FtttG
User ID: 1175
FtttG
4hr ago
Scott sort of gestures at this in the linked post:
This leads to the classic freshman-philosophy critique of postmodernism: “Postmodernism says nothing is objectively true and it’s all just opinion. But in that case, postmodernism isn’t objectively true and it’s just your opinion.” Make this a little more sophisticated, and we can get an at-least-sophomore-level critique: “Postmodernism says that facts have enough degrees of freedom that they often get reframed to support the powerful. But there are bucketloads of degrees of freedom in how to use and apply postmodernism; it’s inevitably going to itself be twisted to support the powerful."
FtttG
4hr ago
I've read three of the items on OP's list. I loved Slaughterhouse-Five, though as I said elsewhere in this thread I question its categorisation as postmodern literature. I also remember really enjoying Catch-22, but it's probably twenty years since I read it and I've been meaning to read it again. Of the three that I've read, White Noise strikes me as the closest to the platonic Ideal of what most people think of when they hear the word "postmodern", and I hated it.
FtttG
12hr ago
I'm surprised no one mentioned Scott's attempt to explain postmodernism to a rationalist audience (which he later retracted, although I don't think he should have).
His explanation is really about the postmodern "mindset" rather than postmodern literature specifically, although it could be argued that postmodern literature is just a textual representation of the postmodern mindset. He sees the unreliable narrator as key to postmodern literature: much as postmodern readings of history challenge us to consider how historical metanarratives have been selectively constructed to favour the powers that be ("history is written by the winners"), postmodern novels routinely feature narrators whose testimony cannot be relied upon, forcing the reader to consider what "really" happened versus what the narrator wants us to think happened, and why they want us to think that. Unreliable narrators are likewise a common feature of films, video games etc. which have been characterised as postmodern.
FtttG
13hr ago
Several people replying to you point out that the traits that you cite as quintessentially postmodern have antecedents in literature prior to the postmodern era. As ever, there's nothing new under the sun. Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman is often called the first postmodern novel despite having been written smack-bang in the middle of the modernist era. Many of the techniques associated with experimental postmodern literature were first used in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1759-67), if not earlier.
FtttG
14hr ago
It'd be like some prominent author writing a successful story about a prince whose father is murdered by his uncle deciding to orchestrate a revenge plot
The Lion King is old enough that there could well be adults who've been inspired by it without knowing the work that inspired it!
FtttG
15hr ago
However, I must admit that I don't recall the book making an anti-war statement, powerful or not.
I'm not sure if all editions of Slaughterhouse-Five include Vonnegut's preface in which he describes a meeting he had with a Hollywood person who scoffed when Vonnegut told him he was writing an anti-war novel, telling him that he might as well write an anti-glacier novel. In light of that preface, my read of
I'll also add that, the scifi film Arrival came out while I was close to finishing the book, and it was kinda surreal watching that film and realizing in-the-moment that the core scifi concept was pulled directly from that book.
Arrival is a direct adaptation of Ted Chiang's short story "Story of Your Life". I love Ted Chiang, but this is one case where I think the adaptation is marginally superior to its source material. Villeneuve and his screenwriter are to be commended, not just for adapting a short story which is aggressively uncinematic and cerebral, but for doing so faithfully and in a way which is engaging throughout. I'd be curious to know if Chiang has ever read Slaughterhouse-Five.
Personally, I wouldn't even characterise Slaughterhouse-Five as postmodern literature. It's a very short and accessible novel which employs a sci-fi* premise in order to make a powerful anti-war statement. Other works in Vonnegut's oeuvre are far more overtly postmodern and meta (e.g. Breakfast of Champions), but Slaughterhouse-Five is remarkably straightforward.
*Although its author hates his work being so categorised.
FtttG
20hr ago
Had a date with the Saudi girl on Saturday, which was fun for about 2 hours, but not so much for the other 3!
So you enjoyed the first two hours, then stuck around for three hours even though you were no longer enjoying yourself?
FtttG
1d ago
New year's resolutions check-in:
- Posted my eighth blog post of the year on Sunday, a review of the worst book I read last year, Nell Zink's Doxology. Expanded from a comment I posted here.
- Went to the gym three times last week. Came down with a cold on Sunday which I'm only just getting over, so haven't been to the gym yet this week. Can deadlift 1.8x my bodyweight for 3 reps, squat 1.05x for 8 reps and bench press .85x for 6 reps.
- Have not consumed any pornography since waking up on January 1st.
How goes it, @thejdizzler, @birb_cromble, @falling-star, @Tollund_Man4 and @self_made_human? (For the latter – any progress on that task you were completing for me?)
This seems like splitting hairs on two fronts. Some of the most infamous "canonical" school shootings were committed by adults: Sandy Hook, Parkland High, Uvalde, Columbine (Eric Harris turned 18 a week before the shooting; Dylan Klebold was 17). The category "school shooting" is generally taken to include shootings which take place at universities, hence why Virginia Tech is usually considered the bloodiest school shooting in American history. The idea that "school shootings" only refers to mass shootings committed by minors at primary or secondary (but not post-secondary) educational institutions seems like a stipulative definition that doesn't reflect common usage.
I think it's rather telling that apologists for the Cuban regime always point to the American blockade as the ultimate cause of Cuba's economic woes. It's hardly a ringing endorsement of communism that communist regimes can function perfectly well, provided they can freely trade with their capitalist neighbours. Communism isn't just parasitic at an individual or societal level: it's fractally parasitical, no matter at what resolution you examine it.
FtttG
3d ago
Last week I also read Jack Kerouac's Tristessa, his account of his platonic relationship with a Mexican prostitute and morphine addict. I'd never read anything by Kerouac, and on paper his writing style (stream-of-consciousness narration peppered with overwrought religious adjectives and a lackadaisical attitude towards punctuation) sounds like everything I hate about experimental prose. But I was surprised to find it oddly compelling, such that I read this (admittedly very short) book in two days. It helps that, unlike in On the Road, Kerouac doesn't commit any serious misdeeds or act as an accessory to anyone else's: he comes off as genuinely protective of the title character, and it's darkly amusing how this bumbling gringo gets exploited and ripped off by just about every Mexican he meets.
FtttG
3d ago
I love supermarkets, but I get DeLillo's point that they can be a bit weird if you approach them from a virgin point of view. But this point should have been made once.
FtttG
3d ago
God, I hated White Noise. "Wow, supermarkets are kind of weird and alienating huh?" Yes, Don, I suppose so. I don't think you needed to devote a quarter of your novel to making that point.
FtttG
3d ago
Seven years ago, I stopped at a petrol station in Italy and found a discarded copy of Robert Gutwillig's After Long Silence. I decided to take it with me, and it sat unread on my bookshelf ever since.
On my morning commute the other day, I finally decided to give it a go. After ten pages I was already bored, and gave up.
Luckily I'd prepared for this eventuality, and also brought A Canticle for Leibowitz with me. It's a very old, battered copy with extremely fine print, and I'm only about five pages into it. The prose is a bit baroque for my liking, but I'm interested to see what happens next, which is more than can be said for the previous book.
FtttG
3d ago
I was thinking about this comic earlier and it occurred to me that it's sort of a neat encapsulation of why Israel exists.
Perhaps this is what the typical person thinks when they hear "school shooting", but I'm not sure if it accurately describes any specific school shooting, thus rendering it a Dead Unicorn Trope. Consider the most infamous American school shooting which inspired legions of copycats, Columbine:
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