Re: RARA-AVIS: Re: Has anyone changed noir writing (lately)?

From: DJ-Anonyme@webtv.net
Date: 20 Mar 2007


John wrote:

"Never thought I'd be writing a defence of post-modernism, but I think it's important to distinguish between work which is self consciously post-modern and makes sure we realise it by referencing classics of modernism - e.g .James Sallis's work - and stuff that just happens to be postmodern because life is pretty postmodern - e.g. most post Tarantino crime fiction set in a world in which life copies the Sopranos and vice versa. It's a distinction that may be easier to understand if you look at music. There's plenty of intellectual postmodern art-rock and there's also hip hop which is utterly postmodern - in that it takes an established art form, dismantles it and puts it back together in a new fashion, while providing a self-referential commentary - but rarely avowedly intellectual."

I agree. I'd also say it's important to make a distinction between postmodern works, self-conscious or otherwise, and postmodern criticism. You can read and appreciate works by Sallis, O'Connell or Lethem without ever having heard of, much less read, Lyotard, Foucault or Baudrillard.

Mark



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