I was excited when I saw that we were reading The Road because it is one of my all time favorite books, especially since I read it back in high school. I still have this problem though that when I read it I get kind of depressed because the tone of the book is depressing. It also freaks me out because it is a situation that could become real one day and I do not know if I would know how to survive. The movie did not reassure me anymore that I could a situation like the either.
Struggling
For the ones that say they are having problems with the reading because they do not fully understand postmodernism, I totally feel you!!!! I love this class but reading these stories is hard for me most of the time because I do not always understand what is going on in the stories. I did though in fact enjoy Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I actually enjoyed it more then The Things They Carried. I have already started A Visit From The Goon Squad and I’m really hoping that it turns out as good as Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close but from where I am at I dont know about this.
This is my post for last week: 09/09/2011:
After reading the excerpt from In Cold Blood it left me wanting to know about the book and the characters. I did a little bit of research about the charaters Perry and Dick.
Perry Edwards and Dick Hancock were the murderers of the Clutter family. Perry was a very short man. He also had very bad leg injuries from a motorcycle accident. His criminal record is very long and is a resemblance of his childhood. He was not very smart, but very much wanted to be.
Dick’s real name is Richard. He grew up in a town in Kansas. He was married two times. Like Perry he was also jailed, but for passing bad checks.
Not only did I search the characters, but I also read a few long detailed summaries. This left me wanting more. I will probably buy the book.
The short section we read in class also left me wanting more. It was like the story was sort of haunting me, telling me to find out more. What really stuck out to me is the fact that Perry and Dick drove across the state of Kansas to commit the murder. When I did a little research on the story Perry claimed that he wanted to take responsibility for all four murders, even though in a oral confession he said that Dick killed the to women. Perry said he “felt sorry for Dick’s mother”, therefore he claimed all four killings. Just like you I am probably going to go buy the book because I want to know Capote’s look on it.
So I am really behind on reading The Things they carried because of other homework and work. What really stuck out to me was how what happen in the war was still affect the character that was writing the war stories. It was as if it was weighing him down just like the items they carried during the war. He said that with one particular story he couldn’t tell anyone not even his wife and it bothered him in his dreams. For me this related to everyday life for some people. Like the choices they made in life still affects and haunts them. BTW sorry if this is a little confusing. I have cold meds and trying my best to put this into words.
Ugh, forgot about this yesterday. If push comes to shove, I would like to use my earlier post as this week’s and my first as the first.
I am sure you all have seen M.C. Escher’s works, and are familiar with how they are intended to show how the impossible can be represented in two dimensions.His works are quite postmodern in and of themselves.
When most viewers try and interpret the piece, they trace from one point to another, only to notice that the direction of gravity has changed. For instance, the topmost staircase can be used by walking on either of the two planes created by the stairs, and the other staircases are usable from both sides. It would seem that the inhabitants are capable of selecting their plane of travel of their own volition.
The works of Escher frequently base themselves around symmetry and often mathematics are used in their creation, a very Modernist aspect. However, his frequent use of Impossible Objects, questionable perspectives, and the changes of state (most notable in Drawing Hands, 1948) are very Postmodern and abstract in nature. His crafts are a far cry from the realist landscapes and portraits of the Modernist era, and more often than not reflect his own artistic interests.
I love his work and never really thought of his work being considered postmodernism and also having a modernist aspect to it. I think that M.C. Escher too and turned it into a piece that is unrealistic and quite entertaining. I believe that M.C. Escher was way before his time because during his year modernist were the big thing and postmodernism was not coming into play yet. That could be way we see aspects of modernism in his work. The way he incorporated both of them into his work is genius.
(Source: sithregal)
Postmodernism Dying….
http://www.philosophynow.org/issue58/The_Death_of_Postmodernism_And_Beyond
I was reading this article, actually skimming because I’m tired and want to go to bed, and it brought up a good point about postmodernism dying and how pseudo-modern is coming into play. It suggest that pseudo-modern “takes the world away, by creating a new weightless nowhere of silent autism.” One major line of the article at the bottom that caught my eye was “You click, you punch the keys, you are ‘involved’, engulfed, deciding. You are the text, there is no-one else, no ‘author’; there is nowhere else, no other time or place. You are free: you are the text: the text is superseded.” How true is that of today’s society? Instead of taking the world as it is, we are creating a new one by researching and trying to find new ways to fix it the way we want it to be. We are the ones trying to decide how life should be.
You could consider this a first post.
When I first thought of postmodernism, I imagined the photography I had seen of just random things; a broken lightbulb, a chair in an empty room, etc. I did not know exactly what the definition of postmodernism was, but I just made a connection without realizing it. I found later I was right, in a small way. In the little bit of looking and googling I have done since the start of this course, I have found that almost anything odd, random, seemingly pointless but filled with hidden meanings, is quite postmodern.
We’ve read a few short stories in class, and they’ve all made me have to look deeper than just a regular novel or story. I felt that the stories didn’t flow along like the books I grew up reading as a child, but instead were like a rocky shore that I would trip on and hobble over. I kept having to go back and make sure I didn’t miss anything and, in most cases, I missed quite a bit. The symbolism and “theme” behind the stories, I missed until we spoke about it in class. I guess I can understand why people like being in a book club, now that I’m in an oversized one until the end of the semester.
I understand completely where you are coming from when you talk about having to go and re read things because you felt as though you missed something. I am great-full that we get to discuss it in class because sometimes that is the only way I fully understand some of it. As for your view on photography you are exactly right (at least in my book). Postmodernism art is some thing that is simply and things that most people would not consider art. Especially the toilet picture we saw in class on the second day. Most people would not consider a upside down urinal a piece of art but instead a piece of trash.
In Modernism, reality used to validate media. In Postmodernism the media validate reality. If you don’t believe this, just think how many times you’ve described some real event as being ‘just like a movie.’
Brad Holland
I saw this quote and I was like “wow how true is this!” Now I believe that the quote does not just apply to movie but to the programs on TV that we watch. For example Jersey Shore, so many people were hooked on the show as soon as it came out. The next day we saw people going out with their hair done like Snookie and fist pumping in clubs. One day my friend compared her relationship to Sam and Ronnie without the cheating. I have to admit tough that I can not go a Thursday night with out watching it.
