Reserve Bank. The interest rates adjusted by the Federal Reserve are the
foundational mechanism controlling the lending of money between parties
participating in U.S. capital- the most common parties being yourself and your local
bank. The U.S. dollar, in fact a Federal Reserve Note as labeled above the portrait of
a dead President (Ben Franklin the exception) is valued by means of usury, not in
spite of it. Based upon a fiat currency 1, the Federal Reserve Note is worth what it is
lent for rather than a specific material of exchange it may be traded for such as the
1
The Federal Reserve Note known as the United States dollar is commonly misperceived to be valued
based upon a material commodity such as gold. The United States dollar is in actuality valued on the
basis that it is the only recognized legal tender of the United States.
2
gold and silver standards it had once been beholden to. While this might motivate a
contemporaneous passive-aggressive Floridian to compose a lyrical condemnation of
the Federal Reserves' soul (doesn't Rush Limbaugh live in West Palm Beach?), the
remarkable consideration is that the U.S. economy is wholly reliant upon a practice
considered for centuries amongst Western theologians to be a heresy against God.
The heresy, according to Dante was violence against God, equal in severity to
blasphemy and sodom/. These days the latter gets all the press. St. Thomas
Aquinas in Summa Theologica (also from
13th
century Europe) provides a rational for
the condemnation of usury as "money lent is unjust in itself, because this is to sell
what does not exist" 3 . It is important to note that the issue is not the breaking of a
commandment, nor is it the creation of a blasphemous idol; instead the charge levied
at the usurer is one of the rights to metaphysical construct. Of course, the ironyloving atheist would charge that St. Thomas Aquinas and Dante Alighieri "sell what
does not exist" (330). And it is this concern, an issue of metaphysical rights to
existence, which challenges the Judea-Christian-Islamic God's rights to creation
4
.
To understand how the usurer poses threat to God, it is necessary to borrow
from the study of economics in order to distinguish between four general categories
of currency: commodity-money, representative-money, fiat-money, and credit2
The Violent Against God - The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri Inferno details Hell as a series of
levels moving toward the center of the Earth. The closer to the center of Dante's Earth-centered
universe, the greater the sin against God- the sinner placed further away from God's presence.
1
Blasphemers, sodomites, and usurers were placed at the lowest level of the 7 h circle.
3
St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province.
4
Usually I leave the double-entendre for the reader to discover -like tootsies in my tootsie-pop, but
"God's creation" is one that should be unwrapped before bitten into. God's creation and God's
Creation are distinctively different flavors. The first is of the existence of God, while the latter refers
to the physical world (light, trees, beasts, us) that were created (if you believe as such) by God.
3
money
5
.
The first type of money, commodity-money is (maintaining the theological
framework) as God intended. More accurately, commodity-money is as God/the
universe created. But progressing through the evolution- devolution- of money
appropriates materials into a translation of signs that moves material to metaphor with
representative-money. The United States dollar, like many other national currencies,
is currently a fiat-money and depends upon a metonymic translation of the nation for
its value. The nation replaces God as the determinant of money's value- the
metaphoric link to material (commodity) is severed. This has led to the devolution of
currency in credit-money. As the nation replaced God, so credit-money removes the
nation. And finally, the usurer usurps God's power of creation by means of God's
annihilation- the removal of a material touchstone as the basis for the creation of
capital. In less theological terms, the practice of interest lending creates by means of
negating the material.
Then God Said, "Let There Be Stuff; and There Was Stuff'
The most basic form of trade would be of materials left in near raw form here's a shiny rock for some Mammoth jerky. Commodity-money, the most
intuitively understood form of money is a bartering of materials for materials. There
is an intrinsic value of the object via its utility, its rarity, or the labor-value invested in
5
These terms are common to the fields of economics and business. Specifically, I draw upon Robert
Guttman's work. Additionally, testament to these terms ubiquity is demonstrated by the convenience
of finding them amongst wikipedia.
4
acquiring the material. The intrinsic value is understood by the two parties of
exchange, though the equivalent value of one material for another is not necessarily
equivalent. That one shiny rock equals five strips of Mammoth Jerky. Commoditymoney may also be a processed material. For example, cigarettes might serve as a
commodity of exchange for items and services in a prison. Or of personal experience,
while attending the U.S. Navy's Basic Training (Boot Camp) after cigarettes were
banned, and having smuggled some in, I quickly found that the commodity-money
value of one cigarette was worth a box of Lucky Charms, Mountain Dew, and a shoeshine. In Boot, Lucky Charms and Mountain Dew surpass the filet mignon and
Merlot.
Commodity-money has an intrinsic value directly tied to the object. There is
not a representational connection to its value; there is not a metaphoric value. The
material, if we return for a moment upon issues of metaphysical creation, is as God
created it. Even if in the form of a cigarette, the object is a simple reformation of
materials of Creation - tobacco, tree bark as paper, a bit of tar for taste. Adam Smith,
Mr. Invisible Hand himself, describes in the year of the birth of a mildly important
nation words that serve well to describe the value of stuff:
The real price of every thing, what every thing really costs to the man who
wants to acquire it, is the toil and trouble of acquiring it. What every thing is
really worth to the man who has acquired it, and who wants to dispose of it or
6
Adam Smith promoted in his series of writings, the collection called the Wealth ofNations the
economic philosophy of free market systems based upon a laissez-faire control (or lack of) and the
invisible hand served as a metaphor for the negotiations of trade within that free market system
5
exchange it for something else, is the toil and trouble which it can save to
himself, and which it can impose upon other people. (An Inquiry into the
Nature and Causes of the Wealth ofNations Book 1 [1776], Chapter V)
Can You Lend Me an Invisible Hand to Move All This Stuff?
Representative-money begins the translation of object into language, into sign.
Commodities suffer a very inconvenient attribute regarding their use. As a material,
being physical, large collections of commodities succumb to the physics of mass.
Simply, commodities get heavy. This inconvenient condition of material existence
leads to a remarkable and uniquely human solution of reducing the properties of
physics via metaphysics - the process of signification. Instead of carrying 100
pounds of gold, a person should carry an object that represents 100 pounds of gold.
This harkens back to the action ofbartering because both the act of bartering and the
process of representation require the translation/negotiation of one object/sign with
another. A diamond might be valued at 100 pounds of gold and is therefore more
convenient than gold - the act of bartering. But of course, the eventuality may be a
need to transport 100 pounds of diamonds.
The solution is to remove the attachment of value with the physical
composition of material, the object. In lieu of the material attachment, a symbolic
language provides a practical solution oftrade by means of metaphor. With
representative-money, metaphoric currency, the currency is oflittle intrinsic value
6
and cuts the umbilical cord of physics. A piece of paper, in its simplest incarnation of
representative-money could simply read "worth 100 pounds of gold". This
translation of the object into language on a piece of paper utilizes the paradigmatic
function of language to translate a value of material into a sign, because the sign is
simply more convenient to carry than the referent material. The same amount of
effort, labor-value, invested in writing the statement "worth 100 pounds of gold" is
near equivalent with writing the statement "worth 100,000 pounds of gold" though
the material translation of each statement is significantly different. To rephrase
Adam Smith in Lacanian terms, representative-money removes "the toil and trouble"
of the Real with the Symbolic 7 .
The Value of Stuff is in Your Head
An example of representative-money is the currency of the United States in
1928. Metaphorically attached to gold, the effort (the labor-value) to produce any
denomination of notes is nearly equivalent, pressing ink to paper, though each
denomination may be of very different representative values. The 1928 Twenty
dollar note utilized the same process of production as the 1928 One Hundred dollar
note. However, especially in 1928, the two denominations would be signified in quite
7
Jacques Lacan, Ecrits: A Selection, trans. Bruce Fink. Lacan's use of semiotics to provide the "logic
of the signifier" in his discussion of the symbolic-real-imaginary orders ofhuman experience makes
distinction between "reality" as a narrative of the subject (signifier) and the "real" which resists
symbolization. Utility falls very short in explaining the value of gold and diamonds. The value is
symbolic and therefore its real value is conspicuous by virtue of its absence.
