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Post- modern David Lettermanism, etc.

From indri!lll-winken!uunet!umbc3!drew Thu May 4 17:29:21 PDT 1989
Article 189 of alt.postmodern:
Path: polyslo!indri!lll-winken!uunet!umbc3!drew
>From: [email protected] (Drew Eisenhauer)
Newsgroups: alt.postmodern
Subject: Re: David?
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Date: 1 May 89 22:55:30 GMT
References: <[email protected]>
Reply-To: [email protected] (Drew Eisenhauer)
Distribution: usa
Organization: University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Lines: 24

In article <[email protected]> [email protected] (Jean-Paul Cativiela) writes:

> Can anyone out there offer up an explanation as to how
> David Letterman could be considered evident of
> postmodernism? What about other contemporary television
> shows...especially J. Carson?

There are many features to postmodern art and literature; one of these
is that the narrative is "self-reflexive," or in other words that at least one
point in the story the narrator or characters turn to the reader/audience and
admit that it is fiction. Letterman does this all the time when he breaks the
illusion of the "talk show" genre by bringing out the stage crew, dragging the
ccamera over to the set of "Live at Five" (which really is a live broadcast in
NYC- and creates a big problem for them!), or when he jokes about how much he
and his staff get paid. "Moonlighting" also has this feature, but not general-
ly Johnny Carson. An idea central to the concept of Post-modernism is that of
the Transteneric- to literally cross or push genre boundaries beyond their nor-
mal range- self-reflexion is just one techinque for accomplishing this- there
may be more in use on TV at the moment...
--
Is not conscience a pair of breeches; though a cover for lewdness
as well as nastiness, is easily slipt down for the service of both?
-SWIFT
internet: [email protected] bitnet: eisenhauer@umbc

From indri!lll-winken!uunet!umbc3!drew Thu May 4 17:31:51 PDT 1989
Article 191 of alt.postmodern:
Path: polyslo!indri!lll-winken!uunet!umbc3!drew
>From: [email protected] (Drew Eisenhauer)
Newsgroups: alt.postmodern
Subject: Re: David?
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Date: 2 May 89 21:39:33 GMT
References: <[email protected]> <[email protected]> <[email protected]>
Reply-To: [email protected] (Drew Eisenhauer)
Distribution: usa
Organization: University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Lines: 66

In article <[email protected]> [email protected] (Ken Stuart) writes:
>
> Could you post a more complete (but nevertheless concise)
>description of what you mean by postmodern (in general)?
> It sounds interesting (which is why I am "subscribing").
> (This is specifically directed to Drew Eisenhauer, but is
>naturally open to all comments.)
> - Ken

}Hmmm- did I suddenly become the moderator here Ken? Seems like we used
to have one of those around here sometime back- I wonder what happened
to him? :-)

Well a bunch of us joined this group when it was new and made fools of our-
selves by defining postmodernism completely imcompetenlty for awhile before
the guy who started the group finally got on and admitted he had been remaining
silent because he didn't know what it was either! Your best bet is to find out
if there is an archive site for old postings and read them- then tell me cause
I wouldn't mind finding out meself...

Basically, in Art, Literature, and other Cultural fields (alot of people have
been into dance around here) there is a method of categorizing called "period-
ization." Works of art or cultural events are said to belong to certain
"periods" with other works which share certain similar traits. These periods
in time then change- why and for what reasons nnobody really knows and it is
very difficult to pinpoint exactly when. Sometime probablly right after World
War II the Modern period ended. The periodizers have thus labelled what's been
happening since then as post-modern. About 100 years ago after the Romantic
period ended the artists and writers of that period were labelled "post-romant-
ic." However we now know these groups by various names which they chose or
were given to them such as "Pre-Raphaelite," "Symboliste," or "Aestheticism"
and the term postromantic is rarely used today. On the other hand the European
painters that followed the French Impressionists but preceeded the expressionists like Vincent Van G are still known today as post-impressionists; So only
history will show whether or not the term sticks.

Postmodernism represents a break with modernism in a number of important ways,
too numerous and in depth to go into here. Some of its major rebellions, how-
ever include that it is a.) anti-psychological, b.)transgeneric(i.e. it messes
with the genres it purports to be in, c.) it can be accutely anti-humanistic
even nihilistic or punk, d.) it tends to be humorous where so called "high" art
is supposed to be a very devout investigation into the human predicament, e.)
along with the ideaof strectching genre beyond its normal boundaries goes the
idea that we are out of ideas! e.g.- thus rap is a perfect example of pomo
music because it is not composed of reworked themes and ideas of older music
but the actual recordings and samplings of other records- as a Robert Rauchenburyg
collage is made up of the *actual* photos and newsprints-or junk sculpture made
of actual TV sets, ouigi boards, G.I. Joes, or whatever- in painting there is the trend of inclorporng copies of masterworks (like the Mona Lisa) into the
painting- not hand copies or tracings but photocopies or photographs or posters
of the actual works...

Often a new type of postwar criticism which is itself a product of postmodern
thought is confused with the creative works it purports to study. This is
called critique nouvelle with the philosophyof Jacques Derrida, called
Deconstruction, or post-structuralism, as its primary example. This confusion
is justified to a point because Deconstruction essentially changes the positions
of artist and critic fundamentally-and a million other things besides-but it is
in fact a later development (though very much akin to) postmodern literature, art,
dance, theater, tv, automobiles whatever...

hope this helps

cheers-drew--
Is not conscience a pair of breeches; though a cover for lewdness
as well as nastiness, is easily slipt down for the service of both?
-SWIFT
internet: [email protected] bitnet: eisenhauer@umbc


 
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