1 888.263.7591 (USA only)Gall to order For Beginnerf books and to receive your free catalog
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ffi ffi
Enlightenment.Jim Powell tokes the position
thot Postmodernism is o seriesof "mops" thot help peopfe findtheir woy through o chongingworld. Postmodernism for Beginners@feotures the thoughts of Fo.ucouft oripo*rrono knowfedge, Jomeson on mopping the postmodem,Boudrillord on the medio,jrrvev r1r,1;!ri9 compresion, Derrido on deconsrruction ondil:l::::*9,:Tl::llf:m ir,, r,,i:il, il;,;;;;ffi'i,,n oniro,r such osPt//|4odonno, cyberpunk scFfi, Buddhist ecology *d teledild'nics.BYJlfrt P0wELLII.I.USTRATED BY JOE I.ET
ffi
l s B N 0 - 8 6 3 1 6 - 1 8 8 _ X
people , Yotr're notsubiecf, it proboblyfew grumpydernism is notintellectuoltrory, it isofound /,I crises (of the ['
sure whot Postmodernism is. And if this ,,ere likewouldn't tell you.
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@PHILOSO-PWus $11.95uK t7.99cAN $15.e5
W rilers and Readera ?ublishing, lnc.7.O. box 461,Vil laqe gtat ion, New York, NY iOO14
s al ee @f orb e qinn er e.c om
Writers and Readers Ltd.7O box 29522 , London N1 BFDb e qin @ w ri t e r e a n d r e a d e r s. c o m
Text Copyriqht @1998 JameE N. Fowelll l luelrat ione Copyriqht @1990 Joe LeeconceVt and Deeiqn copyriqht @1998 writers and Readers ?ubl iehinq,lnc.Dook and Cover Deoiqn: Renbe MichaeleCover Art: Joe Lee
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AWri lere and Keaders Documentary Comic OookCopyright @1990
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?ublishing FOR BEGINNER9* books aontinuouely sinae 1gT5
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2uC;aaal a y'r-*, y'J"n
ln t roduct ion. . . 1
Postmodernese 6
Whot ls Modernism?. 8
Whot ls Postmodernism? . . . . . .17
f h o b H o s s o n . . . . . . . . . . . 1 7
Jeon-Froncois Lyotord .. . .19
Discourse, f igure .. . . . . . . . .2o
The Postmodern Condit ion... . . . . . . .22
Fredric Jomeson .. . . .3+
Postmodernism: or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism .......31
Jeon Bqudr i l l a rd . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Eor l y Wr i t i ngs . . . . . . . . . 15
"The Orders of Simulocro". . . . . . .18
ln the Shadow of the Si lent Majori t ies . . . . . . . . . . . . .61
On Seduction . . . . . . .65
Amer ica . . . . . . . . .67
The Ecstasy of Communication .. . . . . . . . .69
Modernist Architecture . . . . . . . .72
Postmodern Architecture qnd Art . . . . . . . .77
Chqr les Jencks . . . . . .78
Postst ructuro l ism . . . . . . . .93
Michel Foucoult (ond Boudri lord on Foucqult) . . . . . .94
Jocques Derridq .. . . .96
deconstruction .-. .- .99
Gil les Deleuze ond Fel ix Guottori . . .1o8
Dqvid Horvey . . . . . .115
The Condition of Postmodernity .......116
Postmodern Art i focts.. . . . . . . . .122
Blade Runner.
Cyborgs . . . . . . . . 128
C y b e r p u n k . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 3 1
Neuromancer . . . . . . .132
Teledidonics, Audioonimqtronic Poporazzi E Nono-Rovers .. . . . . . . .131
Mqdonno . . . . . . 139
lJntitled Film stills (cindy shermon) ...1+2
MTV. . . . . . . 113
B o r b i e - A r t . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 + 1
Blue Velvet . . . . . . . . .145
Wings of Desire ...115
Postmodern Environmentol ism .. . .117
Whot is Postmodernism? (ln Retrospect) . . . .118
Refe rences . . . . . . . . . . 158
l n d e x . . . . . . . . . 1 6 o
f{1Drst.v
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1-1
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An afr,s brochure for almoel
any major univeroit 'y miqht aVVro-
Vriately fealure a Vhot'omont'aqere?reoentinq ils seaeon of cult'ural
offerinqo trom around the world.
The monNaqe mighr feature a
female dancer wit 'h an Eaetr lndian
head, a male Navaho left' leq,
the riqht,leq of an Afro'
American modern dancer,
a Lorso halt'covered by
a suil and r, ie, and t 'he
obher half feet'ooned
wibh eaqle fealhers with
one arm dioplayinq a
eacred Tibet an hand
qeoture, anol'her
muscled arma
poundinq ouf, a
rhyl,hm on a
JaVaneee drum,
and Nwo more female arme in a
lyrical dance ?ooe from lndia.
Cont raet lhis culNural mixing
with Nhe livee of moeT, of the ?eo-
Vle who have l ived on Ihe Vlanet for
mosl of iis hiot ory. Cilizene of the
Middle Agee and membere of pre'
modern 0ribal eocieNiee could l ive
outr Nheir yearo wilhout encount'er-
inq anyone wif,h anot'her god, a
conlrary worldview, differenl folk-
Nalee, dancee or mytrho. lf Ihey
should encount er an indiv idual or
a eociely lhatr wae different, f,hen
trhe straleqy wae No conquer it,
mi l i lar i ly, economical ly and eexual-
ly; Io converL it tro one'e own reli'
gion; or No kil l i t . The very exie'
t ence of the )t'her, Ihe very
?reeence of the Olher,
Voeed a Ihreal lo lhe
o u? ? o e e d univ er e alit 'y
of one'e own beliefe,
ln the Tostmodern
aqe,however, i l ie dif-
ficultr lo qet' throuqh a
d ay wit'h ouI confr onlin q
rnany diff erenl realities.gimVly t 'urn on hhe'N
and you miqhl hear
a world mueic qrou?
oinqinq a blend of lr ieh love eonq,
lndian raqa, heavy-metal anlhem,
M onqol i an 9 u d dhiel ch ant ' - an d
all lo Nhe f,une of peyot'e drume,
qamelane, didqer ido os, p anVip eo,
nooe ffuf,eg, alpenhorns, gilaro
and hambourinee. And all Nhese
eounds may be produced notr by
the or iqinal inef ' rumenf, but elec-
tronically, to a danceable req7ae
(/^
or hiV-hoV beat,, and broadcaet,
worldwide via eaLellite to mill ioneof viewere-Nhe profiIe going f,oeave the Drazilian rainforeet. lnfacf,, qo to a
fundament al-
iet , le lamic
wedding in
an EqyVtian
vi l laqe, and
the bride, eur-
rounded by
elern eldere,
hooded and veiledgo that, no intrud-
to trhe concert,, benealh lhe
hood, throuqh the earVhones of
her minialurized radio. 7he maybe wearing jeane under her
Nraditional skift,,
and have a belly
full of Coca-Cola.
Tick u? anyNew A7e maq-azine, and you
will find the
Vyoleriouo
and Unknown
eold in a thoueand
f orme-Vey chic ch annel inge of
die emb o di e d epi rite, D u d dhi st,
Taoietr and Hindu medit atr ion
Iechniques, N alive Americ an
sweaf, baths, cryot alo and herbe,
el e cNr o ni c m e di latr i o n m a chi n ee
and exot ic Vot ione.Your tyVical
New A7er eeee no conl,radiclion
in aLt endinq a Quaker meeting in
f,he morning, eabinq a Zen macro-
biotic breakfaet, sitting tor Chi-
neee Taoietr medihalion, eatinq
an Indian Ayurvedic lunch, doinq
a Chero-kee sweatr before Tai Chi,munchinq down a eoyburger for
dinner, dancinq in a full-moon
wiNchinq ceremony with her neo-
Taqan Goddee; 7rou?,
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
ing male 7aze wil l Vollut e her-
Aay oecretly be l ioleninq
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
and Ihen cominq home
and makinq love wilh her
New Aqe boytriend accordinq
to Hindu Tanlric princiVleo.
All rhe world's culL,ureo,
rit,u alg, race6, dalab ankg,
mylhe and musical mot'ifs
are int ermixinq like a omor-
qaebord in an ea(chquake,
And Nhis hodge-Vodqe of
hybrid imaqeo io qlobal,
froo dinq t h e trradil ional
mao6 media, and also Cyber-
o?ace-a e?ace ever-
IIIIIIII
blossoming wilh new univereee
and realit'ieo, and which io beinq
Vrobed by an ever-ex?andinq
Vopularion of cYberpunks and
cyb er oh arnano wh o-l i ke
elect r onic r at's b urcowing
eidewayo Nhrouqh a
vaef., interconnecled
series of elecNronicgewer6, cellarg, ?ao-eaqewayo, caverne,
quttero, and lun-
nels-are capable of
naviqaNinq from cyber'
sil,e Io cyber'eite via
an almosl infinit'ely int'er-
linked caf'aloque of codee.
ln obher words, we live in-
creaoinqly in a world of in-
t erc onn e ct'e d diff er en c e9-t'=iil
l*)--'
dif f erenceo amVli f i ed and mult ip l ied
at,Ihe oVeed of eleclricity. No
-{,F lonqer is there one moraliNy or mph
or r iNual or dance or dream or phi looophyor conceVl of eelf or qod or culNure or eVyle of
ar| t h at, V r e d omin aIee.The exVlosion of new communicahions technoloqieo and
lhe continuing fragmenlaf,ion of culrures inro lhoueande ofl iwle culluree has torced us tro view our world as simult ane-ouely exVandinq and ehr inkinq. And juer as the unexVlored
Naw world of earlier cenluriee had ite exVlorerl who setouN on voyaqeo of diecovery, bringing back new ma?e,
which were conet anf,ly beinq re-drawn ae ever newreqione were Vrobed and chaft,ed, tha New yostmod-
ern W o rl d-?o ef,mo d ern Ke ality-h ao itemapmakers and explorero.
The maVmakere of Vaet cenf,urie; euVerim-
Voeed a fictif, iouo qrid u?on the qlobe-Nhemeridians-trhe l inee of latitude and lonqi-
tude. They chafr,ed narcow straiNs, f ar-f lunq exoNic archipela7oo, dark cont.i-
nenle, ?revail ing winde, wavee andc u r renle. ?imil a rly, 7o ehm o d ernintell ecf,u ale-Vhil o e o ph ere an d ih e -
orief,e-have att emVted No maV
te chn olo qi e e, ec o n omi ee, cyb er -
e?acee, mediaeca?ee.
But not everyone lhinkeinf,ellectrua I ly ab out, all
f,he chanqee f,haf, are'r,akinq place.
These Tostmodern arbieLl or architecf,s sim?ly lake
nof,e of the new nix of meeeaqee, oymbole, cullureo
and media, and then creale a video, 6onq, Vaint inq
or bui ldinq thal ref lecle lhe Toetmodern condiNion,
We wil l be exVlorinq lhe lhouqhto of some of theee
" m a?m akere" and " explorero," Nhege TogNmodern
inLellecNuals and arNieNe, in lhe ?aqee trhal follow,
But woit o minute! lf Post-
modern thinkers hqve some
reolly new ideos mopping
the contours of our times,
why hoven't I heord of these
ideos before?
A major reaoon ie t.haI Toet'
modernese ie euch a di f f icul l lan-
quaqe lo underofand-and moef,
booke on Toelmoderniem are
wrif,f,en in lhie parl icularly ob-
6cure Lonque.
For inelance-lel 'e eu??oee you
live in Lhe 197Oe, and you want to
eay "The way while guys Nreal
Third World women ae 6ex objecte io
sha l low and d iequel inq. "
The fire| thinq you have lo do
lo lranelaf,e i l into Tostmodeneee
is f,o make f,he gent ence et op mak'
inq eenee.You do f ,h ie by eubsf, i -
IuLin q my etreri ous ?oet mo d ern
buzzworde or Vhraeee for ordinary
words that do make eenee. For
ingf,ance "whif,e 0uy6" can prof-
i lably be reVlaced by the Vhraoe"Vhal locraLic and VanoVIic ( in Lhe
Fouc aul t ian e enee) O ead-Whire'
Male eublecL-Voeil ione," Thie is
b ec auee, in Tosf'mo derneoe,
quye no lonqer exiet. TheY
h ave b ecome " eubject'- V oei-
l ion6," The same qoee for
women. Therefore Nhe
ohraee "Third World
women" neede to be
queoifred uV t 'o "pool'-
co lon ia l female eub-
1ecN-poeif, ione." The
phraoe "T,he way"
could proVerly
be rendered ae"lhe hegemonic
(mie)reVreeen-
LaI ion and delval '
orizaLion of." As
you can eee, 7ogl,'
moderneee rel iee
u?on ue ing ae many
elaehee and hyphene
and oarentheseg and
whal,ever other kinde of
marks you r comput er can
make ae ?oe6ible. Thue lhe
word "ohal low" ehould cor-
recLly be rendered ao "a
texLually (ra)in ecribed praxie
of pre- diee emin ale d, (counI'er)
e ubv e r eiv e ' d e othl e 6 o n e 6 o," '
' z-.2
--
,l /ra--_---,
l , / . \/ , / \' / l
To be perteclly corcecf', your frnal
t ranelat'ion should sound some-
Nhinq like t'his: "The hegemonic
(mi e)reVreo ent alion an d
delvalorizalion of t'he alwaye-
alre a dy mult i- (d e) / g en d ere d
plur iv o c al i t i ee an d (de) c en'
Iered delconstrruct'ed
and dialoqical ly Vrob-lematized ludic eimu-
lacra of abeentlpre-
infinile bewildermenf'. Then you look
Nhem in Nhe eye, cornpaooionaf'elY,
and Nell trhem lhat' Ihe Vlurivocalambiqui t iee of (non) meaninq in-
herent in their queeLion obviouely
subvefr t 'he Voooibil i ty of your
deliverinq lo Nhem Nhe kind of
cheaV and low-down Vhallocrat' ic,and loqocenlric Vatrriarchal hoq-
wallow of an anewer which they are
c aV able of underet'andinq,
lgl well t'm not so sure I under-stond whot Postmodernism
is. And is it POSTmodernlSM,
postMODERNism, PoStmOdErN'
ism, post-modernism or
Postmodernism?
Itr hae been wriT'Ien in all
Nho s e w ay o. 7o et'mo dernism- as
Lhe "pool"' Vref ace imVlieS, i6
eomelhinq Ihat, fol lowe modern'
ism, However, peoVle who Lhink
about, euch thinqo ae Tost'-
moderniom don'tr aqree whet,her
Toetmodernism is a break from
moderniam or a cont inual ion
of modernism-or bot'h. ln fact,
they don'f, even aqree as t'o
whal moderniem is, much lese
Toetmodernism.
)/ senl poelcolonial
female oubject'-Vooi'
Iions, by hyVer-
erof,icized and
orienNalized
phallocralic
and VanoVIic(in lhe Fou-
caulhian eenoe)
)ead-Whit 'e-Male
eubjecl-Vooitrion
discourse, ig a Nex-
tually (re)inetibed
Vraxie of Vre-dieeemi-naL,ed, (count er)eub-
v er siv e d eplhl e e sn e o e,"
@ *not!!??
E And if anyone aoke youwhaN all lhal meane, you juel
behold T,hem wilh a qaze ot
UhWell, whot is modernism?
rH lvloderniem ie a blanket, Lerm
, for an exploeion of new eLylee and
trende in the arLe in the f i ret hal f
of the zolh cenlury. lf lhe modern
era had a cenlral imaqe-i t wae
LhaT, of a k ind of non- imaqe-a
Void-and if the era had a quo-
Iat ion that, eummed i t , a l l up, i l was
lr ieh Voet, Wi l l ia m SuI ler YeaLs's l inee:
But whot things fell oport in the modern ero? What center
could not hold?
E What fell apart in Lhe modern era were xhe values of the ltthcentury, the Aqe of Enligh;f,enment,,
Trobably the main value of lhe aqe,
of Vrogreoe.
aleo known ae bhe Aqe of Keaeon.
beeides reaoon, wae lhe idea
ln f ,he l9th cenlury bhinkere became oVl imist ic Ihat by ueinq Nhe
univereal valuee of ocience, reaaon and loqic, they could qet rid of all
Ihe myihs and holy ideas f,hat keVf humanity from ?roqreoeinq, They
fel t th is would evenLual ly f ree humani ly f rom mieery, rel ig ion, euperot i -
f , ion, al l i rcat ional behavior, and unfounded bel ief . Humani ly would thue
?roqreee Lo a elaf,e of freedom, happineee and proqreee.
Francis hacon eaw ?roqreee t akinq I,he form of a wiee,
elhical and ecience-minded el iLe who would be Nhe
guardiane of knowledge and who,
thouqh l iv inq ouf ,e ide Lhe communi -
l,y, would neverthelese inffuence i l.
Marx aleo believed in
?roqreee, and envieioned a
Ulopia, 7ul Marx'e UloVian
vieion wae of a ?er-ect, world brouqhtr
aboul by a maLe-
r ia l iet , ecience,
Other bhinkere,
however, were nol, Eo
oVtimietic. Edmund
9urke wae diequeted wilh
Nhe exceooeo of the French
Revolution. And lhe Marquie de
1ade, lhe qreaf,-qranddaddy of 3/M,
exVlored the pervereitiee of eexual free-
dom-Vainting a dark Victrure of hu rnan l iber-
al, ion. The eociologiet Max Weber VroVheeiedlha| lhe future would be an iron Vrieon of reaeon
and bureaucracy,
E Well, moybe Yeots ond oll the
skeptics were right. lt look os if things
did foll oport. Whot did Science,
Reason ond Progress get us, ofter oll?
The zOth century hos been nothing if
not o dork, Kofkoesque nightmore of
rqtion-olly odministered deqth comps,
deoth squods, Auschwitz, World Wqrs
I ond l l , Hiroshimo, Nogosoki, ecologi- ,,)),col disqster-ond vorious systems of /,'),
totolitorionism. And oll in the nome \s
of the Enlightenment vqlues of Science,
Reoson, Liberotion, Freedom ond
Progress !
I I I I I t..n'I I, n" t,,*. ;t, t.-E.:tl I
7uI I haven'|, even lold vou
abouf, the biggeet, ekeptic of
a l l - Ih e G erm an ?h i lo e oVh er
Friedrich Nietzsche. N ief,zeche
had no lolerance for Enl ighl-
enmenf, values. Keason? Uni-
v er e ality? M o raliry? 7r o qreee?
Al l theee Enl ight enmenf, pre'
leneee meanf, nolhinq tro him.
He eaw the world ae the dance
of the deolructively crealive
and creatively deef,ructive god
Dionyeue-the dance of the
Will to Tower-and Dionyouo
wae hie model of how lo acL in
Ihe chaotic eLorm of l i fe. Any
man who acf,ed in euch a way
would be a Superman.
411l v
And Nietzeche hit thenail right on t,.he head.
Afr,er all, many
ZOt h- century IuV ermen h ave
?roven lhaf, you have to deotroy
in order f,o create: Hitler, Vao,
1halin, etc. Nief,zeche aleo ?ro'claimed Ihe "Oeabh of God" as
well as trhe dealh of Chrietian- morali ly and met aphyoico. With
one wave of his VhiloeoVhical wand,
the central oymbols, insNilutions
and beliefe of Weslern cullure,
which had already euffered a
lremendous blow by lhe Aqe of
Ke aeon, die a?? e ared-?OOF-
like a maqician's rabbiT, into the
dark folds of a cloak.
notr dr i l l holee in lhe wal le of our
houses and hallow lhese hollowe,
w orohiVpinq t hem earneol ly
with lhe worde "O rmy Holy Hole,
oave mel),l"
No. We live in a cull,ure
lhat, esNeems ?reeence over
absence, icon over non-existence,
voluVNuoue virqin over vacant,
vacuum, wholes over holesl And
ye|,, where we Vreviouely had a
cent er-wheNher in Christrian reli-
q ion or in f ,he
ideale of eci-
ence and
?roqreoo-euddenly
we had nothinq,
IS NOTI{IN6$nmtD?
What remained were only dark
waveo of Nothin7neee-a Void.
Nature, however, abhorg a vac-
uurr, and we Wegf,ernerg, unlike
Ouddhie|,e and Taoietre, do nol
toleraie voids very well. We do
)ome modernjof'g, euch as Heminqway, creaf,ed worke of arr f,hatrex?reeeed a kind of Vaeeive recoqnitrion of this lack of a center. ln hieehofr, eIory "A Clean,Well-lighted ?lace,"one of hie charac-f,ere, a waitrer,
reworks f,he
Lord'e Trayer
and the Hai l
//tt ' / t ' t
Mary-eubetritrut-
inq "nada" (or"nolhing" in gVanieh)
atr oiqnif icanf, Vlacee:
rc,c,trA 7'7A_9'7\\ y v L f
I v t v v v J
l f modern thinkere could no lonqer bel ieve in a
Chrielian God, Chrislian moralif,y, or scienlifc ?ro7reoo-if Ihere wao
no lonqer a cenlerlo\Neetern culture-it was neceooary Xo find a new
one for, aft,er all, we don'I like voids. And il wae Nief,zsche-who had
proclaimed t 'he deabh of Enliqhlenmenl valuee, God and Chrisl ian
moraliby-Ihat, ehowed the way. Alf,houqh he had deVrived Weetern
culture of a centrer, he only did so by Vuttinq eomething elee in i ls
place-nof, only the idea of a guVerman who ie beyond qood and evil
buN aleo ar| beyond qood and evil. Thue, amonq all Nhe fraqment alion
and chaoe, amidel everythinq fall inq aVafi,, modern arAists beqan tro
look for oome et ernal value trhat wae beyond all the chaos,
Theee arl ieNe adoVted Ihe heroic, almosl )uVerhuman role of
rediscovering lhe eeeence of humanily, of f indinq an eNernal value
beyond all lhe chaoe, of f i l l inq in Nhe Voot-NielzecheanVoid in various
wayo. ln a world withoul a cenf,er, aeslhelics-
atb-became centrral, Afr for arL'o sakel Modern
V aint , in q w a s ab o uN V aint in q- e el f - ab e o rb e d, e el f -
?oeee6eed, exVlorinq ite own Vrimary Voeeibil i-
| / t iee: all pooeible inheractione bef,ween
V erc eVt.ion, memory, idenlify.
O ohemi an, av anf,- q ard e, exV erim enlin q
wilh Iradit ional qenree and otylee-
modern a(bisf,e, who brouqht mod-
ern arD to ite fullesl
bloeeoming eome-
Iime be|,ween 1910
and the 193Oe,
rall ied around poet
Ezra Tound'e ballle
cry "Make it new," eeeinq Nhemgelvee a6
creators of the new ralher than as
?reoervere of old cultrural forme,
)uch aft became a way t o reVreoenl
Ihe eNernal in Ihe mideV of chaos. Cubiem drew
ineViration from lhe eimVle qeometries of
Af ri c an o c ulVhur e, d em aleri alize d obje cte, b r e aki n q lh em
down int o trheir baeic geomelric forme, Cubistr afrieT,s
Vaint ed, ag Ticagoo Vut, il,, "nof, what, you oee, but what
you know is fhere."
NrW
sensil ive youlh seek-
inq tro eecape the
confinee of hie
Cathol ic uVbrinqing in
Dubl in, ie baeed on
trhe ancient, Greek
mfih of the hero
Oaedelue af,tremVtinq
No eecaVe the Laby-
rinIh. Thue, it, has a
rnyDh at it s cenler.
One oymbol IhaI
atlem?f,ed f,o fill in
Ihe Void lhal had
been left by Ihe"deal,h of God" wao
the oymbol of the
machine. Toel Ezra
Tound eaw worde ae
machines. The VoetWilliam Carlos
Wil l iams said Nhat
the whole Voem ie a
machine made uV of
worde, Modern archi-
tecle f,houqhl ot
houses ae machinee
for l ivinq in. ln facl, all
of society wae be-
cominq more machine-
like: bureaucraNic,
Nechnical, raf, ional,
From thie kind of
machine4ike ef f ic iency
aro6e war machines
ao ?owefiul ae Ihey
were effrcient ln ltaly,
Ihe war machine of
lhe )u?erman ltAus-
sol in i . ln Germany,
)uVer-
man
Hitler's
Nazi
Nrains ran
on f, ime,
deliverinq
the i r human
carqo lo deabh
campe like
Auschwitz and
buchenwald. These
cam?o Nhemselves
drew u?on moderniet
p lann inq and arch i -
Nectural Vrincipleo.And lhe Nazl war
machine had iIs own
cent er-Nhe myth of
Ihe SuVer Race-f,he
euVeriority of blue-
eyed, blond members
of the Aryan race.
9o one Vroblemwith moderniem is
thal science and rea-
eon didn't juel create
?roqre6e-Nhey cre-
ated AuechwiLz and
Hiroehima. And Nhere
were olher Vrob'leme-aftietic oneo.
Modern
arL and lit er-
af,ure became
increaeingly diff iculf
No underetand.
Moderniam -
became Hiqh mod-
ern iem. Hiqh mod-
ernism peaked in
1922, wilh the
Vublication of
Jamee Joyce'oUlyeeee and
T,9. ElioN'o "The Wastelandl'
ln bolh Ulyeeee and Finne-
ganb Wake, Joyce exVerimenled
with a sNream- of- conscioueneee
elyle, plunqin7 the reader within
Ihe fluid, ehiftr inq free-flow of hie
characNere' ?oychee.E]iol' g "W aetelan d" exV eri-
menNed with a fraqmenied poetry
full of l i terary, hieNorical and
mytholoqical t idbire from around
the world-depiclinq a soul and a
eociety in fraqmenNalion and
deeV air, eeekinq reinleqraf,ion, a
new cenf,er. 1of,h Joyce and Eliof,
rejected lhe etraiqhttorward, and
ralional ffow of the et ory or
lheme. They aleo rejecLed Nradi-
t i on al ch ar acT,er dev el o Vm enl,
f avoring inet ead a fraqmenled
otyle. Dul Ihis disl ike of conven-
t ional characler develoVment and
the celebration insf,ead, of Vrvvaf,e, eubjecNive ex?erience added
tro the t endency of moderniem'e
arf, iels, assembled in emall
qrou?e in ?aris, Oerlin, Kome,
Vienna, London, New York,
Chicaqo, CoVenha7en, Munich or
Moscow, t o view lhemselvee as an
exiled, alienahed cultural eliLe.
ln "The Metamorphoeie" lhe
wrif,er Franz Kafka eymbolized
Nhie alienation of the arl, jet wilh
Nhe imaqe of a huqe human-eized
buq NraVVed in an abeurd human
environmenl. Such afrieIs creaf,-
ed works eo challenqing and weird
tha| Nhey could only be appreci-
ated by a narrow audience. This
only fufi,her added tro lheir
elit iet imaqe.
Modern afr,, in fac|,, wao eo
far-ouI thal it, divided culture
into "Hiqhbrow" and "Lowbrow." Il,
excluded the middle class, who
could not, undereland iI, and qave
riee No a kind of "Vrieolhood" of
echolars and crif, ice. Their job wa6
and ie f,o explain moderniem'e
myof,eries, To read James Joyce'o
Ulyeeea, T.9. ElioN'e "Waeteland"
or Ezra Tound'o "Cantoo" ie an
advenf,ure,You need a quide,
ae Nhough you were explorinq
the Amazon.
E rhen how does Postmodernism differfrom Modernism?
