Humpty Dumpty

For some reason I thought of Humpty Dumpty. I know why, because of the word 'postmodernism'.

I read what I thought was a rogue interpretation of postmodernism by Arthur Berger. He sees it as a term meaning an old idea becoming fresh. For instance, he considers shuffling music and the randomly playing of it on an iPod as being a postmodern activity. As he explained, "Listening to music in the shuffle form contributes to postmodern sensibilities and lifestyles". So for him postmodernism means something new out of something old, a remodeling of sorts, a game changer.

Humpty Dumpty came to mind when I read Berger’s definition. His definition didn’t seem to fit the general understanding of postmodern. Humpty explains to Alice in “Through The Looking-Glass” that when he uses a word it means just what he chooses it to mean. Thus, I felt Berger had chosen postmodern to mean what he wanted it to mean.

In some quarters postmodernism is looked upon unfavorably. As it is defined, postmodernism literally means after 'modernism'. Modernism is the philosophical view that the world will unfold in a logical, homogeneous manner, where people gravitate and conform to a prescribed lifestyle. In contrast, the philosophy of postmodernism means that the order isn’t necessarily ideal or good. Why this idea so upsets people is because it gives the impression that anything goes, especially when it comes to lifestyle and values. Detractor of postmodernism view it as a chaotic and dangerous philosophy - a threat to achieving and maintaining a cohesive, civil society.

Multiculturalism is considered postmodern. Under modernism people coming together from different cultures were expected to assimilate into a single culture. But in the postmodern world people retain their own cultures while learning to coexist in the larger context, hence the idea of multiculturalism. Modernism is a much simpler lifestyle than postmodernism, which brings with it more complexity, variations and choices. The modern world was easier to govern, whereas the postmodern world is more demanding and harder to balance in its multiplicity.

Perhaps the meaning Berger gave postmodern isn’t so far off. The shuffle form of listening to music does seems to go up against an established norm of listening to music. It does seem to ruffle some old sensibilities about how music should be listened to. Moreover, his meaning sounds compatible with the general idea of postmodernism, that things don’t necessarily have to be of a certain pattern or order, socially or otherwise, for things to remain intact or meaningful. Berger’s postmodernism is definitely disruptive of the old order, breaking down the centers of control and offering alternatives.

The other day I learned of a postmodern novelist, David Markson, who died at 82. He was considered an experimental novelist. He didn’t always follow the traditional norms of writing. I guess that is why he was considered postmodern and experimental. One thing that made him different is that his storytelling lacked the usual structure of plot and characters. He would inject his narrative with random, unconnected thoughts, like mentioning something unrelated. Perhaps that is what made him postmodern, that he broke with tradition. I can imagine how his style might have infuriate some. Nevertheless, it didn’t seem to matter much because he had quite a following that succumbed to his style. Somebody described his writing like a person thinking. He might be writing about a visit to the Louvre and then switch gears and write, to use my example, The industrialized world represented modernism. The service industry that's followed represents postmodernism or, if you will, postindustrialism. In his book “This Is Not A Novel”(A Review: "It is ironic that what we call a "novel" is bound up in a relatively stable set of conventions which belie the novelty or newness its namesake suggests. It is this tension that makes David Markson's This Is Not a Novel an ambitious and compelling postmodern work that makes one think about the process of reading itself.") he writes in the form of tweets, analogous of that postmodern sensibility experienced on Twitter.

I wonder if Markson blurbed or tweeted anything about Humpty Dumpty?

to be continued....