More fun with POMO

[Otto Sell]

Nice, but plainly a satire. No quotes, no examples. In order to avoid real
reading and getting into new theories people who think a little bit
oldfashioned express their dislike of pomo - not the worst idea but exactly
the contrary to what pomo does: reading and trying to understand (hallo
Kai!).

>
>       "The instability of your question leaves me with
> several
>  contradictorily layered responses whose interconnectivity
> cannot express
>  the logocentric coherency you seek.  I can only say that
> reality is more
>  uneven and its (mis)representations more untrustworthy than
> we have time
>  here to explore."

Honestly, is this a way to discuss a serious meant topic? Have I ever said
something like this? What about the Adams-quote that every system carries
the virus of its own decay structurally? Where do you see the positive
outcome in TRP's novels? The Virgin Mary will not protect us from the
rocket, and her counterpart is the Shekinah, the Evil Mother.

from the url you posted:
"This notion of progress, though, is precisely what was discarded in the
recent postmodern rebellion against Modernism. The charge against Modernism
is that it did not go far enough. Modernism wanted to overturn the past, but
still tried to preserve the privileged status of art works. It portrayed a
world without certainty but declared itself certain. It rejected the burden
of tradition, but it also took tradition seriously. Postmodernism objected.
If Modernism began a revolution, postmodernism was to complete it. Composers
like John Adams and John Corigliano playfully plundered earlier styles,
creating sentimental pastiche. Philip Johnson, who began as a modernist
architect, later converted to pomo, coyly mixing elements of styles past.
Andy Warhol's Pop Art, Jasper Johns's various flags - these were, in part,
arguments against Modernism and its beliefs. There is no progress, only
plunder. In Modernism there is a perspective, a frame of reference; in
postmodernism there is no frame, no stability: tradition is a collection of
trivia."

Calling Warhol "a postmodernist who refused to take anything too seriously"
reveals no very deep insight in his work. Again, I never insisted on the
name Postmodernism. Late-Modernism is best.

Otto

----- Original Message -----
From: Terrance <lycidas2 at earthlink.net>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Saturday, October 21, 2000 2:03 PM
Subject: Re: More fun with POMO