E there ie lirrle aqreemenr on Nhe eubjecl, Varf,ly becaue"TooT,modernism"- whalever il is-is an aNIemVI No
of what ie qoing on now-and we can oee Ihe Vreeenlonly in retrosVect,,
)ne Toetmodern theorieL,lhab Hassan, offere a Nable of differenceo
beT,ween the Nwo movemenf,g;
TostmodernismForm (,coniuncf,ivel cloged) <" " " " " " "> Antiform (digjuncbivel o?en)
Modernism
{ . . . . a a . . . o o o o o }
{ . . o o . . . . . . o o o o }
Hierarchy { o o e . . . . . . o o o r o } AnarchvAfL Obieet/Finighed Work {oooo... . . .o..o} TrocegglTertormance/
Tresence
Ha
Abeence
Cenlerin{ o o . . . . . . . o o o o o }
{ o o o o a a a . . a o . . o } Diepereal
TexIllnt efreKYKoot lDephh { o o o o . . . . . . o o o o } Rhizome/7ufiace
(T?L 267-0)
, ' :,g7
Thue, where
and Joyce
Yeaf,e, Eliot
eouqhr f ,o
reoLore a deep new cenT,er. a new
eenoe of Vur?oee, a newl eenee of deeign, form
and deVth, a new eenee ' of gr imordial or iq in in
m$h,ToetmodernieLe of len eee no reaoon for a
cenLer, lnelead Lhey f avor a decenLering-a ?layof chance, anT, i form, and euf iace. Accordinq Lo
lasean, whereae f ,he imaginaLions of mod'
ernieLe euch ae Joyce, Ticaoeo and El io l were
conslel latr ing around new cent ere, new coherenlgf,ruclureg, 7ogT,mo dernieIg often creat e, com-
?o6e, or ?a in I ent r i re ly by chance-ep i l l inq or ;throwinq painl on canva;eee, randomly deter '
mining the qiLch and duraLion of mueical
noLee in a melody, eeeking Io de-define arf,-
lo create non-arf, or anf,i-arf,. For Haegan,
John Cage ie a Toelmodern compoeer who
advocalee comp oeition by chance-by
e imVly Lurn ing on Lhe microVhonee and
recordinq random, everyday oounds,
.p'.1
l:trf '
. t
7
E lt oll sounds pretty chootic. lt's no wonder thqt we need"mop'mokers," intellectuols to chort the depthless new world
without q center. Who ore some of these "mop-mqkers"?
THE MA?- MAKERgl ^?or tant 7oetmodern Th i nkers
E Jean-Francois Lyof,ard wae born inFrance in 1924 and trauqht in Alqeria,Brazil and California, before becoming
profeeeor of philoeophy aN Ihe Uni-
veroity of Taris in 1968. ln 1985 he
became direct or of the Colleqe lnt erna-
I ional de Thi looophie.
For some 15 yeare he wae associa|,ed
bariem, which, amonq other trhinqe, criNicized
3 ovi eI- elyl e communiem. AlNh o uqh Ly otard
became djs i l lueioned with social iem and
Marxiem ao early as 1964,Vheevente of the studenL revolt
in ?arie, in May of 1968,
confirmed his
unregf,.
with a leflieN qrou? called goaialism or Bar-
Discouroe, figure and dripping wilh deeire. Like
much modern painNinq, dreame
are fragmenf,ed. ln lheir attempV
to make unconocioue matrerial
vieual, dreame dierupt Lhe kind of
l inear awareneee NhaN lanquaqe
requiree. The visu al, f i qure- m akinq
nabure of the unconecioug,Ihou7h
at work within lanquaqe, dioruVte
languaqe, dieruptrs t rhe rat ional
@
Goo
o
ln 1971 we
find him
beginn inq a
Ionq, VoeI-Maxist,
period in
which he is qiven
No th ink inq
about,
:\=^--\\
ft\
,!i/ttt,
Vhi loooVhy, lanquaqe and Nhe arts.
His book Diecouree, figure, ar7uee
with Ihe conceVt, Vut, forAh by
Jacqueo Lacan IhaI lhe uncon-
ecious mind is l ike a language,
lnstead, Lyohard eu4qeots tha|
Ihe unconscious is not so much
like a lan7uaqe ae it ie visual and
f iqural , l ike 6he f iqureo one draws
or Vainte. Languaqe, after all, ie
flat, Lwo dimensional. l l reVreeeeo
desire. Dreamo, on Nhe olher
hand, are vieual , f i7ural , a l ive wi lh
three- dimeneion al dre am fi qureo,
order of lanquaqe,Thie ie becauee
the fiqural naf,ure of Nhe uncon-
ecious ie diff icultr Io reVreeent in
lanquage,
The fiqural reeieNe reVreeentra-
tion in T,he same oenoe f,haN lhe
Holocausl reeist o reVreeentrabion.
At, AuschwiNz lhe Nazis would
drown ouf, the ocreamg of the vic'
t ime in the death cam?o by play-
inq muoic loudly. 7imi lar ly, t o
atlemptr t o reVreeent Auechwif,z
in lanquaqe-t o reduce the
degradaf,ion, deaf,h and et ench
lo a conceVN-drowne outr the
ecreame, Accordinq Lo Lyotard, itr
is therefore neceeaary thal f,he
H olo c ausf, rem aine imm emori al-
Ihat, iN, remaine beinq lhal which
cannot be remembered-but aleo
Ihal which cannot, be forgotten,
Thus, any art, af,lemVling to reV'
reeenl the Holocauet ehould con-
t inue to haunl ue wi lh i te inabr l iNy
No reVreeenN T,he unreVree entable,
to oay f,he uneayable. lf, should
conf, inue No haunt ue with the
feelinq trhaI there ie eomelhinq
Of,her t h an re?reoent alion.
LyoNard offers Ihe examVle of
Vaeaccio'e Trinity, painf,ed on Ihe
walle of 1anf,a Varia Novella, in
Florence, which dieplaye both
medieval and Kenaieeance ele-
menle, 3y alt.emVtinq lo preoenN
trwo imVoooibly differenl eras, Lhe
paintrinq 6eeme T,o eay Ihal f,here
io alwayl an Otrher which cannol
be truly reVreeented.
Anot her examVle Lyotrard
offers is Cezanne'e Mont
9 a i nt-Vi cto i rr- a eimulf, an -
eou6 aI,IemVI Io preoenL
Nwo differenT, modee of
vieion: vieion wif,h a distinct,
focal cenler and vieion which
ie Ver iphera l , d i f fuse, ind ie-
tincN. Aqain, f,wo heteroqe-
neoue elemenf,g.
It r t l
trl Heterogeneous?Tn Yes. Helero'qeneoue rneano
"rnade up of dissimi-
lar elementra,"
ToeLic melaVhor
accom?l iehea the
eame. When I eay "my
love ig a roge" I am
invoking a hef,eroqe-
neou6 difference.
Aft,er all, a rose and
my love may have very
liVlle in common.
Oecauee all f,hese
works of arfi bring our
attention Eo f,he
Ohher, to a radieal
difference, they are
polirical.
The TostmodernCondition
ln 1974, the year
Toetmodern noveliel
Thomae Tynchon'e
Gravityb Rainbow,
won Lhe Naf,ional
Sook Award, "sfreak'
inq" became a fad in
Ihe UniLed SIalee,
lrAama Caee of the
7overnment,. The
repo(D eurveyo the
sf,atrus of science and
f,echnolo6,y, and hae
become oomethinq
thal for lhe past
few decadee eci- Nffi
Klanguaqe, l inquie- i l i l ,
ence hae increas- ((n
ingty inveoNiqaLed N
Lo deaf,h
on a eandwich,
and a )oviet
probe f,ouched down
on Mare, Lyof,ard
qained int ernaf, ional
fame for The Poat-
modern Condition: a
report on knowledge,
an accounl commig-
sioned by lhe Counci l
of Univerei t ies
of lhe Quebec
etoraqe, daf,a banks,
and Vrobleme of
tranelation from one
comput er languaqe T,o
anof,her. He Vro-claimed Nhat, f,'hese
Nechnoloqical chan7eo
would have a major
imVacX on knowledqe.
fhus, in 1974 he
Vredict ed that, no
knowledge wil l eurvive
Ihat cannol be
and etoraqe of infor-
mat ion wi l l no longer
depend on ind iv idua le ,
bul on compuT,ere.
lnformalion will be
produced and eold.
Nalione will
fight for
informaf,ion
lhe way
Ihey ueed to
fight, for Lerri-
fory. lnformaf,ion
wi l l z ip around f ,he
globe aL f,he epeed of
electriciNy, and Veo'ple will try No et eal
it. The role of the
sf,af,e will grow weak-
er. Taking lhe place of
eLalee, huqe mulf, ina-
Nional corporaNione
will dominaNe.
7ul havinq eaid
a l l th ie about ,
Lhe direct ion
of ecienf,ific
knowledqe,
Lyolard adde
lhat, scienhific
knowledge ie noN
lhe only k ind of
knowledqe. Hie
int,ereot, iN Iurno ouf',
is nof, so much in oci-
enlif ic knowledqe and
Ihe scientif ic met'hod,
?er oe, but, in how sci-
enNific knawledge and
melhod leryibimize
lhemeelves-how
they make them-
selvee believable and
f,rusNworIhy, And al
this Voint, Lyotard
makes a disf,inctrion
between ecienlific
talk and narcaT,ive
t alk. Of couree he
doeen'N uge f.,he
word "Nalk," He
u6eo ocienlifrc"digcouroe" and
n a r r af,iv e " di I c a ur g a ."
tranelat ed into com-
Vuter lanquaqe-inf,o
quanlitiee of informa-
Eion. Learning wi l l no
lon7er be aseociaf,ed
wihh hhe lraining of
minde-wiNh leach-
ere f,raininq eluden|,s.
For f,he tranemieeion
t l t t
El Norrotive?In Yee. I will qive you eomeexamplee IhaI LyoLard doee noluee, buL which helV exVlain hief,heory. When membere of theWinnebaqo tribe ei|, around a
fire and hear a chanl of how
Ihe world was created by
thought, or Nhe boshon-
0o, a 1anf,u Iribe, ':.,
chanl how Nhe qod
Dumba vomiled
fofDh lhe Moon :
and ?lare,
or when
the early
JaVaneoe
heard a
chanN
about f,he
formatrion
of Heaven
and EarAh
from a
Trimordial S\Eqq-theyare l isf,en-
inq to narcative, to poVular st o-
riee, mythe, legendo and t ales.
And euch mylhe leqit imize
ih em s elv e e-m ake Nh em e elv e e
believable-juot, in the t ell inq. And
atr Nhe eame T,ime bhey leqitrimize
lhe eociety in which Ihey are lold.
The teller of trhe mfih doee not,
have I,o argue or ?rove,like a sci-
entiet, when he chanNe Ihe otory
of Oumba vomitinq f,he Voon and
the 1f,ars, Verely in VefiorminqLhe myth, in lhe vibrations of 6he
chanT,, the beat,, the rhyT,hm-lhe
6en6e of naf,ural t ime is dieeolved
and Ihe awareneoo oVene t o
mythic l ime: No narcalive time.
Accordinq to Lyot ard, nureery
rhymeo and eome repetitive forme
of cont em?orary music aNIempI
t o enNer Nhe same o?ace of mylh-
ic f, ime.
The chant er of the mfih leqil-
imizes iN eimVly by etatinq:
24
*'He"e is fher^tylh o0 Bvtvv} )a,
Vot tifirtg fhe l.{oonavr| Sfatrg, atS l'Veatlwatys hecrA if
charrfe,A. lwillchar'rf if fo yoh irrr,try fr4vrr. LiSf er\."
He then chants the myth.
When he is finiehed he eaya:
*'He"e enAs fheu'ryfh o* Butr,"rbat.
The u^ath who hatsIcl"l*anfed if lo
yoh iS Pontgo."
The narrat or has authority f,ochant f ,he chanl becauoe he haoheard it chant ed himeelf, Anyonel ie len ing qa ine the oame author i -ly merely by l ietening, lt ie even
claimed IhaI the chanl hae been
chanled forever, thal gumba Him-
eelf wae Ihe firel one t o chanV
r ,he chan t . The mfuh , l he chanLer ,
lhe audience, al l form a kind of
social bond-a social qroup lhal
leqi t imizee i leel f f ,hrouqh the
chantr ing of lhe
mfih.The myf,h
requiree no
authorizaf,ion or
Ieqi t imizatr ion
other /- "v"
lhan
iloelf.
The
mwhdefinee
what hae ttluilWr\
the r ighl \ro be eaid and
\ ' (
done in Nhe cul lure. \7uf , accord inqto t
Lyotard, ecientific die-
couroe ie a differenl kind
of lanquaqe qame I ,han nar-
ral, iv e diec oure e-th an myth.
5 cient i f ic diecouree c annollegit imize iteelf.
t *oand
Lwo
I
)r^{
i ( g
T;;* J,6;1J
Ihe work of the Vhilooopher Ludwiq
WiVLqenef,ein. ln hie early workWittrgenstidn
looked for f,he pertecf,, loqical languaqe
that could of,ale everylhinq wilh clarif,y
and Vrecieion. Any of,her u6e of lan-
quaqe-euch ae tel l ing a joke, reci t ing
poetry, or chanf,inq lhe
mfih of Sumba-he
would have 6een ae
meaninq leee.
7uI lhen he changed h ie mind. He
be6an Lo eee LhaL Lhere are many
differenL languaqe qame6 thaN we
?l ay, F or inetanc e-?r ayinq,
oinqinq, Ie l l inq jokee, qoeeiVinq,
awearinq, makinq a promiee, taking
a vow, Wonouncinq a couple man and wife, f ,e l l inq
a l ie. Science ie a differenf, kind of lanquaqe qame from thaV of mylh,
l l cannot, legil imize i leelf or validat e if,eelf by i le own ?roceduree.ln the lanquaqe qame of ecience f ,he scient ie l makee denola'
Live gf,af,emenl,g rather than myT,hical ones.
t l \ t
El Denototive stotements?In A denotative sLaf,ement ig one ouch as "'Moon'
ie a f,erm trhatr denof,es a material body (oafell i fe)
' which rolaleo and orbita around lhe planel
EarIh wilh a uniform and known eVeed and at'
a defrnile dislance, according f,o known New-
f,onian (or Eineteinian) law6."
Do you meqn to
soy thot NASA
scientists, in
order to legitimize
the moon-shot,
chont the myth
of how Bumbq
vomited the
Moon?In No. Accordinq to
Lyolard, ecience has
deVended upon two
ot.her narcaNives. The
firet ie polif,ical, the
e ec on d, Vhil o o o Vhi c al.
The first, narrative
ecience reliee u?on
in order No leqif,imize
itself ie
qeneralized cribical
inNell e ct-in f a ct, f,h e
very idea of an
intellectual-was
a Vroduct of
lhe Enl iqht -
enmenl, lnlel-
lectuals were
cal led
"'VhiJoooVhers
In France lhey
were called
because
lhe qreat
thinkere
of the
e?4,
men ,such ,onf
a 9
' philoeophee,
where they
enjoyed 6reaf,celebrity and
Vreotiqe, and
do to thio day.
associat'ed wilh the
l9rh century, trhe
Enliqhtenment and the
French Revolution. The
l9th century was also
called the Aqe of Rea'
6on,-in France Le
Sibcle dee Lumibre*
Volr,aire, Rougseau,
buffon, Condi l lac and
DideroV, applied rea-
son to every area of
lif e: reli qion, mor alitry,
polit ice, eocial l i fe,
The idea of a place
in oociety for a kind of
Reject rellgiouo
authorlt'yl Down with
old lhinge like meta-
phyoice, ignorance,
oup erotit ion, int oler-
anae and paroahial-
ism! Let,t'lhe ratlional
faculties of t,lhe mind,
wedded to ecience,
advance knowledge to
ever expanding viotasl
Let reason unloak the
laws of nature and
usher in an ofiimletic
agel Let the praaliaal
disaoverlee of eoience
allow men and women
to get, on with t,he
?ro?er busineee of
eeeking happlneeel
And happineee meano
p olitlical freedo ml Let,
lhe happiness of hu-
manity on earth mean
the libert'ythe liber-
ation of humanity!
All this meano ?rog-reesl Let science and
reaoon bring ?rog-rese and treedoml
Joined to f,his
French poli l ical nar-
rative of freedom is
a German narrative:
Heqel'o VhiloooVhy of
Ihe Unity of all
Knowledqe. For Heqel,
knowledqe played an
essenlial VarL in
the gradual evolu-
t ion of Nhe human
mind from iqnorance
to f,olal being.
both Nhe French
Enliqht enmenf, narra-
l ive and the German
knowledqe narcabive
are what, Lyotard calls
metanarcatives or
grand narrativeo, biqgtories, glorieg of
mythic proVorLione-
thal claim tro be able
to account for, exVlain
and eubordinate all
lesser, l i t t le, local nar-
rat ives.)ome other
melanarralives are
lhe philoooVhiee of
Marxigm or t,he narra-
tive of Chrisl ian salva-
tion. Thus f,he narra-
f,ive of a successful
Mare exVedition in
which a 3" x 3" nano-
rover lande on the
-11O Celsius surface of
lhe Vlanet to qenerate
and tranemit back No
Earth diqit al imaqee
of the Mare-oca?e,-
ie a litlle narcalive
Nhat io Vaft of the biq
ot ory-Nhe met anar-
raiive-of f,he free-
dom, trhe l iberalion of
humanity (French),
and the af,t ainment of
a ?ure, self-conscious
eViri l-the Unity of all
Knowledqe (German).
-J./
So porodoxicolly, science octuolly
depends upon these two grond norrotives
for legitimizotion.
That'e right,. buI lhe Vroblem-accordinq to
Lyotard-ie thal eince World War l l , peoVle no lonqer
believe in Lhese two grand meNanarratrivee. AfLer all,
aVplying science and reaeon Io Lhe conelruclion of qae
chambere and efficienl railroad schedules, Lhe
Nazie exterminaled mi l l ione of human beinqe. Did
theee VeoVle exVerience freedom and l iberaLion?
And did ocience fulf i l l Aegel'e narcaNive ol increaeing
knowledqe? No. For Vhyeice has led ue No Nhe realizabion
lhaf, elec|,rono can f,ravel I,wo differenf, palho Nhrouqh
6?ace eimullaneouely-or ?aee from one orbil No
anolher withoul croeoinq f,he eVace in beNween. A VaradoxlAnd how can we unfold the Unity of all Knowledqe if our
Nhought proceeeee are notr even able tro comVrehend
how Lheee Ihinqe haVVen?
Oecause of disbelief in Nhe meNanarca-
l ives trhat had leqil imized ecience, science
no lonqer playe Nhe role of a hero lhat,
would lead us elowly loward full freedom
and abeolut e knowledqe.
4 f Y '
@ ,u* if scientific reseorch is no longer obout finding Truth-thenwhqt is it obout?
Eqoe6
When ecience encount er6 ?aradoxes, such as the elechron ,r,hat,
oVVooihe directione eimu\,aneouoly, it, abandone iNe search for' decidable truths and eeeks Io legitrimize itself through
performativity. Science otopo aokinq,"What kind ofresearch will unfold the lawe of nature? " and be7ino
aekinq, "What kind of reeearch will work best?"
i- And t o "work be6t" meano "What kind of
research can qenerate more of the eame kind
of reaearch? Can it perform? Can it producemore of the oame kind of research?" 9o ecience
ie no lonqer concerned witrh truth but, wiT,h ?er-f o r m ativiNy-V e rto r mi n q-V r o d u ci n q m o r e of th e
oame kind of research, becauee the more researchyou Vroduce,Ihe more Vroot you Vroduce and the
more you are oeen ao beinq riqht, the more moneyand power you getr.
9o when Veople no lon7er believe in lhe metranarca-l ives trhat,legitrimize ecience, science ie then forced
No leqilimize iloelf-juef, as Ihe myth of Dumbavomitinq the Moon and 7trars leqil imizeo itoelf byitself. bolh science and VeoVle chantinq the bumbachant, can then oay,
\e Ao whatf we Ao,becarhse fhatf's fhe
wary we A,o it"
Then whot's the differencebetween the two, qfter qll?
In The difference, for LyoIard, ie
LhaN where tradil ional eocietiee
are under the eVel l of one domi-
nanN narraf,ive, ouch as the mfuh
of Dumba, TosNmodern oociely ie
a oocief,y in which no one narca-
tive-biq or l i t l le-no one lan-
quaqe qame dominaf,ee, ln Tosl-
modern societrieo many
micronarralives are jammed
toqether. And bhis carnival of nar-
raNivee reVlacee the monoli lhic
?regence of one metanarratrive.
But doesn't this meon the dis-
oppeoronce of our universql
system of meoning? Doesn't
this just creqte q void?
Yes, Dut, thie void ie f i l led in
by ewirling qalaxiee of little eto-
ri e e-l i t t l e mi cr o n arc af, iv e s. T h e
void ie filled in by a kind of et ory-
Iell ing Ihaf, doee noL seek t o
|eqit imize itself Nhrouqh ref erenc e
t o a eingle qrand narcat ive out -
side if,self. For inst ance, a f,eller of
talee in ancientr lndia, ei t r t r inq
under hie banyan tree, would have
Iold Nhousands of etrories-buI
all Ihese e|,oriee would have been
legit imized
by Ihe
qrand Hindu
Nhe liberalion
of the human ',,;r ', .-/
atr your
local
echool,
may tell
a t radi-
t iona l
Eskimo
orh
eoul Ihrouqh
Enl iqhlenment.
ln conf,ragf,,
otory-t eller at, yourlocal bookslore, orvieit ing the chi ldren
'f
,/i
Naf,ive
Ameri '
can
Trick-gT,er
t a le , or
the eNory
of RaVunzel lett inq down her lonq,
qolden hair for a handeome younq
Vrince, or the otory of bumba
vomiNinq f,he Moon and 9t ars-
and f ,el l Nhem al l in one oi l t inq.
Hlqtr
None of Nheee eloriee eeeke leqil imizaf,ion
or Vroof lhrough oome qrand narcalive. Each
definition of ?oef,moderniem ae
in cre dulity tow ard m etan a rrativ e e
conlinuee f,o have great inffuence.
E But isn't[yotord's story obout
disbelief in metonorrotives
just qnother metonorrotive? lsn't he being outhori-
torion obout how there cqn be no quthorities?
In Yee. Lyot ard has been attracked on Nhoee
!'t grounde. ln facL, hie notion trhatr VeoVlehave etoVVed believinq in qrand narcatives be-
cauee euch narrat ivee marqinal ize minor i l iee
7-tilffi;
ffi"
Who ore someother mop-
mokers of the
Postmodern
world?
A eecond infru-
ential Toslmodern
Ihinker is Fredric
Jameeon. As a
Marxigf,, Jamegon
ie int eresf,ed in trhe
relationehiV of rhe
individual to the
world of objecNe,
whether Nhoee ob-
jectre be cans ot
oou? or mul t ina-
l ional corVoratione.
Like mostr Marxietrs,
his refreclions on
Ihie relationehip
alwaye lead back to
hielorical reality.
For inst ance,
leminqway'e ?roeeolyle-hie bare,
Vared-down een'
f,enceg-can deg-
cribe movemenf,
through naf,ure
and ouqqeol ten-
sion and resent -
ment belween hie
macho charactrere.
The ekill of a bull-
f iqhter or t roul
f isherman in Hem-
inqway reffectrs the
American admira-
trion of trechnical
skill-buf, reject e
Ihe way in which
induetrial oociety
alienaleo VeoVle.Thue skill is dis-
Vlayed in leieure
acbivilies, far from
indueNry, uoually
by exVatriatee who
have alienat ed
themselves from
American induslrial
eociety,u?oetmodernlem,
or ihe CulturalLogic of LateCapital ism"
Lyotard celebrateethe mult iVle, incom-
Vatrible, heteroqen-eoue, fraqmenled,
conf,radict ory ahd
ambivalenf, nabure
of Tostmodern 6o-
ciety while Jamesondistrusls and die-likes it,. ln hie falmoue eegay "?opl,-
moderniem: orLhe Cultural Loy' ic
of Latre CaViIal'ieml' Jameeondoes not, see Nhe
-:,{ff
Toetmodern era ae
Voetinduef,rial-aean ebb in the Lide
of caVitral iom,
Ka|,her, he sees iL
ae an int ensif ica-
Nion and lat eel
Vhaoe of a caVifal-
ietr world eyetem,
Jameeon wae
heavi ly infuenced
by Erneel Vandel'e
Late Capitaliem,
which broke down
rhe 19lh and ZONh
centur ies int o
definitre hietori-
cal per iodo.
F IR9T : f rom
17OO r,o 1&5O, the
period of marketr
caVitral iom. Durinq
Lhis era induetrial
caVihal aocumulatr-
ed moetly in
n ahi,b r, :1, Al rn arket s.
SECO N D :
monoVoly caVi t a l -
iem, dur inq lhe age
of imVer ia l iem.
National marketre
ex?anded inI,o world
markat"s. Thou1h
f,haoe mar\els were
baeed in VafricularimVerial nat ion-gNateg, they de-
Vended u?on out-
lying areao for raw
mater iale and
cheap labor,
TH IKD-i'.he Toslmodern VhaeeeruVled on Ihe world ecene wilh the unre-
stricted growVh of multinalional corVora-l ione-euch ae Coca-Cola. Thie is Ihe Vureot, form
of caVilaliom yeI f,o emerqe-invading nature by
deetroyinq the ?re-capilaliet, forme of agricullure-
and invadinq the unconecioue mind by advef i ie inq.
Mandell 'o hiot,ory inepired Jameson lo proclaim
Ihree culNural Veriodo-in each of which a unique
cu\ur al lo gic domin af ,es;
Fiv51- is fhe ^ge o0 Reatlisr,"rThe era of Ihe bourqeoie, hietorical novel.
SeconrA is fhe ^ge o+ HoaevhisuJameson admires moderniem because modernieN culf,ure
ex?reoaed ite dieeaNistact'ion wilh I'he world. Take Edvard
Munch'e VainT,in7 The gcream. For Jameeon it' ie a deeVerate
cry ex?reeeinq Nhe qreaf, modernieV Nhemee of alienaf,ion,
roolleeeneae,lack of identri ly, eoli lude, and eocial fraq-
menf,alion.gimilarly,Van Ooqh'o Vaint' inq Peaoant thoee critr-
icizes an enfire world of peaeanl poverLy and mieery.
Moderniel buildinqe, euch ae Le Corbueier'e "qreat
Vilolio" etrand ouf, ae grand ut'oVian beacons in
briqhl conf,rastr lo the deqraded city our'
roundinq them. They ex?reee a Volir ically
Vaeeionat'e vision of Ut'oVia.
Thiv/' is fhe ^ge oP PosfuroAevnisu,t?oelmodern cult ural f orme reflecI lhe dielocatrion and fraqmen-
t al ion of lanquaqe communit ies-eVl inlered in lo smal l qrouVe-
each o?eakinq "a curious Vrivalelanguaqe of itre own, each profee-
eion develoVinq iIo Vrivat e code or
dialect, and frnally each individual
cominq No be a kind of l inguistic
ieland, oeVaraXed from everyone
el6e" (co 114).
Thue, accordinq tro Jameeon,
?oslmodern cit y - dwellers are
a l ienahed, l iv inq in an ha l luc ina-
f, ion, an exhilaraNinq blur, a reality
evaporatinq inlo mere imageo,
oVect acles, elranqe new warVe in
time and oVace, fixal,ed on com-
moditieg, on Vroducf,o, on imaqee,
like the exVloeion of Andy Warhol'e
poV a(0, on flowe of imaqee et olen
from conoumer cultrure and re?ro-
duced wilh induetrial reVebiIion,
CamVbel l 'e )oup cane, Sr i l lo
boxee, botllee of Coca-Cola, col-
laqee of idenf,ical imaqes of Holly-
wood eNare euch as Marilyn Mon-
roe, all eamenees, all surtace-all
deVthleoaneee. ComVared to Van
Gogh'e Peaaant
thoes, which ex-
?re6eee a real
world of rural
mieery, Warhol'e
Diamond Duet
thoee ex?ree6-
eo a depthleoo-
neee with no link t o any realily:
the collaVee of Nhe distinction
between hiqh cul lure and low cul-
lure; maeeee of oVechaf,,ore aban-
doned f,o a qaze of imaqe
addictr ion: 'N imaqee
etripVed of reality,
leavinq only a 6ur-
face, a gimu-
lacrum, schlock,
kitsch, O movies,
?ul? fic|,ion, adver-
Nioing, motrele,
Keaders Diqeef, cul-
f,ure: Nhe merely deco-
ralive, euV erfi cial, qra -
t uit ous eclecbicism of
7o slm o d ern archit e clure
canniba l iz ing a l l Nhe arch i -
leclural eNylee of the
V aet+ f,h e D on av enlure
lotel in Los Anqelee, a mon-
umenl of Toef,modern archi-
f,eclural eVace.
lile a [ac[ doon! lle entens a postmodenn[ypers[ace! lfe nides eleuatons and escalatonsetennally lloating up and ilown lile 0iant gondo-
' - ' ) t - I
:. -- 1 diny, dnonlnin0 in a [euuildenin0 emptire$$. lle uuants* r- i a mal s0 tlrat he can map ftis way to the extennal uuonldl=:l I:1- i ,; ameeon f eele t'hat, hie dizzineet when f aced wirh ?oet -
) our incaVaci ly to ma? our rela-
rcrld of vael comVut er nef,worke
>ns. Toetmodern theory, too, offere
, ,m of the centerlees poelmodern
I world than a cure.