7
disparate ways, not only in regards to their material translation, but also socially and
psychologically. Speaking upon contemporaneous views of the Twenty and One
Hundred dollar denominations Joydeep Srivastava, a marketing professor at the
University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business concluded after a
research study published in the Journal of Consumer Research that "there's a
psychological cost associated with spending a $1 00 bill that's not there with spending
smaller bills" 8 . Though the diachronic comparison between 1928 and 2008 (when the
study occurred) might possess incongruities natural to an 80-year spread, a person of
1928 familiar to the structure of signs that envelop the 1928 denominations would
demonstrate a concern for the same "psychological cost" differentiating the value of a
Twenty from the One Hundred. The 1928 notes, unlike their 2009 counterparts, had
printed on the obverse side of each bill a crucial disclaimer - claim - of
representative-money, "TWENTY DOLLARS IN GOLD COIN PAYMENT TO
THE BEARER ON DEMAND" and "ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS IN GOLD COIN
PAYABLE TO THE BEARER ON DEMAND" (see Figures 1, 2 on page 8).
The psychological negotiation ofthe individual to the symbolic value of
representative-money requires a sociological negotiation as well. The sociological
attribute of money is likely the most crucial component. Quite simply, an economy
of one is no economy. Money, as a sign, requires a coder and decoder- two agents
working within a sign structure able to negotiate significance. When these
psychological negotiations begin to perceive a sudden revaluation of the symbolic
8
Journal of Consumer Research, Chicago Journals, University of Chicago April2009.
Figure 1: Gold Standard 1928 United States Note Twenty Dollars.
Figure 2: Gold Standard 1928 United States Note One Hundred Dollars.
9
order because the realit/ has changed, the coding of the representative-money is
threatened and forced into a crisis of translation. The disclaimer - claim - of
representative-money as a sign attached to a referential material can be dismissed.
Today, the 1928 Twenty dollar note and One Hundred dollar note no longer
maintain a direct translation of representative-money to "GOLD COIN PAYABLE
TO THE BEARER ON DEMAND". The wealth of nations came under serious
duress in the wake of World War I. Adam Smith could not foresee what Robert
Guttmann, characterized with the benefit of hindsight in his aptly titled book, How
Credit-Money Shapes the Economy that "the monetary regimes preceding the Great
Depression were all ... based on some sort of metallic standard. Over time this
institutional form of money developed several shortcomings which led to its eventual
collapse in the 1930s" (88). The reality of maintaining a material link in the
translation of currency results in an unfortunate problem of the real resisting
symbolization because of material scarcity. Guttmann makes clear that "by limiting
credit supply and money issue to previously accumulated specie [gold coin] reserves,
it constituted a "metallic barrier" to continuous and stable capacity expansion" (87).
A paradox of representation was finally realized after the industrial era and
capitalism saw an exponential growth of the economies of Western Europe and the
United States- there's only so much gold in the world. The value intrinsic to gold is
its material scarcity, that it is conspicuous by its absence. Not surprisingly, the
9
Jacques Lacan distinguishes reality from the real. The "real" cannot be articulated, resisting
symbolization, whereas reality is the process of articulating the Symbolic Order referred to as
"reality".
10
production of each individual representative-money threatens the value of all
representative-monies because as you produce more currency, but maintain the same
level of material translation of a substance that is scarce, you reduce the ability of that
currency to translate into its material referential because the process of signification
contains a dynamic mechanism of quantity that is inversely related to quality.
For simplicity sake, we'll imagine all the entire world's gold is contained
within
G.
By that same token, we'll take
M to be a fixed denomination of
representative-money.
The simplest, most intuitive, understanding of the translation of each would
be:
M==G
On theM note this might be expressed with the daunting clause "1 Min the entire
world's gold paid to the bearer on demand". You wish ...
Of course, signification is arbitrary.
G and M
might be articulated as X
and Y, or sea shells translating into the representative-money printed on clay tablets -
I will not challenge Saussure's precaution that "some people
regard language, when reduced to its elements, as a naming-process only- a list of
words, each corresponding to the thing that it names" 10 (65). Language is obviously
10
Nature of Linguistic Sign taken from recreated lecture notes published in 1916 as Cors de
linguistique generale (The Course in General Linguistics) trans. Wade Baskin.
11
more than that. Signification, as well, is more than just a translation of one thing to
another. Whether sign to sound spoken in a word, or regarding one sign symbolized
by another, the issue of quantity and quality do catalyze the process of signification.
Quantity can reduce the value of one sign in relation to another via a property
of dilution (Lacan might say delusion). Returning to the (in)convenience of
M
and
G, this can be expressed as:
M M M=G
G is still translated by its referential M, but now requires 3 signs of M to
equall sign of
G.
M's value toG is diluted so that
M < G.
This
adjustment of value in the relationship of sign and its significance is not limited to
representative-money. In terms oflinguistic expression of phenomena, the same
catalyst of diluting the value of sign is of common human experience. The sublime
pleasure of an experience, the jouissance 11 , is reduced if not completely annihilated
by the affect of quantity. The first time that I drove a car, I was possessed of a
rapture of empowerment/freedom/danger/fear/joy that was quite surprising and
11
Joissance is a moment of deep pleasure. As Robert Clark explains Lacanian "joissance" in The
Literary Encyclopedia, this moment moves beyond the Pleasure Principle of Sigmund Freud to
instance of so much pleasure, there is pain ("joissance", Jan 2004). This is often linked to the instance
of orgasm where the expressions of face and voice are indistinguishable with those of pain. However,
joissance is not necessarily sexual and can be experienced by other experiences in a person's life where
there is so much joy, it is painful.
12
overwhelming. The maniacal laughter that resulted from this moment ofjouissance
still haunts my mother's memories. Driving, of course, increased in quantity. The
car no longer articulated in conceptions of empowerment/freedom/danger/fear/joy,
but instead because of its now too familiar association with work and chore is now
signified as impotence/slavery/mundane/banal/boredom. The car- the sign of the
real that signified and symbolized a value of sublimity has now been diluted so much
that the car is now incidental in my reality, often removed of any perceived value and
made a backdrop. The sign is absent value by means of its conspicuousness.
This moment could be expressed as
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM~G
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
But is more accurately expressed where the distinction oftwo signs is lost to
the quantity of the one of them- a backdrop made of repeated encounter with a
particular sign.
~MMM.
:Jt.A'l.A'l.A'AJI.
~¥AWMlAW.E
Can you find G?
13
The Big Wheel is Sublime
Signification, though conveniently thought of in terms of a one-for-one
referent translation by Saussure and the collection of arguments captured in the term
"structuralism", the process of signification is more accurately portrayed by the
aforementioned collection of Ms to the reduced value of
G since the human
experience rarely encounters signs in isolation. Isolated signification, experiences
resistant to description because there is no translation possible, no description
available has led to paradoxical terms such as joissance and sublimity. These are
words describing the indescribable moments of the real valued because of the lack of
their quantity to the human experience. These words articulate experiences that
cannot be articulated. Lacan's observation that the real resists symbolization,
subjugation to language, stems from the rarity of the phenomena- there is simply no
basis of comparison. Reality, on the other hand is banal and mundane, able to be
articulated because of its commonality, its quantity. Those who have driven a car are
able to understand my articulation of its reality whereas the never-have-driven
pedestrian's experience is at best a vicarious translation of experiences (other signs)
of the banal and mundane in his/her life. Before that day my mother risked life and
sanity to teach me to drive, I'd asked my father what driving was like. An eight year
old at the time, I had no reference other than bicycle, skateboard, and big wheel (the
coolest thing ever!). I, like so many eight year olds, hurled a barrage of questions at
14
my father. Is driving a car like riding a bike? Is it like a skateboard? Is it like riding
a big wheel? My father responded to each question with parental efficiency. Nope.
Nope. Where 's your mother? My father was unable to communicate an experience
that was banal to him and sublime to me though we were both participants of the
same social sign structure. To an eight year old, the car is most definitely a sign that
grants adults the power of gods, even if only a prosthetic God
12
•
The bar is set very
low when impressing an 8 year old.
The reason this bar is set low is not simply the catalyst of quantity in the
process of signification, but its inverse relationship with quality. Quality is not a
separate facet of signification from quantity. The eight year old, become an
adolescent and attempting to drive for the first time experiences a moment of
translation that, at once establishes the first quantity of negotiating the sign of the car,
but also a measure of intensity in that negotiation. The concept of car (a sign) is
experienced as the phenomena of driving, it is signified, and if that moment of
signification contains a joissance/sublimity, the quality is great. This is obviously not
a fixed amount, but it is greater than the next quantity of signifying the sign. As the
quantities of translating the sign increase, the inverse measure of quality follows.
