Atdtda22: [42.1i] Modern poetry, 607

[Paul Nightingale]

Many thanks, Monte. I do remember the discussion about Madsen/The Virginian,
and I'll be coming back to that later. I'm on her side there, but I can see
your point as a valid criticism. However, regarding modernism, I don't think
I can. The reference I gave related specifically to Aychance's comment about
poetry. However, more generally, modernism/modernist discourse isn't/wasn't
'just' about culture: it included the notion of social change/mass society,
social theory (Weber and Simmel coming up soon), the whole field of what is
now called social science, social status, the role of the nation state,
capital v labour, including rationalisation/time-management, bureaucracy,
not to mention colonialism. (All of which perhaps explains why I would
prefer 'modernist discourses' or 'discourses of modernism'.)

Pynchon isn't a modernist of course: his use of pastiche indicates a
distance. Or if he is a modernist it's because we reject the conventional
modernist/postmodernist divide, as indeed some do.