Well, if no others here are going to play devil's advocate, I
guess I will. Now, i don't consider myself a postmodernist or
any other sort of ismist, but at least Miker attempts a rich
summary, albeit a pretty unfair one. But it is trite to
dismiss postmodernism as mere "left-wing pseudo-intellectual
horseshit" for many reasons.
First, to lump together and chuck everything written that has
been associated with or referred to as postmodern makes about
as much sense as doing the same with the hardboiled/noir
genre. There is a massive range of so-called postmodern work
across myriad academic discourses including philosophy,
literature, anthropology, and so forth. Some of the work is
definitely pseudo-intellectual horseshit, but not all of it.
Even academic critics of Foucault, for example, acknowledge
the depth, scope, and importance of his work. Foucault did
not have as shallow a theory of power as Miker's summary
might have you believe. I recommend Foucault's "Discipline
and Punish" and
"History of Sexuality" as a good starting point for having
anything meaningful to say about his thought.
Second, postmodern philosophers have been equally attacked by
the Right and Left, so to consider them all leftists is
ironic when the likes of Derrida have been critiqued as Nazis
by some on the Left.
I could say a lot more about the origins of the questioning
of modernism and its relation to the rationalism of
systematic genocides in the 20th century, the relation to and
difference from classical skepticism of postmodern approaches
to the reading of texts, the difference between the
conditions of postmodernity and attempts to forge postmodern
philosophies, art, etc. but because it is not just a pile of
horseshit, it would take a book to address all of the
scholarly work in those areas with any seriousness.
I got so tired of defending popular fiction from academic
snobbery in grad school that it is a little disheartening to
have to defend important academic work from anti-intellectual
snobbery here at RARA AVIS, where I nonetheless still feel
more at home than in the university.
touche'
---
bldodson@adelphia.net wrote:
> Jim,
>
>
>
> I'd say that sums it up pretty
accurately.
>
>
>
> Brandt
>
> www.brandtdodson.com <http://www.brandtdodson.com/>
>
>
>
>
> _____
>
> Miker,
>
> Re your response to my question about
"po-mo":
>
> So, if I understand you correctly, "po-mo,"
briefly,
> is short for "post-modern," and "post-modern" is
a
> lot
> of left-wing, pseudo-intellectual horse
shit.
>
> Have I got that right?
>
> JIM DOHERTY
>
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have
been
> removed]
>
>
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