Quality is reduced as quantity is increased. Representative-money, affixed to a
material that must be finite in quantity also undergoes a reduction in value translation
in quality, as the number of the referential, the quantity is increased.
12
Sigmund Freud, Civilization and its Discontents, ed. Peter Gay. Freud discusses the creation of
civilization as following the use of tools, which humans invent to stave off nature (that we fear). The
use of tools, such as a vehicle is a "motor power [which] places gigantic forces at [man's] disposal,
which, like his muscles, he can employ in any direction ... Man has, as it were, become a kind of
prosthetic God" (738).
15
Returning to the example of
M and G, size will serve as a measure of
quality. Time, an important consideration in measuring quantity will pass from left to
right in linear fashion for the sake of convenience 13 . Quality is a variable measure
where the larger size designates a greater value.
In this instance the absence of
a greater quality than
M. M
G from prior moments of translation results in
could be the representative-money or the moment a
sign is translated into significance.
The relationship between sign and signification, as demonstrated by Roman
Jakobson, Ferdinand de Saussure, and other scholars of semiotics is a paradigm where
the signified may be translated by the signifier in a variety of articulations- "soundimages". This is a vertical relationship that linguistically (not all, but many
languages) insists upon a portrayal of the initial expression M = G as
~13
Critics such as Leopold Sedar Senghor in Negritude: A Humanism of the Twentieth Century charge
that conceptions of time as linear are determinant, positivistic, and often maintained as an colonizing
humanism that serves as ideological justification for "modernizing" others. I am sensitive to this issue,
but since my readers are likely also colonized with the conception of linear time from Western
European metaphysics, I will forgo the sublimity of introducing post-colonial challenges and settle on
convenience.
16
This particular portrayal of the relationship of signification is homage to
Saussure's work demonstrated in his discussion of the Nature of Linguistic Sign
where,
and in Saussure's work is an impressive representation. This model of signified over
signifier is brilliant in its simplicity and utility, and its effectiveness (quality) is
significant nearly a century later. Therefore, it is with a bit of reservation that I
14
trespass upon its frame. If I might indulge in a bit of Derridian analysis, using one
Frenchman to deconstruct the other, the circle of this example becomes an
impediment to understanding the process of signification in regards to the catalyzing
function of quantity and quality in the relationship of the signifier and the signified.
How a Pawn Might Equal a King
Signs, the same as representative-money, require reproduction in order to
provide a structure with enough referential components. In other words, a sign we
experience once and only once and in isolation cannot provide commonality between
14
Jacques Derrida is credited with a means of analysis identified as Deconstruction. As Irene Makaryk
asserts in the Encyclopedia ofContemporary Literary Theory, "deconstruction upends the Western
metaphysical tradition. It represents a complex response to a variety of theoretical and philosophical
movements of the 20th century, most notably Husserlian phenomenology, Saussurean and French
structuralism, and Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis" (25).
17
speaker and listener, just as representative-money requires not only a relationship
between the money and its referential material, but also another person agreeing to
the structure that encompasses the sign. This reproduction is not inherent within the
sign, but instead is a component of human communication whether auditory, visual,
even metaphysical. This facet of signs placed within a "circuit of communication" as
Stuart Hall would rephrase Saussure's 'speech circuit' in Encoding/Decoding
comprises "linked but distinctive moments - production, circulation,
distribution/consumption, reproduction" (128).
As one of the kings of cultural studies, it is important that Saussure' s work not
be misrepresented. He did not believe signs existed in isolation, quite the contrary as
he cautions us once more that:
It would be to suppose that a start could be made with individual signs, and a
system constructed by putting them together. On the contrary, the system as a
united whole is the starting point, from which it becomes possible, by a
process of analysis, to identify its constituent elements. (Course in General
Linguistics, trans. Wade Baskin, p. 113)
However, though value was of issue to Saussure, the synergistic nature oflanguage
moved his focus to the structure - his analogy of chess reduced the signification of
the individual pieces within themselves, since he believed, "the value of the chess
pieces depends on their position upon the chess board, just as in the language each
term has its value through its contrast with all the other terms" (trans. Roy Harris, p.
88). The value of each piece in regards to itself is, to put it plainly, dismissed. Yes,
18
the value of the chess piece depends on their position, but as any player of Chess
knows the pieces are valued also upon quantity. The quantity of pawns reduces the
qualitative value of each pawn, just as the scarcity of the King and Queen increases
each value. The circle around Saussure's example of Concept and Sound-image
imprisons the negotiation of value in the process of signification. Once removed, the
syntagmatic and paradigmatic relationship of quantity and quality can be expressed as
GG
M M
G
M
G
M
a
M
r-----_______
Time.
L____--~
so that as the sign
M is perceived over time, the value G is reduced.
Returning to
Saus sure's chess metaphor where the "value of the chess pieces depends on their
position upon the chess board", we can understand the other apportionment of value
for those chess pieces to the players on both sides as dependent upon the quantity
presented. However, time reduces the quantity of signs in this instance. Pawns, by
far represented with the highest degree of quantity at the beginning are substantially
of lesser value to the player compared to the single Queen/King.
19
The pawn exists on the board, initially at a ratio of eight to the one King.
Unfortunately, in regards to signification, the assignment of value cannot be
objectively understood nor can it be determined in isolation. However, the
relationship of signs in regards to the catalyzing affect of quantity and quality can
express relative significance as
i. < cfl.
At this point, it must be said that there is a paradox in the chess metaphor.
Saussure missed the catalyzing affect of quantity/quality upon signification even as
he acknowledged it. Returning to Saussure's preface of the chess metaphor where
"the value of the chess pieces depends on their position", we witness the error.
Focused upon the structure of the game, the position of each piece in the structure,
Saussure places all of the value of signification outside the pieces discussing "the
game", but not acknowledging his own point that "the value of the chess pieces ... just
as in the language each term has its value through its contrast with all the other terms"
rather than its placement within the system. At the start of the game, a pawn is
valued less than other pieces since there are more of them.
J:
:l
t
1
****
Time.
r--______
'----------=--==::..:._----------,~As the game proceeds, the pawns are
reduced, and the reciprocal relationship of quantity and quality adjust each pawn's
20
value to each player. In this case, the reduction rather than the production ofthe sign
increases its significance. This model obviously assumes the pawns are being
reduced in number as the game progresses. Saussure did not believe signification was
beholden to events preceding any given moment in a structure, or as he better
articulates:
Moving a piece is something entirely different from the preceding state
of the board and also from the state of the board which results. The change
which has taken place belongs to neither. The states alone are important.
In a game of chess, any given state of the board is totally independent
of any previous state of the board. It does not matter at all whether the state in
question has been reached by one sequence of moves or another sequence.
Anyone who has followed the whole game has not the least advantage over a
passer-by who happens to look at the game at that particular moment. (88)
This analogy fails to consider that the structure is made a sign. Since sign is derived
by Saussure from concept and signifier from sound-image, it is quite simple to reduce
the entire structure surrounding a particular group of signs into a sign itself. For
instance, a language such as English is a structure and a sign. Just as in Saussure's
example, chess serves as both structure to demonstrate the mechanics of the signified
(chess pieces) with signification (as the game is played) and the "game of chess"
serves as concept signified.
21
Along Came Scarlet
Before moving onto a discussion of fiat-money (you thought I'd forgotten)
there is one other facet representative-money reveals that is important enough to
dwell upon a moment. Most especially because this last function must addresses a
concern more than 2000 years old.
There has long been in Western metaphysics an anxiety concerning the issue
of mimesis. Perhaps because a possible conclusion regarding the issue of existence as
merely a 'bad copy' is a threat to the authenticity of individuality, a threat to the
cherished soul of Western humanism, this discussion has a sense of anxiety laden
within it. Or it could be the 3rd degree manner of interrogation that Plato insisted
upon in the Republic - bright light shining as a shadow demands "Which is the art of
painting supposed to be- an imitation of things as they are, or as they appear?! Tell
me now! *SLAP*" 15 .