,wel l known for hie dieT, incl ion
One thinq trhal ToeLmodernily hae
4o. In the aqe of modernity we sLil l' I L ^ t i ^ . , ^ ) t , ^ , - - r ^ ^ - . . t ^ ! ^ ^ L L t - -believed in the eubject-the eqo.
Afr,iete euch ae Heminqway ?oo-eeeeed a unif ied e4o and idenli-
f,y-even if it wae an alienated one,1:-1151: i l : -n . 'l*\J
t',tbtl # And ?oeoeaeinq an identity, Nhey ?oe-
f-'{tis1 eeesed a otyle f,hat could be the oubject-\.r-'.
of Varody-you could make fun of iI by imi-t atrinq il. Every year, for instance, f,here is a
li lerary cont eel in which writ ere imitrale
tt Heminqway's otyle in a humorou; way,
,\lF-.1-i:tH-.
Every year we met at Harryb bar. We drank there. And every year
was a good year. And we sat and drank and imitated Hemingwayb
etyle. And we were good there.i . ,
',,4>( ' oK
7f, < , J
: Af.t t-( , )N +
but Toetmodernity hao fraqmented lanquaqe and T,he oubject-bolh
have become echizoid. Jameaon feele that, parody and ealire are only
Voeoible in an era af healthy l inquietic normaliNy.rI t \ t
lll You meon like in Gulliver's Trqvels, Jonothqn Swift wds oble to sot-irize the qbnormql longuoge of scientific reoson becouse everyoneknew what normol speech wqs like?
Ilfl Yee, Dut,in the ToeNmodern aqe,rhere ie no linquiot.ic normaliLy.Thue we can only Vroduce paotiche-lke an impereonaNor who ran-
domly et,arls ouN imVersonaling boqarr, and Nhen swirchee, in themiddle of hie l ine,f,o Marilyn Monroe, and rhen No Doy Georqe orJamee Dean, and f 'hen to Konald Keagan.ln Vaetiche Lhere io only Ihieomorqaebord of quot arione-like a dozen different, movie and M'Wvideoe and televieion ehowe eVliced randomly toqether.
As a Varxisl who believee trhat, the world is run by hieloricalforces, Jameson'e bigqeet 7ripe aboul the ?oslmodern era is lhal it
eignalo Lhe end of a qenuine awareneoe of hiehory. bu| Jamesonfeels that an awarenee; of history i6 Vrecieely what we
now need to Viece Ioqether our ehaf,Nered ?oef,-
modern lanqua7e and eelvee, which,l ike HumVly
DumVLy, have become' fragmented, Itr ie whal we need to unify lhe
p aoI- Vreeenl-fulure of trhe eenNence-t o
unify our ?oychee and our l ives.
What we need is whal Jameeon cal le an"aesthetia of cognitive mapping" No repre-
eent our imaqinary relationehip Lo realiLy, What
we need, accordinq to Jameeon, i6 Marxism-a eci-
ence f,haf, can f,,el l whaV ie imaqinary and what ie
real-Nhal can recover lrue historical conecioueneol
and normalcy.
I
7 ' tJP
(t
pl rut wouldn't Lyotord soy thqt Morxism isq metonorrotive?
I
l) Yeo. And 60 you can oee Ihat nol all
Tostmodernists aqree. ln fact,, Jameson
eeeme overcome by T,he ffow of imaqee
in the Toetmodern media-but,
our nexL "ma?-maker," Jeangaudril lard, oeems Io euq-
qeet, a kind of paooive
eurrender f,o this ffow.
and the Death of vhe Real
You arve wiveA. -I1ne gatssive vichu'r oS
-fl.1, cou,rgullv, auA 42Y4vtiS-
irrg. Yoq awe hygrrofizeA by
the lhbe, by fhe obsce\e
€low oP iu,ratges. )orr ratise
You{v eYelias. A Varu,rgirs53
is krreelirrg ovev yoq-volug-
h^ously-fhe muscles oP he"
rrecl., fhe ivory cqwe o€ he" shoql/ets, illramirre/
as i€ by cool moonlight She lic\cs he' scar"let ligs liLe
ath arhiu arl, gla:ilng fhem with at shee\ o€ u,roisft^v€,hev eugovgeA
forrgrae glistertirrg 45 if laqs fhe whife feefh. She leatrrs close",
€eel her cool breo*h, fherr the shat"Phess o* ihcisors Peh-
etvarlirrg yotar treck. Yoq close yoqv eyes ih at latrrgtrotor,ts
ecsfatsy atrrA watiFwatif wifh beatfirtg heatrt
This, accordinq tro t'he imaqery of ToeNmodern t'heorist Jeangaudril lard, is eimilar to eociely'e relaNionehip No trhe world
of maee media, adve(bisinq, Lelevieion, newo?a?ero,
maqazines. The era of maoe communicat' ione
invades our darkened roome, embracinq ue
with if,s cool,lunar l iqhl, ?enetrabinAinNo our mooT, ?rivale receggeo, We
auccumb to the fatal af,Nracl.,ion,
^urrenderinq ourselvee in an ecelaoy
of communicat ion.
The trhought of Jean Dau-
drillard ie parl of a New Wave
of French theory lhat
broke on American
ehores in the'7O9, 'BOs
and '9Oe-replacinq
Nhe trenry over
former waveo
dominaled Wpoet -World War ll
f iquree such as
)a(Dre. Just ae
Nietzeche once
Vroelaimed the
Oeabh of God,
baudril lard's
Nhouqht declares
I,he death of
modernity, the
death of the
real, and the
death of eex.
Oaudril lard
underminee deep
foundations of
thouqhi in dieci-
Vl inee such as
Marxism, eemi-
otice, polit,ical
eci ence, economice, reliqiouo
eNudies, anthrop olo qy, liher alure,
film and media etudies-to
name juol a few.
ln Vay of 1968-while mini-
skirt-clad American
women were cele-
bralinq No 7ra Day
by burninq Nheir
undies, while American
, hi?Vieo were triVVinq
No " TurVle H aze l"' V ellow
Yellow," and "Mrg. Kobin-
oonn-Tarieian youlh,
backed by Communiste and
other Marxiste, took f,o Ihe
etreets in a defianI and jubilant,
mo o d, cre at inq oomelhinq
betrween a carnival and a
revoluNion. Tariei an univ erei -
f,ies were eventually ohut
down by the studenl
eNrike, and factory
workere followed
suit. Troduction
and educabion
came lo a hall,
Under the threatr
of a radical over-
throw of the oyo-
Nem, de Gaul le
left, fhe countrry.
Oy June, however, if, wag oummer
vacabion l ime, turning the would-
be studenl revolul,ionaries inlo
beachqoers. The workers, encour-
a7ed by de Gaulle,
relurned No trheir
jobe-and thinqe
were eoon back
No normal.
Nevet'Vhelees,
the mags conla-
gion of Nhe move-
ment left deep
imVreeeione on
oome of the partic-
continue tro beinffuenced byMarxiet, thouqhl,but, would feelincreaeinqly that
Marxisf, Vhiloeo-phy ie ineuffrcienl
No exVlain life in
lat e caVitaliet
societiee. 9o he
beqan lookinq also
to gf,ructuraligm
and eemiolice t o
ouVVIemenL
Marxiem,
lEl Structurolism? Semiotics?Tfil Yee, AN the eame time ae
the etrudenf, uVrieinq, revolu-
de )aueeure arqued that mean-
inq in lanquaqe ie nof, Vroducedby a colleclion of sounds
1ausgure, there is
no natural corre-
eVondence betrween
Nhe "oound" horge, lhe
concept "hor6e" and ahoree. Katrher, he Nheorized,
Ianguage ie a eyelem of differ-
encee, eomebhing like Ihe red,
yellow and qreen
l iqhto in a
traff ic eignal.
;I
N L ^I ITL '
g
o
o
). Iionary evenf,s were laking
) place in Lhe eLudy of lan-
ipanT,o. One of theee Owae Jean gau-
Idrillard, who, for
#manyyeare to i Icome, would ei'ill
I)
)
).\\\',\ \
't\N".t\. \
',\\\ . .
t1,o fu ct?z?p-
4for"ab-.* (u-
6tern f"t ooh,
re ^"a(f.*ootae'Ff,'ho.'
The red, yellow and
qreen l iqhle qain their
meaninqe only in relatr ion-
ehiV No each oNher. A eye-
lem of purple, blue and qold
l iqhto would work jueL ae wel l .
9 emioNics exf,ended 3 aue-
eure' e l inguiet ic et rucNuraliem intro
obher realme: mfuh,faehion, f 'he
media, Volitr ice, reliqion, elc, The Ierm"Devi l" for inghance, hag no meaninq
by i leelf. l I only lakes on meaninq
ag an elemenl in a eyet'em ol
*Q.r',,et
ri.
Chrieli an Nh e olo qy / myt h,
where "devil" ig relaied lo
other concepts such as
"Godr" "Anqel," eIc, , ',
Earfy Writinge
)emiotice ie the slrucluraliet eNudy of various oyeteme of
meaning, l ike myT,he, f,raff ic oiqnalo, lanquaqe, fashion, eNc. Dau-
dri l lard's works combine a eemioNic, eNrucburalisl, etrudy of cullure
with a neo-Marxist analyoio. For insNance, in his early works-The
)yetem of )bjects, The )ociety of Consumption and For a Cri-
tique of the Tolitical Economy of the )ign-Saudrillard arque;
that, juot, a6 a younq boy who qrowe u? amonq wolvee
. becomeo wolflike, Veople in Toetmodern eocieLy, qrowinq
up in a world of objects-become more objecllike.
.i Thouqh Tostrmodern oocietry ie based on Nhe con-
oumpbion of commodities-on buyinq and uoinq
thinqo-Ihis coneumVtion can never make uo happy.
lEl But don't commodities sotisfy our noturol needs?
. \
This ie not, what, Marx believed. For Varx, an
objectr, before if, ie a commodity, hae a natural
use value. A car is ueeful because iN io Vlea-eurable to drive-becauee it lete you feel
Nhe voluptuoue curvalure of the earth-
\ and becauee if, traneVoflo you to vari-
oue Vlacee.
t (
Dt { \\\\
' ( \ t
\-/-'
However, ltrlarx aleo believed T,hat, examVle, he ie buying int o a
in a caViLaliet eociety an objec| whole syef'em of neede lhaL ie
becomee a commodivy and I,akes aT, once rat' ional, homoqeneouo,
an an exchange value. The car eyef,emalic and hierarchical. The
can be exchan4ed for money. Dul purchaoe of f 'he Mercedee dif-
Saudril lard eaw Ihie Marxiel terenliat eo Lhe buyer eocially
aeoeoementr of an object ae too from VeoVle who drive Volkswa-
l imi t iny , and euVVlemented i r - 6ene, and Lh ie ?ur -wilh a semiotic analyeio- ,nffiY'4 -- '-r) chase helVe
^$ . . --1--i-;an analyeie of Lhe /gn
- .. ' j tRf>*- inLegrale
meaninq o f the F ! hinr, oyef,em-
objecl. For, l ike f,raf- j , . ' , . , . i Vf\( l M y arical ly and
ficlishre,com- ffi-Wfigtffibffit' rafionallv,moditiee have Z \H
' '* i;..;.-y I,N, into a homo-
mean inae , l n l h ie \ qeneoue level
moditiee donr i'2ilh,' *ffi bvet of eociery(
1ueIea| ie fynaf 'u r . ,4 / ' , ' l t ' , ' . . ' l so . f f i tW. 'N. - inwhichevery .al needs-rathe. $ ,, ,ir*dffiffiffillii I
','N\ \ __ one driveo a
eocietry crear,ee our dtNi, : ffifllii;1i,, r.\,, $i$'- Mercedee.
neede. lluman ffi *NN$ffi. Thue, for \au-
beinqo, afLer all, '\\lrr \-*- 6-'
ffi drillard, lxrlarx did
have a deeV desire Lo dietrin-
guieh themeelvee from oLher
human beinqe throuqh oyotemo
of oocial difrerent'iat'ion. For
members of tr ibal cultures
Nheee differenceo miqhtr be oig-
naled by rhe uee of certain
f,at,to o g o r f e at'h erg.
Oul in our eocief,y, when a
conourner buyo a Mercedes
inet ead of a Volkowagen, tor
not, recoqnize the eymbolic,
eemiof.,ic aopect' of f,'he objecl-
Ihe factr thal when you buy a
Mercedee if, eiqnif iee eomet,hinq,
The Merc&des, beeidee havinq a
use value, gerveo ae a eiqn of
lhe consumer'; Vreoliqe, rank,
and eocial elandin7. Thue con-
eumVtion ie noL iuet conoum7-
f, ion but ' conoVicuoue coneum?-
lion, We dieplay whaL we buy,
cona?icuouoly, in order Io differ-
ent i atre ours elv ee oo cially.
And you can'tr buy juol one
object in order t o enNer a eocial
level, you need No buy into an
entire eyolem \:::--
of object e. Thue -\-
--.-----:>.-
when you are Vickinq out, your
Mercedeo, you also need tro ohop
for a T,ennig club, an egt,af,e in an
exclueive neiqhborhood, a qood
Vrivat e echool for your children, a
faehionable vacaT,ion epof,, etc, A
need, lhen, ig not, go much a
need for a Vafticular object, as it
is a need Io disl"linguieh oneeelf
eocially, a need for social differ-
ence and meaning,
NeiLher is coneumption
Vrimarily for pleaoure-for il
requireo immense reaourcee and
enerqy. A Vereon muoT, earn trhemoney and leieure trime tro obtain
the Mercedee and ehow it off,The effoft required t o do lhieof-f,en demande Nhe denial of
Vleaeure. ConeumVNion, lhen, ienot natural-somelhinq we aut,o-matically inherit from nature-
butr cul lural , The coneumVtion,
dioVlay and uee of objecte takee
place on Nhe baeie of cullural
codes thaN demand we conform
by ceaoeleoely buy-
ing inlo f,he lalest'
fads and trends.
Theee codee are
juot like the
rulee of
4rammarthat, underlie
a lanquaqe-
makinq com-
munical ion
Voeeible. The
codee organize
commoditriee intro hier-
archical eyelemo of meaning
baeed on Vrice and preotiqe, This
Iir ing feedinq frenzy of coneump-
lion, this search for beinq, mean-
inq and Vreetiqe trhrough con-eumVtion, cauoeo fatique andal ienat ion in the heroee of con-eumVbion. Always latentr in con-
eumVt ion, Ihen, lurks a eVi r i t o f
rebell ion. Coneumers reach a
Voint, of refusal-they qeI feduV and end up burninq their braeor eruVtinq inlo more radical
forme of eocial change.
a IttNKt, fi€REFoRr L rMl
'The Ordere of9imulacra"
Ourinq rhe 197Oe
and 19BOe bau-
dri l lard et oVVed em'
Vhaoizinq hio Marxist
leaninqo and was
heralded as the
moef, advanced the-
orief, of media and
eociety in f,he ?oetr-
modern era,
Tostrmodern soci-
elies, dominaled by
comVut ers and f,ele'
vision, have moved
inNo a new realif,y,
which he out l inee
in "The Orders
of j imulacra."
Simulqcrq?
Isimulocro,plurol;simulocrum,
singulorl
Yee. For Dau-
dr i l lard simulacra are
coViee of real ob-
jecto or eventg. ln"The Ordere of Simu-
lacral ' he deecribee
how Nhe relaNionehiV
be|,ween trhe real and
lhe simulacrum hae
chanqed Nhrouqh hio-
tory.Durin7 Nhe feu-
dal era, when Guin-
evere; blew kisses
from the ramVafie
of castrlee to Lance'
lote in ehininq armor,
when the feudal lord
wae Nhe oymbol of
eafthly auNhorily,
and trhe Virqin Mary
i l lumined the etained
qlaee windowe and
the hearf,s of her
devof,eee, oociely
wae orqanized by
a relaf , ionehiV to
a eyetrem of fixed
eiqne, which
were l imited in
number and eu? -
Voeedly div ine.
For insLance, we
can read in Lance-
lol 's coal of arms
hie eoc ia l rank and
elalus. The eocial
elalue
of trhe
Vrinceee blowinq
kiseee from trhe
ram?arLe, ie eiq-
nif ied by her
dreee and by her
adherence to f,he
convenNione of
courT,ly love. And, of
cour6e, a l l thege
codee of behavior
and dreee are div ine-
Iy eancLioned by f,he
eymbole of lv1ary and
of Jeeue eh in ina
eerenely aI the Iop
of the hierarchy of
eymbole-throuqh
ola ined g laeo
windowe.
ln euch eocieLiee
one ie aee iqned to
a fixed social e?ace,
like a caeLe, and
mobil ity belween
eocial c laeeee or
caef,es is imoooeible.
A serf, Iaboring in
the fielda, could not
become a knight.
\t
@
ffi '
w@
":0
Then, in Nhe
Veriod of early
modernily, from
lhe Renaieeance
f,o trhe beqinninq of
Ihe lndueNrial Rav-
oluNion,Ihe r iq id order of
lhe feudal era broke down
due t o Lhe r ise of the
bourgeoieie.
Durinq the medieval
period Nhe world wae creaf,ed
in f,he imaqe of God. but, in
lhe era of early modernif,y,
imaqeo, oigne and eymbols
were not divine buI atif icial
and Vroliferaled in the fielde of
theaf,er, fashion, aft and Voli-t r ice ae lhe new r ie inq claee
af,NemVt ed No creahe f'he
world in iNe own image.
" o For baudril lard, a
eymbol of thie aqe
wae Camil le Kenault , an old
cook, Nurned eculVNor, who l ived in
the Ardenneo and discovered lhe
p ert ecf, subsNance f or repro ducing
lhe world in hie own imaqe-Kein'
forced Concrete. From thie he
fashioned chaire, drawero,
oewinq machineo, an ent' ire
orch est ra, includinq viol ine,
oheeV, a hoq, Nrees. Accord-
ing to Daudri l lard, Renault '
6d,
ruled like a qod over hio pertect,
world made Voeoible by con-
cref,e-which for him wae like a
ment al subst ance, 7lucco aleo
emerqed in Ihis Veriod a6 a medi-
um of baroque aft,, and qave riee
lo gaudril lard'e eu?reme examVle
of thie aqe-Nhe 7Iucco Anqel. l t
was orlly one more oteVto Vlaolic.
DUN simulacra molded of etuc'
co, concrele (and latrer Vlaelic),Ihouqh counf,erteif,, Vroduced a
new world of torms made of a
d e alhl e s s, fr exibl e, in d e s|'r u clibl e
mat erial. 1audril lard eeee Ihis
olaqe of the simulacrum as f ,he
beqinninq otraqe of
lhe s imulacrum-
Nhe FireL Order
of j imulacra,
The Second Order of Simu-
lacra a??eare wiLh f,he advenl of
Ihe lndue l r ia l Ravo lu l ion, The e im-
ulacra now become infinit ely re?ro-
duc ib le lh rouqh indue l r ia l maez
producl ion. Whereao Camil le Ken-
aul l molded hie ar l i f ic ia l world by
hand, in the induef,r ia l era mecn-
anized meane of maee aoeembly
and producf,ion enable a Kenault
aulomobile facf,ory to Nurn ouf,
maeoee of exacf, replicae of care.
When gholograVhy and cinema
arrive on trhe ocene, even arl ouc-
cumbe t o the force of mechanical
rep ro d u cLi on, Kep ro du cti on i e
governed by markel forcee, which
now become lhe dominanf, Vr in 'c iVle-reVlacinq Lhe world of nat-
ural objecle.
7uL, accordinq to Saudri l lard,
we are now in lhe Third )rder of
) imulacra-the era of ToeImod-
ernity-lhe era of models. No
lonqer is t rhe s imulacrum a coun-
LertdL l ike Camille KanaulL'o
concreLe hog, or an i$finite eeriee,
I ike aulomobilee rol l i r lq off the
aeoembly l ine-bul i
IHt 5|I,l |JLfl[HlJlil,.-'H[[ill't t5
fiifft4{T tT"'$rLFl i!gr'g'rF_g
',
'l
The Vreoidinq ?ower in trhisera is Nhe model or the code."Diqilality ie iVe mef,aVhyei-
menf . a commodi -
t y , aVo l l , a t , e l ev i -
s i on ? roq ram, a
newo issue or a ?o-l i t i c a l c an d ida le ,
our re6?on6e ie
monit ored,
HEl You meon like:"Are you wotch ingdoytime TV or not?Are you buying Pepsi orCoke? Are you for con'didqte X or Y? Are you
weqr ing Co lv in K le inor Jordoche?'Tn Exactly. And such
LesIs nof, only regtrricL
ca lV r i nc i p l e . . . and
DNA ie i ts
? rophe t , "('tu 63-04).
Juet ' as lan-
quaqe ie qov-
erned by Ihe"code" of qrammar
and ou r b io loq i ca l
?roce?oeo are con-
trolled by the DNA code,
our cu\ural l i fe ie baeed
on a variety of codee;
we have oex videos,
yoqa videos, how't o
adv efi, isin q, t el evieion
and newe?a?ers t ro
provide Nhese codes.
Theee codes not,
o n l y V rov ide mo d '
els buf, also conf,in-
ually lest' ue. Every
time we reepond
"yeo" or "no" t'o
a f ash ion , an
adve r l i se -
manualg, cookbookg, our reg?oneeo to "yeo"
exercige videog, ?ar- or"no" buN algo determine
en t r i nq manua le , ou r op l i one , l im i l i nq the
very eco?e of the issuee
and lhin7e we may choose
f rom, Thus ou r l i vee a re
cont rolled by a oyot em of
b ina ry requ la | i on -where
trhe queof,ionlanewer oVf ion
of the Ies t ' has been re-
duced No an eilherlor binary
code:
This oyoT'em of binary choices acf'g ao a "deher-
rence modell' which eu??reoses radical chanqe'
pl w.tl, I con see how thqt would hoppen. After
qll, if we feel we hove o choice between Pepsi ond
Coke, between the Soops qnd the Discovery Chon'
nel, between o Republicon ond q Democrot,
between Sociolism ond Copitolism-oll ruled by
o binory, either/ot4l1-logic-then whqt more
do we need?;H For baudrillard t'he Nwin f,owere of Ihe
New York World Trade Cent,er eymbolize t'his
binary eyeNem. While the olher ekyecra?ere,
bui l l decades ear l ier , are oinqular and com-
pele aqqreaoively for af,tent'ion, Nhe t'wo
t owere strand lor lhe "clo6ure of Ihe oyg-
Lem in a verhiqo of duVlicalion" lotutb6-T).
Thue, everylhing becomes reduced
to cybernetice-t o a binary code thaLgeeme f,o reVreeenN differencee but,
which, in realiNy, only perpetuateo
Ihie oelf-requlalinq, binary eyolem,
which only minimizes differenceo ae
iN Noqqles back and fofth belween"yeo" or "nol' TeVei or Coke, KeVub-
lican or Democral.
-_::+
EEE
To me it seems like the fifmJurassic park.
How'o Nhat?
Becouse JurassicPark is obout peo-ple either possively
occepting or refusingto buy into being pos-sive observers of ospectocufor, monstrousworld of simulocro, of copies,generoted od infinitum bymeons of codes.
Thal'e bri l l iantl butr you muet,
aleo realize NhaI your very exam-
ple,lhe film Juraeeic Fark, ie
it self a monetrouo simulacra
qeneraNed ad infinif,um via a
code. buI accordinq to 7au-
dr i l lard, VeoVle inculburat ed
int o Toslmodern eociety are 60
surrounded by simulacra Nhey no
lonqer have a choice, Consider the
caoe of Joe Tlayer, an 17-year-old
behind the wheel of a car, He is on
a narrow mounLain road. He is
Vaeeing another car on a curve.
He is doinq 22O, too f ast to
evade Nhe oncominq truck thal
oeemo No leaV Noward him. Heslams on the brakes. He ekide.Crashl The Nwo vehiclee go up in a
burst of f lame.
A eecond
laNer the craeh
evaporalee.
Joe Tlayer'e
\ r ,
ntt
tir
car rea??eare unecathed, He
Foore it,, racing lo Vaeoanother car juetr ahead
of him, Joe Tlayer is ?lay-inq a video qame. When he
rune ouI of qua(bers he qoeo ]out, into Ihe Varkinq lof', into hio gx
real car, buI, ae he pul le out ' inf ,o\
Lraffic, iI doesn'L, eeem real. Nor
do Nhe care on lhe road, He feels
IhaI if he ran int o them he would
juel ea| them like Me. Tacman
eaNs dobs. Joe ?layer is eurfinq
the s imulacrum.
Oriqinally ei rn ula c?urn, accord-
inq tro ?laNo, ie Nhe false copU
that overshadows our expertence
of bhe essential and ldeal Forme.
A cocker opaniel, a German ohep-
herd, or a coll ie, for ineNance,
would be, in ?latro'e VhiloeoVhy,imVure coVieo of a univereal and
ldeal Eeeence of Doqgineea,
7ut in Saudrillard'a view, Toel-
modernity hae ovefr,,hrown Nhe
very concepl of true co?y. And
Ihis hao hapVened in ef,aqee.
lmagine f,he exVerience of a
Chrietian nun in medieval EuroVe.
the worehipo an icon of the
Madonna. The icon reffecle a
divine feminine realiNy. The icon is
a qood, Lrue copy because it is so
close tro the original lhat, in her
meditatione Nhe nun awakene l,o
Nhe eViritual ?reoence behind the
form, the could be cal led an idol-
ater-a worohiVer of an idol.
1uT' trhe iconoclasN seee thinqo differenNly. )he doeo not, feel NhaNimaqee reveal divinily, but mask and perve(D Nhe divine. Therefore, euch
imageo are evil, bad coVies, and ehould be deslroyed.
A f'hird ?ero?ect.ive is that of the ekeVIic. He feels Nhat the wholet'hinq ie a farce. The icon of Ihe Madonna only hides trhe factr lhatt.here ie no divine being-hidee bhe abeence of a divine beinq.
Finally, t 'here ie a foufth pereVective, ln Nhe ToeNmodern era, icone,
imaqee, copiee-simulabione-bear no reaemblance f,o any realiry, ln
factr, the eimulation, the simulacrum, the oopy, beoomee the real!
You meon like there ore o million copies not of the Modonno-but of
Modonno-which become more reol thon Mqdonno the person?
Holy Writ which they, like, wrote down, were only theouter expressions of a, like, deep fntcrcou?le theywere having with the mystical Word that illumined their,like, players. But of course, all these, like, prayers wete,fike domfnatcd, by a single image-that of the Holy,like, Virgin, the, like, Madonna.
Today, of course, it is not like, the Madonna whodominates, but, like, Madonna.like.flc! Today it is like,my image that undulates forevetmore, leploducing, like,infinitely, like, there are millions of me and like, and mil.lions of my like belly buttons, like, bouncing back andforth before everyone's vision as if trying to like,decide between am I like a like Virgin or like a likeWhore, in a like, erotic stream of images that MTVviewers, like, edit with like, Beavis and Butthead binarybrains: they like think that my image, the image ol mylike, belly button, is either like, "cool" or like "sucks."It is the image of my belly button, not my belly button,which has become the reaa.,
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,,lilllll1Tn Daudril lard emVhaeizee his
nl nol wilh hio belly buIIon bul wit'hIhe001I
frorqeo tale in which t 'he cart 'o7raphero
of an emVire draw u? a ma? eo
det ailed bhat it, ende uV coverinq
f,he Nerritory. ln coverinq u? f'he ber-
ri|,ory, il is t aken for f,he real. For bau-
drillard one of lhe charact eriet'ice of Tost'modern eocie|y ie
Nhat we are all similarly entranced by ourfing the eimulacra.
ln lhe universe of Hollywood, Top ArL,'N, cyberbliNz, and
the dazzlinq eVecLacle of t 'he mediaecaVe-siqne and
imaqeo no lonqer bear any corceeVondence lo t 'he
"real" world-bul creale Iheir own
hVperrealiNy-an order of represenrafion lhat is<-- !
noI lhe unreal, buN hao roplaced'real iLy' and is
more than real, more real than real,F o r D au dri l l ard, ente(bainment'
Varko such as
Enchanled Vil lage,
Magic Mou nt a in, Mar i
World, and eoVecial ly Disn
land, wilh iNe Tirat',ee, ite Fron
f,ier, its Fulure World, its Tomgawyer'e leland, are the pertect exa
Vlee of rhe hyVerceal. Theee hyVerreal
worlde are ?reeented ae imaqinary only
lead ue to believe Ihat, the lAOf, of Loe Anq
and America are (a21. gut lhey are nol. They too
hy V err e d-p ur e eimul a cr um.
