11/08/2008

Good Sentences

Contains sexual themes and adult language
Specialization is great, and is a necessary aspect of a growing economy, but there comes a point when and where specialization-only reaches a brick wall. We see this in a lot of postmodern American and European art and literature, which is all about art and literature (since the artists and writers are specialists, they don't know anything else, and thus can't write about anything else).
I'm not sure it's because artists are specialists, but navel-gazing may well be the very essence of what is wrong with postmodernism in the arts. Postmodernism doesn't simply mean art about that kind of art - my favourite novel is in large part about a novelist trying to write a novel - but going all meta, taking reflection about the art form into the art form itself. Here's a typical passage from a postmodern novel (which I'm making up):
You, dear reader, now may be worried about Amelie, but you needn't be. After all, I'm only making this stuff up. I'm sitting here in front of my computer with my fly open. Yup, my fly open - I just wanked off. Boy, it's really hard writing a novel when you have an Internet connection.
Me, I'm one of those old-fashioned people who are into beauty. Yeah, I know that's not gonna get me laid.

2 comments:

Troy Camplin said...

I'm a big fan of much pomo art -- Kundera is one of my favorites -- but I think its reached its limits. Also, Kundera manages to transcend pomo at the same time, creating metafiction that is also beautiful and interdisciplinary. I try to go beyond pomo in my own creative work.

While I do agree that navel-gazing is a part of it, I think the fact that creative writers all too often don't know anything about anything other than literature has been a driving force of pomo metafiction.

LemmusLemmus said...

I agree that Kundera is great, but I think his work would be even better if he didn't inform his readers that his characters are only made up.