Rick Roderick, 1993, Duke University

“Anyway, that’s rationalisation, and then the third – and this is sort of one of my own if you will forgive me – is what I’ll call banalization. And it’s always a danger when you do lectures like the ones I am doing now, and that’s to take these fundamentally important things like what does my life mean, and surely there must be a better way to organise the world than the way it is organised now, surely my life could have more meaning in a different situation. Maybe my life’s meaning might be to change it or whatever, but to take any one of these criticisms and treat them as banalities. This is the great – to me – ideological function of television and the movies. However extreme the situation, TV can find a way to turn it into a banality.” - Rick Roderick in 1993

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… This is the great – to me – ideological function of smartphones and social machines and twitter-length reaction pot-shots and memes. However extreme the situation, social media users can find a way to turn it into a banality. Or digital comic artists from Canada who were educated by Joycean Marshall McLuhan's works and students. Fanny fan art.

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“Because all the troubles that such a life involve are just reduced to banality, just the common rubble of little one line joke, you follow me? It’s made banal by it. It’s banalised that way.” - Duke University Professor, Rick Roderick, 1993