STEVE-O 8/22

Even though the Notorious R.O.G. has cast a cloud of difficulty in our eventual understanding of Post Modern Theory, I find this topic and its relation to Generation X (my peeps) as undeniably interesting and thought provoking. Yes, the material might be hard to swallow, and there might be nights that I feel like shooting someone while just trying to finish a single page of conceptual ideas authored from someone whose name I probably cant even pronounce, but the knowledge gained throughout this semester will help me understand what it is that makes me and all humans tick. What ideas persuade us, What fears drive us and What techniques society has developed in order to exploit us.

When I hear Post Modernism, the first thing that comes to mind is art. There is always some sort of catagory that art historians try to place a particular piece into. What I heard last night that stuck with me is that Post Modernity is an aura not an era. This concept eases my inherent need to place Post Modernity into a specific time period. As we discussed last night, whether we look as far back as Shakespeare's Hamlet or as recent as our newly acquired Binary opposite in the Middle East, there is no concrete border to this ideology, just a comprehended intent that fuels an event or figure. The thing that makes these concepts unclear is that we dont know the true intent of things unless we are specifically given them and even when we are granted the insight as to what someone or something was trying to convey, can we really trust the source?

Speaking of Specifics, Hassan's quote "Post Modernism Suffers from a certain semantic instability", is a great example of the intertextuality and opening for personal interpratation that makes theory such a stimulating topic. My first reaction to this statement is that Post Modernity does not suffer from anything but rather benefits from the openendedness that comes with its spirit or lack there of. But what "certain"-ty is Hassan speaking of? A specific Instability or a definitive one? As we come across these questions this semester we will have to ask ourselves are we reading things correctly or misreading them to fit our own ideas?

Rock on with your bad self