funny

Posted by Dan on October 21, 2003 at 10:05 AM

One of the main theories of the postmodernism movement is that all text is context and is linked to other texts. In other words, hypertext.

Role playing and the non-fixity of identity is another theme. Don't like who you are, just play someone else!

Everything is built upon language and thus can be deconstructed as such. There are no facts, only interpretations. To change what something means, simply redescribe it.

There are no originals of anything. There are just copies of copies of copies. Everything is there to be sampled.

There are no closures, only endings.

And there you have my entire sneior year of PoMo American Lit in 11 sentences. You can see how the internet is the embodiment of all these things, most of which were theorized well before the net was known.

Posted by Rob on October 21, 2003 at 11:58 AM

Thanks for the explanation, Dan.

I've always wanted to learn more about postmodernism but never found a good resource for doing so. I listened to part of a lecture series on the topic, but it turned out to be a piece of crap (which is unusual for the Teaching Company's products).

Awhile ago, I read an article called How To Deconstruct Almost Anything. It's a polemic, but it's a funny polemic and makes a few good points. You might be interested.

Posted by Katie on October 21, 2003 at 07:25 PM

I'm referenced in a weblog, woo!

Postmodernism essentially objects to the idea that there is any real 'truth' in anything, believing instead that all we have access to is the surface of things. The search for underlying truth and meaning, therefore, is fruitless, and the image or surface becomes a sufficient area of analysis to determine the state of affairs at any particular moment.

At the same time, we have the principle of multiple selves or identities - we have as many selves as we have social groups that we belong to. Because of the way that technology has broadened our horizons, some believe that we are in danger of becoming saturated - i.e. too many selves (Gergen). The postmodern self, however, is able to be healthy because it is an emergent self (as opposed to a static unitary (modern) self. Because it has no true essence, so to speak, it just continually reinvents itself, and is therefore able to navigate the waters of todays society.

Technology as a metaphor for postmodernism fits like a glove really. Because we are able to utilize multiple windows at the same time in our computer use, we are able to have multiple identities at the same time. Not only does the computer fit into this metaphor, but so does the internet. The internet is a distributed system that is continually being created and recreated - there is no INTERNET per say, but rather a system of different nodes that form the internet.

I could go on ad nauseum about this, but I'm tired now. ;-)

Katie

Posted by Rob on October 21, 2003 at 08:59 PM

Hi Katie,

Thanks for the comments. It's good to get the perspective from an expert! ;)

The multiple-identity stuff sounds very Satre-ish. If I'm not mistaken, Postmodernism was highly influenced by Existentialism, so maybe this isn't surprising.

You might like the "How to Deconstruct Almost Anything" article too, if you're in the mood for some fun criticism. If you do read it try not to be put off by the satirical middle part; I think the last three paragraphs make the most interesting points in the article (whether or not you actually agree with them).

Posted by Katie on October 21, 2003 at 09:07 PM

There's also a book called "The Social Construction of What?" which is really interesting - it takes the perspective that the sociology position that everything is socially constructed is a load of crap, basically. Essentially, the 'true' sciences disagree completely, as does philosophy. After all, if there is no real truth, then what the hell have they been searching for this entire time?

where'd you get the article from?

Posted by Dan on October 22, 2003 at 10:48 PM

A brilliant book that can be read in 15 minutes and pondered for hours and laughed at the whole time is "Life's Little Deconstruction Book: Self-Help for the Post-Hip" by Andrew Boyd. Taking the form of one of those "thought for the day" books, it offers 365 nuggets of postmodern wisdom.

http://www.andrewboyd.com/

has some selections. Some of my personal favorites:

17. Participate without belonging.
26. Distain theorists.
33. Be as if.
65. Learn from Las Vegas.
81. Cultivate decade-by-decade nostalgia.
200. Make fine distinctions about things that don't matter.
227. Choose religion cafeteria-style.
240. Take irony for granted.
277. Use the word "post-modern" without being quite sure whether it is the dominant logic of late capitalism or pop-culture shorthand for messy-looking buildings.