Deep Thunder- 9/12

The concept of totality and the totalizing metanarrative stand out the most from this class for me. Notorious ROG mentioned Christianity and Science as examples of practices that employ these narratives in an attempt to explain everything. I find it interesting that every culture I have studied or surveyed has attempted, in some way or another, to create a mythology to explain the world as they know it. I am unsure as to whether or not some of the older mythology like Greek and Egyptian are considered metanarratives, as they were comprised of so many little stories but they do seem to attempt to answer the questions of how and why and appear to form jigsaw puzzles of overarching metanarratives. This search for meaning seems to be in each person and throughout time. After all, who wants to believe that they are insignificant carbon, a tiny notch in the cog of the universe and evolution, an “ugly bag of mostly water” [Holla, PMS!]? That there is no reason or order, not even chaos, as that in itself is an order of sorts?
Lyotard [or Lyotard-ed- big ups to Steve O] says, “let us wage war on totality” which he thinks is the essence of modernism. He also says, “Artists and Writers need to be assigned the task of healing the community.” So perhaps Modernism was attempting to heal man’s need to fill the void of insignificance with their totalizing metanarrative designs and philosophies and since we have “waged war” on that totality the bits and pieces must be picked up by the artists. Now that there is no overriding explanation, system, or mythology, each case will have to be explained differently, through a different pomo artist or expression.