“Wrestling is not a sport, it is a spectacle”
The opening chapter of this influential book by one of the most respected linguistic philosophers in the history of the philosophy of linguistics is titled “The World of Wrestling.” Important to remember is Barthes is also one of the most influential pop culture philosophers in the history of pop culture. Therefore, wrestling is not treated by the author in the same way as he would treat a sport; it is about performance. Thus wrestling is treated as a metaphor of spectacle in the grand historical sense of really being about “Suffering, Defeat, and Justice.”
“sweat is a sign”
This metaphor relates directly to the film version of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Barthes is the type of person who notices that everyone in this film seems to be sweating noticeably. Everyone, that is, except Caesar. From this he draws his metaphor to conclude that sweat is a barometric sign of morality. Every character in the play is morally conflicted and perspiration is a signal of the degree to which they are battling within their soul. Since Caesar is the only character who is not trapped with moral conflict, naturally he shows no signs of this battle taking place.
“Like wine, steak is in France a basic element, nationalized even more than socialized.”
This may well be the single most shocking simile in the entire book to American readers. Wine and cheese as a basic French element? Sure. Wine and baguettes? Of course. Even wine and Jerry Lewis movies seems more likely to show up here than steak to Americans because, of course—to toss a metaphorical wrench into this simile’s monkey works—we are the beef people. Lest any American believe that this is a misplaced metaphor, rest easy: Barthes immediately addresses this apparent paradox in the succeeding paragraph.
“myth is speech stolen and restored”
With this metaphor, Barthes attempts to reveal the underlying reality that myth is both the truth and a lie at once. Myth is a version of what existed before but it is not exactly the same thing that existed before the process of taking the truth from its place in history, allowing time to refashion it one or another and then put it back in place always has the effect of revealing the flaw. Important to this process is the understanding that myth is not to be considered an out and out lie.
“the first magical substance which consents to be prosaic”
So…what is this mysterious substance endowed with the magic of being mundane? An oxymoron in the make, it is perhaps the most prosaic substance in the world: plastic. Barthes situates plastic as a magical substance because it is a “transformation of nature.” That which could only be constructed using things which grow naturally can now be built by this substance which not exist naturally at all. He defines plastic as prosaic because until it arrived, things which were constructed as replications of nature had always been relegated to the imitation of high quality goods of little to no practical use: diamonds, fur, silk, etc. Plastic on the other hand is devoted almost exclusively to making things which are only of practical value.
