Publisher's Synopsis
Expiration dates on goods of consumption are the canonical form that, in late modernity, have brought about an idea of finality. We have come to believe that, following the model of packaged goods and medicine, any object of use or pleasure (including the intricately cultural and moral, such as the identities of its consumer) must always result in an irrevocable end. However, in the contemporary understanding of time, this mass acceleration of obsolescence is only half of the story. Just like any other era, the late-modern period is understood as a confusing mixture of imminences, innovations, deferments, and delays, but, more than any other stretch of history, the present contains a huge amount of the past in each of its ephemeral changes. Modernity has a very long history of innovation, but its latest phase in particular always has the ghost of the past hovering just out of sight, waiting for people to repeat their mistakes. The gods of late modernity entertain themselves by bringing about a dramatic trepidation in which mortals believe reside all sorts of change, events, and crises. Even though this farce is carefully composed and detailed, a good eye can spot the resurrection, the imitation, or the parody of some forgotten modern episode, sometimes even a very recent one.