16
I'm not about to dismiss the two millennia old polylogue begun by Plato,
since I too hope to pull up a bad copy of a chair and sit in on the discussion
17
-
my
cheek hurts. And I'd be remiss ifl did not mention Aristotle's response that defends
this imitation- the artist's representation as "natural to human beings from
childhood. They differ from the other animals in this: man tends most towards
15
This question appears in Republic, Book X, Plato.
Dialogue is too confining a term for this age old discussion, whereas polylogues are situations "that
many persons, representing many philosophical traditions, go into discourse with each other on one
topic or problem". Franz Martin Wimmer, Essays on Intercultural Philosophy, 2002.
17
In the Republic, Plato articulates a belief that a "chair" is a copy of the ideal conception of a chair.
Art, further removed of the original idea - Concept of chair > chair created by carpenter > painting of
chair by painter- is a copy of lesser 'authenticity', lesser perfection.
16
22
representation and learns his first lessons through representation" (Poetics, 4).
Imitation is what makes us human, art being a form of imitation- representationtherefore makes us human. And since art is an imitation that can be measured,
"beauty is determined by magnitude and order" (I prefer quality and quantity), there
is a value intrinsic within the work of art as expression ofthe artist which requires
skill and creativity (Poetics, 11). For Aristotle, the imitation can be measured
amongst other imitations of its kind, whereas Plato views the imitation as already
insufficient to the original it hopes, but always fails, to approximate. Plato would be
a horrible movie date. Socrates is a close second - the only time he shuts up is when
he's drinking (hemlockjoke).
The pawns on the chessboard (here we go again) are not only an imitation of
the ideal pawn, but also of each other. We can get into some heavy issues of mimesis
when we recall that to Plato the pawn is not only a bad copy of the ideal pawn piece,
but because the pawn is also an artistic representation of a common person
18
,
it is a
twice removed imitation. Aristotle, while acknowledging that there is a measure of
intrinsic value in the pawn piece because it is a representation (an artwork), would
prefer the pieces of the back row. The determinate of value for Aristotle is what is
being signified. Because, for Aristotle, "artists imitate men involved in action and
these must either be noble or base", the pawn which represents base men is
18
Etymologically, the pawn began as a sound-image of both the game piece and the commoner.
Oxford English Dictionary.
Game piece: cl400 Femina: More louep pe archer pe penne ofpe pakok pan in cheker a mat ofpe
paun.
Common person: cl450 Pilgrimage Lyfe Manhode (Cambr.): To destroye it eche wight setteth too the
hond, bothe rook and pown.
23
"characterized not by every kind of vice but specifically by the ridiculous, which is a
subdivision of the category of deformity" (Poetics, 6). Elitist.
•
The fulcrum of Plato and Aristotle's mimetic debate is one of location, but
both presumed that this location of value could not exist within the 'copy' itself- the
irreducible that pawn- the only one right there, right now. Two objects, two signs,
might be identical and still are not the same, nor are they a copy of each. Two pawns
from the observer's gaze can be placed within an order ofthings
19
that homogenizes
characteristics with such efficiency (violence) that the two individuals are reduced in
value to category, to a singular sign of pawn that quite remarkably appropriates all the
pawns in existence.
Representative-money relies upon this homogenization in order to function.
Imagine the 1928 Twenty dollar note stated "THIS PARTICULAR TWENTY
DOLLARS IN THAT PARTICULAR GOLD COIN PAYMENT TO THE BEARER
ON DEMAND". Specificity is the bane of an economy of signs. The use of a
particular item to translate for another- the signified must necessarily result in a
specific signifier - would be to use a name. Saussure had to address this challenge to
semiotics, briefly, and so tells us "the linguistic sign unites, not a thing and a name,
but a concept and a sound-image" (Course in General Linguistics, 65). In other
words, a linguistic sign, by the very nature of sign, must represent not a particular
thing, but the concept of a thing- a category.
19
Michel Foucault, The Order of Things, Duplicated Representation. Foucault astutely characterizes
the fundamental property of signs in Classical episteme as that, "the sign can be more or less probable,
more or less distant from what it signifies, that it can be either natural or arbitrary, without its nature or
its value as a sign being affected- all this shows clearly enough that the relation of the sign to its
content is not guaranteed by the order of things in themselves" (70).
24
Ferdinand challenges "some people [who] regard language, when reduced to
its elements, as a naming-process only" (66). His example:
ARBOR
EQUOS
etc.
etc.
prefaces a (mis)characterization that reduces the importance ofthe irreducible name.
The naming-process, Ferdinand rebukes:
It assumes that ready-made ideas exist before words; it does not tell us
whether a name is vocal or psychological in nature (arbor, for instance, can be
considered from either viewpoint); finally, it lets us assume that the linking of
a name and a thing is a very simple operation - an assumption that is anything
but true. But this rather naive approach can bring us near the truth by showing
us that the linguistic unit is a double entity, one found by the associating of
two terms.
We have seen in considering the speaking-circuit that both terms
involved in the linguistic sign are psychological and are united in the brain by
an associative bond. (65)
Saussure jukes the issue of the irreducible identity ignoring the real issue in the
naming-process- the name. Equos might be a name, just as Arbor might be a name.
I once had a kitty named Kitty- she ran away, and I think because I'd invested so
little effort in her identity. And that's really the issue here. Like I'd said before,
25
focused upon the structure, this time the naming-process, Saussure places all of the
value of signification outside the concepts (equos, arbor, etc.), but not acknowledging
his own point that "the value of the chess pieces [in this case the arbor or
equos] ... just as in the language each term has its value through its contrast with all
the other terms" (88). But a name is a term intended, at the onset of its articulation, to
be an irreducible term.
My wife, Diane, is not one of a copy. To me, she is the only Diane that exists.
Even ifl'd met another with her name, that person is not Diane. All of her life's
experiences, some of them including myself, have resulted in an immeasurable value
of signification- unique. In being Diane, she has encountered terms/signs/concepts
that are themselves unique. There was a horse she'd known as a child named Scarlet.
Scarlet is an irreducible concept. Ferdinand's example already demonstrates this
nammg-process:
SCARLET
Scarlet, the name that signifies for my wife a horse she'd known has an infinite value
because, though an equos, is a unique equos. This is different from being a quantity
of one. One as a number, falls within a structure of linear movement- a syntagmatic
value that is subject to the function of quantity, thereby able to be catalyzed in the
process of signification, able to be adjusted in value as either more or less of a copy
of a category of things. Unique is not subject to this. Scarlet is not one horse of
26
millions, Scarlet is Scarlet. Scarlet is unique, just as Diane is unique, and of course,
Ferdinand, myself, and you.
All signs can be signified in this way, applied a quantity of unique and
therefore an infinite value. A gold ring signifying your particular marriage, or
perhaps your particular divorce, is unique amongst all gold rings. This quantity of
unique curtails the fetish-anxiety of Plato and Aristotle's mimesis. To categorize a
sign, to place a particular thing within a structure with a quantitative function, often
done for convenience, is to privilege the Western metaphysical assumptions of
mimesis. Science requires that mimesis be privileged from the start, the study of the
particular applied to a mythological whole. Existentialism, postmodernism, and
advocates for process pedagogy are the latest challenges to this aesthetic of mimesis the advocation of the unique. But, though all are appealing philosophies challenging
structures which threaten by the very nature of structures the liberty of the individual,
their utility as a method or science is insufficient. The rebuke of the quantitative
mechanism of signification makes all philosophies that reject mimesis an impractical
venture. By the very nature of the claim "this is unique", there is a disclaimer "this
cannot be applied to any other". As a science, this claim is nihilistic. Existentialism
is a process, postmodernism a criticism. But advocates for process pedagogies, begun
with Peter Elbow's self-subversively titled work Writing Without Teachers are a
dangerous lot because they would advocate the annihilation of the structure from a
privileged position within the structure.
27
This is an aside, a diatribe, but an important one in this particular moment.
Process pedagogies, the latest incarnation resulting from the anxiety of mimesis
advocates for the unique qualities of expression inherent to the individual writer.
Writer usually means a student- usually a student of a socio-economic group quite
disparate from the process pedagogic instructor. The result, all too common, is a
student ill-equipped to negotiate the signs which far too often are the means of
entering a university - the very real means of increasing socio-economic status.
