“What does it mean?”—Well, since you asked…

“The Death of Postmodernism.” A dramatic title, to say the least.

Unfortunately, as with most of my blogs, I am writing this with a slight sense of uncertainty. I’m afraid my mind has not completely absorbed all of Dr. Kirby’s article—not to mention that video (which I re-watched)—so forgive me if I only comment on aspects of both that immediately piqued my interest. I also apologize if there are a lot of typos (there will be) and I seem to jump from topic to topic.

One of the first things that struck me in both the video and the article was how much information is being not only transmitted, but created. Entirely new things, that have never been tested by prior generations, are being thrust into our lives now. For me, this provokes the concerns that I’m sure every respectable lab rat has encountered, as well as a slightly more philosophical question: As we need to absorb more and more new knowledge just to survive in this increasingly technological world, will the human brain have to “make room” for this info? And if so how? I believe Dr. Kirby might have that answer, as he talked about the “technologised cluelessness [that] is utterly contemporary…He or she can direct the course of national television programmes, but does not know how to make him or herself something to eat.” This fusion of power and helplessness kind of puts the human race out on limb. As we become increasingly dependent on technology to accomplish menial tasks, nuclear winter looks less and less desirable…

Another thing that stuck out to me, this time in just the article, was Kirby’s commentary on the “desire to return to the infantile” that he sees in pseudo-modern society. The entire final paragraph of the article, all I could think of was Brave New World. At the point in the novel when John Savage is addressing the Deltas awaiting their soma ration when he askes them if they “like being babies?…Mewling and puking.” This is a reference to a monologue in Shakespeare’s As You Like It where the character is talking about the seven stages of a man’s life; “mewling and puking” is used to describe the infants. Will/has this rapid influx of information and technology actually had the effect of suspending the human race, rather than advancing it?

The pseudo-modern turn towards primitivism is , to me, not terribly unexpected. Theoretically, postmodernism becoming such a specialized Discourse (in both content and language) that it gradually alienated the common man, widening significantly the gap between the intellectuals and the common man. (see Cat's Cradle Ch 11: Protein) As a result, when Joe Average once again gained hold of the reigns of pop culture through pseudo-modernism's penchant for interactivity, content naturally verred in the direction of the primal; the masses were undergoing artistic/intellectual denegration while postmodernists where busy talking Grand Narratives.

I think I’ll end it here. Thanks for reading, Reader!