Los Angeles is enoircledby theoe "imaginary sta-
tions" which feed reality,
reality energy, to a town
whoee myot,ery io precisely /that it, is nothing more than anetwork of endleso, unreal circula-tion,-a town of fabulous ?ro?ortiono,but,without e?ace or dimensione, As muchas eleatrical and nuclear ?ower gtationg, aomuah a film etudlos, this town, which is nothingmore than an immenae ocript, and a ?er?etualmol ion machine, needs thie old imaginary makeupof childhood oignals and faked phantasms for itssympalhet'ic nervouo oyetem (?lM 26).
t /I
I
What Saudril lard calle lhe
Oeath of the Real arouaes noe-
lalgic aNtempte No reaurrect the
real, Saudrillard eees Wahergale
ao one such attemVt, For parad-
inq Nhe ecandalouo i l leqal i t ies of
Nhe N ixo n adminiehraf,ian imVlieo,
f aloely, f,hat Nhesa affronNe f,o
demacracy re?reeenV a deviation
from lhe norm-and lhal t:he
eyeLem of governmenl in general
reeVecls law and morality.
The Death of the Real also
ineViree a VroliferaT,ion of mytho
of origin. Thus, in 1971, the qov-
ernmenf, of the Thil iVVines re-silu-
at ed a emall tribe of Taeaday
lndians l . ,o their or i7 inal junqle
home. Here, accordinq Io the
qovernffient'o ethnologigt o, f,he
tribe could l ive uncorcup\ed by civ-
i l izaf,ion, 3 au dri l l ard ar6u ee, how -
ever, that in removing the Taeaday
f rom m o d ern civilizaNi on, et hnol o qy
eimulT,aneouely ignoreo the real
Taeaday-who wanf, No remain
l iv ing amonq'Ws and care-and
creaf,e a mere model, a simu-
lacrum of whal an "ori4inal"
pre- civilized t rib e " ehould"
look l ike-
before
ethnologyl
FFtH
$
In other words, this repre-
sentotion of whqt q tribe
should look like wos ceqted
only by ethnology?
@ rru. And rhis aT,NemVN Noregurrect, the real, the oriqinal,
has also t aken Vlace at lhe
caveo of Lascaux in soulhern
France, lt, wae here, durinq the
clooinq mi l lennia of the laetr
Glacial Aqe, lhatr teeminq herde
of maqnif icenl qrazinq animals
Vaeeed in waves acroee trhe
vastr Voet- qlacial landeca?e,
occaeionally fall in7 ?rey to Nhe
hunt inq trr ibee IhaI deVended
u?on Ihe herde for Nheir eub-
eielence. And iI wae here, in
Ihe subtrercanean caveo, thaT,
primitive art, iste Vainf,ed ma7-
nif icenl formg, bison, marn-
mof,hg, rhinoceroeeo.
Yet f,oday 5OO mef,ere from
f,he oriqinal cave6-an exacl
reVlica of the cavee hae been
created in order to Vreoerve lhe
oriqinal. l t, hae become more real
than the real cave. And in the
oame way, modern science
recently hao geared up Lo eave
trhe mumrry of Rameee ll.
Thus, with the Death of f,he
Keal, the hyperceal trakee over*
Dieneyland, The Taoaday, Wafer'
qaf,e, the Lascaux gimulacrum-
more real f,han the real ibeelf.
And wilh hy?erreality all Nhe
V oNentri al ly V olit i c al, exVlo 6iv e,
Volar anlaqonisme Ihat had
inhabi led and animaled Lhe
Real collaVee int o one anot'h-
er-implod* eoV eci ally in f,h e
Vol i t ical realml
E con you give meon exomple?
E suppose o bomb goes off' somewhere-Vilnius, Poris, Adis Abobo.BOng!! smoke blossoming obove on ort
museum, o grovernment building, or perhops on'
oir terminol. Rippling woves of the explosion suffocotingdeoth screqms. Splots of humon flesh, flying in concert withfrogments of reclining nudes ond peoceful ttolion londscopes,or government documents, or perhops oirline tickets-coh-vulsing sposmodicolly omid flowerings of brick or morble
dust ond spent plostique, bits of eyeballs, somewhotbloodshot, chosing shreds of newspoper or otom-
ized droplets of espresso, frogments of onElvis CD, oll whirl igiging in qbsurd,
blind circles, perverse orbits,surging kqleidoscopi-
E who did it?I#H Thatle juet the queetion Saudrillard aeke. LeftieI ex1remisld
KiqhI-winq ekinheade? Cenlriste seekinq lo diecredit, Nhe exf,remee? 3
Corrupt Volice aVVealinq Lo the public need for eecurily? The answer(e),
eaye Daudrillard, have nothing t'o do wiih the facts. All Ihe media
ree?onoes and inlerVreNalione are already preVroqrammed and all
orbit,, whirl iqiqing, in absurd, ?erverge, naueeoue circleo, orbit ' ing
around trhe mereeV f acV-accordin7 No eelabliehed codee or modele.
"9imulation ie charact'erized W a
?receooion of the model, of all mod'ele around the meregt fact'-t'hemodels come first, and t'heirorbital (like the bomb) circulation
aonetit'utes the genuine magnetia field of evente.Facte no longer have any trajectory of t'heir own, they
ariee at the intereection of the models; a eingle fact' mayeven be engendered by all the models at onae. Thie antici-pation, this ?receesion, thie short-circuit (no more diver-gence of meaning, no more dlalectical polarity, no morenegative electricity or implosion of polee) ie what eachtime allows for all lhe poooible interpretatione, eventhe most contradictory-all are true, in the oenee
that their truth is exchangeable, in the image ofmodele from whiah t"hey proaeed, ln a
generalized cycle" (alu 32),
Thus, f ormer ant aqonisyrlo, Volari f , ies,curve back u?on their oVVoeif,ee, intrermin-ql inq l ike t rhe curv inq eVira lo of a Mobiuset r ip cut, in half and trhen cuf, in half aqainand aqain and aqain-epinning ouf , oVira l inggalaxiee of re?reeent,a l ion; of evenf ,e,
Voeit ive and neqalive, real and eimulacrum,imVloding inwarde t o a Voint, of abeoluteabeorVtion-where trhe difference belweenrea l and e imula t ion d isa?? ears- imVlodeeinf,o nothinq.
ln the hyVerceal trhere is no realiry behindIhis qeneral ized, neulral ized and neut eredfrow of codeo, aimulat ione and eimulacra, lnhyVerceal l ty the model, the code come6fireV. AuI it is invisible-one eeeo only itse imula l ions- idenf , ic a l ehoVVinq mal le f i l ledwith idenT, ical televis ion imaqeo, medicinee,l iVotrick, brae, condoffie, foods, furniture,imaqee of Madonna'e belly butlon,
tL,&;
Like the Deavia andAuIIhead epieode in which
'tT
the two, watchinq TV, watch :'i'*1
Lhe cope break in trhe door and '.,'r
bust them-live!-but lr,hey are Loo'"",qlued No lhe tube No realize Ihat, i Iio Ihey,lhemselvee, that are beingbueted-that the whole trhinq ietakinq Vlace l ive-IhaV the cope andNhe camera have bueNed inho Iheir livinqroom. Life has become TV and W, life.W watchea us, and we watch TV watch-ing over us, It watrchee over us likewhir l iq iqs of DNA, orbi t ing around u6, yov-erning the mutaNione of Nhe real into trhehyperreal . ry and l i fe, real and hyperceal,c o nT,r a cL, c oll a V s e, T,el e e c o ? e, i mVl o d e i ntoe imulab ion.
In hyVerreality antraqonisme and Volar . ̂dichot'omiee dieeolve. A 7eneralized deterrence is qeneraled. A1omicwar will never haVVen. The hyVerceal media eVectracle of the nucleararm6 race and the e?ace race imploded lhe ant agonieme of theeuper?owero toward a ?eaceful co-exislence.
And in orbit ' , loaling freely above all anlagoniomo,Ihe ul1imaLeend vroduct of Nhe evace race ie trhe cool,lunar, hyver-eimulation:the Lunar module ,
ln The Shadow of The Oilent Majoritiest l t r
s| But whot other effects hqs this hqd on society?rH ln anorher book, In the ghadow of the gilent Majoritiee (ogv1970)' Daudrillard conhends thaL whaN had been oociety hae imVlodedinlo a hyVerconformieT' body obeeeeed eo much wilh epect acle Nhat il
would rather walch'N Lhan
Nake Voli l ical aclion. lt becomee
electrified only by compuler nel-
worke and elect ronic media-by
which if, ie eo polled, teeted, and
hyVed by modele lhal itr hae become
ine(Y and bored, Dut, atr trhe eame lime
it, io hyVer, ?aogive, resigt anf,, demanding
even more moonghot g, rock eVecf,aculare, mago entrerXain-
menf,e-yet euoVicioue and eceVlical, aValhetic becauee if,
realizee IhaN any atrIemVI tro chanqe Nhe eyetrem will eimVly be
co-oVted by lhe oyetem for if,e own ende,
Al l th ie hae oiqnaled trhe dealh of the social ,
On 5eductionln his nexl book, On 5eduction, Daudrillard Nalke aboul love.
Couraly love, in the medieval courte of eouthern France in Nhe
11Nh cenNury, wa6 an involved and elaborat e riNual
requiring the exchanqe of love ?oemo, blushee
behind fforal fane, eyee euddenly downcael
aft,er caolinq a oly eidelonq qlance, kisses
blown from lhe ramVar2e of caef,lee,
impl ic al ione, h al f unvei l ingo, double
enf,en dre e, Nit ill abi o n e, whi o p er e,
jealoueies, adroiN evaeione,
feiqned refusale, feint e,
f a inl in q, h al f - eurren d er in 0o. . .
juch moveo in Nhe
qame of court,ly love
were arielocraNic,
afbi f ic ia l and oymbol-
ic-deliqhf,ing in Nhe
?lay of r,he qame
it eelf , The game relied
u?on infinite defer-
ral-in Nhe putl inq
off of acf,ual sex-in
Vrolonqing Ihe art,
and arAifice of eeduc-
tion. And for 1au-
dri l lard, eeducbion
ie feminine.
)ex, on Nhe olher
hand, baudril lard re-
garde ae a maecul ine
mode-alwaye cen-
Nered on the Vhal luo,n a0u r al, n o n - a rlifi ci al.
Freud wao riqhb:
f,here io only one ein-
qle eexuality, one ein-
qle l ib ido-
maecul ine.
Sexuali|y io
dielincl et ruc-
Lure which ie
diecriminaf,. inq,
cenT,ered on the
Vhallue, caef,ralion,
lhe name of Ihe
faf,her, repreooion.
There ion'I any
other. lf, gerveg no
?ur?o6e to dream
of some non-
Vhal l ic eexual i ty
that, is neither
barced nor
marked eED 16).
)ince seduclion
ie composed of the
a(Difice of eiqne and
geeburee, il ie a form
of mast ery over T,he
oymbolic universe.
)exualiNy, on the
of,her hand, io not
cultural bul natural-
a form of maetrery
over Ihe real uni-
veree. Feminine
eeduction relies
on aflifice-
makeup, f aehion,
the dieplay of
r: : ;{
a ehoulder
or breaeN
beneath black
lace, And it ie
only lhrouqh
euch seducl ion
that the maecul ine
can be eubvefredl
Thie ie hoI seduc-
l ion. butr there ie
aleo, for Daudril lard, a
cool eeduclion-the
eeducl ion of eimu-
, t t / i
Ih is
lacra-of filme, radio,
lhe idols of Nhe silver
or Technicolor
ecreen-a self-
seducf,ion in which
we geduce oureelveg
by immeroing our '
eelves in a Vlay of
eiqno, s imulal ions,
imaqeo that eoca?e
male eexualit'y.
ln hie nexl, book
b a u dri l l ard c o nt' i n u e e
his medilaT,ione on
Toetmodern culture,
by taking a road
f,riV Io f,he mosf'
Toshmodern of Tost'-
modern culNures-
America.
America
ln the early 19rh
cenlury Nhe French
count Alexie de
Tocqueville Iook a IriV
lo the New World,
which Vrovided maf,er-
ial for one of hie besl-
known works: Democ'
racy in Amenca, He
wrole Ihat he found
America r ich in
democracy, but, ?oorin c iv i l izat ion.
ln t rhe 197Oe and
19bOs Oaudri l lard
followed in de Tocque-
ville' e f oolst e?6, ?ro'vidinq, in America, a
Tostrmodern simula-
tion of de Tocqueville'e
a c c o unf'. b a u dri l l ard' s
travelogue also con-
forms tro the more
recenl French fixa-
tions on such Ameri '
cana as Nhe deeerA',
the American Wlld
Wesf,, Le Jazz-mye-
Nifyinq various ae-
Vect e of America as
e e e enf,i al ly V rimiNiv e
and oavaqe.
Oaudril lard's road
IriV, oVeeding VaoIendlees vietas of
road eiqne, neon
liqht o, empty deserx
landgcaVeo, mof,ele,
reveale an America of
surtace qlit'Ner, van'
iohinq inlo emVf,' ineee.
ln factr, Lhe Ii l le of an
imVorLanI chapt er is"Vaniehing ?oint,,"
referr ingtothe
Death of Meaning,
the Death of Reality,
t,lhe Death of the
1ocial, the Death of
the ?olitical, and the
Oealh of Sexuality in
trhe Tostmodern uni- world, oecauee of thie America ieverge- thege "realitieg" re- "the cenT,er of the world." And
cede into a vanishin7 point in America is a deeerf,-esVecially inDaudrillard's rearview mircor on ite citiee-a Vlace where "real life"
hie drive lhrouqh Death Valley, ln hae vanished into a kind of qlir-facf', Daudrillard'e lraveloque Lerinq, empNy non-culhure, Andbeqino wi lh the warninq one f inds rhie emVty, dry, ot er i le, lunaron oome rearview mircors; Cau- deserD of astral America,trhef,ion: Objecre in thie mirror may deeerb of meaninqfut oocief,y,be cloeer Lhan they aVVear! 1ae1 emVty a6 a'N f,uned to a dead
The realit iee of Nhe Vre-oimu- channel-wheNher in if,e land-lacrum era vanishing l ike miraqee oca?e6 or cirysca?eo, whether inin a rearview mircor is an a?oca- lhe insane movemenf, of joqqere,
lyVric vieion-a vieion of the end rraffic and Vedeetrians in Loeof the world, For baudril lard rhie Angelee, bodies circulatinq on
vision of America is rhe model freewayo or Vluqged int o com?ur-
for t 'he resl of Nhe world- er circuirs, whether in the uloVia
lhe code for an emerqinq of California, of Sanha Barbara or
r? * hyperreal and eimu- of )antra Cruz, Nhe paradiee oft r ^ + ^ ) r - ^ l r E ^ . ^ , ^ t ^ , . . 2 L 1 - . L - ' ! . - L ̂ r - - r . . | -
LB- .b in the qreat neon whore of Lae
Veqao, t he "w all-No -w all prooli lu-
"* Nion" of New York, with ite* . \ e B V t r J l l r - / l l \ L / V V l U / l N , V V l V l l l V - J* * ' , - *
iffiffi.,=_* Vlumee of smoke like"gir ls wr inqinq oul
Lheir hair
afLer balhinq," with ils"beaufy of the black and 7uefro
Kico women" wilh ibs allurinq "Tig-
menlation of lhe dark racee" wibh iIe
Nribes and gange and Mafia, with itre vio-
I enc e-3 au dri l l ar d' 6 Am eri c a i e t u rb ul ent,, V rimiNiv e,
el e clrifyin q, anim ali eNi c, viN al, p of,enl,, hy p e r r e al .
It seems os if Boudrillord hqs surrendered to Post-
modern Americq in q kind of possive ecstosy.TH Actually,Ihis ie one of the main crit icisms of
Saudril lard: The only ree?onoe he offere f,o the
ffow of media imaqeo ie paeeive eurrender-an
eceT,aoy of communicaf,ion-which, in facI, is
the title of hie nexL book.
The Eastaoy of Communicaiion
Accordinq to baudrillard in The Ecstaey of
Communication, in the new Toetmodern univeree
of int erconnecT,iviLy-of Lelevision and compul-
er nef,works-we are all like echizophrenics. For
f ,he echizophrenic, huddled in hie cel l , is no|, re-
moved from realily-butr realily preeees in
u?on him, lI is too cloee. ltr ie abeolulely close,
He doee not mirror reali ly buf, becomeo a ?ure6creen. 1imilarly, we have all become like
' (tfi.
, \9\--rE
-(,t
\'J1 \\\J ilr
N.rr
t e levieion
and com-
Vuler9Creen6-
Ehoee lunr i -
noue eyee illu-
minat inq and
Venetraf,inq even
our moof, privaf,e
e?acee with an
obecene ?reooure.And thie Vromiocuou;invaeion of our former
Vrivacy ie bolh ecota-
t ic and obecene. The
obeceniLy not of the
hidden but of the al l -
f,oo-vieual. The
obeceniT,y that no
lonqer harbore anygecret,. An obgcene
eceNaey-a cool-
lun ar seducT,iv e, elec-
trric VornoqraVhy of
excessive imaqee and
informalion feeding
u?on ue, ?enelratinqall our private
o?ace6, the obscenif,y
of faecinaf,ion, like a
fft
?ornoqraVhicclooe-up, Vroducinq aet aie of giddiness lowhich we eurcender inan Ecef,aey of Com-
munical ion.
7u l1audr i l la rd
informe ue in hie
introduclion lhal
Ecataoy ie only a
eimulat ion model of
oome of hie ear l ier
booke-a simulat ion
in which Saudri l lard
out- tsaudri l lards him'
eelf-becominq more
Oaudri l lard Lhan Oau-
dri l lard, We musf, not,
forgeL thaf, in trhe
French cul lural 6cene
theoriee are juet, like
commodiliee-trhey
are in comVetriLion
with other theoriee in
f,he French cullural
marketplace, And
1audri l lard under-
et ands thal trhe beel
way t o make hie lheo-
riee competrilive is t o
Iransform them
inNo hyVerceal eimula-
tione of theory, To
eVin oul Juraeeic
Tark monsl'ers of
Nheory. baudril lard's' undersf,andinq of the
media has made him
an eftective comVet'i-
Ior-a kind of cele-
briNy-because hie
atf,acks on hie fellow
French intellect'uals
are hyVerreal eVectra-
clee mean| for Vubl iccon6urn\,ion, lendinq
more and more
t oward a kind of van'
iehing VoinL For ine-
f,ance, he hag been
crit icized, but aleo
made famous, by hY-
Verreal st'af,emenleguch ae "The Gulf
War never happened!'
ln facL, oome crit ice
c la im tha l Oaudr i l -
lard, in hie later work,
is actual ly doinq oci '
ence ficlion inst'ead
of Toet'modern theory.
l$l But it seemsthot Postmodern
theory would
hove to be similur
to science fiction,
since the imPoct
of technologies
on cultures is
so intense.
Thatr's lrue. ln
facl, eome Toetmod-
ern f,hinkers oaY lhaN
c erlain s cienc e fi cf, ion
writ ers do a bet'ter
job al deocr ibinq the
impactr of cybefi'ech-
noloqiee than doee
D au drill ard, b ut, frh at,:l
is a Eop,tc we can
ref,urn No laf'er.
l$l Well, it's oll rother dizzying-
oll these hyperreolities qnd
whirl igiging simulocro. tt
reminds me of Jomeson be-
coming so disoriented in the
Bonoventure Hotel. Whqt is it
obout Postmodern qrchitec-
ture thot is so dizzying?Tn lfs a qood queotion, becaueearchilecf,ure ie aclually the realm
in which Toetrmodernism began.
BUN in order f,o undere|,and whatr
Tostmodern archilecture ie, we
have No know oomeT,hinq about
mo dern archileclure, Mo dernism
in architrecture began wilh lhe
Oauhaue echool, founded in
Weimar, Germany, in 1919 by Wal-
ter GroViue. Here arXiete euch ae
Taul KIee and Vasoily Kandinoky
combin e d Ih eir archilecf,ural
sludies with coureeo in painf,ing,
cra{-le, drama and tyVoqraphy,
The echool believed trhaN buildinge
ehould be funcbional. They aleo
develoVed wha| came to be known
ao the lnf,ernaf,ional 7lyle, an
atbemVt, T,o unile archiNecf,ure,
the f ine a f rs and mase-Vroduc-
tion technology.
The manifesto of archiieclural
moderniem, Towards a New Archi-
tecture, wao ?ublished in Tarie in
A Hou 5ers a HouSers A llousE.
--=:{*-:
Bur rs tTe HoHe?
192b, and f 'ranslaNed inlo Enqlieh
in 1927. The auNhor, a kind of
meesiah of Modernisl architec'
f^)re, wao Le Corbuoier, acluallY
f,he pen name of one Charlee-
Edo uard J e anneret, (1 B B7 -19 65) .
He was a well-f'raveled natrive of
gwitzerland, who was Io est'ablieh
himself ao a ciNY planner, archi-
lecf,, deoiqner, V aint'er, sculVt or
and VroVhet' of a new archif,ec-
tural creed.
Le Corbueier gained hio Venname by virAue of the facl NhaN
hie face resembled Nhat of a raven
(corbeau). And, juel like ?oe's
raven, who, in ?oe'g wordg, gaid
"Nevermore," Le Corbugier algo
gaid, "Neverrnorel"
No more retro, ancient, clut-
tered, nin eteenth- century etYleo,
No more custom. No more inher-
ited deoigno. No more gloomY
interiora jammed with bunches
of uoeless bric-a-brac, no more
heavy furniture, chandelierg, man'
tel-piecee, thick carpef,e, No more
elaborate bookcaeez, consoles,
china cabinete, dreeeera, side-
boards, draped curDaine, cushions,
canopieo, damaaked wallpaPero,
carved furniture, faded and arty
coloro, mirrored wardrobeg, No
more decoration, ornament, 6Ym-
bolism. No more heterogeneitY,
ambiquity, capricioueneaa, riot,
etitchinq toqether of unrelated
elemento, No more qarlando,
exquioite ovale, triangular doves
preeninq themaelvee, boudoirs
embellished wif,h poofa of qold and
black velvet, no more otiffing ele-
qanciee! quolh Le Corbusier-
Ne vermore!
Juel ae Ihe propheN of l i ter-
ary moderniem, Ezra ?ound, had
Vroclaimed "Make iI new," Le Cor-
b ueier b eliev ed t h at, archiNeclure
ehould uee new maler iale euch ae
sleel and reinforced concref,e, andnew conelrucf,ion t echniquee. This
new archit eclure wao t o be ra|,io-
nal , f t ehould exhibi | a qrandeur of
a malhemalical order, for by lurn-
inq to mabhematical calculal ione,
it would reveal univereal law-trhe
VrinciVlee Nhatr qovern
our universe. The new
archi t ect ural deoiqne
ehould be in lel l iqenl ,
cold and calm-Vure cre-
af,ions of the mind-
manif egf,ationg
of men creating
T,heir own
univerge.
lf buildinqo can be read l ike
booke, Le Corbueier called for a
Tlatonic vocabulary of pure,
abeolule forme: cubee, conee,
oVheree, cylindere, ?yramide,6quaree, All this baeed on a ?la-
t onic all i tude IhaL knowledqe
VroVerly reeides in pure, elernal,
abgoltff e "|deal Formg," which we
can know with our inlellecNe,
lhouqh not, throuqh our eeneee,
For inetance, it will alwaye be
true and knowable that 2 + 2 = 4,
And this will alwaye be true even
if there are no longer 2 + 2 applee
or orangee to add up io four,
D el i evin g lh aI archi le ctur al
beauty ehould be baeed on Ihe
6ame immut able, et ernal ?lai lonic
Vrimary forme, he l iked slrucLuree
euch ae the ?yramide, Lhe TemVle
of Luxor,Ihe Nowere of Dabylon,
the Col ieeum, Hadrian's
vil la, ConeLantinople'e 1anIa )ophia, f 'he
St amboul, the Tower of ?iea, lhe copulae
Michelanqelo. but above al l e lee-
the Tarfihenon. The Tafthenon ie
Vertect,, Le Corbueier found in iN
b rut alily, inf,enoiNy, gw e ef,n eas,
delicacy and ef'rengf'h. lI
ie bhe cl imax of
"Vu?e formg in
precioe rela'
f, ionohip"-
beelowin7 u?on
ug truth and
emolione of a
"ouVerior and
maf,hematical order."
M o d ern archihe cture t 'hus
atrNemVNed Io ?are down line, eVace
and form Io Iheir ?ure eseenfials.
Vosqueo of
of
lf Le Corbueier hae a hero it ' ie f 'he enqi-
neer-f,he creator of bridqee, of At'lant'ic
l inere, of railwaye. Engineero,l ike Cubist'
paint'ere, are noI dislracled wif'h ornamen-
t af, ion buI eaNiofy ou r opiribe by reducinq
lheir creatione Lo ?ure qeometrric, maf'h'
ematical, Tlatonic torms. Engineero are
viri le, ueeful. Their minde, abeorbed in
mathematical calculat ione and the
VerceVlion of primary geometric forms,
are in harmony wif,h natural law.
emelgc lrom lhe interplay of prlmarytorms! let architecturc be t[e cor.
tise in skysga0ers amid gteen
lect and magnilicenl play of such Rlanlalions of llGGs' let these sry'
ll architects could [e more lilreengineers, t[en luildings woufd fiseup like Iute Grcations of s0ilit-ling-ing in unison with uniuersal order.Ilown with lriuolous otnamentation!ll you musl haue diuelsity-then lel il
masses broughl logether in lighl!lel light shine on the glcat primarylorms ol [risms, Gubes, cones,spheres, cylinders, pyramids. lelhomes De machines lor liuing wilhteraces Instead o| roofs, wilhwindows all around, withoul clul-ter-but with bullt-in lurnishings,without gaudy chandeliers, bul
wilh dilfused electric lighting, andbuilt ol slandardized matefials lilreGats, Gannons, airplanes! Let grealnew utolian uerticaf cllies, cities oftowers, whose lmmense geonelli-cal glass lacades leflecl the sky,
sclapels conlain the Drains ol thenalion. Clear away paris's narowstreets lo admil wide, noblesFacGs, [0pulated with trees. Lellhe suburls [e gardcn citieswhele people can [lay ball, andgarden. let all the cities olEurope be lorn down andreconstlucted in theimage of Aneficancities.
Pfi[5tmudEI'rlI't
3y 1950, ff iany of f,he elemenf,e
of lhie lnf,ernaNional Slyle had,
in d e e d, b e c o m e inNern af , io n al-
the eimpl i f red, concentrated l inee
and forme, lhe emVhaoie on func'
tion ae beauty, Lhe eesenlial maLh-
emalical harmony of ?ure forms,
lhe celebraf,ion of raf, ional, pro-
greoeive lendenciee, Nhe adoVbion
of new technoloqiee and new ma-
ler ia le, t 'he yearninq for a epir iLu-
a l ho l iem of space and form, lhe
dielaet e for bazaar- l ike, arbi t rary
reproduction of hieloric etylee.
YeL-whaL it all boiled down lo
wao cityeca?ee full of concreLe and
glaeo boxes. And whal wae modern
architecl,ure Lo do-baeed ae i l
wao on elernal maLhemaf,ical har-
mony-if lhe eu??oeed perfeclion
of malhemalice i leelf broke down
int o non-Eucl idean qeomef,r iee
an d in c o mol elen ee e Nh e o reme?
And what wao modern architec-
ture to do if its huqe, utogian Vro'jecbo-su ch as D razil i a-fl opV e d?
Whal if the world wae qrowinq
f,ired of f ai led ut ooiae? Then lhe
uloVian lheor iee and the archi '
f,e clur al V r oje cf,s f,h aL r efr e cte d
Ihem would have No change-and
tha l chanae would need a new
voice. And f,haL new
voice wag
Charlee
Jencke.
Charlee Jencke
ie an archihecLural
cr i t ic who hae been
enqaqed in Lhe
oft,,en heaf,ed
debaLe between
moderniet and
Toelmodernistr
archilect e about,
whelher Toelmod-
ern architecNure
ehould even exist,.