Though the process instructor would celebrate the unique value of John (in my
geographical location of Southern California- Juan), the institutional nature of the
university- its structure, reduces Juan into a category. The aesthetic privilege, right
or wrong I don't care, requires Juan demonstrate a mimetic understanding of the
language structure the university requires- usually determined by means of tests and
essays. The process instructor, having neglected this reality in order to save the
liberty of the individual, betrays the student because unique cannot be translated. The
university as a structure cannot evaluate, categorize, nor appreciate the unique quality
of Juan. The result, far too often, is a student denied entrance into the university or,
perhaps more detrimental to the student and the university, is an individual confident
of his/her ability to negotiate the language structure of academia who finds he/she
cannot make sense of it. Remedial courses in the university, designed to amend the
failure of 'feel-good' instructors are not the solution- the student suffers significant
economic hardships and often must negotiate familial pressures as well because the
family relies upon the student as a contributor to income. Highly skilled in being
28
unique, the student cannot accomplish the acquisition of the tremendous language-
structure of Standardized English and dialectical reasoning privileged by the
university within the span of one year. Faced with a very real economic crisis
increasing as the student struggles to understand the disparity between the value of
self, the student abandons scholarly pursuits- burdened with additional debt from the
experience. The best skill of solitaire brings little to a game of chess. And since the
process instructor had not instructed any mechanism of language translatable to a
structure, any science of signs, I will assert quite plainly- process pedagogy is an
oxymoron. It's advocates a collection of fools who do not realize, often because they
come from privileged communities, that an education is a mechanism for economic
ascension for most students, not a hindrance upon self-expression.
Go(l)d
The war to end all wars fell quite short of its oddly nihilistic-utopian goal.
World War I may have ended empires, nations, Czars, but "all wars" - please. It did
end God. That was impressive.
Forget the Nietzschean bumper-sticker "God is dead". I'm not talking about
phenomenological catch-phrases used by philosophy-majors in their failed attempts to
impress women- business-majors use "greed is good". But I am talking about
something both majors care about. God was ended when the pressures of World War
29
I, the debts of both victors and the survivors ofthe vanquished, made the materialleverage of rare metals upon national currencies an impractical translation.
After World War I, international currency exchange resulted in massive
fluctuations of currency value. The reason was God. Well, God's creation- gold.
International currencies of the more powerful nations (relative term) were still based
upon the gold standard. As Robert Guttman remarked in his very thorough review of
the Postwar Monetary Regime, "Deficit countries experienced a net outflow of gold
and, with the domestic money supply thus reduced, price deflation" (Credit Money,
88). Ironically, the significant movement of gold did not benefit the recipient nations
since, Guttman continues, "The exact opposite tended to occur in surplus countries,
where specie [gold coin] inflows triggered rising inflation". In the United States an
evolution- devolution- of the dollar's link to material-commodity came under
serious pressure the same as other nations. As a representative-money, beholden to
material translation (the gold standard), the dollar was exposed to the limits of gold,
it's failing as a material beholden to physics- finite. The United States needed a
currency completely removed of the limits of material existence, and the result was
that dollar in your pocket. Now a fiat-currency, the dollar is backed by the name of
the United States alone. "Fiat", a Latin word that translates as "let it be done" is a
proclamation that accurately denotes the usurpation of God. God's material creations
would no longer restrict the wealth of nations; instead, the State would proclaim the
material value of all things by trespassing upon the metaphysical and create a
currency that is wholly language.
30
It Began With a Naming-process
Coining, the process of stamping upon the shiny rock a name, perhaps in the
form of a picture, is an extension of Adam's work- 'so out of the ground the Lord
God formed every material of the world ... and brought them to the man to see what he
would coin them' 20 . On the material would be stamped the nation, the king, the
Caesar, the emperor. The choice of material is arbitrary- gold, silver, diamond,
copper, perhaps sea shells (etched rather than stamped of course). The material good,
stamped and named, can be traded as commodity. The name is traded as commodity.
This is most evident in paper-money where the material is common, but the process
of naming the paper is intentionally made difficult to mimic. Counterfeit is the result
of a person's ability to convincingly recreate the name ofthe State onto a paper
outside the control of the State. This crime is one of mimesis. God creates gold.
Gold is traded in its raw form by people. Gold is stamped into coin by the State (the
power of naming). The State stamps paper in place of coin. The counterfeiter stamps
paper in place of the State. From creation to naming, to copy of a copy, God is
further removed by the means of human processes.
Usury, so removed ofthe material creations of God, wholly framed within the
confine of human language is an annihilation of God. Even if we do not subscribe to
the 13th century European theory of economics, we can acknowledge the mimetic
20
This is a rephrasing of Genesis 2.19 and 2.20. The actual quote appears later in this address. The
New Oxford Annotated Bible. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
31
angst of credit - money that is not material - is a creation of what St. Thomas
Aquinas asserted "does not exist". A lender provides the money that is the name of
the State - the copy of a copy of God's creation - and gathers obligation from the
debtor by means of time. This temporal concern is of immediate importance to the
transaction. Obviously, if the debtor had the money, (s)he wouldn't need to borrow
the money. This time of absence is the money's creation via usury.
As a commodity, credit lent is the State lent. The name of the State, for
example the United States' dollar is the material is borrowed by the debtor, the
United States' dollar the State's absence from the lender creating more of the State's
name to be eventually paid back- a language-game. Reduced to its most basic
formula, the lender provides a word, the name of the State, and comes to possess
more words by means of the time those State's name are borrowed by another person.
In short, VISA makes U.S. dollars by lending U.S. dollars. This market of language
is fully removed from God's creation. The material translation of mimesis is
annihilated when the metaphysical origins of the physical world- God's creation- is
replaced with a metaphysical creation of humanity- the right to name. Scripture is
reduced to script.
The recognition and use of money is a practice of divine mimesis. The
debate is one of mimetic rights (Can we never escape Plato?). God has the right of
creation- Judea-Christian-Islamic portrait of God- we humans have the right of
language, perhaps better said, the right of naming. Upon his creation, in the JudeaChristian tradition of Genesis, Adam is given the impressive task of naming:
32
So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every
bird ofthe air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them;
and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The
man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of
the field; but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner (Genesis
2.19, 2.20).
The Islamic tradition of Creation goes further still in asserting the right of
naming as crucial to Adam's right as sovereign of Earth:
And when thy Lord said unto the angels: Lo! I am about to place a viceroy in
the earth, they said: Wilt thou place therein one who will do harm therein and
will shed blood, while we, we hymn Thy praise and sanctify Thee? He said:
Surely I know that which ye know not.
And He taught Adam all the names, then showed them to the angels, saying:
Inform Me of the names of these, if ye are truthful.
They said: Be glorified! We have no knowledge saving that which Thou hast
taught us. Lo! Thou, only Thou, art the Knower, the Wise.
He said: 0 Adam! Inform them of their names, and when he had informed
them of their names, He said: Did I not tell you that I know the secret of the
heavens and the earth? And I know that which ye disclose and which ye hide.
And when We said unto the angels: Prostrate yourselves before Adam, they
fell prostrate, all save Iblis. He demurred through pride, and so became a
disbeliever (Al-Baqara, 002.029- 002.034).
33
The power of creation is the very nature of God. The power of language, of
knowing the names of all of creation is the nature of humans. In the Judea-Christian
tradition Adam arbitrarily assigns the names of all things, parole before langue
21
,
while the Islamic tradition is langue preceding parole. Dante Alighieri and St.
Thomas Aquinas understand that when money is made from money lent, humans
usurp the power of creation by means of the process of language.
Did I Tell Ya the One About the President, the Chairman, and the
Warchief?
Currently the exchange rate for the U.S. Dollar to the Sri Lanka Rupee is 1 to
110. The US Dollar fairs significantly better against the South Korean Won at a ratio
of 1 to 1475. 22 A cornerstone of global economics, the currency exchange rate
reflects international markets, economic perceptions, and is taken by many travelers
as quite natural when regional identities negotiate with one another. Those whom
move across national borders are naturally (often habitually) mindful of how many
historical figures one region might command for another region's. The U.S.-China
travelers are keenly aware that George Washington currently trades for close to 7
21
Ferdinand de Saussure. langue- "the entire set of formal structures and rules that must be
shared by speaker and listener in order for communication to occur at all." parole -- sounds
produced by a speaker that are understood as meaningful.
