Cultural Consumption in Contemporary Society and Popular Aesthetics: The Interplay between Commodification and Abstract Thinking

Abstract

The material manifestation of literary and artistic endeavors inherently assumes the character of commodities. In the contemporary landscape of cultural creation, a gradual shift is discernible towards the production of cultural commodities. Inasmuch as culture, when commodified, necessitates its entry into the marketplace, it becomes inexorably entwined with the stages of production, circulation, consumption, and distribution within that market milieu. To render cultural commodities consumable, it is imperative that their production caters to the predilections of the masses. However, if contemporary aesthetic cultural consumption remains unilaterally fixated on technicality, formalism, and emotional stimulation, it not only risks supplanting spiritual gratification with emotional catharsis but also, over the course of time, threatens to atrophy abstract reasoning faculties, thereby propelling human pursuits further towards irrationality.