He is aleo a major
voice in the ongoing
attemptrto defrne
Toelmoderniem, ln
facf,, hie book, The
Lan4uaqe of Fost-
modern Architec-
ture (1977), wae
Nhe fireI work t o
att empt lo Lhema-
Nize Ihe Toetmod-
ern and No uee"TooNmodern" in
the Litle.
ln h ie eubee-
quen| books What
is Foetmoderniem?
and Foetmodern-
igm, he trraces T,he
hief,ory of the con-
ceVt,. Originally
ueed by the 1Van-
ish wriler Federico
De Onis in 1934 f,o
describe a poelic
reacf,ion No mod-
ernisl poelry, f,he
Eerm was subse-
quentr ly ueed, in
1975, by the histo-
rian Arnold Toynbee
Lo deeiqnaLe Vlural-iom and Ihe r ioe
of non-Weetern
culLuree.
In the 196Oe
the early roote of
Toelmodernism qol
starf,ed by a 7rou?of Enql ieh intel lec-
L.uale, the lnde?en-
denl OrouV, who
were fascinated
with American cul-
fure: -N,
moviee,
ade, machinery and
commercial cul ture.
They teaLed VoVcol laqeo of such
objectro-trhe fireT,
VoV art . ln America,
in f,he midet of Hip-
pieo andYupViee,
Andy Warhol
cranked ouf, a
bunch of imaqeo of
maoe cull,ure: Mari-
lyn Mon roe, Jackie
Kennedy, a CamV-
bel l 's SouV can.
Then, in Nhe 197Os
trhe Toetmodern
movemenl became
more academic and
reopectable: in 1971
lhab Haeean ?ub-lished an eo6ay,
"F0)Tmodernl)M
A ?aracritical Dibli-
oqraphy," and lhe
Tostmodernisl
movemenl wae offi-
c ial ly inauqurat ed
in Iheory-cele'
brabinq writ ere
euch ae Wi l l iam
burrouqhs, Jean
GeneN, Jamee
Joyce and Samuel
Deckett, Lhe mueic
of John Cage and
lhe futur ietre Mar-
sha l l McLuhan and
Suckmineher Ful ler.
But, accordinq
t o Jenckg, t,hese
aftisis and archi-
f,ecNs were raally
Laf,e modernioTo,
notr ?astmoderniefs.
pl lote Modernists?Tl) Yee. Decaueeauthors guch as
Jamee Joyce were
wri l inq thingo, such
ao Finneqan'o Wake,
thal very few Veo-
Vle could under '
eLand. And LhaL's
what a lo| of Lat e
moderniels-or
High moderniele
did. Com?oeero
like John Caqe were
wri l inq "mu6ic"
lhal nobody under-
etood based on
what, moef, peoVlewould cal l noise,
or ?ure eilence. In
one Viece he re-maine Voioedover the
Viano for
eeveral minules,
ae if Lo st rike
lhe oVening chord
of a concerl-and
Nhe comVooibion
consisbs of the
eound of lhe audi-ence waiLin7 for
lhe concert Lo
begin, And thinkere
such ae Oucky
Ful ler were deoiqn-
inq accordinq to
lhe ulopian
aaeum?Nione of
moderniem.
l iore Lo Jencks's
l ik inq ie novel ie l
Umbefr,o Eco's
recoqnil ion of a
double elemenV in
Toetmoderniem,
For Jencke and
Eco Toef,moderniem
ie modernism
HEY, tr's THEDuKe l.JtloLoVES You|4AE LY,
along with a Toet -
modern relation-
ohiV to lhe Vaei: "The pootmod-ern reply to lhe modern coneietre
of recognizing that, Ihe Vaet ,eince iN cannoN real ly be
deetroyed, becauee its deefruc-
f , ion leads Io e i lenca, f f ius f , berevieit ed: butr wilh irony, nol inno-
cenbly. I lhink of Lhe Voetmodernalbitude as tha| of a man who
loves a very cult ivat ed woman andknows he cannoN eay lo her, I loveyou madly, becauee he knowe thalehe knowe (and thal ehe knows
that, he knowo) that Nheee worde
have already been wril,T,en by Oar-bara Caraland. 7lt l l , T,here is a
solulion. He can 6ay, "Ae Barbara
Cartland would Vut itr, I love you
madly." At thie VoinI,, havinq
avoided falee innocence, having
eaid clear ly thal i I ie no longer
Voooible f,o epeak innocenNly, hewill neverlhelese have eaid whal
he wantred Io eay lo the womani
lhaL he lovee her, buf, he loves herin an aqe of loet innocence. lf thewoman qoeo alonq wilh trhie, she
BO
will have received a dec-
laration ol love all the
eame, NeiNher of f 'he
f,wo oVeakero will feel
innocent, bof'h will have
accept ed Ihe chal lenqe
of the paetr, of Ihe
already eaid, which can'
nol be el iminaLed; boLh
will coneciouely and with
Vleaoure ?lay f ,he qame
of irony. . , .7ut bobh will
have succeeded, once
aqain , in eVeak inq o f
love." (ELo, rNR 67-B)
And Ihie fir,e in wilh
Jencke's definil ion of
?oslmoderniem ae " dou'
ble codinq: the combina-
tion of Modern tech-
niquee with eomeLhin4
elee (ueually traditional
buildtnfl in order for
architecture to commu-
nicate wifh the public
and a concerned minori-
f,y, ueually other archi-
f,ecta" (wl? 14).
A tyVical Toef'mod'
ern bui ld ing creales a
double coding throuqh
eclecticism: by putl in q
toqether Nwo different'
of,ylee of lwo differenl
Veriode, it, creabeo ?aro-dy, ambi quif,y, c onLr a dic -
Lion, Varadox. For, in
Jencke'e view, a bui ld inq
is noN juet ' a bui ld inq buI
eomef,hinq l ike a lan-
quaqe, A bu i ld inq can be
read like a book. lI hae
connolal ions and al lu '
sions, lt ' eignif iee. l l has
meaninqe-and off 'en
oaye t 'wo or more Ihinqe
aN the eame l ime,
Thus Tost'modern
archilectrs muel
be both poVular
and Vrofeesion-ally baeed. For
ingt ance, I 'he
cobrtul hand-
rai le in lhe
)f,ul,f,qarI'
rnueeuff i aVpeal
tro the poVular
Iastee of kide
dreeeed in Oay-
Glo colore, whi le
iLe claeeicism-
iNo quoNatione of
?ure Greek
forme-aVVeale
W,&;,
\\
lo f ,he highbrow el i t ie l ,
Tostmodern architecture mueL uee bolh newLechniqueo and old Valterne. ?oetmodernjelarchitecbe are, Lhen, noT, eimply revjvalieNswho eimply br ing back Ihe Vaet and elopuoing moderniem, They uee modernismand yef, go beyond iN, They
quoLe from the pasL, but,with irony. They Varody the
pasI. They uee ?aof,iche.Thus double coding, l ike
Eco's "l love you madly,"
eT,aqee the dieeonance and
?lay beAween VaeN and Vre-eent. Thie dieeonance canbe ironic, humorous, Varod-ic, Vlayful, allueive-buI iImakeg lhe "reader" of f,hebuildinq reffect. The" reader" becomeg
eomething of an
archit e cf,u r al critr i c.
o n
o o o
o o o
D l r
3 0
B O
O D
o t
D N
fi o
o o
D D
n o
O D
B D D O
D O O
D D O
n t r o
t r o D
o t r t r
D t r O
o o o
o
o
o
o
o
o
u
D
o
o
Secauee of Lhie, doinq ?oetmodernarchileclure ia one way to do ?oef,modern Lheory-_ii,;e double codinqmakes i l ' intereebing nol only Lo Ihe averaqe Joe blow on Lhe sT,reeTbut aleo to fellow archif,ecLe and Foetmodern crit ice,
Even an obiecL ae eimVle a6 a teapoL can be double coded. Deeiqn-er Michael Gravee deaiqned a LeaVoT, thal hae eimVle, functional mod-erniet' lines but flaunts an ornamental bird for lhe whieNle-a kind ofaura l ?un.
In 19Bo Michael oravee-trhe oame quy who desiqned the reaporwibh f'he whistlinq bird-won a com?etiilion for hie deeiqn for the ?or1-land Tublic Serviceo Suilding. lt ie radically eclectic and double coded-iLe qlaee hintre that i t r is a Vubl ic 6?ace: iLe size and ornamenlal qar-lande euggeetr EqyVtian and baroque motife; ite uee of a eculpture,
"?orLlandia", over the fronl door-creat'eg a
Vlaytul mood. 1ul Ihe buildinq wae af,lacked
by modernieNe who criNicized iI for what' f'hey
called itrs lack of diociVline-iNe iukebox-over'
eize d - Chri ef'm a o - p a cka q e I o ok. I uV V o rt' er 6, o n
f,he olher hand, commenl'ed Lhat it' relaLed to f,he
nearby Cily Hall ae well ae oLher pre-moderniel
and modernisN bui ld inge in t 'he neighborhood.
But why should we even hove Postmodernorchitecture?
Secauoe huqe uloVian modernief' houeinq
Vrojecle alienaled f'he very inhabif'anNe t'hey
were deoiqned No houee. These Vlanned uloViae
Lurned inT,o waeLelands of qraffif ' i , vandalism and
neqlecL Thue in hhe lat'e 196Oe and early 197Os
lhey were dynamiled. ln facN Jencks, in a Vublic
lecture, Vroclaimed that' on July 15,
1972, at 32312 7M, modern architeature;
died, ao a huqe houoinq Vroiect' in 91.
Louis.wae blown No smifhereens.
Ientks iust maile up thg ilate - a fail that ilu tepuilPl
raught. Thur the lluath uf Arthiteflural Muilernism I
I{{Ii
I
was ptuiluteil simply by annnuncing it.
rt \ \ i \ \
\
f"t
I
ModernisNs werealarmed, of couree,
and immediately
beqan denouncin7
Nhe new Toef,mod-
ernism with reli-
giouo fervor, DuI,
accord in7Io
Jencke, Ihe mod-
ernigl atf,acks onTostrmodern archi-
leclure actrually
inviqoraT,ed its
qrowth. For ineNance,
when i l wae announced
in a column in Le Mondein October of 1901 that
"a eVectre is hauntrinqEuroVe, the eVectre ofTogLmodernigm," mooNFrenchmen juot ehru qqed,bit. inlo lh eir croi eean|,sand ff ipped the page. DuImo dernieile didn't oimply
ehruq off the announce-
menT,; their panic effec-trively infraled the epectreinto a full-fredqed move-menf,. Therefore, rea-
eon6 Jencke, lhere
musl have exieNed
ment Lo moderniem al l a lonq.
The death of archilectruralmoderniem may have eaved a lotof inner citiee, where Nhe mod-erniet Lendency would have beento bullddze Nhem and constructmore ulopian houeing uniis, WhaITostmoderniem offered wae eclec-T,ic, increment al reqeneration-
thal ie Io oay, reqeneratin7, elowlyueinq the mix of whal io alreadythere alonq wilh what, ie new.
For Jencks moderniem hadbeen eomethinq of a reliqioue Vhe-nomenon. Aftrer all, iN declaredorn amenlat ion heretic al, andviewed it self ae Nhe univereallnternatrional gtyle
ueinq new conetrruc-Iion techniquee andnew materiale, lt hada mieeion to trans-
form eociety.
Accordin7 Io
Jencke, mod-
ernist , bui ld ingo,
such ae lhe
Chicaqo Civic
CenIer or Chica-
qo'e Lake thore
houoinq uniNs,a hidden resenN-
atlempl No be nothinq more than
eimple geom ef,ric f orrne-gl aoe
and eleel and concrd,e boxee-
which in t 'heir equareneas aay
"f,hio ie what I am-a equare
buildinqe refrecl
and refer f,o
lheir environmenl. l f Le Corbusier
wao lhe Veosiah of modernist
archileclure, Rob eft V enluri,
Oenise ecolt Arown and ?f'even
lzenour are lhe 7roVhats of Tosf'-
modern archif 'ecIure. And Lheir
manifest'o, f iret publiehed in
1972-ie a book called Learn-
ing from Lae Vegas. Thio book
mo derniem' 5 ailemPf, Io build
qlaee and ef'eel boxes, t o define
Modernlel bul ld in7o
had at'lemphed
Io oymbolize
nof,hinq buL
ideal qeomet'-
ric forms. ln
ideal iz inq lhe
wel l -enq i -
neered qeo-
met ric f orms
of T rans aNl antic ele amohi7 e,
American qrain elevalors, and
Cubist VainNinqo,I 'heY had ended
u? oymbolizinq a brave new world
of science and Iechnoloqy-a
n aut ic al - in d u sNri al - Cubi eN w o rl d .
archif,ecNure ae encloeed epace. lt
e?ace ie eacred to moderniem,
then paint inq, eculVt 'ure and l i ter-
alure, mere decoraf'ion, are
opVoeed t 'o Vure o?a6e. lvlodernisN
archit'ecfe reiected,an enNire Nra-
dilion of archiheoture in which
p ainringe, eculpt,ure and qraPhice
w ere integraf,ed wif'h archilectur e,
box*and nolhinq el6e." The form
does nol refar lo or allude lo or
mean anytrhing out'oide itself.
ToeNmoderniel archi- ,,.< Nt-arrrt rre nn f.hc. nf.he.r ' ( ' '{\ 'al
sqq$
Down Let , rhe arch i tecrw i?h trh e become a jeetert,Let archvu niv e r g all trecture, rike the vov art ofproclaim Venf,uri, Warhol and Leichlenslein,
ScoNt Brown and uee fami l iar moNife-
lzenour. deeiqninq non-authorita-
Acceptthe clut- r ian bui ld inqe trhat in-
ter of mixed, maee- siead of eayinq,,1 am a
culf,ure, ornamenf,ed, oquare" eay many thinge
ticky-Lacky, eubur- at once. Let ?ostmodern
ban, Ginqerbread,New buildinqe ex?reeo irony,
Orleans, French 7ro- along with comedy, eor-
vtndal and Kanch otylee. row, paradox, and the
Down with the archi-
Leclure of 6?ace, .a , -
form and functr ion.
1rinq in lhe icone -t#ffi
of 7o? Arl,, of
advefi,isin4, of every- ,,'
day commercial ob-
jecL,o-<f Camp-
be l l 'e 6ou? cano
in a qa l l e r y ,
or of imaqee from
comic eIriV aft,, Tn
euqqeotgaf,ire, sor-
row and irony,
un aulh o rif, ari an qu aliliee
needed for l iv inq humor-
ouoly in a eociety made
u? of di f lerenl raceo,
eexua l o r i en ta f , i one ,
clasgeo and culr,ureo.
For we do l ive in a
Vluraliot eocieLy, re-
flected in mixed, glitler-
inq, ffaohinq bazaare of
neon l iqhNe and oiqne
on the Las Vegao
9triV,the hodgeVodge
of conlradictory, com-
Veling and confricNing
etylee, the roadeigne
and bi l lboarde that
whiz by in a blur of
comVlex meaninqo,
a roadscaVe/car-
ecaVe in which the
mix of oymbolo is
more imporf ,anl
trhan ?ure torm-
lhe dazz l inq ? ic -t or ia l themes of
lhe caeinos (the
b6
arch i t rec ture
io a qrabbaq,
e c l e c f , i c ,
a l l u 6 i v e ,
? a r a d o x i -
cal4he Alad-
f lamboyant Flamin-
qo, Ihe Deeert lnn,
lhe exotic TroVicana,
the arabeoque Alad-
din, Caeear'o Talace,
trhe )tarduot, like
the facades of
Gothic cathedrale,
a lmoet , a l l e iqn
and eymbol) the
caeino ehoVVinq
malls l ike orien-
f,al bazaare. Las
Veqao e r r iV
din is Tudor with a Moorish facade.
Caeear'e Talace ie Early Christrian,
Roman, Neo-Classical, MoLel Mod-
erne, Ef,ruecan and Miesian, Motifs,
eigno, columne, winqo, formations and
froors Varody and queobion each other.
The Las Veqae gtriV ie an inclusive
order. There ie no one dominant, Iheme.
No expert,. but the opec-
NaIor elrolle Vaet a heN-
eroqeneoue ? laygroundo f mu l t iV le , v i t a l , i ncon -
qruoue, chaotic, inf,ert ex-
iua l , a l lus ive urban o igno,
meaninge, orders-al l ex-
ploring the archif,eclure of
the paot,.
Let architecture be funl
Turn et ,aid archi t ectural
nol ione toVoy-Iu rqy! lndul-
qent ly embrace comVlexi ty,
mixing imaqee and eymbolo
from the hietorical paot in a
nootalgic col lagel Let image
def,ermine forml Letr develoV-
menl be baeed on incremen-
f ,al , d iverse qrowtrh, ralher
than uf,opian planel Let, bui ld-
inge ret lect the diveroi iy of
uoere and clienf,s' f,asf,egl Let
archif,ecto deoiqn for oVecific
?eraono-ralher than from
gome ulopian, abgtract, conce?-
t ion of Man, Let, Toetmodern
bui ld inqe f i t in wi lh Ihe bui ld-
ingo eur roundinq t rheml
Accordinq to the aubhors of
Learning from Loe Veqao:"The emerging order of
the 1trlp io a aomplex
order, lt is not the
eaey, rigid order of the
urban renewal project
or the fashionable'total design' of the
megastructure .,,1t io
not an order dominat-
ed by the expert and
made eaey for the eye,
The moving eye ln the
moving body muel
workto pick oul and
interpret, a varlety
of changing, jux-
taposed orders" i(LLV 135-6),
ln Jenck6'o view, Toetmodern
archilecture dioplayo 10 charac-
t erief, ice. Let uo uee Thil ip
Johneon'e N&T
bui ld ing in New York
City a6 an
example.
E tr io Vlu-raliel ic-radi-
cally eclectric-
celebraling
difference and
othernegg.
Itr quoteodifferent
of,yleo and lanquaqee, The N&T
buildinq Iraneforme f,,he tradi-
tional qlaeo and steel eky-
ocra?er int,o a qrandfather
clock f,opVed off wilh a ChiV-
p end ale broken V ediment,.
@ ffrie eclectriciem leade
lo a digsonant, beauty, a
disharmonioue harmony, an
oxymoron, a ?aradox. After
al l , there ie diseonance
belween a buildinq and a
clock. Dut, his diesonance ie
humorous becauee many
bui ld inqe dioplay clocks.
@ ff',e AT&T buildinq
dioVlaye an urbane urban-
ism.
lf, doesn't stand oul
alone. lt looke pretby
much like other modernisL
okyecrapers, buN iL blendsinto, mirroro, mocke, Var-odies and exf,ends other
bui ld inqo in lhe envi-
ronmenl.
@ ?ootmodern
buildinqe are antrhro-
pomorVhic-trheir orna-- ments and mold ingo
oft,en ouggeet Nhe
human form. The
AT&T buildinq does
not, do this, buf, oug-
Bb
,!\\],$ qeoto indirecf,ly,
throuqh mimickinq a human alc i-fact-a clock.
6 tt dieVlaye a rela-lionohip betweet
buildinq also oaye "qrandfather
clock."
fl tV."re ie doublecodinq through ihe jux-
tapooibion of of,ylee-
grandfaiher clock and
moderniet, oky-
6cra?er-eo thaI irony,
ambiquity, and conlradic-
tion emerqe, ?oet modern
buildinqo oay no| "eilherlor"
bul"bobh/and." The N&T building
oayo "bothland" by combininq
trhe contem?orary
(okyecraper) wilh the
anti qu e (qr andf ath er clo ck),
f,he functional (off ice build-inq) and lhe decoralive
(ChiVV end ale broken p edr
menl) in an i ronic double
coding, lt can mean trwo
thinge at, once.
Vaet, and
preeent-
qrandta-
f,her clock and
Vutf,inq t o-
qether of
Varody them, lo
invoke nootalqia
and indulqe in
paoliche,
@ There ie a
yearnin7 for con-
tenf,, for meaninq,
lnef,ead of juoV
oayinq "qlaee andgf,eel box" Nhe
/ / ,
which a l lows
lhe archi '
\\Y/1.
@ ?oetmodernbui ld inqe are mult iva-
lent-they can mean
many thinqo eimultane-
ouely. Unlike Nhe uni-
valence of modernisl
bui ld inqo, which only
6ay one thinq-"| am a
equar6,"-7ogt modern
archilecLure ie multiv a-
lentr , non- excluoiv e, al lu-
oive, reoon ant,, oymb olic.
@ ?oetmodern
ar chitr e cT,u r e r ei nt e r V r eT,sf,radiNion. ll doee not,
merely colV lhe Vaot but
reint erVrets it,. The AT&T
buildinq does noT, eimply
revive Nhe VaeI; iN mocke
it playtully.
KD ManyTostmodern
buildinqe yearn f,o
ref,urn to Ihe ab-genl cenf,er-f,o a
cenlral communal
o?ace. Duf, Nhen
realize lhat Lhere
ie nof,hinq we have in
common to fill it, wiIh.
9o why not fill it with
a clock?
Jencks defines Postmodern claeeiciem asa revival drawing u?on motife from Oreece
and Rome, He identifres frve eireams of
?oet mo dern alaeeicismz
Metaphysical classicismNarative classicism
Allegorica1 classicismRealist classicisn
90
Classical sensibility
M eta phy ei a al Cl a e si oi e m
Velanaholic classicism is a
mode of met aVhyeical c laooi '
cism thal focusee on a relurn
to the urban, ao oymbolized bY
Lhe lhalian ciVy equare-the
Viazza-but wilh a difference.
Toetmodern architecf'e sueh ae
Leon Krier and Toef,modern
arliate euch as Kito Wolff ren-
der euch Viazzae melancholy-
becauee Lhe Viazzae are deeer\ed.Yel, Nhere is a
yearninq for a cenher here-and Nhere is a cen-
Ierbut the cent'er io emplY,
Narrative Classiciam
Traditional narralive Vaintinq deVicte trhe
heroic act'ione of great Ynen-euch ae Socratee
drinkinq f,,he hemlock. they arl meanf' lo inepire.
The ?oef, 'modern narralive ?aintinq ofLen Vainbeunheroic men enqaqed in immoral act ions,
ln Taul Georqe'e My Kent
7tate, a vulnerable, nude
muoe-eymb oI of freedom-
aVt emVNo t o Fee t'he 6cene
of sf,udenf,s bein6 elayed.
This 6enre can f.ake on erof' ic and eubver'
sive ovefr'enea, ae in Eric Fiechl'o Oad Doy,
a lad wat chinq a nude woman whi le he
eleals from her puree.
I
All e g o ri a al Cla s si ai s m
G r anL D r umh ell er' s L t 4 hf, n i n 6 T h rowe r r eV e al.,othe pooe of a f amoue sLat ue of Toeeidon aqainaf, a
dreadful background of what Jencke calls "radioac-
tive gloom." Oo trhe fraehinqo in Nhe background oig-nify a nuclear war brought on by ?oseidon, Thor andJupit er nuclear miesi les?
A eub-genre-naive realiem-returne tro theinnocence of Granl Wood and Grandma Moees. AnexamVle ie David Liqare'e Woman in a Greek Chair,
Realist Clasaiaism
Kealiel classicism ie alwaye eomething of a ?ara-dox, an oxymoron or conlradiction. ln t,he claeeiciel Iradil ion the indi-vidual Vafbiculare of a body-Lhe hands, toroo, head, etc.-rendered inolone, were eubordinated No ldeal baauty.
ln realist claseicism the ecale ie NiVVedIoward the uqly, realiolic aepecte of Iheeubjecl, which Xhe Vure claeeiciet overlooke.Example? Works such ae ?hiliV ?earletein,sTwo Female Modele on frrentwood Loveeeatand Kuq. Accordinq to Jencke, "A parody ofeexualit'y ie eugqeot ed by rhe way vael sf"reNches of Lhe body are
focueed on, ae in a Flayboy cenlefiold, only lo belurned inlo sacko of eagginq meal," (?M 1zr),
, The Classlcal Sensibility
Jencke frnde thal eome artiete are faithful Ioa 7eneral opirit of claeoicism-they exhibit a clas-
eical seneibil i ty in their worke-even Nhouyh their eubjecT,e are con-Nemporary. Milelu Andrejevic'e Apollo and Daphne, for examVle, relellsLhe Greek nrybh of Apollo chaeing DaVhne to xhe river, only to eee herf ather, the River God, transform her inLo a laurel Lree. lL ie doublecoded in thaf' t'here ie an ironic Vutlinq to7elher of Vaeear-Nype coede,a poet -hiVpie gui lar ieT, and a claesical lheme,
92
E *no trre some other Postmodern theorists?
E Wel l, oome of r'he moeL imVortanf, onee are
7o sNslr u clu r ali sN Nhi nke r e,
E Poststructurolist?
E ?os?slrucf,uralism ie a rnovemenf' associat ed wit'h
a wave of French f'hinkers: Jacqueo Dercida, Julia
Kriet eva, Koland Dafi,hes, Oilles Deleuze, Felix Ouaf,-
f,ari and Michel Foucau\^ TosNsLruct'uralisNs t'end t'o
r e A ard all kn owl e d 0 e-hiotory, ant hr o2 olo qy, lif,er a-
Nure, ?sycholoqy, ef,C.-as t exf,Ual, This meang t'haL
knowledye is comVooed nof, iuof of aoncept'o buL aleo
of wordo, ?oolslrucNuralisNs focuo on readinq Nhe
wriltlen condibion of the
le>(^ Read in Ihis man'
ner, Iext g Vroduce a
variely ol mutrually
conNradichory
effects,
"tPt
a7
-l
of Vower. For him Lhere io only LheToslmodernieNe aleo lend lo
think thaV langua7e and meaninq
are fragmenlary. We know that,
?oet mo dernism queelione t he
whole nolion of dominance, For
instance, it queeT,ions the idea
that, one qrand etory can domi-
nale smaller onee. l l queelione
the idea that Lhere ie a hierarchy
of storiee, wilh the grand narca-
Nivee on t oV and Ihe emal ler oneelower down on Nhe trohem Vole.Tosteirucf,uralism backs uV ?oet-
moderniem with ito analysis oflanqua7e and knowledge. One ofthe moet Vrominent Tostef,ruc-
turaliete hae been a French inlel-lectual named Michel FoucaulN.
French Veycholoqiot born in
ToiIiers in 1926, He was con-cerned wiih Ihe relaNionehip
between ?ower and knowledge.but, he ridiculed lhe idea that
?ower io a huqe, monoli lhic et af,eslructrure and was distruetful ofbiq mef,atrheories thatr attemVt,lo Vrovide monol i lh ic explanatr ione
s
d t*-how power ie exercieedin varioue local situatione. The
Vrioon, lhe hospi la l , the aoylurr ,
the univereiNy,lhe bedroom are all
Vlacee where ?ower relationehiVo
are at, work, Even 9/M, for ,._r,,
, /
-4-=
\r-N
\ N
94
I D=a
ee?oueed euch local ot ruqgleo,
DUN Daudri l lard commande
thal we torget Foucault, be-
cau6e his ideae aboul ?owerare obeolele.
l9l why obsolete?
E Decauee, accordinq f,o
Oaudri l lard, Vower ie dead, die'
Foucault,, ie a kind of qama a way
of explor inq lhe dimeneions of
?ower locally. No 6rand general
theory can exVlain how ?owerworks in all Nhese eit ee.
solved, canceled and made
hyp erreal t hrouqh simula-
lione, modele, aodes.
ln the new Tosf,modern
universe of mediabli lz, we no
lon7er have ?ower Ver ee-but,
s om ehhin q F o u c ault f orqot
aboul-simulations of Vower, For
inetance, Ronald Reaqan ruled l ike
a kinq merely W posing-bV offer-
inq eigne of power in phoho ope
and sound bites-ratrher Nhan by
exercisin7 power,
4
"#
-J
Fur\hermore, eve\
lhere ie Vower trhere i:
lance. And the only w
Fur\hermore, even
oaye,iemtntsT,s,iormer com- iW d7
flut if rougr isdead-su t5
sErrualitAccordin7 to Foucaull sexuali-
f,,y refere Lo lalk and wrilinq abouN
erotric Vracticee, which cont ain rulee
and Vrohibi t ione and dist inquieh
normal eex from pervereione, 7ul
accordinq Io gaudri l lard, in the new
Toetmodern era sex ie dead becauee
everyLhinq ie eex. Sexual eimulatione are
everywhere, in advefi, isinq, in fashion, on'N,
in f i lrn. )exualitry ie no longer inl imafe,
?ereonal and Vrivate behavior. l f, io oVen,
enc ouraqe d, unl imited, unreet r ic led, man-
daf,ory-a command t o release sexual Len-
eione (builf uV throuqh Lhe sex-everywhere
dieplay of eexuali ly) throuqh eexual codes.