22
These numbers are based upon figures reported December 5, 2008 by Yahoo! Finance.
34
Mao Zedongs. 23 The historical figures reflected on the currency are not associated
with the actual bartering of one individual's persona to another like some perverse
grown-up Pokemon. Washington is not a more highly valued person, he does not
command 7 Mao Zedongs because in his life he lived in the right neighborhood, rode
in the latest fuel-efficient horse and buggy, or wore a groovy wig. Mao Zedong is not
valued less because he is fashionably unfashionable.
We are often led to believe that money reflects an exchange of value based
upon intrinsic factors such as how much gold is held at Fort Knox, a system where
the printed currency reflects the amount of gold possessed by our government, and
then compared to the intrinsic value of another nation's currency we discover the
global exchange rate of George to Zedong?4 Of course, none ofthis is accurate, nor
has it been the case since Tricky Dick took the U.S. economy off the gold standard on
the 15 1h of August in 1971 (Guttman, 142). 25 In itself this information is not a
surprise amongst economists and money market investors. The U.S. Dollar's value is
not reflective of any sort of material exchange rate of limited resource. Instead, its
value is based upon labor-value (an issue oftime/effort)
26
,
international exchange
agreements, interest lending controls, and a host of other considerations. These
subject the U.S. Dollar to factors of control and manipulation, but all are social
23
Mao Zedong is on the obverse face of the Chinese Yuan.
Though we have not participated in the gold standard for a number of decades, a significant number
of American consumers do not realize our currency is a fiat one. The reasons for this misperception
likely stem from a host of factors- another argument all its own. It is interesting to note that the Fort
Knox Bullion Depository exists, but the gold contained has not been publicly witnessed since 1974.
25
"Tricky Dick" is the pejorative used in reference to President Richard Nixon.
26
My use of the term "labor-value" refers to Karl Marx's discussion of production, labor, and capital
in Grundisse. For now, it is enough to know that money is perceived to reflect a value oflabor.
24
35
constructs laden with arbitrary determinants of perception (Guttman, 2.1 ). This too is
not controversial or new.
The degree to which these variables participate in George's value in relation
to Zedong's I'll leave for economists to make their living on (an economist without a
paycheck shames us all). But, this system of valuation between George and Zedong
now includes the Ore WarchiefThrall (see Figure 3 onp. 37). 27 Currently, the
exchange rate for the U.S. Dollar to Azerothian Gold is 1 to 33. 28 Azeroth is not a
nation of topographical borders, of terrestrial markers of control where people with
firearms concern themselves with the paraphernalia tucked between the underwear of
travelers, but is an electronic construct disseminated amongst millions of computers,
populated by millions more Avatars, alts, NPCs, mobs, and bots29 - a computer game
known as the World of Warcraft. The notion that such a thing, a game, might have a
currency exchange rate should crook a few brows skyward. The realization that the
gold from this game is traded at an exchange rate greater than other nations'
currencies splits the lips as jaws plummet. And to ponder a business practice that
suggests one might invest in Azerothian Gold and likely would have fair bettered than
investment in U.S. Dollar, recently significantly devalued, pops a vessel in the
cranium- poof. Those who know remind themselves of Baudrillard and read my
27
A character represented in World ofWarcraft.
This was determined as of December 5, 2008. The practice of selling Azerothian Gold is prohibited
by Blizzard Entertainment (developer ofWarcraft), but websites selling this Gold are prolific and
legal.
29
Avatar refers to an individual's primary representation in a virtual space. "alts" is short for
alternative and refers to additional representations of an individual in a virtual space. NPCs are NonPlayer Characters that exist in a virtual space, but are controlled by a program- Thrall is an NPC.
Mobs refers to a collection ofNPCs, usually in opposition to an individuals character(s). "bots" is
short for robots and are Avatars run by programs that mimic a human player for the purpose of
advertisement or to perform tasks. "bots" are usually not permitted in virtual spaces.
28
36
words as proof positive that the emergence of the third order of simulacra has come to
pass as though on the heels of a cybernetic horseman of a virtual apocalypse ( 121 ).
Perhaps.
30
Jean Baudrillard. Simulacra and Simulation.
30
37
Figure 3: WarchiefThrall, World ofWarcraft.
Figure 4: My Avatar on XBOX Live.
Figure 5: An example of the Auction House of World ofWarcraft.
Figure 6: The Tranquil Mechanical Yeti of World ofWarcraft.
38
Baudrillard, the Prophet
Simulation of simulacra is a tempting place to rest this occurrence.
But I am a gamer. And with this mark of community/generational affiliation
comes the experience that gaming is not for the lonely outcast, the hermit, but is a
medium and forum where ideas are shared by an audience expected to participate in
the narrative's creation- a medium offering unique models of narrative. These
narratives should no longer be treated as incidental to a subject, but instead should
serve to better understand phenomena. 31 Sigmund pulled the story of Oedipus Rex to
detail his assertion that we boys desire Mommy and compete with Daddy, and I will
pull from Warcraft to understand the psychological and social relationship one has
with his/her commodified identity- the credit profile. 32
The practice of trading national 'real' money for a currency bound to an
electronic gaming world is only impressive if we neglect the common and now banal
practice of transferring our own wealth from electronic space to electronic space. I
myself have a successful and almost decade long Seller's account on eBay. Goods
are transferred from my possession to another and the only currency between the
buyer and me is exchanged electronically via Paypal (an online electronic bank that
has no walls or rooftop). The reciprocal is also true. I purchase many items never
31
For more on gaming narratives, please review the ingenious work of Curry Mitchel.
"Oedipus complex" discussed by Sigmund Freud in Civilization and Its Discontents and attributed to
Franz Alexander in Psychoanalysis of the Total Personality. My use of the word "hermit" also refers
to a psychological manifestation identified described by Freud. The "hermit" moves away from
"unpleasure" by leaving the world and creating an alternative.
32
39
having seen the money in any physical, material representation. I am paid
electronically, I then expend that money electronically, and if not for the"$"
preceding the number, I could not prove the national affiliation of the currency.
George Washington is absent from view.
Now, of course, it must be acknowledged that because I find it necessary to
have cash on hand (those soda machines love George), I must at some point
withdrawal my electronic currency and at that time find an exchange from an
immateriae 3 electronic world to a material representation- cash. However, as the
growth of electronic-currency exchange becomes ever more pervasive (some of those
soda machines take cards), the glimpses of George are fewer and further between.
Washington is now a jaded ex-lover of the American consumer. Ultimately, we may
find ourselves using no paper currency but markers of identification that attach to an
electronic holding of currency. I don't believe it's altogether strange since many of
us carry Debit Cards. The card and (sometimes) our Personal Identification Number
(PIN) communicates with the seller that we have transferred electronic-currency to
their electronic holdings and a purchase is made. Many times again, this interaction
does not require we meet a physical being, go to a material space, but instead
'conveniently' perform the process in an immaterial electronic space. I go to website.
33
I believe that "virtual" is a crude term maintaining Plato's notion ofmimises when describing worlds
inhabiting electronic spaces. The treatment of these spaces as less-than or almost a "real world" limits
our ability to lend proper analysis to the subject by restricting our lexicon to a vocabulary that does not
properly appreciate what can and does occur. I will instead extend Hardt and Negri's use of the term.
Hardt and Negri use the term "immaterial product" to describe the result of labor such as social
networking and correspondence. I believe it is an apt description for the electronic discourse ever
more present in our daily lives. "Immaterial" also captures the treatment of such spaces as, again,
"less-than". I am rebuking such short-sightedness.
40
I see product. I click product. I click "pay now". A week later I receive my hulahoop and gyrate my hips having never known the material realm from which that
hula-hoop was sent. My only interaction- an electronic space
devoid of location, a space that lies between shared electrons, 34 and from this place of
interaction a material product is consumed via immaterial means.
The immaterial nature of consumerism goes so much further of course.
