This was not understood in premodern times, when esthetic reflection focused on the objet d'art as the heir to sacred representation. In order to add a storytelling capacity, we must show that it is necessary to satisfy the minimal criterion of deferral of violence through representation . If my story motivates the choice of victim, it lessens the danger of my going next. In the imaginary world of the story, we are still in danger. But in the real world where the story is being told, we remain out of danger by the very fact of the narration.
All culture is sacrificial .
Culture covers a lot of ground, from bear-baiting to attending a performance of Saint Matthew's Passion , but whether we savagely revel in the victim's sufferings or identify with them in the depths of our soul, culture is founded on them. The discovery of this central truth defines our postmodern era. But the postmodern end of culture is not its abolition but its universalization, made possible by the exchange system. We can tell stories about the market, but market activity is not structurally equivalent to a story. Goods in the market do not remain, like the sacred victim, in the ritual center.