Sunday, October 4, 2009

Post-modernism helps reduce blood pressure

Barry and Jameson both point out that the modern period was an artist's way of dealing with the anxiety of their particular time, and it seems that this anxiety was dealt with through a deep and meaningful interpretation of the world.

Post-modernism, on the other hand, deals with this anxiety by jumping into the pool of superficiality and rampant consumerism, by simply ignoring that there is any anxiety by a complete and total disconnect. The post-modernists seem to be saying that there is no way to go back, there is no way to improve the present, all we can do is deal with the now, and the now is so depressing that we have to do a little airbrushing. The new superficiality also seems to escape this anxiety by over-emphasizing reality and by making a joke of it.
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4 comments:

  1. RJ TurnerOctober 4, 2009 at 1:34 PM

    Are they right - is there no way back from our Reality-Show culture? I wish I knew.

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  2. Dave ArmstrongOctober 5, 2009 at 3:41 PM

    Us? Over emphasize reality? NEVER!!! Place more emphasis on how something looks than what it actually does? No way!

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  3. TonyOctober 5, 2009 at 5:48 PM

    I wonder if the parody is not really satire aimed at somehow reflecting our superficial world back at the readers in the hopes of some solution. I realize that the post modernist has no desire to go back and emulate a culture that really only exists in our minds, but I have to believe that post modernism is partially an act to cope while waiting and hoping for a change. I am incapable of being depressed and hopeless.

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  4. Linda DalyOctober 5, 2009 at 8:01 PM

    Linda Daly
    I was very turned off by the idea that the past did not matter. However, I was reading some criticism on Jorge Luis Borges, who was said to be "a master of the post modern short story." Post modern was to have a "focus on ideas and style over plot". This author used elements of "surrealism," that focused on "non sequiturs and surprise elements", as well as "criollismo," which "examined local culture, conventions and character types." This sounded quite interesting and less a desire to ignore the pst, but to have works be modern day. And yes, some of his work does sound satirical, such as when he wrote "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote," who in writing a review and translation, "rebuild Cervantes's masterpiece from his own experience in modern day." But "the joke" was that "fragments of the 'new' book appeared in the review, as exact copies of the original sections of Don Quixote.'" The past was not ignored but made part of the present.

    Benedict-Nelson, Andrew. "Jorge Luis Borges." Phillips, Jon, Ed. "Bookmarks." Chapel Hill, NC: Bookmarks, Sept/Oct 2009. Print.

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