11 - Our Aesthetic Categories

What is Aesthetic for me? Well based on the information that I know, Aesthetic deals with the nature of Beauty, Art and Taste, with the creation and appreciation of Beauty. It is also known as a branch of Philosophy. I myself as a person loves Aesthetic. It relates to my personality because I am a Nature and an Art lover. I have so much admiration and appreciation when it comes to the nature of Art and Beauty.


I have read an article entitled Our Aesthetic Categories. It was authorized by Sianne Ngai. There are actually three significant things about this topic. The Cute, The Interesting and The Zany. These three actually saturate post modern culture. They dominate it's art and commodities. Also our discourse about the ambivalent feelings these objects often inspire. Basically, in this radiant study, Sianne Ngai herself, offers a theory of the Aesthetic categories that most people use to process the hyper com-modified, mass-mediated and performance driven world of late capitalism. Also treating them with the same seriousness philosophers have reserved for the analysis of the beautiful and the sublime.


According to Ngai, she explored how each of these three aesthetic categories expresses it's conflicting feelings that connect to the ways in which consume, exchange and postmodern subject work. This author said that the Zany is actually bound up with production and engages our playfulness and our sense of desperation. The next one is the Interesting. The Interesting is tied to the circulation of discourse and inspires interest  but eventually also boredom. Lastly is the Cute. The Cute's involvement with the consumption brings out feelings of tenderness and aggression simultaneously.


Ngai actually shows how these everyday aesthetic categories also provide traction to the classic problems in Aesthetic theory. The Cute, Zany and Interesting are apparently not post-modernity's only meaningful Aesthetic categories, Sianne Ngai argues, but the one thing that is best suited for grasping the radical transformation of Aesthetic experience and discourse under it's conditions.


To be honest, this article kind of gave me complications in understanding it. Though there are some points that I was able to achieve in knowing what the topic is all about. I agree with some of the information that I read with this article. It shows that this  are the three main parts found under the Aesthetic Categories and basically, it is somewhat also important to our lives. With these three, you are able to compare them and you can know what are their purposes as being one of the Aesthetic category.

"The Zany, Cute and Interesting saturate post modern culture"

With this three words, I feel like it sounds so interesting to know what is the meaning of this three significant words in the book. This three important words have their own specific definition and purpose. With this quote, I believe that it is true because the culture nowadays are mostly influenced by things that are new to the eyes of the people. Usually modern, and the Zany, Cute and Interesting are part of what makes the culture modern.

For me, this article was very interesting and knowledgeable to read. I was able adapt new information about the Aesthetic Categories. It was somehow related and connected to my topic. Other than that, I was able to somehow understand the information given by the book. Now I know what are the purposes of these three significant words.