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Jameson's Postmodernism: Problematic Falseness Could be Truthful Intent

9/26/2010

1 Comment

 
Frederic Jameson’s essay on the postmodern reveals an uneasiness with its superficiality, emotionlessness and falseness. He gives examples of modern and postmodern works. In the postmodern works, a key missing element is ‘affect’, or emotional expression. Emotional expression relies on notions of the human as a free thinking and acting agent, a ‘subject’ capable of projecting expression into an external world.  The capitalist bureaucracy has induced a culture of conformism by invalidating the expressive, autonomous individual.

‘Cultural production is thereby driven back into the mental space which is no longer of the monadic subject, but of some degraded collective....’

In art and literature, the collective’s interpretation of history as stereotypes of ‘1950s-ness’prevail over truthful historical account, emphasizing fashion and style, like David Lynch or kitsch retro art. Stereotypes relate the account of the collective zeitgeist over the actual history which would relate stories of individuals and facts. But it is precisely this absence of any reality in our accounting of history that causes us to crave the proliferation of fake history, as seen in historical fiction, pastiche art and ‘vintage’ fashion.   

These problematic postmodern stylistic features are related to the ‘death of the subject’, e.g.  the discrediting of the ability of an individual to act with free will.  Free will no longer has credence after the double whammy of capitalist bureaucratisation/ institutionalisation and post-structuralist theory eschewed ideas like rationality, interpretation and truth.

Perhaps there is equilibrium to be reached between abandonment of all interpretation and truth as manufactured by elites and the staunch adherence to a single idea.

Even if there is no single accurate version of events or philosophy, the intention to relate them faithfully will doubtlessly render them closer to accuracy than otherwise.

The difference is simply a difference of intent: intending to tell the truth versus intending to recreate the appearance/semblance/simulacra of the truth. Since intention is already admittedly subjective, it embraces relativism and truth at once. There cannot multiple interpretations of an individual's phenomeonlogical processes such as intention, in the way that it is hard to argue against the logic of Descartes  ‘I think therefore I am’.

 
1 Comment
Rodyssey
9/30/2010 11:36:36 pm

Thank you for your Sept 26, 2010 blog on postmodernism.
I agree that the current zeitgeist, especially in the western world, has been so dumbed down, so numbed by the conformist pressures of a materialistic society, that extraordinary efforts are required. Being aware that the faculties of our senses are being numbed both by the digitizing of nearly *everything* and, unbeknownst to most of us, our very senses are being simultaneously atrophied *and* often over-stimulated by over-the-top advertising and hyper-experience.
This dichotomy runs the risk of numbing us to life's lovely subtleties (gentle touch, mindfulness in silence, and the delicate scent of a flower).

Your own engaging performance art is a timely and valuable counterpoint to the above trend.

Here I quote two passages from your Sept 26th blog:
"The capitalist bureaucracy has induced a culture of conformism by invalidating the expressive, autonomous individual.
‘Cultural production is thereby driven back into the mental space which is no longer of the monadic subject, but of some degraded collective...."

"degraded collective" is a phrase that haunts me deeply, as it was intended.
The phrase could have come from a 2,500 year old document, the Tao te Ching,
which I spoke on last Friday, Sept 26 at a Jungian psychology group in Omaha, Nebraska, USA.
The Tao's caviats speak to the degraded collective 2 1/2 milleniums ago-- yet just as timely today and congruent with the thrust of your current writing.

A woman who has influenced me declares her own personal mission.
Quoting the American psychologist/sociologist and cultural critic, Camille Paglia, PhD:
"My chosen role is to become the ax that cracks open the frozen psyche."
Camille is an outspoken and controversial woman who is not a performance artist per se-- just a superb vessel for holding up mirrors to society.

Also, a performance artist who has touched my life, a contemporary of mine well over twice your age, is Laurie Anderson.
I offer this video from nearly 30 years ago-- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djyusgCuUiI&feature=related

Once again, thank you for your blog.
Soon I will comment on Nietzsche-- someone you quote a lot and who has had a big impact on my own evolving philosophy and experience of the world.
Rodyssey

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