Bauldrillard calls the aforementioned phenomena "science fiction", the "simulacra
that are productive .. .its materialization by the machine and in the whole system of
production- a Promethean aim of a continuous globalization and expansion, of an
indefinite liberation of energy" ( 121 ). I am liberated from draggin' my butt into a
car, into a store, into the toy section that displays the hula-hoop I desire -purple with
white stripes. But Prometheus has not passed his flame just yet. The product I await
requires a factory, material resources, and a physical location that serves to feed the
insatiable world its desire for hula-hoops. The hula-hoop cannot be left to the
immaterial system of production because it is a material product.
Prometheus must pass us an electronic flame.
I must consume an electronic hula-hoop.
It is at this moment; Bauldrillard's "simulacra of simulation, founded on
information, the model, the cybernetic game" is realized (121). An immaterial
product is acquired by immaterial currency for an Avatar- a figure representing my
34
In the simplest terms, electricity works by passing electrons from one atom to another. As a space
established on the basis of electricity, rather than matter, ultimately the 'location' of the immaterial is
in the passing of electrons. Of course, electrons are impossible to locate in a fixed time/space, and so
the metaphor proves all the more accurate.
41
immaterial self(see Figure 4 on p. 37). The Avatar is a personage of me inside the
gaming space- the "cybernetic game". Most garners have quite a number of Avatars.
Even strictly online forum participants have an Avatar. Many times these
representations of the material individual are garnished with vanity items. An Avatar
is given an electronic pet, or piece of clothing acquired from an electronic clothing
store. Many ofthese electronic products are highly coveted by participants of these
immaterial spaces. A 'rare' purple hula-hoop might require a difficult or lengthy
process to acquire, a mark of accomplishment for both individual and Avatar. These
immaterial markers maintain a recognized value for those 'in the know', and can be
appreciated by those who may not 'know' the significance, but who witness the
emotional investment by those who covet such items. A colleague having spent a
considerable amount of time acquiring a Bee for his wife's Avatar in the game
Animal Crossing35 was rewarded with ... affection.
A market forms for such items. EverQuest created a market for characters
possessing such rarities and BBC reported in 2003 that one particular Avatar fetched
$2,250, and the average Avatar sold commanded $333. 36 These Avatars are identities
that can be transferred, subjected to markets, and created, developed, and traded in
immaterial markets with immaterial currencies. Before you balk at such occurrences,
before you pass judgment upon the consumers of immaterial products, realize that
time and effort is required to acquire these rarities. There is a labor-value reflected in
the $2,250 for an Avatar possessing coveted immaterial weapons, wearing immaterial
35
36
Animal Crossing: City Folk. Video game. Nintendo: 2008.
"Everquest exposes cost of sexism". BBC News. June 25, 2003.
42
armor, escorted by immaterial pets, and adorned with immaterial jewelry. The Avatar
is an electronic representation of considerable effort. You must keep in mind that an
electronic game is at its electronic heart a complicated expression of a mathematical
language, 1'sand O's coming together in ever more complex patterns so that a Bee or
a Sword or even an Avatar are the solution to immensely challenging equations.
These items are E=MC2 . 37 Prometheus delivers us a fire that bums between the
spaces of atoms, where electrons are passed from one atom to another
38
,
where
immaterial expressions are passed from one person to another.
Globalism that is Extranational
As Avatars interact in their immaterial spaces, whole worlds populated by
millions transcend (more accurately completely ignore) nation-spaces.
39
Mao and
Washington cease to be effective marks of currency. Where do you place a portrait
on an electron? As I previously mentioned, I buy and sell using eBay. The market is
international, and I have sent packages to more than a dozen nations and to every
continent. As the process of payment and receipt of payment occurs, an exchange
rate converts the disparate currencies. Paypal, of course, charges a fee for the
37
Obviously, I am not suggesting that immaterial products are Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity.
However, if we keep in mind that a program (a game) is a complex set of mathematical formulas
expressed as an environment that can be manipulated, than the immaterial item is a solution to a
mathematical problem, and many of these are quite daunting to solve (requiring years of work is not
unheard of).
38
See Footnote 13.
39
In January of2008, Blizzard Entertainment claimed that World ofWarcraft had more than 10 million
players worldwide.
43
inconvenience of 'translating' one currency into another. The effort on Paypal's part
is the changing of this"¥" to"$". Now I grant that there is a conversion process, a
translation of 1 Washington to 7 Maos, but if this currency maintains itself in an
immaterial location, then once the numbers are processed in that equation we know as
the exchange rate, the truth is that all that has changed is the character preceding the
number.
Imagine two currencies with an exchange rate of 1 to 1. Let's make George
and Mao equals in monetary terms. As a buyer purchases an item from me costing ¥5
as he/she would see it on the screen, and transfers his/her electronic assets to me, I
witness the ¥5 negotiate the borders of our nations and that Y with an = sign
undergoes a metamorphosis curving into a snake with a bar passing from head to tail $. Nations struggle to express power in such spaces. The ease of negotiating
terrestrial borders brings with it an ease of negotiating identity. My currency carries
no markers of national patronage beyond this character "$" - in itself simply a font
with pixels marking key points on an electronic matt that is your screen -translated
once more onto this page. From an immaterial expression to a material one by
clicking the immaterial button PRINT, we find the United States' currency easily
moved from person to person, computer to computer, computer to paper, from
electron to cellulose.
The metamorphosis goes still further. National currency is exchanged for a
currency not of terrestrial nations; a transcendent currency associated with a nation of
electronic borders, having no material origin to speak of, no historical figures to
44
portray. Azerothian Gold was created by the developers of Blizzard Entertainment as
a currency for World of Warcraft. Though not sanctioned by Blizzard, the exchange
between national currencies and the immaterial Azerothian currency (Warcraft Gold)
occurs frequently and is a market of exchange between the immaterial and material
world. Players located by the millions in North America, Asia, Europe, and
Australia, participate in the exchange of currencies so that this interaction can be
called global, but not international.
When the immaterial world is the location of exchange it is extranational. An
Avatar whose respective player resides in Canada farms immaterial resources located
within the game. Spending hours acquiring ore, potions, herbs, magical items,
weapons, and the design plans for a Tranquil Mechanical Yeti, the Canadian player
places the products into an Auction House that exists as a location of exchange in the
World ofWarcraft. Other players located in the United States, China, Japan, Spain,
and Australia purchase these products on the Auction House with Azerothian Gold
(see Figure 5 on p. 37). Some of these players have acquired his/her Gold within the
borders ofthe game. Others however, the less scrupulous perhaps, have acquired
Azerothian Gold by paying another player in possession of a considerable amount of
gaming Gold a currency originating outside the game. The Australian pays the
Japanese player AU$457 for 10,000 Gold. The Australian player uses a website or
other means of electronic correspondence, to request the Gold and transfers the
AU$457 to the Japanese player's account. Of course, these dollars were never
realized in a material sense by the Australian. Payment was electronically deposited
45
from her employer into her account. The Japanese player does not receive the funds
in Australian dollars, but in Yen. Obligingly, the Japanese player transfers the Gold
associated with her Avatar to the Avatar of the Australian.
But the currency exchange does not end there. The Japanese player wishes to
possess a Halloween Costume for a different Avatar in Second Life40 • She pays a
Spanish player via eBay for the immaterial Halloween Costume41 translating the Yen
in her bank account- Yen she has never touched or witnessed as a material reality to Euros. The Spanish player uses the newly acquired funds to purchase Azerothian
Gold from a Chinese player and acquires the design plans for a Tranquil Mechanical
Yeti (see Figure 6 on p. 37).
The Disembodiment of George Washington
The circulation I just suggested maintains the currency within an immaterial
world where the Azerothian Gold, Australian Dollar, Japanese Yen, Spanish Euro,
returns to Azerothian Gold and never materializes. This exchange between nations
exists. This exchange between the material and immaterial worlds exists. This
exchange between people exists. Predicated upon the belief that currency must
represent a materiality, we might regard such a scenario with suspicion and grasp for
the capital to be located in the world we know, the world we can touch and feel. We
40
Second Life. Linden Research, Inc. Online Game. June 2003.
Ebay permits the selling of Second Life immaterial products and is the primary location for this
commerce.
41
46
long for George to caress our thighs tucked safe in our front pocket. Ultimately, we
must acknowledge that all currency is construct and that our desire to 'touch' money
stems from our insecurities.
Like some pre-pubescent crude attempt at love we play out the gestures of a
relationship in hopes to make that affection genuine and authentic, but Mr.
