Introduction: The Death of Postmodernism

The postmodern era was mainly characterized by relativity. It was based around the idea that truths are subjective and can be interpreted in any way possible. This idea was often exploited or used as an excuse for misconduct. The idea of relativity itself was a subjective topic. What was relative was up to whoever was interpreting the subject. There are many examples of why the postmodern era died out, which all show traits of how an idea can be misinterpreted, but accepted by others simply because people wanted to show they were open minded and non-discriminatory. These absences of rigid values lead to the death of the postmodern era.

Andy Warhol-Campbell's Soup Cans

 Andy Warhol was born on August 6^th, 1928, and is the pioneer of Pop Art. This art form was a style where, mass produced, common, kitsch, objects would be screen printed and essentially mass produced in some cases to create art. His style was meant to represent the idea that art is for everybody and is relative, despite that many people may think that only “high” art is art. (Potash)

           A simple can of Campbell’s Tomato Soup screen printed and blown up on a canvas showed that what can be considered art is relative. These soup cans mean nothing by themselves, and force the viewer to create their own meaning for the cans.  That is why “Campbell’s Soup Can” is a key painting in postmodern art. It is an example of relativity which can only be understood by interpretation, which obviously differs from person to person in this case.

The soup cans are said to be empty without meaning. They are a blank form of commodity and their meaning is up to interpretation. (Kramer) This piece of art conveys the idea of relativity, as does O’Brien’s War Stories. The cans simply exist, and like how stories do not necessarily need to have morals or lessons backing them up, these cans/art pieces do not need to have any meaning behind them in order to be considered art.

Pictures after the break.

Tim O' Brien-The Things They Carried: How to Tell a True War Story

Tim O’ Brien’s book, The Things They Carried is a collection of stories about a platoon of American soldiers fighting in the Vietnam War, and demonstrates postmodern themes.

One story in particular, How to Tell a True War Story, questions what makes a story true or believable. In the story, O’Brien constantly states things like, “This is true,” (Tim) “It’s all exactly true,” (Tim)which makes me think whether or not the story is actually true or not. This is because the stories he tells are simply play-by-play events, which to me are believable, however O’Brien says a true story is never moral, but a true story is also not believable. In my opinion the stories which simply describe the scene are true, and seem to be easier to believe than the ones with morals, simply because a story with morals seems too good to be true. Not every true story has to have a lesson behind it. Instead, it could just be a description of an event.

The story shows that truths are relative. “All the characters think their stories are more truthful than each other’s.” (Nicks) In the story, O’Brien says something similar to the definition of truthiness when he refers to a true story. “It comes down to a gut instinct. A true war story, if truly told, makes the stomach believe.” (Tim)

Stephen Colbert-The Colbert Report

The Colbert Report, a spin-off of the Daily Show, is a satirical news show which parodies shows like the O’Reilly Factor. The title credits go by with a giant bald eagle and the American flag presented along with it and Stephen Colbert gives a quick rundown of the episode’s content.

In one particular episode, the first one, Stephen Colbert introduced the word, truthiness, which means "the quality by which one purports to know something emotionally or instinctively, without regard to evidence or intellectual examination", and as Stephen Colbert said, “Truth that comes from the guts, not books.” (Colbert)

Truthiness conveys the idea of relativity. In reality, a truth may function a certain way, but the “gut” may feel differently. In some cases, this may be reality. An NPR article, The Death of Facts in an Age of Truthiness, gives an example of a politician Allen West, Republican Rep. of Florida, stated that 80 Democratic Party members in Congress are part of the Communist Party. (NPR Staff)

While it was confirmed that none of these Democratic Party members were actually members of the Communist party as well, West stood by his comments days after he was proved to be wrong. The article later states a point which shows the actual practice of truthiness is occurring even in high orders of power: “that led Huppke to the idea that if someone of any political party can say something so patently untrue and stand by it — which seems to happen more and more often, he says — then facts must be meaningless and dead.” (NPR Staff)

This show is an excellent example of a person or entity taking a source of source of information, and interpreting it in a completely unpredictable way. Like the Campbell’s soup can and War Stories, the news is up to interpretation. It is relative.

Stephen Colbert interprets the meaning of the news like how people choose to place meaning on the Campbell’s Soup cans, or how people interpret Tim O’Brien’s war stories as they choose.

Video after the break

Conclusion

Through these three examples, relativity is proven to be an aspect that often encourages an “anything goes” type thinking, where one truth could mean something else to one person and so on. This can go on until the truth no longer holds an objective stance and can be interpreted in any way one chooses. It can be further argued that one of the reasons why the era of postmodernism died was because of the “absence of ‘rigid’ opinions and moral values”, as The Dictatorship of Relativism says.  The article later questions whether relativity is a true aspect of postmodernism, or one that has been exploited to “short-circuit, not refine, our powers of discrimination.” (Kimball)

An even more extreme argument using the example of utopianism/humanitarianism for how relativity could and has caused a society to fail or crumble is, from the same article, “[Lenin’s] humanitarianism was a very abstract passion. It embraced humanity in general but he seems to have little love for, or even interest in, humanity in particular.” (Kimball)Lenin, Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, etc. were all utopians. Although the idea of utopianism is usually viewed in a positive light, it is relativity, which allows the rigidity of this idea to be skewed and in practice, can lead to horrific results, all because of the idea of relativity.

After the postmodern era came a sense of exploration. People realized that postmodernism was more than an era. It was a learning process. Postmodernism allowed people to interpret things in way that used to be unimaginable and from that innovation occurred, but in addition to that, so has destruction. What postmodernism introduced to the world was a new level of free thinking and acceptance, one that will bring our world into the next stage, which is essentially postmodernism, but with rigid values and opinions, but at the same time, an accepting mind which filters information.

Works Cited

Kimball, Roger. "Introduction: The dictatorship of relativism." January 2009.

Kramer, Michael J. "#287 – Souped Up « Culture Rover." 20 February 2009. Culture Rover. 5 May 2012 <http://www.michaeljkramer.net/cr/2009/02/20/287-souped-up-charges/>.

Nicks, Nolan. "Ikaika » Postmodernism." n.d. Ikaika - Nolan Nicks's Profile. 3 May 2012 <http://cougarboy7.edublogs.org/postmodernism/>.

NPR Staff. "The Death Of Facts In An Age Of 'Truthiness' : NPR." 29 April 2012. NPR : National Public Radio : News & Analysis, World, US, Music & Arts : NPR. 5 May 2012 <http://www.npr.org/2012/04/29/151646558/if-a-fact-dies-in-the-forest-will-anyone-believe-it>.

Potash, Brett. Modern Art Lecture notes. Lecture notes. Claremont, 2012.

The Colbert Report. Dir. Jim Hoskinson. Perf. Stephen Colbert. 2005-present.

Tim, O'Brien. "The Things They Carried-How to Tell a True War Story." Houghton Mifflin, 1990. 174-183.