Thus "Everyfihing ie oexualitry" (FF t+1, Duf, if every-
thing ie eexuality-Lhen nothing ie oexuality!
@ *.,,, if sex is deod in the Postmodern, Poststructurql
universe, then is there onything left? lt seems thot everything
hos been destroyed.
And Nhat, brinqe ue Lo deconetrucLion-lhe brainchild of French'
96
t rained philoeoVher J acquee Dercida,
Weren't Foucoult ond Bou-
drillord French os well? Why is
so much Postmodern ond Post-
structutrolist thought domi -
noted by French thinkers?
[ *r,, France, durinq the
Enliqhtenmenl (the l9rh cen- ;
tury), ae we have alreadY
t alked abouf', reallY invenf'ed
lhe idea of lhe inlellectual-
the idea of a cerebral elitre who
would sil back and iuol sofD of
Ihink abouf, thinqo. And from
the f, ime of the Enliqhten-
menl,, France hag been a
kind of Varadiee for
intellecNualo, a Vlacewhere philoeoVhers and
thinkers have been reqarded ao
national f'reaeuree. Their books
are ena??ed u? ao readilY ae the
lat eol 'r'hriller, Iheir dioPut'eo and
divagalione are writf'en uP in
ql o eey, m aoe- m e di a m a q azinee,
rhey a??ear on'N ralk ehowe,
they qeV qood-looking lovere and
qood seaf's at' reslauranls. ln
exchange for f'hese favore, theY
are ex?ect'ed f,o getr a moral I'one,
Io buck eet'abliehed valueo, and
mosl import'anf'-No be avanN
qarde. TheY reetr eecure in t'he
knowledqe Nhatr whal tr 'heY think
today, t'he resT, of France will be
t;hinking lomorrow. At times, Nheir
wiedom even overeVille French bor-
dere, f loodinq T'he qreaLer int 'el lec-
lual world wilh French ideae,
For decades, on
the eidewalke oubeide
the cafes of ?arie,
l ight, has danced
down throuqh the
bouqho alonq Nhe
boulevardo, playing
over the eufiacee ot
objeclo, dappling
tableclothe and vari-
ouely attired loreoe
with ewarme of
eVhemeral huee.
French cafe-qoers,
many of them peoVleof in lel l igence and
culture, have Vlacedorders, fumbled for
ciqarettes, and foundiI very aNlractive Iobe able to eiN at at able and t alk about
Lhe t able and, raioinq
an int elleclual eye-brow in Lhe daVpled
l iqht, , Lo aek i f the
t able ie.
Treeiding over
al l th ie Lable t a lk,
from the time of theF rench Kev oluti on, f,h eimaqe of the Vhi looo-pher wa6 one of the
intellectual enqaqe,
acro99 p?e. Ae wehave alrea lked
abouf,, Frenc
denLg, eu??o
the Marxietrs, loolhe etreete, fiqhling
Ihe army and pol ice in
order to overlhrow
the governmenL They
nearly eucceeded, but
were evenT,ually
who, beeides wonder-inq if trhe Nable is or ienotr, was to be found
engaqed in pol iL ical
and Vublic affaire. ln
recenT, l imes, up unNi l
the late 196Oe, Jean-Taul 1afr,re defined
the imaqe. 7ut I,henthe icon of the int el-lecLual chanqed,
Af the earne l imeyoun7 Americano weret r iVVing to J imi Hen-drix, "H6y Jude," Hair,and 2OO1: A gpace
Odyaey, a eludent
movementr eweVtr
quelled, Fail inq to
demolieh ehaIe ?ower,Lhey became diei l lu-
eion ed, inw ardlo okin g.guddenly exhibitinA Affi,lToelmodern
ciem abouL q
mythe euch
iem and ff immuniam,
Nhey beqan to commif,
Ihemeelves Lo lan-
quaqe itself. Dieen-gaqing themselvee
from Volit ice,Iheybecame linquietic rev-oluLionariee, f indinqrevolulion in turne ofeVeech, and they
beqan lo view lihera-f,ure, reading andwrit ing as eubvereive
pol i l ical act e in
[hemeelves.9B
lo how wordo oaY
\\,a rnere f 'han f,o
French intrelloc,tu't . : ' . . . .
ale beqan attehdw'4
what words
oay. lncreasinqly die-
IrusLful of lanquaqe
claiming f 'o conveY
only a oinqle, a$thor i '
f,arian me#6aqa T'heY
bagan ry,lVlorinq how
lanquaqe can oay
Ynany different t'hinqe
eimulf,aneouely. DUN
by Nhe l ime all this ,"
had taken VlacaJacqueo Derrida had
emerqed, in t'he laNe
196Oe, as t 'he moeN
avanf' garde of f,he
avanf' qarde' Hie lec-
lure qiven at' Nha
Johne AoVkine Univer '
oily in 1966,"91,ruc-
lure, Sign and ?laY in
the Dieaouree of t'he
Human Sciences,"
caused many previouo
Vhi loeoVhere Io be
reagoeosed, and it'
set Lhe None for
much rhoughf, lo
come, lN was eome'
th inq o f a d isharmo-
nious chord, for his
forbe wae a subver'
sive mode of readingi * " I
authonlaiim iSXf;,-
or any f'exIs. This
otyle of readinq came
lo be known as
deconstructiofi. ln
France, decongt'ruc-
T,i on, ki ckin q exieben-
l ia l iem aeide, wao
euddenly much in
voque. Oerrida be-
came Ihe Vhi loooVherof the day,t,he new
enfant terrible of
French int ellecI'ual-
ism. And then, afI'er
Ihe American debut,
at Johno HoPkine,
deconst'ructrion and
Jacqueo Dercida t'ook
America bY of'orm,
Lurning much of Nhe
Western worldview
toVey-IurqY.
\
YV
Well, tell me then, whot
is deconstruction?
D efininq deconslruclion is
an aclivity Nhat' qoee aqainotr
the whole Nhruet' of Oerrida's
lhouqhl, AcLually, Derrida has
eaid lhal any eNat'emenl euch as
" decono|,ruclion io'Y" auNomabi'
cally misees lhe Voint. OUN
deconebruclion ofaen involvee a
way of reading that concernb
itself wilh decent erinq-with
unmaskinq the Vroblemabic nature
of all cen|,ers.
Decentering? Centers? Whot is
c center? Whqt is problemotic
obout one? Why should one
need to be decentered?rfl Well , Dercida, when he ie not
deconsNruclinq a t exl of some
diff icult VhiloeoVher euch ae Niet-
zsche or Heideqqer, writ,ee abouN
cen|,ers in euch abeNract, lanquaqe,
Nhat I will offer gome concret e
examples. Accordinq to Oerrida,
all Western trhouqhl io based on
trhe idea of a cenler*an oriqin,
a TruNh, an ldealform, a Fixed
?oint, an lmmovable Mover, an
Egsence, a Ood, a Treoence,
which ie usually caVit alized, and
which quaranleee all meanin6.
For insT,ance, for 2OO yeare,
much of Weslern culf,ure has been
cenf,ered on T,he idea of ChrisNian-
ity and Christ,. Other cu\,ures,
as well, al l have their own central
eymbole.
Well, whot's
the motterwith thqt?
The problemcenlerg, for
Derrida, ie IhaI Ihey
at0emVt, Lo exclude, In
doing oo Ihey ignore,
re?re66 or marqinalize
others (which become
the Other). ln male-domin-
at ed socieliee, man ie
cenf,ral (and woman is
the marqin alized Obher,
re?re66ed, iqnored, VuehedIo f,he marqine).
lf you have a culture
which hae Christ in lhe
cen|,er of it g icong, lhen
Chriotians will be cenlral No
that culf,ure, and 7uddhiete,
Muelime, Jews-anybody
different-wil l be in the
m arqin o, m arqin alized,
Vuohed f,o the oulside.
(We muet remember
that Dercida wao born
into an aseimilated
Jewieh family in Algiero, '.
qrowinq up a6 a member i
of a marginalized,
3o Nhe lonqing for acenl,er e?awno binary
oppooitee, wilh one Lerm
of fhe oppooition cenlral,
and Nhe oNher, marqinal.
F u(Yhermore, cenlers wanl
fo fix, or freeze, the Vlay of
binary oVposiNee.
d i opooo e ss ed c ultu re),
Fix the ploy of binorY
opposites? whot does
thqt meon?
realiNy. All olher
viewg are
repreooed.
Drawing
such an icon
is an af'NemVI No fix t'he
?lay of oVVooitee bet'ween, fo
examVle, Chriet'ianlJew or Ch
ianlVaqan. lhe Jew and Ihe
?a7an are nof, even re?reoen
in euch art'. Dut icone are iueone of lhe eocial Vract'ices-Lhere are many more- ihat'
t o fix Ihe Vlay of oVVooif,ee-
advefrieing, eocial codes, t a
c onv enf,iong, c aNe qo ri es, rilu a
etc .7u l rea l i ty and lanqua7e
are noI ae oimVle and einqula
as icons with a cenf'ral, exclu
sive imaqe in their middle-t
are more l ike ambiguouo fiqu
The int ereoting thing abo
such figuree ie lhat at' firet
[ *r', , r,he ovpooir,ionmanlwoman ie juot ' one binary
oVp ooiNe. Ot'hers are eViritrl m at'-
f,er; n ature / culture; Cauc asian /
3l a ck; Eur o c ent riem I Afr o c en -
T,r iem; and Chrietr ianl V aqan,
Accordin7 tro Derrida we have
no accees to realitry exceVf'
Nhrough concept's, codeg and
caNegories, and Ihe human mind
functione by forminq conceVt'ual
pairo such as Iheee,You see
how one member of Ihe Vair ,(here the lefL), ie privi leged, The
riqhl-hand lerm then becomee
marqinalized, lcone wilh Chriet,
or Suddha or whalever in f,he
cenler trry I,o Iell ue trhaN what'
ie in the cent er is t 'he only
oee only one ?ooeibil i t 'y. One
Voeeibilily io "cenbral" for a
momenl. For a moment t ' ,he
fiqure eignif ieo facee, bul t 'hen,
becauee Nhe Vlay of lhe eye-
trem is nol arceeted, T'he olher
view dawne, and t 'he oame fiqure
eiqni f ieo a candle.
buI eu??oee a qrouV oeizee
?ower, a qrou? called Nhe Face'
iete (l have deliberaf'ely made
this sound like "Faeciol'e").
They mighl draw eyeo on f,he
f aces. Thie would be an
aT,t emVt, tro fix or arreot t'he
free Vlay of differencee.
ln euch a ei lual ion, Candle-
iels would be marginalized,
re?reaoed and even oVVreoeed
or ?eroecut ed. The imaqe of
Ehe faces becomes Nhe Vrivi-leqed member of lhe or iqinal
Vair, ln oNher worde, a violent'
hierarchy ie formed in which
the cenf,ralized member of
lhe Vair, Nhe f ace, becomee
ineNilutred ae Nhe Keal and
lhe Good.
Derrida oayo t'hat all ot
West ern thoughl behavee in
ihis 6ame way,forminq paire
of binary opVoeilee in which
one member of the Vair ie Vr iv-i leqed, l reezinq Nhe ?lay of the
eyelem, and marqinalizing Nhe
olher member of the pair. but'
Nhe frqure, in realif'y, eiqnifieo
both facee and a candle.
@ ,"r, but how does this cpply to longucae, toliteroture, to reoding?
rH Deconstructrion ie a t actric of decenterinq, a wayof readinq, which first reminde us of the centralityof the cent'ral trerm. Then ir att emptro f,o subverr lhecentrral Nerm so rhat the marqinalized term canbecome cenf,ral. The marginalized Ierm lhen t em-
V orarily overLhrowe lhe hi erarchy.)uvpoee you have a ?oem euch ae rhe following haiku:
And eu??oee thaf, for thoueande of yeare Iheonly correcr way of reading rhe poem ie to read"pine6" ao a verb-like pining for one,s lost love.
E
O.K. But whqt qbout the othermeoning? Cqn't "pines," in thecontext of the second line, switchover ond become o noun: .,pines
upon the mountqinside?"
Yee, that'o riqht, That would belhe eecond move in deconetructinq a piece of literature-to eubverltrhe Vrivileqed T'erm by revealinq how rhe repreesed, marginalized mean-inq can juet as well be central.
But whot good does thot do?
Doesn't this just institute o
new center? lnsteod of
"pines" the verb we hove
"pines" the noun. Or insteqd
of Foce-ists we now hove
Condle-ists in power?
Exachly. Dercida claime lhaL
deconslrucT, ion ie a Vol i t ical
Vractice, and f,hat one musl noI
paee over and neulral ize the
phaee of eubveroion f,oo quickly.
For f,hie ohaee of revereal ie
needed in order f,o subverL the
oriqinal hierarchy of f,he firel
lerm over the second. 7uf,
evenf,ually, one musN realize
lhal th ie new hierarchv ie
equal ly unetab le , andgurrender to the com-
Vle le f ree-? lay of
f ,he binary o??o6itee in a non'
hierarchical way, Then you can eee
lhal both readinqe, and many
olhere, are equal ly Voeeible,
Yes! Like "pines upon the
mountoin sighed" (insteod
of "mountoinside")!
E 9o you can eee f,he Voeeibili-tiee. lf the lexT, were bhe Com-
muniel Manifeelo or f,he Torah
or t rhe Koran or lhe Sible or f ,he
Conet i fuf , ion, you could decon-
elruct any frxed, auf,horifarian,
dogmatr ic, or orthodox reading.
Of course, such lexlg are much
more comolex than our haiku.
They are more multifacel,ed,
like the drawina below.
105
lf you have a eyof,em of trianqleo
such as Nhie, Nhen you wil l nof,ice IhaN
if you sf,are aN il,, a eeries of configu-
ratione of trianqleo preeente itreelt No
your vision-one aft,er the oT,her. Sul
each ao-called preeent confrquratrion,
each qrou? of Nr ianqlee which eeems No
be momentari ly present, hao emerqed
ouV of a prior confi7uraf,ion and is already dieeolvinq inlo a fuNure con'
f iguration. And Nhie ?lay qoee on endleeely, There ie no cenT,ral confiqu-
ration that, attemVte No treeze Ihe play of the oyef,,em, no marqinal
one, no Vrivi leged one, no re?reesed one. According to Oercida all lan'
7uaqe and all t exf,,e are, when deconslruct ed, like this. And eo ie human
Nhouqht,, which ie always made uV of lanquaqe. He eayo we ehould con-
tinuouely altrempl lo eee trhis free play in all our languaqe and
Next e-which otherwise will lend toward fixity, inelif.,uNionalizaT,ion,
cenlralizalion, totalitarianism, exclusion, For in our anxiety we alwaye
feel a need No construcf, new cenf,ers, Lo asgociaNe ourgelves wilh
Nhem, and lo mar7inalize f,hose who are differenl Nhan
their cenT,ral valuee.
see, then. Deconstruction first focuses on
the binory oppositions within o text-like
mon/womon. Next it shows how these
opposites qre reloted, how one is
regorded os centrol, noturol ond privi-
leged-the other ignored, repressed ond
morginolized. Next it tempororily undoes,
subverts or decenters the hierorchy to moke
the text meon the opposite of whot it origi-
nolly qppeqred to meqn. Then, in the lost
Dinttlllt,,tt''
\f
step, both terms of the opposition ore
deconstructed-seen doncing in o free
ploy of nonhierorchicol, non-stoble
meonings. But if longuoge is just
the free ploy of meonings-with no
fixed mecnings-if qll texts degener-
ote into the ploy of meqnings, then
there is no bosis for politicol oction.
Tlfl ffnar'o riqhl, ln fact', many Marxisls and
f eminietre h av e af,tracke d dec o nebru cf,i o n
because iN cannotr 7rovide a firm foundaf,ion
for polirical acNion or even ?olilical crif.'icism'
@ o"O if longuoge is frogmented, then
people, who use longuoge' must be
somewhot frogmented too.
Iljl Vru, t'his ie whaN many ?osAmodernisls f'heo-
rize. Whereas lhe menlal diseaeeo of modernism
were alienat' ion and Varanoia, ochizoVhrenia is \
the ?oslmodern menf'al dieease. lf lhe een-
\1
lence breaks down, so does lhe peyche' 5o
does our ex?erience of paev, Vreoenl and fuLure'
Thue ?oelmodernism wallows in the ?lay of meaninqo, itr eurts Nhese
meaninqs and is concerned wit'h Vertormance, ?lay and Vroceoe
raNher Nhan wilh trhe finiehed vroduct,, ?oetrmoderniom delighlo
in lhe ever-changing ?lay of appearancez, raf'her t'han wit'h
eourcee and rootre and oriqino. Which qet,s ust'o our nert
?oslslrucluraliets, Deleuze and GuaT't'ari, whoee idea ol fhe
rhizome io oV7oeed Io f'he root.
|rrhEHirtrrGilles Deleuze and Fehx GuaI-
lari are f,wo French Yoslsf,ruc-turaliste who have had a majorimVact, on American thought,.
For, accordinq to them, mo6f,of Weet ern lhouqht ie dominatredby a elruct ure of knowledqe theycall aboreecence. The way ofknowinq ie treelike, ve(Dical, Forinstrance, in bioloqy wa have Lin-naean taxonomies.
ue hrueFhqriantfu
ln [inguirtirt uE haue
EhrHIlt{iln
\VP
/ \is wise
guch Nrees show uV not only in the frelds of bioloqy,botany, l inguistics and analomy,butr also in Vhiloso-?hy-where we have metraVhyoical treee, theoloqicalNreeo, qnoolic f,rees, The World Tree, qenealoqical lrees.
Theee Nrees arehi erarchi c al, imV o oin q
limit ed and requlatredconnecf,iong between
Iheir comVonentre,All euch lreee oVread
outr like many branches andsf,ems from a sinqle lrunk-
each ef,eminq from an ori1inaloneneea or unity.
nhodospirillumrubtum
n m a
C m o e
Of couree, al l th ie
can be Lraced back Io
?laf,o, whoe e v e(Dic al,
f,reelike VhiloooVhyproclaimed a material
world of manifeela-
tions st emminq from
T,he "f,runk" of a realm
of ldeal Forme or
Eeeences.
For instance,
Ooberman Vinechere,German eheVherde,
col l ies and Voodlesare al l mat er ia l
manifeetations of
an immater ial
Eeeence-an ldeal
Form of what, Tlato
might, cal l Doqqineee.
Doqqineee ie Ihe sin-
gle Tlat onic Oriqin-
the Trunk-of the
lree of doqo. Toodles,
colliee, etc, form the
branchee.
A major Nree-
like etrucf,ure that
Deleuze and GuaIf,ari
criLicize is the )edi-
?uo comVlex. lf, ie
r\ ll '
;,,,. . \ \ l t t ." ' .
treelike because all
lhe varioue Veychic
?roceoeee can be
f,raced back No an
oriqinal traumaf,ic
evenL in which Ihe
child ie eeVarat ed
from Nhe mother. Thie
lack of the molher ie
the basie of deeire,
and is com?enaat ed
for only by the child's
enIry into the oym-
bolic order-Ihe order
of Law and the Name-
of-the-Fatrher.
9u1 Deleuze and
OuatLari reject Ihe
idea of the OediVue
Nrianqle-of the
f af,h er - Vrincipl e, an d
of deeire baeed on
lack. Deeire, for
Deleuze and GuaNtrari,
inst ead of beinq
baeed on lack and
"f ,s\$-li
110
rooled in an or iqinal
)ediVal Lrauma, ie
crealed horizontallY,
by oocial in lerconnec-
lione. And the inT'er-
connecf,iong bef,ween
the infant ' and hie
ourrounding eocieNY
are alwaye in move-
rnent, frowinq, t 'akinq
l inee of f r iqht ' , l ike a
elrinqer of crabqraee
. . . t i ke a rh i zome .
3o, oppoeed Lo
lhe vert'ical, f'ree'
like sf,rucl'ure of
knowledge, Deleuze
and GuaLlari ?ro'c laim a rhizomaf, lc,
radical ly hor izonfal ,
crabgraes-l ike way of
knowing. Crabqraeo,
for ingt ance, ie a
planI. 7uI instead of
one cenlral rool, if'
has zi l l ione of roob6,
none of which ie cen-
lral-and each off-
shoot, inLerconnecls
in random, unrequlat ' '
ed networks in which
any node can inler-
connecl wi th any
olher node.
Whereae lhe lree
eeeke f,o eef'ablieh
ileelf and eay "lo bel'
lhe rhizome ie alwayo
re arran qin q inf 'ercon'
necliong, eayinq "and,
and , and , and , . l '
Thug the tree ie
concerned with ori-
gine, foundat' iono,
ontologiee, begin-
nlnge and endingo-
roots.The rhizome is
concerned with sur-
faoe conneolions,
lines of flight', wit'lh
Lhe "andl'
not mean
anythinq or
repreaent,any-
thing. They are not Lhere to beintrerVreted.
It, ie good enouqh merely todeecr ibe dreams and, in doinq eoNo walch how lheir eymbole o?enu? new, horizonlal interconnec-
lione bef,ween olher eymbole.
For ingtance, in Kafka'o "LeN-
ler f,o Hie FaIher" he inffates hiefaNher to lauqhably absurd,dreamlike dimeneionl, unli l hisfather's oingular Falherneee qetoeo huqe NhaI iI Vope-explodinqint o a vasl rhizomalic network off at herlike eoci al conn eclions
character, Greqor gamea,
awakee one morninq only Io f indthat he hae been Iraneformedint o a huqe buq. Some cr iNicereqard trhe relalionehiV betweenGreqor and hie molher and fa-ther ao Nypically Oedipa| Dut,aqain, Kafka exVlodee Lhe Falher'eeinqle imaqe inlo many, includinga chief clerk and a bose. Kafkathue triee Io de-OediValize Gre-qor'o fabher. Dut in Lhe end Gre-qor'6 l ine of ff iqht faile, and l ike aqood 6on, he diee for hie family,
lN is only in Kafka'e novels
trhat the rhizomaf,ic l ine of fr iqhf,
truly succeedo-eo?ecially in
The Trial. One miqhl exVecN a
novel named The Trial lo have
eometrhing No do wibh t 'he law,
3u1 Deleuze and Guaf't'ari find
lhaN Just'ice in lhe novel is noT'
leqal buL erotric. JusNice ie reallY
desire. Thue, t 'here are obecene
drawinqo in Nhe courl 'houee; an
af,Norney equaileo beinq accused
wilh beinq af't'ractrive; a series of
euqgeoNive
encounf'erg \
with eexy,
antrifamil ial S;-twomen; and
a Vaintr inqof Just'ice
ae winqed,
and evasive.
K., tha ?ro'Iaqonietr of
Nhe novel,
never reach-
es Just ice.")he" ie
never ?re-senl, buf'
t. iong and
eocial
relal,iong.
L- toying with lhe ebrucbures
u. of ingf,it'u'. V A
alwaye one roo y from him
in the rhizomaNic, ral Nunnel of
the coufi,houee wiNh iNe crazy
corridore and ?ervereely connecN-
ed paeoaqewayo Nhrouqh which K.
ie led by erolicized women. Thus
Jusiice,l ike lhe coufi 'houee and
degire, ig rhizoma|' ic, never reach'
inq conclueion. Kafka's wrif, ing,
troo, ie rhizomaNic, maVVinq and
frTtsnrsttl^ldrt
lsn't the Internet rhizomqtic,
horizontol?
Yee. lt, is non-hierarchical, hor-
izonlal. l ls nodes int ersecl in
random, unrequlated networks in
which any node can inf,erconnecl
with any oT,,her node. ln thie
reoVectr Deleuze and GuaT.,Iari
were correcl, when they declared a
new form of rhizomalic, horizonLal
knowledqe. ln f acN, f,here
is a sf,ory in t,heMarch 18,1996
New Yorker enli-
Iled "Vifr,ual
Oiehop;'
The biehoV indicat'ed ie
Jacquee Guil lof ', who was exiled bY
the VaNican No Algeria for his
"hel,erodox" opiniono, )f 'uck in the
middle of Ihe desefi,- in an
ancienl dioceee Ihat for all Vrac-l ical VurVoeee no longer exiet e-
he went, onl ine, becominq the
world's firef, virtrual biehoV.
It was a visionary author, Leo
)cheer, who hooked up Ihe biohoV,
He ie quot ed ae oayinq thal" lnstead of a metaphyeical idea
of a biehop, attached to a real
place, we would have a metaphyoi-
cal idea of a place, attached to a
real biehop."
The virLual dioceee, which canbe acceoeed from anywhere in theworld, imit alee trhe mind of God-a horizonf,al, rhizomalic God. ln
facN,lhe biehoV, who counle
amonq his triende VeoVle l ike Jeanbaudri l lard, comVlaine that, unt i llhe oVening of lhe virtual dioceee,"The Church hae been orqanized
veraically, when we ought to be
organized horizontallyi' Of couree,
the Church eoon went, onl ine
ae wel l .-N\i:
HEl lt seems likeverticol is outond horizontolis in.
Tn Yeo, but t,he
lronic thing io
HOW, in 1995,
Deleuze aom-
mit ted euiaide,
tn He ju mpedoff a tall vertl'aal etructur*a bu i ld inq.
E committedsu ic ide! Buthow?
\1,\
.N\
(w
The Condition of Poetmodernity
It seems qs if his self must hqve been pretty
ented. But where does the frogmentotion -of
self, ond of "things"-common to both modernism
ond Postmodernism come From?Tn Well, accordinq to David Harvey'o The Condition of Postmodernity,
changee in our ?erce?trion of l ime and epace occur, thisbrinqe about equally larqe chanqeo in Nhe wayo we re?resent theworld-boLh in the art,e and in Vhitoeophy.
The hielory of caViNaliom hae brouqht, on whal Harvey calle e?ace-Lime com?reoeion: There hae been an increaee in Ihe Vace of l i fe. And
Varallel ing lhe increaein7 com?ression in Nime, e?ace has ehrunk. rheworld oeemo to collapee inwarde on u6.
oul it' wao not alwaye like Nhis. Durinq Europe'o feudal era, each
tf Jt feudal f iefdom wae a definire leqal, Volit ical, economic and socialf 'F- t ) '
ffi._ts world. AN t'he cenf'er wae the caetrle,lhe Lord and Lady of thecaet' le and rhe nobil iLy. Working rhe fields and the foreeto, a
laee of eerts were loyal to trheir feudal lorde, of course,
ff,hio feudal world wae trhoughV to be only a reffectrion of a';., coemos ruled on hiqh by God and a qanq of heavenly
hoeT,e, and VoVulated by darker characfero, Nhe crea-turee of myfh and folklore-wiT.,ches, qianNe, dragono.
Medieval maVmakere often
re?reoenhed lhie world in eensu-
ous det ail, almosl l ike a Vaintinq.ln such ma?e, a river is a sensu-
ous frow of blue Vain| Ihat' cuts
trhrough a dark foresl (reVreoent'-
ed by painbinq in a number of
Nreee)-and beyond we find lhe
castle. A crose ohininq from t'he
oteeVle of the church and it s 6ur-
roundinq bui ld inqo are aleo al l reV'
resent ed ae they might, be in a
Vaintrinq. These det'aile are oeen
from a bird's-eye ?ereVecNive, ae
if God were looking down upon t'he
ecene, Ar the edge of such ma?e
wae Nhe end of t'he world-and a
cosmic draqon wait ' inq No ewallow
anyone who would dare venbure
troo close t o trhe edqe
and f al l int o hie
mouth.
With t'he Kenaiesance, lhe
princiVle of Verepeclive made iIe
etiNione of m;yl'lh and religion.
At the 6ame time, t 'he
Ttolemaic oyotrem of ma?-
makinq made i lo way t 'o
EuroVe-a oyotrem lhat reV- \iresenled o? ace obieclively.
From trhen on, a malhemalical
qrid-a qeometric framework
allowinq viewers lo acf'ually mea-
oure dislanceg bet'ween lowns
and oceane-would aV-
?ear on all ma?o. Nou
eince all of o?ace, all of
lhe world, could be reVre-
eenled by a qeomef'ric qrid, t'he
whole qlobe wae euddenly know-
able and conquerable. ExVlorero,
oettinq oul on voyaqee ol dis'
covery, drew such ma?e, which
were Nhen valuable to
merchant s and
Nradere,
At the eame Nime
Nhat o?ace became
choVVed uV mathe-
matically, the clock,
or chronomeNer, made
if,e aVVearance.
