Hybrid Assignment 08
In Jodi Dean’s essay “Whatever Blogging”, she discusses the term “whatever being” and how it points to a form that “acknowledges communicativity through the deflection of the communicative effort.” One example that she used to explain this is how the word “whatever” is similar to Herman Melville’s Bartleby’s response “I would prefer not to” when he was given a task or instruction to do. He recognized that a sender delivered a message to communicate, but when he said he would prefer not to, he brought the power back to himself and “asserted himself as what matters.” When someone says “whatever”, it sends that message that the receiver of the message was aware of communicative being. It serves as an utterance that neither affirms nor rejects.
Another example that she used is the word cloud. According to Dean, “Word clouds aren’t revolutionary. They are elements of communicative capitalism, elements that reinforce the collapse and meaning and argument and thus hinder argument and opposition.” Word clouds are similar to “whatever” in a way that when it is used as a response, it sends a message that the receiver of the message acknowledges that the word exists and that it has appeared. Just like “whatever”, word clouds do not take positions: meaning they do not accept nor reject. It is like the representation is there, but the meaning/understanding is lost.
Another way that “whatever being” is explained in this essay is through our “networked interactions of communicative capitalism” as we follow different trends (such as fashion, advices, etc), join groups in social media networks, create blogs, sign petitions, post our comments or opinions, etc. We then become the “whatever beings” as we take on and collect different identities without forming symbolic identities.
