Jameson stated that contrary to what other theorist had said, modernism was indeed done and what replaced it was an era of excess and overabundance. For the majority of the products introduced to the common consumer, fewer and fewer ended up being huge improvements and instead boiled down to being bigger and newer.
What really stood out for me during this reading was the example between "Peasant Shoes" and "Diamond Dust Shoes". Whereas the Peasant Shoes held a story, the Diamond shoes no longer had a deeper meaning. Although the excess newer shoes could reach more people, they made no connection to who the people were. The diamond shoes went "wider" but the peasant shoes were "deeper".
I have to agree with Jameson in that nowadays, it seems that things are replaced/upgraded weekly. There is no more time to grow those deep connections between the user and the item because the item's life expectancy is greatly reduced. Products are no longer build to last years, they are built to last until the next update. And even then, the new upgrades are superficial. The new system depends completely on the consumer wanting the new. Without people reaching for the next thing, no one would spend the excess money on minor changes.
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