Posted by Smalls at syr-24-24-14-133.twcny.rr.com on September 22, 2003 at 03:21:08:
In Reply to: Post Structuralism- Post Modernism posted by Astrogurl on September 22, 2003 at 01:20:02:
I'm glad you had a good time at the wedding and all, I attended one last week myself, they're nice... but I overloaded on post-anythingism in college a few years back, too many religion and philosophy class.
That and all the cynical uninspired "we're not actually lame, we're... uh... making fun of lame things! really well!" crap on a crapcracker that the television throws at me, of course.
We're in a time of great peril now... and all this goddamn navel gazing is part of what got us here, we let our guards down, got fat and sassy, voted for Nader on a lark, didn't storm the Supreme Court for justice, let people watch the Family Guy, that sort of thing.
And granted, the kind of only-occasionally useful flailing I do isn't really action either but... Jesus, it's trying to grasp something, not just standing around taking shit apart and nitpicking and generally mocking the act of effort.
Post-modernism is just... a step, not an end, I guess is all I'm saying. "Yes, everything breaks down into littler things, yes, everything is layers on layers on layers, yes, hey, it's wacky that some people are pretending and some people are pretending to be pretending and so on and so forth... but where do we go from here?"
It's like as a nation, intellectually and culturally, we've gotten stuck in that moment of feeling really good about ourselves, that we made the post-modernist realization and... we're just repeating the same trick over and over, patting ourselves on the back and feeling far too good about ourselves. There's a show on about a guy who thinks he's in one reality show but him thinking he's in a reality show is the reality show... oh and it's all made up. Oh and it sucks.
I was at a concert a few days back and... the main act was really good but the opening acts were just really really shitty hardcore punk... but y'know, it was at a small college and so only a third of the audience were arrogant blackhooded ghouls, the rest were like... little teen pop-punk kids and just people who wanted to see some sort of live act...
So the band calls out for requests and one... like... 15 year old girl yells "Weezer?" and the sullen mass was just about to wander over and murder the kid... and I yell "GUNS AND ROSES!"
And the whole crowd laughs and sort of forgets the little girl and the show goes on.
I said it because I knew they thought it was funny AND because I genuinely meant it. Yes, I wanted to stop some sort of weird riot, yes, I wanted to feel funny and interesting... but I also wanted to hear some Guns N Roses. The fact that I knew they'd think it was a joke and the fact that I really wanted it... they don't contradict each other. We can be both.
I think that's what I'm looking for, to sort of see what the next step is... reconstructionism? Something where you've learned the lesson of irony but you keep on moving. Informed idealism?
I'm looking for the words.
Mike