What is and what will never be.

One of the things that I found most interesting about this piece is the way in which it deals with performance and realness. Specifically, I found certain aspects of this piece to be applicable to Adorno and to the mirror stage. In Gender is Burning, Judith Butler states that “’Realness’ is […] a standard that is used to judge any give performance,” and that realness is “determine[d] […] by the ability to compel belief, to produce the naturalized effect” (Butler 129). Whereas our reflection is entirely representative of ourselves, we are fully aware of the fact that our reflection is not in fact another real version of ourselves. And while the goal of performance is reflect, or depict something to an audience, this process must be done with a certain level of authenticity in mind. Here the sentiment of Adorno is felt, as the performance eventually comes to represent what it has become, as opposed to what it truly contains. As Butler continues, she establishes that for a performance to be successful in conveying realness, it must be unreadable, “what appears and what it means coincide” (Butler 129). Since we know that what we see is merely a representation of the real, a performance based on but not truly an organic experience, the lines become blurred, and “the body performing and the ideal performed appear indistinguishable” (Butler 129).