intro to pomo
Ben Huot
Do you know of any books on postmodernism that are as clear and to the point
as what you are writing.
I can understand Nietzche, but he is against the avaerage person and I
always thought that the masses were deluded but it wasn't their fault
because they are just programmed by advertising.
b...@blessedforest.org
blessedforest.org
----- Original Message -----
From: "Eske" <es...@stofanet.dk>
Newsgroups: alt.postmodern
Sent: Sunday, May 26, 2002 6:44 AM
Subject: A basic introduction to Pomo
> The following is a work in progress. I am intending to write a basic
> introduction to Pomo and publish it on the web. It is primarily aimed at
> university students.
>
> If anyone has the time to read it, I would be grateful for input, both
> constructive and otherwise.
>
>
>
> POSTMODERNISM
> - For Dummies!
>
>
>
> A basic introduction to the term and its consequences for life, art and
> culture
>
>
>
> Introduction - What is postmodernism? - What does postmodernism mean to
> you? - Work Report
>
>
>
> Introduction
>
> Have you ever read a text that relied on your
> immediate understanding of the term postmodernism? If so, you have
probably
> been mind boggled by this strange word and its elusive meaning, but don't
> despair: This web page has been made for you!
>
> This weird word may have sneaked into high school
and
> general purpose-texts as well, but postmodernism is usually only relevant
in
> areas of study at university level. You may find it a little challenging
to
> understand every aspect of this page if you are unfamiliar with basic
> academic expressions, but have no fear: you will understand enough to
grasp
> the term with a little more certainty.
>
> This web page was designed with the following purposes:
>
> 1. Giving a broad definition of the term postmodernism
>
> 2. Describing how human life is affected by the postmodern world
>
> 3. Passing the final Formidlingsopgave-eksamen in English Philology
at
> Århus University
>
>
>
> What is postmodernism?
>
> Postmodernism is a word with multiple connotations, so before plunging
into
> discussing the term, it is necessary to understand the several different
> conceptions of the word. When a group of people hear the word
> post-modernism, they often think of completely different concepts and
ideas,
> most often connected to architecture and literature. No one definition is
> more correct than the other, so it is necessary to keep in mind that
people
> can mean a plethora of things when using the word.
>
> Postmodernism is multi-facetted and therefore hard
to
> pin down to one basic point. However, this page will make an attempt at
> making a basic layout for the range of ideas covered by the term. This
basic
> layout will be applicable to most, if not all the different versions of
> post-modernism.
>
> Let us first look at the existing ways of talking about postmodernism. The
> most famous and perhaps most groundbreaking attempt at defining
> postmodernism was made by Francois Lyotard in his "The Post-modern
> Condition". Here, he defined it as "incredulity towards meta-narratives".
> Meta-narratives are grand theories that attempt to define the world using
a
> certain range of values and ideas. Examples of meta-narratives are
Religion,
> Marxism, Nationalism and even Science. These are all authoritative and
> totalising accounts of how the world works, and they offer a predetermined
> worldview and an absolute set of values.
>
> So what Lyotard is offering is a statement that undermines these
> meta-narratives. His idea is that in the latter half of the 20th century,
> these powerhouses of human knowledge started losing their power to
convince
> people of their truth-value. People started to lose faith in them. Why was
> this? A long range of reasons can be enumerated, including the emergence
of
> mass media and a qualitative rise in education. The most important point
is
> that people lost something to cling on to. There emerged what could be
> called the postmodern void - a place where the individual is trapped in
> relativism, and because no authoritative opinion on values is present (in
> the form of God, king or soul), the modern individual is continuously
> tempted by nihilism.
>
> The main idea in postmodernism is that there exist multiplicities of
truths
> instead of one all-encompassing truth. This makes it hard to choose which
> truth to rely on: Can you believe in God if you are aware that people
> believe in an endless amount of other gods? What makes your God better
than
> the others? Can you be a Marxist if you know that this ideology builds on
> flawed paradigms, and that they hardly apply to human life in the 21st
> century? Can you believe in science if you know how much is uncertain in
> certainty?
>
> Postmodernism is deeply intertwined with the concept
> of deconstruction. Deconstruction is the process of picking constructs
> apart, usually without putting them back together. For example, the
> deconstruction of Christianity was what Nietzsche did when he claimed that
> God was dead. One could say that deconstruction is the tool of the
> postmodern observer.
>
> Postmodernism can also be described as
> anti-essentialism. This is the notion that representation is basically
> flawed, and that the essence of things can never be transferred perfectly
> from one mind to another. There will always be spills, crossovers,
> misinterpretation and misunderstanding. This makes the act of
representation
> (meaning all communication based on signs; texts, speech, images etc)
> problematic and relative. This is extremely compromising for human
knowledge
> since everything we know is represented in one way or the other.
>
> What does postmodernism mean to you?
>
> A lot. It is all around you. Just take a look at the web page you are
> currently scrutinizing: It is postmodern in its very nature; fragmented,
> independent and hard-to-grasp. And where did you find it? In the
postmodern
> electronic jungle that is the Internet. The Internet is huge and
sprawling,
> with millions of individuals giving their tiny bit of information to make
up
> a flowing and ever-changing truth. There is no right or wrong on the
> Internet - censorship is almost impossible - and every voice has its own
> distinguishable timbre.
>
> The postmodernism condition is visible in all
aspects
> of our society. Political disparity, sexual liberation and even the
concept
> of drug use are all the result of a lacking common core of absolute
values.
>
> So where does postmodernism leave you? Some might
not
> like the far-reaching consequences this set of ideas has. But
postmodernism
> basically leaves you free to make up your own mind instead of blindly
> accepting the values and concepts of other people. It enables you to shed
> off the layers of dead skin and examine the core of your Self. More
> importantly, it is not something that you can choose to believe in or not;
> it is part of you no matter if you want to accept it or not.
>
>
>
> Work Report
>
> A great thing about a web page is its ability to be direct: The
information
> displayed is easily dismissed or absorbed, according to the immediate need
> of the user. This opens the possibility of addressing the user directly,
and
> I have tried to make the wording as personally appealing as possible.
>
> Target audience
>
> Potentially every user of the Internet can be
exposed
> to this page. All it takes is doing a search in a major search engine, or
> another one of the millions of possible ways of connection.
>
> However, the main target audience are university
> students. This has several reasons: The term is usually only used in
> academic circles, and there is a need for an easily digested tutorial for
> university students who may not have the time to delve into the bigger
> works. This enables them to get unstuck if they happen to stumble upon the
> term in an assigned text.
>
>
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Eske
> Do you know of any books on postmodernism that are as clear and to the
point
> as what you are writing.
No, and that was part of the reason I chose this subject matter.
>
> I can understand Nietzche, but he is against the avaerage person and I
> always thought that the masses were deluded but it wasn't their fault
> because they are just programmed by advertising.
As I see it, the masses are deluded in Nietzsche's theories - they (we) have
"programmed" ourselves with countless metaphors (which is how he describes
the concept of truth). Not just the average person is determined by these
metaphors; they are the very fabric of the human mind.