Blob, the

1. Metaphorical embodiment of the postmodern age; its mission is to absorb the real.
2. Generator of paradox and ambivalence.
3. Agent of fusion and mixes.

Feel of the Virtual, the

1. The plasmic flow of streaming video, iPod design, manga aesthetics.
2. The Blob's secretions.
3. The feel of the virtual leaks from the screen and enters the physical world as mediation reaches saturational thresholds.

Flattered Self, the

1. You. you are hard-wired to respond to attention-- and you get so much.
2. The target of all representations-- movies, documentaries, photographs, television, books, newspapers, messages, billboards, advertisements, brands, themed settings of all kinds-- that is, you, the viewer, the reader, the consumer, the customer, the voter.

Justin's Helmet Principle, the

Stands for the weird way in which mediated options can turn out to be mostly a good thing even when they are aesthetically repellent and spiritually diminishing.

Mediation

1. The process by which reality is experienced through something else.
2. The process by which real entities fuse with representational entities. (e.g., "mediations" of Jesus include: the Bible, Michelangelo's Pieta, Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, and appearances on The Simpsons; purest e.g., natural entities becoming their own icons).
3. A dialectic, often Hegelian in nature.

MeWorld

1. A world of representations constructed willy-nilly by a person choosing from perpetually available options.
2. The ultimate source of relativism and constructivism-- and willful traditionalism.

Method Acting

A philosophy of acting that rejects "acting." it strives for psychological truth, training actors to be real and live in the moment. associated originally with Stanislavsky and then with the Actor's Studio in New York City. Marlon Brando was the prototype.

Moreness of Everything, the

1. The increase in the volume and variety of mediated options vying for attention, from cereal packaging to political causes.
2. Forces adaptations in psychic life because you can only register so much in a given moment; leads to coping mechanisms like irony and apathy, but also to fanatical niche commitments, from gamer worlds to religious sects.

Nice Agenda, the

1. The highest ethic of mediation.
2. Living with complexity and diversity by acknowledging each person's feelings and point of view.
3. The belief that everybody deserves to be whatever they happen to be or want to become, as long as they are nice.

Optionality

1. Postmodern freedom in the overdeveloped world.
2. Perpetual mobility in an environment of options.
3. The fact that what has been chosen can (almost always) be un-chosen.

Real, the

1. The opposite of optional.
2. What is given by chance and necessity.

Representation

1. Anything that depicts, recreates, or fabricates "reality" (e.g., movies, documentaries, photographs, television, answering machines, email, books, newspapers, billboards, signs, advertisements, shows, events, brands, themed settings of all kinds, etc.).
2. Not all options are representations, but all representations are options; together they constitute the Blob.

Virtual Revolution

What happens when technological venues multiply and mediated spectators stake a claim to their own attention, joining or displacing celebrities (e.g., Princess Di's mourners, reality shows, podcasting, Howard Dean supporters, Karaoke, blogs, etc.)