During our discussion of Roger Caillois’ essay “The Myth of Secret Treasures in Childhood,” I attempted to push a reading of the text in which Caillois’ notion of the privileged object as an externalized/material soul would be brought into the foreground. Furthermore, I suggested that we might transition from Caillois to Marx by asking ourselves whether this externalized/material soul disappears in adulthood, or whether we might discuss Marx’s notion of commodity fetishism in somewhat similar terms. Though such an undertaking would not be for the faint of heart, I welcome you to take up these suggestions run with them! I will, of course, expect such a paper to be as thoroughgoing as possible in its explanation of commodity fetishism, but you should feel free to be creative in drawing the connection to Caillois.
It cannot be said enough: Plagiarism will not be tolerated. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate your understing of the texts read for class by reconstructing several arguments (in the manner discussed above) in your own words. This does not mean that you cannot quote the text. If you do, please make sure that the quotation does not simply st alone in your own text, please be sure to always cite your source. For this paper, citations should take the following form: “Quotation” (Author’s last name, page number). For example, “Logical co-ordination is essentially economy” (Bergson, 15). In the case of Marx, however, please use the following form (since we read two texts of his): (VFA, page number) for quotations from the “Value-Form Appendix” (Capital, page number) for quotations from Capital.
