Pop culture parody: Jeff Koons' Balloon Dog sculpture in a 2008 exhibition at Versailles, in France.
EVERYTHING, ALL THE TIME, EVERYWHERE: How we became postmodern,
by Stuart Jeffries (Verso, $45 hb)
In a 1997 television interview, the novelist David Foster Wallace was asked to define postmodernism. He looked bored and amused simultaneously. “It's after modernism," he replied, adding, “It's a very useful catch-all term because you say it and we all nod soberly as if we know what it means."
That was back when the term was fashionable in academic circles: today when we hear it in the wild it's usually from conservatives lamenting the decline of everything: provocateur and bestselling author Jordan Peterson is always railing against Marxist postmodernism but can never quite say what this means. It's something to do with left-wing politics, something to do with abandoning truth, belief in moral relativism, complicated books and baffling academic jargon. But what?
In 2016, long-time Guardian writer Stuart Jeffries released Grand Hotel Abyss, a history of the Frankfurt school, a group of Marxist intellectuals whose ideas swept through the humanities and social sciences in the late 20th century. The Frankfurters were famously dense, forbiddingly cryptic, but Jeffries deciphered their labyrinthine German sentences into clear and witty prose.
Now he's here to do the same for postmodernism. Which is, he explains, the cultural logic of neoliberalism. It's the form of music, art, architecture and literature we see in a globalised, technological world dominated by financial capital. Madonna was postmodern. So were the Sex Pistols, Cindy Sherman, Grand Theft Auto, Quentin Tarantino, Sophie Calle, Jeff Koons. Postmodernists, all of them.
Denne historien er fra April 23 - 29, 2022-utgaven av New Zealand Listener.
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Denne historien er fra April 23 - 29, 2022-utgaven av New Zealand Listener.
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First-world problem
Harrowing tales of migrants attempting to enter the US highlight the political failure to fully tackle the problem.
Applying intelligence to AI
I call it the 'Terminator Effect', based on the premise that thinking machines took over the world.
Nazism rears its head
Smirky Höcke, with his penchant for waving with a suspiciously straight elbow and an open palm, won't get to be boss of either state.
Staying ahead of the game
Will the brave new world of bipartisanship that seems to be on offer with an Infrastructure Commission come to fruition?
Grasping the nettle
Broccoli is horrible. It smells, when being cooked, like cat pee.
Hangry? Eat breakfast
People who don't break their fast first thing in the morning report the least life satisfaction.
Chemical reaction
Nitrates in processed meats are well known to cause harm, but consumed from plant sources, their effect is quite different.
Me and my guitar
Australian guitarist Karin Schaupp sticks to the familiar for her Dunedin concerts.
Time is on my side
Age does not weary some of our much-loved musicians but what keeps them on the road?
The kids are not alright
Nuanced account details how China's blessed generation has been replaced by one consumed by fear and hopelessness.