A commodity appears, at first sight, a very trivial thing, and easily 
understood. Its analysis shows that it is, in reality, a very queer thing, 
abounding in metaphysical subtleties and theological niceties. 
 -- Karl Marx, "The Fetishism of Commodities and the Secret Thereof" 
(1887) 

This somewhat enigmatic passage is useful for thinking about why the commodity resists neat categorization: whether it is illusory or real, scientific or "theological," a fundamental problem for social thought or a "trivial" matter, of a piece with the reality we all share or a "very queer thing," the commodity has -- since the time when this phrase was first penned and in the first one hundred issues of Social Text -- provoked  

a series of critical conversations about a modernity that isn't nearly as secular as we had anticipated it might be -- nor as modern.