These new conce?-
Nions of sVace and
time were reflecf,ed
in every ephere of
Kenaiesance culbure.
ln archileclure, Golh-
ic cathedrale had
been ?o?ulahed with
groleeque qargoyleo
and angels. DuN Lhese
qave way, in lhe ba-
roque era,f,o a more
exVansive archihec-
lure, to lhe eoarinq
enerqiee of Dach'e
fuguee and the ex-
Vaneive imaqee of
o?ace and t ime in
John Donne's Voetry.7uI thie new, infi-
nile, meagured
imaqe of t ime and
o?ace eNill reflectred
God'e qlory.
Then bhe lBrh-
cenlury Enl ighl ,en-
mentr gaw e?ace ao
eomethinq tro be con-
quered. Vlape were
purqed of all elemenNe
of fanNasy and reliqion
and became absNracf,
qeomeNric, cold,
mathematical , and
etrictly funcIional.
Both t ime and
o?ace became uni-
form, mechanical ,
NewDonian o?ace and
I ime. but i f the whole
world could be envi-
eioned ae uniform, it
land could be la id ouI
on a gr id and div ided
u? equally-ae wae
done in the Uni Ied
St atee-trhen thie
could create f,he
basie for equality in
oociety, lf, could cre-
ate Nhe basis lor
democracy.
ln other worde,
trhe view of a ratrional,
uniform qrid of 6?ace
and trime allowed
Enl iqhlenmenl
thinkers t o envis ion
colonial and uNoVian
plano thal could be
rolled out, over T,he
whole uniform qrid of
Ihe qlobe, Space wao
knowable, and
through Eucl idean
qeomeIry, conquer-
able. 1pace, natstre,
and trhe world could
be measured, known
and dominated.
For Enliqhtrenmenl
thinkers this vaet
qrid of epace and
t ime no lonqer cele-
braNed God's
infinitre qlory but
dioplayed Ihe dimen-
sions of a universe
Ihal could be domi-
naf,ed by MAN , And
ueed by Man for hie
own freedom. No
lonqer would one fear
fall ing off the edqe of
Nhe eafth int o Ihe
mouf,h of a coemic
mongf,er.
EuroVeane
thouqhl lhat, now
Ihere wae a Vlace in
this conquerable
e?ace for everyone.
Africa could Vrovideslaves, and oiher
conl inenbs and cl imee
could Vrovide raw
mat erials for lhe
imVerial EuroVean
and American ?ower6.The chronomet er
allowed time,l ikeg?ace, Io be geen ae
mathemal,ical and
uniform. Time now
t,icked away in a
et raighl l ine from the
Vaet,lo trhe future,
Voderniem
:l eaw Lhe break-
inq up of Lheee
= uniform, l inear, con-
ceptr iono of opace andLime. Durinq Lhe Enliqhbenment
eocial t ime and Vhyeical tr ime hadmerqed, had become uniform andmabhemabical. Time had become
Vroqreeeive.Butr in the mid-ninetreenlh
cenLury, thie ?roqreaoive eeneeof l ime wae ehaken. Vany Euro-
?eane who had pafricipated inuVrieinqs and revolulione hadhad a Iaele of exVloeive T,ime,Thoee caughT, up in class otrug-qlee had a eenee of alternalinq,cyclic I ime.
Also, by the mid-nineLeenLhcenf,ury, iN became evjdent, thaleconomic and social t ime hadchanqed. With improvemenle int ranepo(Cat ion and communica-f, ione, all of Europe wae becominqeconomic ally interd eV en dent. IfTaris should euffer a financialcrisie, Nhe crieis also affectredLondon and berlin.
9imilarly, workere
in various count ries
beqan to oympathize
wi lh each otrher, and in such anenvironment, lhe Communis|
Manifeelo, could gain an audience.
AfLer 1B5O,Ihe major Euro-
?ean naNione expanded qlobally,etriVVinq much of the e?acein Nhe world of iNe Vreviouenamee and ueee. l l became rou-tine for nations, ci l ies and indiv-iduale to be deeVly in luenced
by evenls lhousands of mileeaway, The radio,Ihe mol,or car,and Nhe train acceleraled theeedevelopmenVe,
How could any wrif,er, T,hen,sti l l write a realisNic novel wilha Vlot unfolding ?aqe after ?aqein eimVle, et ep-by-eLeV, chrono-loqical order?
rul. \ ?
\.6..2
Writ ers
euch as
Flaubefi,,
Trouet, and
James
Joyce
beqan t'o
capt ure this
eenee ofg imul t aneoua
trime by alf,erinq
Nhe sf,rucf,ures of their Vlobo.Einst ein'e revoluNionary Nheo-
riee of relativity
chanqed the Ver'ceVtrion of oVace
and time even
more. lmVreeoion-
iot Vaint ere euch ae
ManeN and Cezanne beqan lo
decompoee trhe e?ace of object'e
wilhin V aint, in qo-object'e die e olv -
inq into dabe of l iqhL Cubism fur'
ther decompoeed Ihe obiecL. ln
oo ciolo gy Du rkhe im's EIem enta ryForme of Religioue Life, Vubliohedin 1912, founded the senee of t ime
in social rhythmo. lt became
a??arenL tha| there are ae many
experiences of e?ace and l ime
as f,here are ?eroVectrivee.
Now, in the
Toebmodern
world, rhe
ohrinkinq of
eVace hae
chanqed Nhe
waye lhat,
money and
commodi l iee
oVeraIe, CaVilal
is now eleclronically
moved around Ihe qlobal mar-
ketVlace wibh such raVidity that'
it, hae los| much of if,e eNabilily
and meaninq. ln our local eu?er-
markeT,g, we can buy French
cheeeee and wines, beers from
Canada, Mexico, Asia and Euro?e,
qreen beane from SouIh America
or Africa, Tahil ian manqoee, Cali-
fornia celery, Canadian aVVleo,
eNc. )Vace is aleo
compreeoed
in the ?o?u-lations of thelarqeet, ciliee,increasinqly made
uV of minor i t ies
such ae Vietnameae,
Koreans, EasNern Europ eane,
Cenbral Americane, Africane, ef,c,
PustAe eVace ehr inkl more and more, Nhe indiv idual qual i -
tiee of differenl epacee, differenl localihiee, qrowe inimVoftance. CefDain Vrovincee in France become veryimpoftan| if Nhey can ?rovide a cefr,ain kind of wine
oVVooed ro f 'he fixed accumulation of the early zorh centrury, when
corporaT'ione like Ford Mohor Company and Lheir capiNal baeically oat,in one place and Vumped oul cars for a relatrively ehable marker.
Harvey believee that Ihe ephemerali ly, collaqe and fraqmentalion
of Toetrmodern aftifacte such ae booke, frlme, archiNecture and art,are oimVly mircore of thie Vhenomenon of frexible accumulahion.
An examVle of thie ie trhe movie Sladerunner, which
contraine eiqnif ic ant ToeNmo dern elem ent e."Olade Kunner" ig a Viclorian word for "Vrivatre eye."
The fi lm became a cull f i lm-and t,hen a kind of natrional
eVecimen of Tosf,modernism. ltr even
inepired Will i am Gibson' e
novel Neuromanaer and
lhe movemenf,lhaf, hae
come Io be known as
ovberounk.<--
Olade Runner ie
about, a qanq of qeneti-
cal ly Vroduced humane
c alled " replicantl" who
have been created to
\ oerve ae hyVer-
ef,ronq, inlell iqenl
and ekil led elavee.
The are uged "off-
worldl ' in trhe haz'
ardoue work of
exVlor inq and
colonizinq Ihe
out er planet e.
Albhough Nhey have
been qiven human emo-
t iong, lhey are con-
sidered somewhat dan-
qeroue, and as Vafi, ol
lheir qenetic ?roqram,have a l i fe e?an of only
four yeare,
l$l tt looks os if theywould be good short-
controct workers inq Postmodern world.
But qre they humqn
beings or not?
IH Do you remember
J e an Daudri l lard ' e con-
ceVt, of trhe eimulacrum?
Sure, the simulocrum
is the copy thot is so
close to the originol
thqt the originol is
no longer importont.
And Nhat'e what
reVlicanle have be-
come-simulacra
lhat are naarly indie-
t inquiehable from
human beinqo, ln fact,
Blade Kunner ?or-Iraye a baudril lardian
world in which "The
real ie produced from
miniaturized units,
from matricea, memo-
ry banko and com-
mand modules-and
with these it can be
reproduced an indefi-
nite number of timee"
(erM 5).
And Ihe reVli-
canls have ret urned
Io Los Anqeleo, where
they were made, in
order to meeN trheir
maker, a qenetric
deeigner named lyrell,
who is Ihe head of
Ihe huge Tyrell Cor-
VoraIion, and ie in
command of trhe re-
Vroductive proce66eo
neceoeary for cre-
alion of reVlicants.
The reVlicanle are
anqry about Iheir
eho(C life eVan. How-
ever, Tyrell exVlaino lo
Koy, Nhe leader of trhe
enraqed reVlicantro,
lhat f,hey should
enjoy lheir shofv life
becauee it, is more
inf,ense-like a ffame
thal burns T,wice as
briqhfly but, hae only
a ehoft durai ion,Il$l But doesn't thot
mqke them likethe Postmodernpersonolities-
cought up in therush of time?
tlfl Yee. And the LoeAnqelee lhey rehurn
lo, ouppooedly Loe
Anqelee of the year
2019, ie no utopia, ln
facL iN ie a dyetroVia,
a decayed, Tost-
industr ia l waeleland.
0n the lowestf 0u0l, emvty ware-houeee and induet'r ial
Vlant o l ie hal f -bur ied
in heaVe of ro|t'inq
rubbish, which are
ecavenqed by roaminq
bands of punks and
otrher human vulNuree
l iv inq on lhe decayinq
remains of the VaoI.
0n t|te miildlel0U0l, rhe busrte ofelreet, life, itr looke
eometrhinq l ike Honq
Kong (on a bad day)
crowded wilh Vunko,various riff-raff, Hare
Krishna devoT,eee,
and oNher marqinal
etreeN folk.
0n the hiUhestl0U0l, eoarins hishabove lhe etreeN
ecum,f,owerg a hiqh-
t ech world of corVo-
raNe ?ower, architec'
Lure and advefVieinq:
Zan Am, Coca Cola,
Sudweieer. Dut, hov-
er inq above al l Ihe
corporaNe offices is
Nhe Tyrell CorVora'
tion ileelf.
Not only the reVl i -
canls are simulacra,
buV the archil,ecf,ure
of lhe cily io too, lT, ie
an eclectic ?osf,mod-
ern hodqepodqe of
eimulacra. The
Tyrell corVorale
headquafi,ere looke
l i kea reV l i ca ,as imu -
lacrum of a ?yramid,loel amonq a bazaar
of Oreek, Koman,
Vayan, Chinese, and
Vict orian motifs.
The Vrofusion of
corVorale archi-
leclure and adver-
I io inq oiqne in Ihe
ciNy, which com-
binee elemenNe of
New York, Tokyo,
Honq Konq and
Loe Angelee, ie
noNhinq eo much
a6 a chaos of
circulal inq eiqno
referrinq
Eo other
otqne.
The Toebmodern a(Eistic
VrinciVle atr work hera ia pae'tiche, a eeriee of neutral quo-tabione mimickin q v ari oue
archif,ecNural stylee and frlm
eVylee, Evef f ih inq ie doublecoded.
E whot is double coding, ogoin?T!f You will remember thaL in
archi t ectrure double coding con-
eieT,e of ueing lvloderniet melh-
ode, bul l ranecending them by
simul lan eouely qu ot in q archi lec -
f,ural mof,ife from the pael or
from a local cullure-buf, con-
eciouely, in a Vlayful, Vaeliche-eort, of way thaL can be humoroue
or i ronic,
Illl Like the ArEr building thot is
of once o piece of modern orchi-
tecture ond o quote of o grondfo-
ther clock?rl i l Yee. And double codinq can
occur noI only in archilecLure but,
in juet, abouf, any art form. 3o in
Elade Runner, everythinq ie dou-
ble coded. There are nol' only
human reVlican|e; everything ie a
reVlicanl, The acf,ore reVlicale an
eclecl ic blend of movie qenreo and
period eVylee-for Elade Runner
ts bolh a lulurieNic f i ln, eeV 40
yearb in Lhe fulure (from t'he
19BOo) and eeI simulf 'aneouely
40 yeare in f,he VaoL-it quoLee
ertensively from lhe genre of noir
f i lme of the 194Oe. Some of rhe
eeNe are aclually eeLe from old
SoqarI and Jamee Cagney moviee.
Archif, acNu r ally, ev eryft,hin q i e
quot ed also: Frank Lloyd Wriqhl,
Greek and Koman columne, alonq
with Orienlal motife and 4Os
qanqeter seN Nhemea Thue the
mof,ive ie noV Varody buf, VlaY-paeliehe, ltr is t'he eurtace plaY
and dioVlay of Lhe simulacra. JueL
ae the repl icanhe are more human
than humana, f ,he e imulacra have
became mare real t 'han Ihe real,
ln facf,, a main queaNion of
the flm ie, Whal ie Lhe dif '
ference bef,ween a
machine and a human
beinq? ReVlicant'o
and human be inqe
are 60 much al ike
Ihal it io very dif-
ficult to Nell the
copy from the"real ilhinqi' )
d i f ference beLween a human bein7
and a Nexue-6 android? WhaI is
Lhe di f ference betrween an or iqinal
and a e imu lac rum?
Thie queel ion ie broughl lo a
head in Lhe relatr ionehiV belween
Kick Deckard-a Vrivate eye who
hao been hired by the Tyrell Corpo-
raLion f,o acl ao a eearch- and-
deof,roy aqent, in pureuil of
N exue - 6 replic ante- an d Kach el,
a beautiful brunel'Le replicant with
whom he f a l le in love, )he doee
nol, know wheLher ehe ie a repl i '
canf, or nol'. This caueee Oeckard
Io doubt hie own human hief 'ory.
AfLer he killo one of her fellow
androide, Rachael ie v ioiblY die-
turbed, Deckard eaye "KePli-
canf,g weren'l ou?-
pooed Io have feelinqe,
buL Ihen aqa in , nor
were Slade KtJnnere."
lqff;,il| OL
What ie the
69"q i
qrowinq concern with f,he rela-
I ionehiV between human beinqe
and compulere.
AN another Vointr Decker and
Kachel, human and android, are
abouL lo oleep t ogelher. Kachel
eaye, "You're not goinq to bed
with a woman..,. Kememben
though, don't think about it, juot
do it, Don't pau6e and be philoe-
ophical, becauae from a philooo-
phrcal otandpoint it'e dreary for
ue both,"
Out, the movie does make us
think about i t Vhi looophical ly. ln
facf,, much of ToeLmodern afr ie
juet, a way of th inkinq about, lhe
Toetmodern aqe, lt, ie a way of
doing Toef,modern fheory. And
after all, the movie opawned trhe
whole movement, of ayberpunk, a
movemen| Lhal dramatizee lhe
Could this, then, be onother
difference between modernism
ond Postmodernism?
E How'e Nhar?
Well, one of the centrol imoges
modernists used to fill in the
post-Nietzschion void wos thot
of the mochine. Perhops Post-
modernism hos just reploced
the imoge of the simple
mochine with thot of the Mon-
mochine-the hybrid of mon
ond mochine.
120
Acf,ually, lhaf,; e exaclly wh at
Donna Haraway declaree in anoth-
er impofr,anf, Toel-
modern eggay, "A
Cyborq Manifeet o:
)cience, Technoloqy,
and )ocialiet Forma-
tion in the LaNe
Twenlielh Cenluryi'
Thie e6oay ie actual-
ly a chaVt er in her
book )imiano, Cy-
borqe and Women:
The Keinvention
of Nature,
Well, whot's
o cyborg?
A cyborq io
a cybernetic
orqaniem. Half
human, hal f com?ut-
er. Haraway arquea
thal in f,he lat e
twentielh cenf,ury,
and probably forgome Nime T,o come,
we are all cyborgo.
But ore we oll
cyborgs? | don'thcve onymochine ports.
In Haraway uoee"cyborg" to con-elrucl a new mfih
abouf, beinq
human. Old
mylhe about beinq
human alwayo qo
back f,o eome idyll ic
l ime of wholeneoe
and unity and inno-
cence, l ike in the
Garden of Eden. Dut,
Ihe myih of the
cyborg is never aboul
wholes; iN does not,
look noet alqically
back to eome unified
oriqin. A cyborq io
alwaye a oplif,, a
hybrid idenbiLy, a
cybernetric orqanism:
a human-comVuter.
t l l r t l t t l l l l l t r t r t t t t r t l t l t r l l l l l r l l r l r l l
t
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
Mltr lD
cutf uRe
Mi\!.8
clvl !. lzeD
Rer\!.| tY
YVilott
Mr\i(Eit
For in our culture, we alwaye
try to favor t'he words on the
left and re?reoe t'lhe onee on the
rlght^ Dut if we oee oureelveo ao
cyborge,Ihen we can know NhaN
we are alwaye bot'h: mind and
body, cu\ure and naf'ure, male
and female, etrc.-fracf'ured iden-
f,ili es, hum an- comV uf,ers, And, in
a way, we are. Every Asian woman
who, wilh her nimble fingero, worko
in f,he elecLronics induslry, ao'
eembling comVuNero, every oecre-
Iary whoee fyVinq eVeed ie moni-
Iored on Ihe comVut'er by her
BODY
NIr\]URE
teMi\Ie
?RlMl nvE
+\??ti\iti\Nlqe
?i\ttf
M+\DE
boee, every check-out' clerk al t 'he
qrocery etrore whoee eVeed is cal-
culat ed by a computer, every
vofer, every conoumer ie bein4
monilored by a comVut'er-ie
?art of a comVutrer-ie a cyber-
netic orqaniem. lI ie hard t 'o tell
where T,he comVut er et'oVe and
Ihe organism beqino,
l$l well, why don't these workers
just rebel?
That'e one of the eenNimenls
tha| 7ave rise No lhe whole cYber-
Vunk movement' ,
I I T T I I I I I I I I T T II
13,0
E cyberpunk?Ilfl Yee. CyberVunk was once considered
Ihe most Toetmodern of all Toef'modern
lhinqe, Cyberpunk beqan ao a hybrid of BOs
count erculr,ure, cyb efrechnology and anarchy.
The "cyber" parL of cyberpunk indicatee
Ihaf,,l ike cyborq, iI has somef'hing to do
wilh comVuNere.The word "Vunk" qivee uo a clue lo
T,he atfi i lude thal cyberpunks have
Ioward comVul,er I'echnoloqy: hip, oexy,
viol ent, min d- allered, anNi- auf,hori lari -
an, rebell ious, wilh a distrasNe for trhe
dominanN lifeolyles of Nhe Reaganlgush era.
Reall i fe cyberVunke Nend lo oVer-
aIe eomewhaV oubeide the law, ae lhey
are o??oeed lo the cenlralized uee of
comVuher f,echnoloqieo by huqe meqa-
corVoraf,ions and et at'es. They are
oft,en hackers who uee cybert,echnol-
oqy t o traV int o lhe international
elecf,ronic grid to futf itt lheir own
individual deeiree. A cyberVunk
quy who wanf,s t o seduce oome
corVorale eecrelary miqht, soften
her up by eofr,eninq up her soft-
wear (".q,, by alt erinq lhe eofLware in Ihe corVoraf,e mainframe oo
that, iI apVears lo her boes-who monitrors her key elroke raf,e-lhat,
she ie IyVinq f,,wice as faeN as ehe aclually ie).
t-
5 = t n E * H n
:--:
=
t?= 1€ :>i
CyberVunks, unlike hiVViee, are nol,
aqaineL t.echnoloqy. They want lo uee
Iechnoloqy ae a meane f,o reeiet the
infringementr on our individual free-
doms by centralized techno-qiant e,
JueN ao Mary thelley'o Franken-
etein warned againet Ihe exceeeee
and danqere of Nhe induet r ia l and
ecienbific revolulion in hhe 19fh cenNu-
ry, ecience ficl ion writ inq I,hal 7oeeby Ihe name of cyberVunk warns of a
techno-future in which humans musl
fiqhf a7ainoN trhe technoloqical Vow-ere of giantr internal ional meqa-
corp oraNions, Dutr t h at, lechnolo qical
fut ure is now!
Neuronr ancer
The firsl cyberVunk novel, which
wao inepired, in paft, by Dlade Kunnen
ie William Gibeon's Neuromancer. The
olory ie about, Caee, a pelty comVuler
and dala thief who has elolen informa-
Iion from his bosses. As Vuniehmenl,,hie nerve celle have been burned oul.
Case's nervoue oyelem ie reVaired,
however, when he ie hired by a myet eri-
oue emVloyer to Verform a Big HeioN.
- . - i = - - E E ? -
He ie accomVanied by oome hired mue-
cle in Lhe form of Mol ly, a qal br imminq
wi lh bio- imVlant e, includinq razore
beneatrh her naile. Toqetrher Nhey eleal
a coYn?uf,er conglrucl.
The major adventure in the novel ie
trheir mieeion No Freeland, a planel
where they are f,o eleal an Anificial
lnt el l iqence enl i ly named Necromancer
wilh whom Winlermale (Ihe myef,eri-
ou6 emVloyer) wiehes tro merge eo
lhal he may become God and Iake
over f,he univerae,
The ditrerence beNween Dlade
Kunner and Neuromancer is that,
in Neuromancer Ihe ditrerence
between comVuter and human, naNure
and Lechnoloqy, oriqinal and coVV, oriq-
ina l and e imulacrum, hae co l laVeed-
imVloded, ln facN, Neuromancer
sla(be ouf, wiNh a deecriplion
of nat ure lhat is in Ierme of
t echnology: "Ihe eky above
ihe porb wae the
color of Neleviaion,
tuned to a dead
channel" (N b).
m ffi t m
-_
--I,---
4
-,4 S ' \
And ir ie Caee'o own reVaired
nervouo oyelem, for ingNance, nof,
oome comVuIer, which enablee him
Io enter cybereVace,
And Ihouqh everyone today
knows whaf, cyberepace ie, Gibson
wae the one who invenled the
Ierm. He did oo by eayinq thal
cyberopace ie: " A conseneual hal-
lucination experienced daily by
| | / , billlonsoflegitl-
,, 1r\*ffi14 sentation of- data abstracted
from the banke of
,,' mate o?era-.-/./ |',/ tors in every
o-o% : nat ion., ,a,frfr \w l r
K(_ ' gnphia re?re-
NtI c\-nr -^-L^Lt^- ^s
CybereVace is a cyborq-a
merqinq of human and comVut er
caVaciNies, And this conceVl of
cybereVace wae euqqeeted to
Gibeon one day in Vancouver, a6
he wae wat.chin7 gome teenaqero
Vlayinq video 0ame6 in an arcade:"l could see in trhe Vhyoical
intrenoity of their pooNures how
raVt, f,heee kide were.,, .You had
Nhie feedback looV, with Vhot one
cominq off the ocreen into the
kids' eyeg, Nhe neurone movinq
Ihrouqh lheir bodies, elecNrons
movinq throuqh Lhe comVuter,
And thoee kide clearly believed in
Ihe oVace lhese 0arne6 Vroject ed!'
CyberVunk science ficIion is
not, eo much aboul the fulure ae
it, is a way of drawinq a map of
whatr ie qoinq on t oday-a ?re-senl in which dat a are conf'rolled
by v aot, Nechno c aVit'aliot'ic corV o -
raf,ions. buI t'heee huqe dat'a
banks exiel in a epace where'N,
telex, t aVe recorder, VCR, laser
every computer in
tions of data,
Like city lighte
reaedlng" (N 51).
-.a.-1
di ek, c am c ord er, tel e dil d o,
au d i o an im aI r o n i c V a V ar azz i ,
nano-rover and t eleVhone are
wired troqelher like a eprawling
eleclronic eVecies of coemic crab-
qraoe. And they can be Vluqqedint o by thoee with Ihe hacker,
cybVerVunk ethic of "informaNion
for Lhe VeoVle."
kind of comVut er eex in
which a joy - et ick- dildo
can be animat ed by a
uoer on a digT,anf, com-
Vut er. Audioanimatronia
?a?arazzi are eound- acbi-
vatred robot ic pap arazzi
which ena? your photo
f @o if you were a ou?er-7 model strul t inq in thigh-hiqho
inf,o a glitzy trheme reetraurant,
euch ae the Faehion Cafe, or)
while enqaqed in noiey Leledildonice
wilh eomeone of N at ion al-Enquirer-
fr onl- c ov er st aIuo-o om e on e
such ao a dieLant, Maft]an. A
nano-rover ie an imVoeeibly small
robolic lhaN eende back pixelimaqee trom lhe eufrace of Mare.
And eo you can 6ee the Voeeibil i-tiee: Nhe data trom teledildo,
Mafi, ian, nano-rover and audio-
anim af,r onic ? a? arazzi- all int er -
act inq in one huqe coemic elec-
Lronic evenT,.E reteditdo?Audioonimqtronic
pqpqrozzi? Nqno- rover? Whqtqre those?
Teledildonias involvee a
a - ' -(tltft-: . -
:-$ 1'9, 2L'./4
@ aro.rpunk science fictionseems to provide o more occu-
rote mop of the contours of
these Postmodern times thon
does Boudrillord's theory.
ThaN'e right, ln fact', many
think that, Saudril lard is really
doinq ecience fict ' ion, and trhatr
much of cyberpunk ecience fict ' ion
ie really VretIy qood Iheory. AfLer
al l , Oaudri l lard only deecr ibee a
ToeImodern eociet'y lhat Vaeoive-ly ourrenders No f,he sensual,
obecene frow of hyVerrealily and
eimulacra. 7uI cyberVunk ecience
fiction not only deecribes a world
of simulacra but aleo showe iI to
be a world dominated by vasf'
me7a- corVorat ione, and euqgeetre
a form of resist ance lo Nhe con-
trol these huqe cor?orat' iong exer-
cige over uo,
However, cyberVunk, l ike 1au-
dri l lard, hae now ceased t 'o be
avanN qarde and ie now merelY hiV,
;ri
CyberVunk zinee have
become mainglream.
MONDO 2000, a
qlooey cyber-qlam
zine, latre 'BOo cre-
alion of R.U . ?ir-
iue and Queen
Mu "domined-
i t r ix l ' ie
etruffed
wilh raV
on gmarA
druqo, cyber-
fashion (cyberpunke
ofben wear mirror-
oh adeo), cyb er- qoeoip, ef,c.
lvl o n d o'e V opul arit'y w ae
ecliVeed, in 1993, by Wired, a eile
for cyberVunk aulhors euch as
William Gibeon. Wired wenf' online
in 1994 as HotWired.
lTe[ iloltlireilwww.wirBil.G0|l|
Seeidee Lhese ?o?ular maga-
zinee, f ,one of cyberpunk eci- f i hae
been Vumped ouT^ 1uT, i l al l eounde
pelly much Nhe eame. Ae Ceicoery-
Ronay aeke:
"How many formulaic t a les
can one wade Nhrouqh in which a
e elf - deet rucliv e b ul e eneil iv e
younq VrolaqonieL with an ( im-
Vl anf, / V r o eIh eei e / Lel e cht r o ni c t a l -
ent) t rhaI makee Lhe evi l (mega-
c o rV o r aT,io ne I p olic e el at ee I
c r imina l underwor lde) pureue h im
Lhrouqh (waetred urban |andecaVeel
elit e luxury enclavee| eccent ric
e?ace ef,alions) full of groheeque
(h ai rc uLe / cl oth e s I e elf - m uli l a -
t ione I ro ck mueic I eexual
hobbiee / dee iqner druqo /
f, el e chf,r o ni c q a d q eto / n a oty
new w e ap one I ex\eriorized
h allu ci n aIi o n e) r e ? r e e e ntin g
Ihe (moree/faehione) of mod-
ern c iv i l i za l ion in termina l dec l ine
ul tr imalely hooke up wiLh rebel l ioue
an d lou qh- lalk in g (y oulh I af t i f r c i a l
inlell igencelrock culto) who offer
the al t ernaLive, nol of (communi-
t y I o o c i a l iem I t r a d i t i on a l v a lu ee I
t ranecendental v ieion), buL of eu-
?reme, life affirming hippneee, qoinq
wilh lhe flow which now flowe in
the machine, aqainet, the epecf,er
of a world-eubverLinq (arLi-
fi ci al inf, elli q en c e I m ulbin a -
t ional corVorat e web / evil
qeniue)?"
