postmodernism

[jporter]

> From: Toshiyuki Sakabe <tsakabe at dohto.ac.jp>
> Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 12:28:13 +0900
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Subject: postmodernism
> 
> Anybody out there?
> 
> Could you explain me what postmodernism is?
> 
> Tosh Sakabe
> 
> --
> Toshiyuki Sakabe
> tsakabe at dohto.ac.jp
> 
> 

Postmodernism was what happened after modernism. Modernism was something
that occurred with each generation beginning along time ago, in the west,
about the time that the idea of *progress* became recognizeable on the
cultural landscape. Don't ask me to pin that down, but by the time the more
conservative elements within The Church began waking up to the fact that
Reform ran counter to Their interests in a very real and material way,
*progress* had begun to take on a life of it's own, with the sense that
things were, well, modern, i.e., different from the past.

At some point, belief in *progress* became strained. Please, don't even
think about Spengler, or any other well known "fin de whatever" authority,
Chain Rules of history, etc. Keep it simple. But for a whole collection of
causes, and just because things happen, belief in progress began to feel
nostalgic and a bit wistful. At some point, some people realized things were
beyond modern. They had become postmodern.

p.s.:

In certain circles, the linux community, e.g., the postscript printer
language is redefined as *ghostscript.* It's kind of a joke. In a way, these
times bare the same sort of relationship to postmodernism, as ghost-script
to post-script. 

g.s.:

Ghostism has replaced postmodernism: We are mid-stream, it's dark and a bit
chilly. Your secret sharing comrade wants to share more than secrets.
Neither shore is in sight.  Large luminescent beings have begun gathering
around the craft. They might be fish, but they don't appear interested in
the usual bait. They are interested, however, and in you, too...

jody