RELATED WORKS

Roland Barthes, 'Plastic', is a commentary noting the mass production and importance of plastic to modern society. The idea that a certain product might be able to influence human life so strongly as to almost take over human identity illuminates Benjamin's account of the mechanization of humanity by machines during the industrial revolution. Barthes notes of plastic: the scope of the transformations gives man the measure of his power, the very itinerary of plastic gives him the euphoria of a prestigious free-wheeling through nature. Benjamin had already noted that this tendency in humans to surrender their identities to a false feeling of power heralded the triumph of the production of inanimate objects.

Read more about Barthes's work

Theodor Adorno provide a seemingly bitter report on modern culture. The processes about which Benjamin writes are confirmed by Adorno's indictment of the mindless uniformity to which society has fallen victim. The resistance which Benjamin imagines has disappeared in Adorno's account.

Read more about Adorno