Washington is simply a sign to locate our need to hold a construct of money, to love
the construct of money, to forget that money was always inside our minds and hearts
and therefore incorporeal. We grow up to know the truth, and as jaded mature lovers
we lose our fascination with George, we learn to place his love letters into the bank
on payday, we pass him to others, and with electronic banking we have removed his
face from our minds. George Washington is Mao Zedong is Miguel de Cervantes
Saavedra is Queen Elisabeth II is Hideyo Noguchi. 42 Eventually we realize that it
was never George we desired, but the idea of George - a language of signs and
signifiers that originate not in nature, but within our minds.
Our currency is disembodied.
42
These people are on the obverse of the currencies of the United States, China, Spain, Australia, and
Japan respectively.
47
A Signature Is Sooooo Inconvenient
In the immaterial world, portraits do not suffice as a means to control
currency. The 2-dimensional representation of a 3-dimensional being is not efficient.
Currency - a language - must be controlled with a language. Code phrases and
passwords, our Social Security Numbers, our name controls the exchange of
immaterial currency. Our identity is reduced to alphanumeric combinations; we are
reduced to alphanumeric combinations.
We are disembodied.
The "log-in", the "password", the "passphrase", the "Personal Identification
Number" informs the immaterial world that we claim the rights to the 1s and Os that
are exchanged for a pizza delivery, a hula-hoop, a Tranquil Mechanical Yeti. The
immaterial world is convenient, immediate. We needn't have the cash in our pockets
if we carry the card in our pockets and know the PIN. The card with its holograms
and mini-portraits, a signature on the back that no one cares to see, the assurance of
security markers testifying to its authentic validity as it is swiped, is also simply a
vessel for binary code. The card is a collection of numbers that speak to the
immaterial world. Our PIN the last part of an equation that results, we hope, in the
solution "Approved". Many times we needn't the PIN- our Personal Identification
Number. A signature is provided- a signature that no one cares to see. I have
recently received my "Speed Pass". Like magic I wave my card in front of the device
that is a portal to my immaterial funds and with a beep, I am verified, codified,
48
translated and "Approved". My identity is represented by numbers, by language, by a
beep.
No signature required.
I am not required.
The currency my electronic identity 'possesses' may be disembodied, but it is
a translation of a material world. My Avatar is limited to the amount of numbers I
can attach to my identity. My Avatar is limited to the amount of currency I can
translate from the material world into the immaterial. I must deposit good ol' George,
receive numbers (payment) from a buyer or employer, and those numbers are
restricted to a translation of 1 material world currency to 1 immaterial currency
(usually). Twenty dollars with Jackson on its face is valued as an equivalent if
expressed as "$20.00" on my computer or ATM screen. Those twenty bucks are an
expression of labor-value and time. Perhaps I sold, packaged, and mailed my purple
hula-hoop on eBay (I can't be the only one who loves to gyrate). The twenty dollars
reflects my investment in the material object, and of course, the worker, materials,
advertisement, shipping, and a host of other material transactions that created the
hula-hoop. This process allows the buyer and me to agree upon a value of twenty
dollars. I send over the hula-hoop, I add "$20.00" to the collection of numbers that
my Avatar, my immaterial self claims control of. If the buyer used credit, awarded by
virtue of identity claims, then the "$20.00" was not a translation of the material to the
immaterial, but is like the Azerothian Gold, immaterial currency originating in and
remaining within the immaterial world.
49
I Am Become Credit, the Destroyer of Worlds
A Credit Profile bears our name, is an expression of numbers that detail a
history - a financial narrative - which grants or denies us more numbers to add to our
Avatar's currency. The financial narrative is not based upon our material selves, but
is instead based upon our immaterial Avatars - an electronic representation known as
the Credit Profile. The credit profile is an expression of our commodified identity.
nve are reduced to an equation with variables assigned to our employment, our
transactions, our debts, the debts of our spouses. We hope to believe that this
narrative is objective, accurate, legitimate, and authentic. But based within a
language it is firstly arbitrary and therein removed from claims of objective measure.
Our employment is what is reported as employment, but many acquire employment
income outside the immaterial world, transactions are conducted, debts are paid, and
all are outside the immaterial world. I owe a friend $1 that I'd borrowed to purchase
a soda. The incident did occur; materially it did happen, but having not transacted
within the immaterial realm, devoid of translation into the financial narrative, the act
of borrowing or lending that $1 is not measured into our identity.
These occurrences are everyday, and so everyday our financial narrative (the
immaterial identity) moves further from an accurate measure of our material identity.
For most of us, the error occurred from the beginning of our exposure to the
immaterial realm (see Figure 7 on p. 51). While in the Navy, receiving a steady
paycheck, I found it quite impossible to be "approved" for credit. I had no debts, my
50
financial narrative had not been written. Several of my friends attended college.
Their financial narrative the same as my own (nonexistent), they were nonetheless
"approved" a considerable amount of immaterial funds. It is well known that
creditors seek to aggressively grant credit to newly inducted college students. This is
not because there is an objective measure that these individuals have demonstrated a
financial narrative of secure repayment, but is instead by virtue ofthe subjective
determination that college students are likely to use credit. My friends were
determined to be much likelier than myself to participate in the immaterial currency
exchange, and were consequently "approved". But the expression of numbers that
detail their history was filled with blanks. The status of "college student" was a
measure devoid oflabor-value. It does require quite a stretch of objective claim to
suggest that the labor-value invested in signing up for general education courses at
the local community college was commensurate to $3000.
lranslativrl of moments of
mteractton bcaw~..•en indl\idmtl
and capJtalism
AloS
of comhmatmn
Ax1s ol' selection ( rc ferentud ~
• matenalld<.•:ntih·
lliuear)
htstorield moment'l of mteraction
of the mdivtdual identity \~lth
capttahsrn
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nol c<ltded
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(:imu~,s
• the
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•
me C redlt Protlle - 11 collectl.on of arbltrruy moments of anera. chon between the
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- the C redn Ptot11e l'l a referc.~uialtmmatenal represenuon of the
mdividuaL Often cumposed of'enors' (~tenter thmt 90'!'0 of credit
profiles)
'
Credit Score !-:------------------..-----------------·nle score 1S usuallv a
1
number. FICO. BEACON The Credrt Sc.ore 1s synta.gmatlcally tormC(I as the
<:red1t Profile c<mtmuosly Ct.)rnbmes new mom~'t!IS
of capt tal exchange coded from the capnal·mteraction
of the mdnndual
Ttus score is s1gmtied b)' lenders. employer~. government agenc1es,
the indlvniual, perhaJ>S quesuonabh: lm,e mter~-sts, to sigml)' meaning
Onl\) the mdt\'Jdual • these rmght be trustv.urthm~..-ss, s1atus, membet-shtp
52
I Spend, Therefore I Am
This financial narrative, the Credit Profile, is contained within language arbitrary and metaphoric- reforming the individual into a commodity, making the
participants of capital exchange representative-money themselves. In lieu of the
claim "TWENTY DOLLARS IN GOLD COIN PAYMENT TO THE BEARER ON
DEMAND", we have arrived at a moment where 'ON DEMAND THE BEARER IS
TWENTY DOLLARS'.
This translation of the material world into our creation - the immaterial world
- is literary invention devoid of any claim of objective truth. However, there is no
doubt this fictional narrative - the Credit Profile - negotiates with and has much
influence upon our material world. Ironically, the power this narrative has upon
ourselves is not in spite of being a fictional narrative, but because it is fictional
narrative. Composed in and of a medium that usurps geographic constraints, that
traffics knowledge at the speed of light, we finally witness the Postmodem Condition
that Lyotard spoke of while I played with 8 0 0 8 IE 5:
The relationship of the suppliers and users of knowledge to the knowledge
they supply and use is now tending, and will increasingly tend, to assume the
form already taken by the relationship of commodity producers and
consumers to the commodities they produce and consume - that is, the form
of value. Knowledge is and will be produced in order to be sold, it is and will
be consumed in order to be valorized in a new production: in both cases, the
53
goal is exchange. Knowledge ceases to be an end in itself, it loses its "usevalue". (5)
In this realization of our condition we are compelled to acknowledge that if the
knowledge Lyotard speaks of is us, than it is we who lose our "use-value".
54
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