blame it on PoMo

[Otto Sell]

What Wilber is talking about the German critic Wolfgang Welsch ("Unsere
postmoderne Moderne," 1991) has called "diffuse postmodernism" and this
makes all the difference between Pynchon and, for example R.A. Wilson.
Wilber's statement on pomo and deconstruction proves that he hasn't read
enough about it and is unwilling to do so, just as many of the new-age
people, sannyasins and astrologers refused to read Pynchon (recommended by
me) who had loved reading Wilson.
And instead of Wilber's "Quantum Physics" I always prefered Gary Zukav's
"The Dancing Wu-Li Masters."
No time - have to re-read the Phaidros-dialogue, some Nietzsche, still in
the middle of McLuhan, not to mention the two McElroys. For understanding
literature you must read, read, read.
Otto

----- Original Message -----
From: Doug Millison <millison at online-journalist.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Monday, June 26, 2000 4:40 PM
Subject: blame it on PoMo


> ". . . . aperspectival madness, the insane view that no view is
> better than another. Starting with the noble proposition that all of
> the multiple perspectives are to be treated farily and impartially
> ('pluralism and rich diversity'), postmodernism slides, in its
> extreme forms, into the insidious notion that no perspective
> whatsoever is better than another, a confusion that results in
> complete paralysis of will, thought, and action. Madness it is
> indeed:  it claims no view is better than another, except its own
> view, which is superior in a world where nothing is supposed to be
> superior at all. And worse:  if no view is better than another, then
> the Nazis and the KKK are on the same moral footing as, say, art
> critics. 'Aperspectival madness' might fairly well describe much of
> the last two decades of art, art criticism, lit crit, and cultural
> studies. Irony is one of the last few places you can hide in a world
> of aperspectival madness--say one thing, mean another, therefore
> don't get caught in the embarrassment of taking a stand. (Since,
> allegedly, no stand is better than another, one simply must not
> commit--sincerity is death). So skip sincerity, opt for sardonic.
> Don't construct, deconstruct; don't look for  depth, just hug the
> surfaces; avoid content, offer noise--'surfaces, surfaces, surfaces
> is all they ever found,' as Bret Easton Ellis summarized the scene"
>
> --Ken Wilber, _One Taste_
> --
>
> d  o  u  g    m  i  l  l  i  s  o  n  <http://www.online-journalist.com>