So What’s Postmodernism, And Why Should We Care?

Postmodernism.

That term always used to confuse me. I figured, whatever age we’re living in is, to us, “modern”. How can anything be “Postmodern”?

It was only a few years ago that I managed to accept that someone had, for some inexplicable reason, decided to name the 20th century “Modern”, forcing following generations to jump through hoops to find terms that say “Not-modern-but-still-contemporary-for-us”.

Jerks...

But I guess that doesn’t answer the question of “What’s Postmodernism?”.

Well, think of it this way. The word that best encapsulates the philosophy, art, and culture of the modern era was function. The end purpose of everything is to convey some point, have some specific meaning, or perform some set task. Postmodernism is just the opposite- rejecting the idea that function ought to be the end goal of everything, Postmodernism is encapsulated by aesthetics. The end goal of everything isn’t to convey a point or carry out some set purpose, it’s to look good.

Confusing? Bear with me.

Take, for example, two musical icons- Johnny Cash and Lady Gaga.

Both artists are known for their fashion choices- Cash as the “Man in Black”, Lady Gaga as… uh… I guess the singer covered in forty pounds of raw meat (among other things).

Now Cash’s monochromatic dress style had a very specific purpose, as he himself explains in his song “Man in Black”. “I wear it for the poor and the beaten down/Living in the hopeless, hungry side of town/And I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime/But is there because he’s a victim of the times…”, Cash sings, going on to cite other members of society he feels have been marginalized or dispossessed, ending with “But just so we’re reminded of the one’s who are held back/Up front there ought to be a man in black…”.

All in all, his Cash’s fashion choices reflect the general principal behind his choice of clothing. What he wore had a specific purpose (a reminder of the less fortunate).

The same certainly can’t be said for Lady Gaga- I say this as a fact, not out of contempt (though I’ll disclose, I’m no Gaga fan).

Lady Gaga’s fashion choices, from her infamous meat dress to her nightmarish lace crown-mask-hybrid, are perhaps her defining mark as a celebrity- perhaps even more so than her music. But what exactly is any of it supposed to mean? What’s the point behind what’s she’s wearing?

If the purpose is to terrify us, mission accomplished.

After a wading through a slew of comments and diatribes by Lady Gaga fans and opponents (seriously, the are fewer people involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict), the only concrete answer I was able to find was that “She dresses the way she does to stand out”- i.e., her choice in dress is to get people to look at her choice in dress. It’s complete postmodernism. The purpose is asthetics- the purpose is appearance.

If you want another example, contrast a Modernist movement and a Postmodernist movement- the hippies and the hipsters.

The Times They Are A Changing

Now at first glance, both groups seem to have a lot in common. Both were the counter-cultural movement of their generation, both have a reputation for their hairstyles and questionable hygiene, and both have a reputation for moderate drug use. But let’s strip both movements down to their core beliefs.

Now it’s pretty easy to dissect the hippies- they were virulently anti-war, anti-establishment, anti-consumerist, and generally in favor of the establishment of a peaceful, harmonious society celebrating life, nature, and the longest freaking beards since the neolithic period. A clear, definable purpose.

Something along these lines...

So what’s the end goal of the hipster counter-cultural movement?

And there are literally hundreds more of these things out there...

Well, the end purpose of hipster counter-cultural seems to be the hipster counter-cultural. The purpose of growing out one’s beard, or donning a trucker cap, or sporting a ragged hoodie is to to have a beard, wear a trucker cap, and sport a ragged hoodie. Again, it’s about the asthetic.

So why’s does any of this matter? Allow me to offer another illustration.

I just finished up an English course “Literature of the Holocaust”. Now this class was taught by a consummate Modernist. She believed that everything- everything– we read had a purpose or meaning. There was one point in the course where she- and I make no exaggeration- broke up the students intro groups and ordered us to spend the next five minutes discussing the significance of the punctuation in one poem. Now I’ll grant you that there are times when punctuation may be significant, but I somehow doubt that the author’s choosing to leave out a comma at the end of this stanza is changing the message of the poem. I’m not reading along, developing this sense of horror at the atrocities being described, and than having my perspective changed by the absence of a semicolon.

This pretty much sums it up...

And this kind of thing was a recurring problem throughout the class. It’s been a recurring problem between I and my fellow students and the professors at my school. Since we’re at the transition from Modernism to Postmodernism, there’s a huge difference in our perspectives of the world. The generations who have a Modernist perspective are very much taken with symbolism (Freud doubtlessly played a major part in shaping Modernism). Everything has a purpose- a function. The flowers in that painting, they mean something. This just isn’t the case for the generations growing up in the Postmodernist world- from the Postmodernist perspective, the flowers in that painting are just flowers in the painting.

Now sure, there’s always been conflict between cultures, but what we’re seeing now is something entirely new. The hippies and warhawks of the 60s might have been on opposites of various issues, but their paradigm for understanding the world was at least on the same wavelength. What we have now is an entirely new way of understanding the world, and communication between generations has never been more difficult. Unless we have a basic grasp of the world we’ve come from, and the world we’re moving into, we’re just going to be confused, frustrated, and missing out on all the good things Modernism and Postmodernism have to offer.