Plato’s theory that poetry is a form of mimesis or interpretation and thus is not a form of truth, can be applied to modern methods of discourse. As an introduction to this blog, which is devoted to literary theory, I will juxtapose Plato’s theory of poetry to popular culture, which is, I insist, one form of imitation after another. I will refer to Eminem’s music video “Who’s the Real Slim Shady?” as a supplement to this argument.
Let’s begin with some of Plato’s ideas about poetry. In the introduction chapter of Classical Literary Theory, Penelope Murray explains, “Like all poets before him, Plato is acutely aware that poetry affords its listeners; but for him that is the source of poetry’s greatest danger” (xxiv-xxv). Poetry can be pleasurable, but “pleasure has nothing to do with value” (xxv). Though it can offer its hearers or readers pleasure, poetry, like all forms of art, has the potential to blur our judgments. One could argue that the main goal of poetry is to gratify its audience; thus, it becomes a dangerous weapon for those who are easily enthralled “since the ignorant masses invariably enjoy what is bad for them” (xxv).
Aside from being pleasurable, poetry also has the potential to deceive its audience since it is, after all, merely imitation. Since imitation literally means copying another, there is no originality, and thus is removed from truth. As Plato explains in the Republic:
“The art of imitation, therefore, is far removed from the truth, and the reason why it produces everything, so it seems, is that it grasps only a small part of any object, and only an image at that. The painter, for example, will paint a cobbler for us, or a carpenter, or any other craftsman, without understanding any of their crafts; but nevertheless, if he is a good painter, he may paint a carpenter and show it from a distance, and deceive children and stupid men into thinking it is a real carpenter” (44)
So what does all this have to do with popular culture in 2010? Simply Everything.
Let’s consider the music video “Who’s the Real Slim Shady?” by Eminem
In the first part of the song, Eminem says, “Of course they [kids] gonna know what intercourse is / by the time they hit fourth grade. / They got the Discovery Channel don't they?” Clearly, this is a commentary about the effects of media on children. Children learn from the media, and ultimately end up mimicking what they see. This becomes a cyclical process of imitation, and consequently, a gradual loss of unique identity.
In the chorus, the lines “'Cause I'm Slim Shady, yes I'm the real Shady / All you other Slim Shadys are just imitating” is repeated, depicting the frustration the “real” Shady feels because so many people have imitated him that he, too, has lost his identity. Of course, this video represents the larger issue at hand: society’s constant tendency to act like someone else. People imitate each other and (oftentimes) celebrities, largely motivated by materialistic values. The imitator’s main goal is to appear like the person he or she is imitating, but just as Plato suggested, “the imitator…knows nothing about the reality, but only about the appearance” (47).
This video is a great commentary on our inarguably imitative culture. We live in a world where kids learn from television, teenagers envy and act like celebrities, and inevitably, they (we) turn out to be imitators. Individuality is lost, originality is forgotten, and rarity replaced with replication.
Works Cited: Classical Literary Criticism. London: Penguin, 2000. Print.
