"As a post modernist...."

[hatstand]

I was talking to someone the other day about their insomnia. "As a post modernist", he said "I don't really mind". And I kid you not, not a hint of irony. Finishing the conversation whilst keeping a straight face was no mean feat. Now I'm quite a educated gal. I did philosophy and politics at university. I read the paper (sometimes), I read Booker prize winners, and I have conversations about modern ethics and stuff. But can someone explain to me wtf is post-modernism? And what does it have to do with insomnia?

I did modernity and post-modernity at university. I found it had nothing to do with insomnia as I slept through many lectures. I'm afraid, therefore, I couldn't explain it to you

i don't know either - i have a vague idea it's from the last 30 years and has something to do with deconstructionism. maybe he just means that he thinks sleep is for wimps???

so next time I chat to him a good come back would be "I'm more of a deconstructionist myself"?

No idea what he meant. I did post-modernism at uni too but only have vague recollections... to do with modernism being industrial revolution, mass production (including of cultural products) and you know, the associated world view that there is some single 'truth' that linear human endeavour in science and philosophy will reveal.

Post-modernism being a world where there is no single truth, where different social groups emerge as valid identities (so achievement isn't only by dead white men IYSWIM) err, popular culture is as worthy of attention as high art... not sure what on earth that has to do with insomnia! Roland Barthes, the Frankfurt School, flaneurs...

Roland Barthes was all about deconstructing things. Crappy joke was he was killed by being run over by a milk float so: 'deconstruct that, you f**ker!'.

Good old wikipedia

It means kitsch is acceptable if done ironically, doesn't it?

when i said "wtf is pm and what does it have to do with insomnia" I think what I really meant was "what a tosser".

That's how I read it, Hatstand

perhaps that was somewhat post modernist of me?

I think the sentiment is modernist, but the form you expressed it in is sub-textural post-modernist.

I imagine he meant that while lying awake at night he could ponder on the supermarket design of the eighties and nineties which pays homage to the market square, complete with clock tower and village vernacular architecture despite in fact being a temple of mammon on a vast scale.

if the sentiment was modernist does that make me a fuddy duddy?

pmsl zippimistletoes

I've stayed clear of 'isms' since leaving University.