(7Re 1O4)q
tI
f
.,t\j
f.,.,, /
'1t{l \t
E well, cyberpunk justsounds like o bunch of
boys with high-tech
power fqntosies. How ore
these ony different from
Rombo? And whot does
cyberpunk hove to soy
obout the problems of
crime, drug oddiction,
sex qddiction, obout
women, obout ecology?I
[if Wharever reVlaceocyberpunk wil l have f,o be
more eart,h-cenf,ered and
more woman-cenf,ered,
Whot's so Postmodern
obout Modonno?
Well, tor one thinq, she ie
quitre coneciouely all surtace,
al l Vut-on, al l dreoe-uV, al l
make-over, all simulalion, all
e imulacrum. the knowe bhat
we live in an aqe of hyVe, of
hyVer-reality. the knows trhat'
s imulat ion and a??earance
mean more lhan subsf,ance
and reality. the knows that
fhe apVropriaf, ion and
replication of lhe
oriqinal are more real
than Ihe or iq ina l . Thue she is
deliberat ely Ir ivial, shallow, formu-
laic. And not, only in her videoe.
the realizee that "real" lite ie juol
show biz aleo. Thue ehe collecf,s
her Vaycheck buN never really qoee
t o work. When she dresoee u? ao
Marilyn Monroe she does so wilh
the knowledqe IhaI Marilyn Mon-
roe, hereelf, wae juet a VuT,-on, a
consbruction, a simulacrum, juot
l ike dreeeinq uV in draq or voque-
inq, Thuo her dreseinq u? ae Mari '
lyn Monroe is double coded in Nhe
oame 6enoe that Dlade Kunner
and Tosf,modern archit ecbure are
double coded.
Some of her crilice, VeoVle like
f eminiet s, Neachers, Tlanned ?ar'
enthood,Veterans of Foreiqn Wars,
ehc. reqard Madonna ae juot a
cheese'
cakey whore
dreeeed up
in Nraehy junk jewelry, with
a hrNhere belly bulf,on
and a fondle-my-
bra, boy-toy
attitrude.
9omeMadonna-
oloqisfs, on Nhe
of,her hand, re-
qard Madonna ao
deconelruclinq eooen-l ial isl notions of malel
female, hiqh arr,lVoV afi,,bl a ckl whiNe, virqin / wh or e,fucker/fuckee, et c,I
lEl Deconstructing essen-tialist notion of whcrt?
E Traditrional gender role6,ideao of whal it Nakes to bemaoculine or feminine, arekeVI in Vlace by fixed polari-triee-binary o??osit es of
-
oexual dif-ference, Foringtrance, it, io
ou??o6edly afeminine qama
noN a maoculine
qame,to wear ablacklace bra, with a
little bit of etraV ohow-
inq aI f,he ehoulder. Dut,in Vadonna'; videoe menhave breast e and wearbra6, imVlying Nhal Xheyhave breaotr envy (inoteadof the women havinq Venie-6nqy), wornen have hard-ons,virgins are whoree, and eluNeare virqino,
.: ).4i-, -2_
T I IT I I
"DieVlacemenl, ie at , lhe core
of f,he video'o lraneqression where
bodiee intereect in the infamoue
bedroom ecene. Vult ip le bodiee
ehif f poei t ione in a eer iee of die-
placemenf,s, while camera move-
menL eimulalee the f fu idi ly of
erolic activity as iI ranqee over
bodiee, undieNurbed by subet i tu '
f, ione. Core idenliLiea aurcender
Io lhe aeeumVf,ion of erof,ic rolee
in a oplif,t inq between dark and
l iqht, male and female, gay and
eLr ai qhr- di f f er en c e e mult i Vl i e d
and compounded" 1u?F ibo-g).
3y deconef,rucNing the riqid
boundariee b elween maecul ine
and femin ine, man and woman,
qay and etrrai7hl , Madonna' e
140
I I T I I I
video Juetify My Love hae become
a k ind o f gay anthem. I I b lure Lhe
difference belween eexual orienta-
l ione, belween qender and sex,
Vortrayinq an erotic f low of frac-
tured imaqeo Lhal refuee to play
ei ther the leebian or Nhe helero'
eexual qame, eiLher the eLraighf
qame or the qay qame, ei lher
the b lack qarne or the whi le game,
e i ther the male qame or Lhe fe '
male qame, buN, wibh a l i t I le imaq'
in abion an d crose- dreesinq,play e
lhe hybrid, mulanl, hyperreal,
I esbi an-h eler o e exu al q am e, I,h e
heferosexual- leebi an 6ame, t he
m ul af,to - m al e I e sbi a n q a m e,th e
h al f -b re e d-t em al e- g ay - m an qame.
But if Modonno'svideos decontructgender, sexuolityond roce, don'tthese videos-ondthe whole Modonnophenomenon-hovesomething to dowith power?
>-
((i
E Yee, Or with ?owerfant aoiee, Naf,ually, the
?owerlese like ?ower.And a large pafi of\Aadonna'e ?owerderives from her abil ibyLo Vroduce imaqes ofrebel l inq aqainst est ab-lished ?owere. buL,often the only ?owerMadonna fane have ieNo buy her Vroducf,e:t o increase the wealthof the mulLinatrionalenlerLainmenl cor? ora-Lione Nhat have IhemhypnoNized.
Untitled Film ?tills
I
l9l Hypnotized them?Tfl Yeo. The flow of
media imaqeo hyVno'
l izee and conditione
ue. The hyVerreality
of Vadonna imaqee
becomee more real
Nhan Nhe Madonna
wanna-bes who imi-
t ale her. And Ihis
Vhenomenon-oflhe imaqe being
more real than t 'he
human-is drama-
lized W VhotograVherCindy therman in a
eeries of Vhof'oqraVhelaken bet'ween 1977
and 19BO ent'it'led
Untitled Film ?tille,
The imaqea are act'u-
ally all of Cindy ther-
man, the phot'ograVh-
er, hereelf, bu| we do
nol, eee Cindy ther-
man. Whal we eee are
imaqeo thal a??ear
in our mind'o eye.
Theee imaqeo act'
somef,hing like maeke,
concealinq "Cindy'o"
face (which ie nol so
familiar lo ue) but,
remindinq u6 of eome-
Ihinq familiar (yeL,
someT,hinq we cannol
quile qraeV).
What' we oee, t'hen,
ie noI Cindy therman,
butr an imaqe of a
V aooed- ouf' glarlef', a
hitch-hiker, a woman
o?eninq a letler, elc.
Al l of t rheee imaqee
eeem otrranqely famil-
iar. buf, this io only
becauee Ihey were
ineVired, in Varb,by cl ich1e from old
Dri7iINe Dardot and
)oVhia Loren movies.
When you oee one
of her Vholoe, you
think you recognize a
characler or ecene
from an old movie you
have 6een, Dul, in
fact,Ihe phot'os do
notr reVroduce any
opecific aceneo in any
moviee bu| pul l up in
our mind'e eye t'he
kinds of vieual alich4e
and roleo women have
Vlayed in old moviee
we have geen.
142
Thus, our momenf,
of recoqnif, ion io only
an i l lue ion. Thouqh
Iheee imagee oeem
lo refer No eomething
oNher than them'
selveo,Ihey are al l
oufiace, all deVth-
lessness.
@Another Tootmod-
ern arLifact ie MTV
ETEl why Mrv?Tfl Wal l , le levis ion, in
general, ie considered
t o be TosT,modern
because it, is like a
t ornado of imagee
lhal whirl by wirh
such velocity that
f,hey have been
etriVVed of all mean-
inq-refercinq only
tro olher imaqee-
Nhe audience havinq
reached the point,
of t ot al saturation
ae lhe meaninqlees
imaqee qlow and
fricker, makinq the
viewer inlo a kind
of mindecreen.
But some of the imoges
dO moke sense. Most of thesit-coms ond soops hovestories-qrrotives.
And Nhaf,'e why
is considered to
be eepeoially
Toslmodern.- - - r / agecauee for \:
moel of IV,
narrative-hae been
the norm. Ouf, Mry ie not
based on etories but,
on disconneated
flowe of images. Then
there ie subvertleing, a
advefliein q c am- -. ;<i**iffipaiqno of huqe (,-#ffi
\corVoraf,ione \i
by creatinq Varo-dies of their
meogaqeg, guch
ao: "American Excegg:
Don'l Leave Home Wil"hout,
ciated with Aarbie-art,, {T }tjfft'i
barbie dol le in compromieinq poei-
T,ione, dreeeing them up in boy'o
clothinq, or, ae lhe barbie Libera-
trion Orqanization did, ewitchin7
the voice-boxee of barbie dolls
wilh thoee of G.l. Joe.
E whqt mokes\. o novel or o film[ i I naalaaJ^--2ti Postmodern?!
E Modernistnovelg concern
trhemeelves with
the l imite of individ-
ual congciousness-
\- how the individual
knows Nhe world. ln
novele such as
James Joyce'e Por-
tmit of the Anist ao5-r' a Young Man, the reader
io plunged int o lhe st ream
of thouqhtre and feelinqo
of a youn7 man ae he
attemVte to know the world
around him.
the af7 of subveftin7
Oarbie-ism by Vlacingffib
"4
hH
In the ?oatmodern novel or film, how_even the queation ie not, eo muchHow do I know the world? but, Whatie a world?
Coneider the film Blue Velvet, for
:::^!,", rt iuxta?ooea two very dif_ferentworldg: 2 utnnr) ̂; _ . 'vrx
ut t
r. ow n, m i d d r e - c, I "!"^'l,l nlJ ""niTl'romance, and a world of murder andsadietic 6exuathem in suchlitY'
It juxtaPoseoa way that we do notknow which world ie more ,"uti.
Another film that iu ott"nbranded*?ootmodern,
i6Wim Wendere,s Winge of
Desire. Again, the film juxta-?oeeo two very different worlde.
The place is tserlin_international,coomo?olitan, filled with differentlanguages and culturee and iden_tities. Each o.m e nt e d ̂ , o,l,!,2:Z' ;,::t;
"others. Each man livee in his ownprivate world.
IT IT IT I IT IT I
W E A R E C A P A B L E O F L I S T E N I N G I N O N P E O P L E ' S T H O U G H T S :
T 0 A Y O U N G t q A N C O N T E N 1 P L A T I N G S U l C I D E : T 0 A D Y I N G
N l A N 0 N T H E S T R E E T ; T 0 P E 0 P L E C 0 F 1 N 1 U T I N G I N C A R S ; T 0
N l O T H E R S A N D F A T H E R S . L O V E R S A N D C H I L D R E N . E V E R Y
A L I E N A T E D , I S O L A T E D I N D I V I D U A L H A S B E C O N 1 E L I K E A
L I T T L E S T A T E W H E R E E A C H S T R E E T H A S B A R R I E R S , A N D A L L
I S S U R R O U N D E D B Y A N O - N l A N ' S L A N D T H R O U G H W H I C H O N E
C A N P A S S O N L Y I F O N E H A S T H E R I G H T P A S S W O R D .
T H E O T H E R t / { O R L D , J U X T A P O S E D W I T H A P O S T M O D E R N B E R L I N .
I S R E A L F 1 O F E T E R N A L T I I ' , l E . O F P U R E S P I R I T . I N H A B I T E D
B Y A N G E L S . T H E A N G E L S C A N H E A R P E O P L E ' S T H O U G H T S
A N D N l O V E I N S T A N T A N E O U S L Y T H R O UG H S P A C E . T H E Y A T T E I q P T
T O I N T E R V E N E I N W O R L D L Y A F F A I R S B Y B A T H I N G P E O P L E
I N S P I R I T U A L V I B R A T I O N S . B U T O { : T E N T H E I R H E L P F A I L S .
T H E Y 0 U T H C O N T E t q P L A T I N G S U I C I D E J U t L l P S T 0 H I S D E A T H .
Y E T . B O T H T H E A N G E L S A N D S O M E O F T H E H U M A . N S A R E
A y - J A R E 0 F E A C H 0 T H E R ' , S E X T 9 T E N C E . 0 F T H E E 4 ! l l A l
O T H E R N E S S O F E A C H O T H E R ' S E X I S T E N C E .
I I I I I I I I I I I I
l+to
But how obout in fields other
thon the orts? Whqt impoct
hos Postmodernism hod on
the reol world?
f E ?ost'modern trhouqhl hao evenhad an impacl on Ihe ecoloqical move'
ment-and thus u?on mount'ains, redwoodo,
oceano, rivers and lakee. Aft'er all, Toslmodernisf's
are eue?icioue of qrand narcaf,ives-of biq eNoriee-
of ulopian vieions. And coneervalionists-t'he kind
of VeoVle wilh "gave the Kiver" bumVer elickere-
dream of a ut oVian ecoloqical wilderneee free of
pol lu l inq induetrr ies.
The Toef,modern T,endency ie t'o diemiee
Lhe conceVt of euch a ?ure ulopian
wilderneel ae a qrand narraf,ive. And
whaf,'e more,Ihie biq eIory ie based on that
evil of Tostret rucf,uraliet, evile-a binaryoVVoeibion. ln Ihie ca6e,lhe binary o??o-
nr eit ion wilderneeelcivi l ization,
7ut, olher environmenT,alist o-
eeVecially Nhoee infruenced by
poel and eco-acbivist, Gary 1nyder-
are aclinq ouN a Vhiloeo?hy Nhat ie
boNh Toetmodern and ecological,
ffttl;/ ,
inetead of engaqing in empty
f,heorizinq while the foreetre andrivere are euffering. enyder'e
environmentaliem ie baeed on hiElong immereion in Zen Suddhiet ,
me dilaf, ion an d philo o oVhy.
The SuddhieI univeree, l ike
the Toetmodern univeree, is made
uV of counhleee helero7eneoue
selves with counf,leee heleroge-
neoue viewVoinbe. Notr a utoVia,
based on one vieion, but a het-
eroto?ia baeed on the vieione of
counlleee )lhere. And all of
f,heee )r,her selves-l,he selvee
of mounlain l ione, redwoods,
redn ecks, con6 erv alioniele an d
rivere-are inLerconnected and
mulual ly inherdeV endenN. And
becauee none of theee eelvee
etand alone, by themeelvee, wilh-
oul al l the Of,here, their ee?a-
r aT, e n e e s-t h ei r Otrh er n e s s-i s
EmpIy, an l l lueion.
Thue, l ike thal NaLive Ameri-
can trickster f igure, Coyote,
1ny der's p o eli c e c o - Vhil o e o -
phy danceo around deconslrucV-
ing the eeeming "IeVaraf,e eelvee"of " wilderne66" an d " civi l izali on."ln Vract ice, th ie meane dancinq
bel,ween and weavinq t oqether
ecological all iancee betrween Lhe"oe?aratre 6elve6" of landowners,
c or p o r af, i o n 6, f e d er al a g en ci e e,
f o r egIg, m o unf,ain e, m o unNain
Iione and troqe. lt mean6, too,
lhal ,we are al l members of a
muf,ual eating eociely. We both
eat and are eaf,en. The eyee of
lhe mounl,ain l ion eXalkina ue
are our own.
ana theartsdtr, t5
rheaniu,lgf nd thc
i 7 . a - n5rr..tt!\ . / E
'-'2
[l n RetrospEdJuh*
So then, whot lS
Postmodernism?
Accordinq t,o
Lyotard, if, has Lo
do with eceVl ic iem
about Grand Narra-
Livee: and if, ie about
heleroqeneily. Ac-
cordinq f ,o Jameeon,
iL muet involve a way
of ma??inq the new
and confue inq con-
loure of our late
caVit al ief , ic t imee,
According to
Saudri l lard, ToeL-
moderniem ie a f low
of ullr a -fe ch n ol o qi c al
imagee in a coneum-
erisl hyperreality
acroee a mediaocaVe
or mindecreen Lo
which we can only
Vaoeively ;urcender.
Accordinq to
cyberpunk, i l ie a
world dominated by
mul t ina l iona l cor -
Vorat ione and lhe
dala they conlrol .
Yel cyber?unke advo-
caf,e a hacker ef,hic,
IapVinq in to and
ueinq euch dala for
?eroonal ende.
Accordinq to
Charlee Jencks,
however, all these
thinkere are only
deecribinq lahe
capilaliam or
laNe modernism.
AuNhenIic Toet'
moderniem, he
ar0ue6, involvee dou'
ble codinq Ihe a(bie-
lic repreeenf,at,ion
of moderniem with
somethinq doe-
6ome )Nher. For,
ae all ToeNmodern
Ihinkere would admit ,
f,he world ie ohrinkinq.
There ie no one dom-
inan| worldview, ?lu-
ralism rulee. Tradi-
t r iona l , modern, laNe
modern and ToeL-
modern attitudeg
all rub elbowe in the
oame culT,ure.
This meane that,
the Other increaeinqly
encroachee upon
what had once been
our VrivaNe opace. So
much of ToeNmodern
thouqht, has t 'o do
with lhis encroach-
menN of Nhe Other-
whether Ihat, Other
ie Other indiv iduals,
Other qrou?e, Other
oVecieo, Other raceo,
the }ther of "malel'
the Other of "f,he
West l' the )ther of
"Europe," Nhe Other of
T,he conscioue mind,
rhe Orher of Nhe
ratrional mind, trhe
Otrher of moderniem,
rhe )ther of "our-
gelf" or in "ouroelf,"
Throuqh double
coding, Toef,modern
architreclure, arA and
liNeralure repreoenl
rhe Obher, and t'hus
Vreoent, hetreroqene-
ity; by lookinq back-
ward t o trhe paol, or
eideways to a local
cul ture. Thue, whi le
ueinq modernietr
f,echniquee, lhey
include lhe Other,
hum o r o uoly, ir o ni c ally
or Vlayfully, ralher
trhan excludinq it, Thie
ie why Jencke writes
?oe|,-modernism wii',h
a hyphenz because in
Ihese Toetmodern
f,imeg, Nhere are a lol
of hybrid identritiee.
And Ihis ie eometrhinq
quiNe new. For, ae we
have discuseed, in
VaeI centurieo we
looked for eome
SuVermyIh or meeei'
ah Io uni le al l of
humanity under t rhe
umbrella of one over-
archinq philoooVhy,
The Tostmodern mind
hae qiven u? euch a
hoVe. Thie hae led to
a radical chanqe
in how we believe.
We are forced lo
recoqnize LhaN our
world resisle qrand
narraliveg ae much
as indiv iduals and
qrou?o crave trhem.
ThaI our world is a
carnival of colofiul
and contradicNory
worldviewe. We have
come tro realize that
our view of reality
ien't ae real as it
once eeemed. We have
come lo realize lhaV
there is noI one reali-
ty buV many different,,
oft,en confficlinq reali-
tieg. We have come to
eee thaf, our ideas
about, trulh are notr
et ernal, but, made.
The ideae that the
only God isYahweh,
or Allah, or the God-
dees, or lhat oome
qod named 1umba
vomited lhe Moon
and 9t arg, or the gci-
entific nolion NhaI
trhe Moon ie a phyoi-
cal body of such and
euch mae6 bhat,
orbite another Vhyei-cal body, Lhe VlanetEafbh, of such and
guch a mage, in guch
and euch an orbi l
thal can be mathe-
maNically deecribed,
or lhaN WeeT,ern med-
icine io ouVerior f,o
Orienlal herbal ism, or
trhat beinq feminine
equalo ouqar and
eVice and everyfthinq
nice, or T,haN the Cau-
casian race is Nhe
magT,er race-
' all theee are man-t,
€l made nolione.\ 9 , < ,' I ney are
t n an
objecf,ive re alit y, And
few believe that any
one eyelem of
thouqht, any one biq
etory or theory of
mythic Vropoftiono, io
caVable of exVlaininq
everythinq. Not, even
ocience io objeclive-
because iLe data are
alwaye dependent
on lheory. Realit iee
are eoc ia l , l ingu is l ic
congt,rucNiong-
ueeful frctione, rela-
Nive VereVeclives.lf rhe qrand nar-
ralives, the mastrer
narraf,iveo, f,he biggT,orieg, are no lonqer
believable-if Nhey
have dieaVVeared-
Ihey have been
replaced by a hodqe-
podqe of l i t l le narca-
lives. Toelmodern
VeoVle, instead of
dreaminq of the day
when all lhe world
will be unihed
under the univereal
banner of Marxism or
161
Chrietianity or gcience, are more
intrereetred in oeeing Lhe world as
a kind of carnival of culluree-a
tr ibal qaNherinq.
The shininq oun of Universal
Truth and Meanin7 io ecliVoed by
the colofiul dieVlay of l i t t le dancee,
lilf,le eloriee. giq etories are
reVlaced by little etories. gtorieo
are no longer aboutr an attemVV
lo est ablish some sofr of univer-
oal UIopia, unless ii be a hetero-
toVia. They do not try to ?rovethemselveo by makinq universal
claims. A Tostmodern etoryteller
may tel l in one nighV the Grimms'
fairy t ale of Haneel and Grelel
and trhe evil witch in lhe
dark forest who livee
in trhe qingerbread
houee, a Nalive American Nricketer
tale of CoyoLe eeducinq the chief'e
dauqht er, and an ancient myfrh from
lndia aboul the creation of the uni-
veroe from a qolden eqq, The etory-
tel ler and the audience form a
social bond, but it is the bondinq of
a heheroqeneoue eociety that can
live with lhe inconqruitieo, conflicf,s,
and qa?o between the various st o-
riee. This Toef,modern society doeo
not mind if one et ory oaye lhal lhe
Moon and Slare were vomiled
fofth, and another otory proclaimo
Nhat, the moon and sNars were cre-
ated by God. Tostmodern audiencee
don'|, demand IhaI all f,he het ero-
qeneouo slories add up t o some
qrand, qlobal, univereal total oenoe;
instead, they celebrate ihe f act,
that i l 's ?Kto etop making eo
much oen6e, Because
of the exVloeion of cul-
tural meeeaqee, we are
beqinning to under-
st and lhat, nol only our
stories but also our rit-
uale, religioue dogmao,
mytrhe, qender roles, eelf
conceple, beliefe, hist o-
riee and trheories are
culbural , s o c i a l inv en-
fione. We are beqinninq
lo realize NhaN we live in a world of
man-made eiqno and eymbole, and
we have bequn to play around with
f,hose eigno and eymbols humorouo-
ly and ironically eo that we are not
enslaved to them. Thie oft,en meano
accepting a Grand Narrative, but,
havinq an ironic attitude toward it.
Thus we may be a "quasi" funda-
menlalist, Chriet, ian or Muelim or
orAhodox Jew or Calholic; we qo to
church or lo lhe eynaqoque or the
mo6que, even thouqh we may have
I
oome doubte aboul t rhe melaVhyoi -
ca l c la imo ?ro?ounded f ,here. We
may bel ieve IhaI our ?ar f , icu lar
vocabulary and ideae about Lrubh
have no opecial claim to real i ty.
ThaL VeoVle with other orienLa-
I ione may be juet, ae orient ed No
lheir own realif,y. Juot, ae ofNen
iN meane Var t r ic ipaLinq in more
than one qrand narraLive-beinq
a buddhie l Chr ie l ian, for ins lance,
The fraqmenLaNion of qrand nar-
raLives under Lhe oreeeure of
mul t ip le , local forces has l iberaLed
Ihe concern for Othere. Whereae
modernisL wr i t ere ouch as Conrad
thouqhl Nhey could 6?eak for
Olhere-for Lhe colonized, for
Afr icane, for women, for Lhe
O r ient -?o etmo dern iom' e emph a-
e ie on d i f ferance ( i r reconci lab le
dif ference) hae al lowed formerly
e i lenced )Nhers such ao women.
qaye,b lacke, or ien la le etc , lo
expre66 their own storiee in Lheir
own voices.
You BerruRDo tr l"lY WAY.E But is this reotty hop-pening? Hoven't these Post-
modern times produced just
os frequently whqt Boudril-
lord describes os o prolifer'
otion of myths of origin?
Hosn't Postmodernism seen
o multiplicotion of cults,
such os Jopon's Sqrin Gos
Sect? And since there ore
so mqny millions of people
cought up in cults ond sects
ond mojor religions, it
seems os though there is q
need for Grond Norrotives
ond thot the Postmodern
erq hos even produced o
proliferotion of them. So
how does one reconcile the
Postmodern notions thot
people no longer believe
in Grqnd Norrqtives, thot
Grond Norrotives oppressqnd morginolize minorities,
that there is no Big Picture,
thot there is no Deep Struc-
ture to reolity (ond thot if
there wcs, the humon mind
could not know it) with the
foct thot Grond Norrotives
are vety much in evidence?
Yee, f,ha|,'g f,rue. The New Aqe
movemente of Nhe'6Os and'7Oe
drew ineViration from a mixbure
of poV-peychedelic quruo euch
ae Timolhy Leary, rock-ehamans
such as Jim Morrieon of the
Doors, and mantra- ch ant ing
eavanls from lndia oteeVed in
the Bhagavad Gita. baby boomer
opiritualiNy, while oflen serious
and eclecNic, tended t o be
narcieeistic and worehiptul of
aulhori ly f iguree.
AlLhou qh m any G en er af,ion
X-ers reject lhe poychedelic'
fueled communal hedoniem of lhe
boomer6, rrluch of Generalion X
eVirit ualitry cont inuee No circulaIe
by meane of imaqee borrowed
from VoV and rock. Thue, in the
oame way trhat, a big chunk of
Doomer' 6Oe oVirit ualiby depend-
ed on trhe ima7e-mix of the 1eaI-
lee and lhe Mahariehi , in the'9Oo, public television elevat ed
mylholoqiel Jooeph CamVbell Io
Ihe stalue of eainlhood: M'N
icons such as Madonna wriNhed
No hechno-beat, Lracks while dan-
q l inq re l iq ioue- ch ic f aeh ion b anq leo
such as cleava7e- accenf,inq
roearies; fashion deoiqnere drew
inopiration trom Hasidic Jewish
tradil ionalism and Amieh under-
statement; aust ere monasbic
chantr CDe hi t number one on the
Vop chart,e: anqele became widely
circulat ed ima7ee and a t opic of
Nalk ehows; Nhe highly publicized
men'o movement, and qoddeeo
movemenl celebratred a ret urn Lo
V a q aniem; O of,.hic oViritu alit y
rGl| r+r \{Al I
{ ssrcar II V,lrtrctt- 1
L]^'J
*-*5;E;
i tso f f i
imagee of body-Vierc-
inq,l,aILooin7 and glM
inundated M'N: and
cyberVunk morphedintro cyberehamaniem,
Cyberohamanism, ortechnoshamaniem, bythe way, is a Nechnopagan at -
Iemptr lo creale ancienar,
ehamanielic experiencee ofeceNaey (tra dili on ally in ducedby chant inq, drumming, dancinqand f,he inqeebion of Vey-choacbive eubelancee)
throuqh comVulerized fract alafr,, designer drugo, and reVe-tilioue music Ihat fille hheroom like incense. gometrimee
cyberehamane even en7aqein toadlicking, a fad eta(Dedby a rurnor Nhat, inqeolinq
Nhe venom of a ColoradoRiver f,oad ie a qood idea.The venom, however, igoften falally Loxic.
E tt seems thot, in thesome woy os the mod-ernists, we ore trying
to fill in the post-Nietzscheon Void byinventing our ownimoges qnd grond
norrqtives. Are thereony troditionol grond norrotivesfrom other cultures thot ore cop-oble of embrocing ditference?rlfl Yeo. Althou7h the qrand narca-
tjvee of Chrielianity, lelam andJudaiem have a difficulf, Nime deal-inq with differences, there are f,wom ajo r traditrione-D uddhiem andHinduism-LhaN can and do embrace
Ihe ditrerence; in our increaeinglypluralieEic world.
Duddhiem ie democraT,ic, cool,practr ical , inexpeneive, and (b ecauaethe l iberation of Tibet, from China hasbecome a hiV cauoe) Duddhism je
V olit ic ally correct. ?oetmo dern V eoplesand culr,urel live in a world of differ-encee. Buddhism'e philoooVhy of inter-deVendence lele ue eee our differenceeae a vaeN inlerconnectred web. ln facN,the imaqe guddhief,e use Io i l luslratethie ie Ihat of lndra's net. At each inter-eeclion of the elrande of this vaeV netr,which ie lhe universe of differenl eelve6, i6
. vra jewel-a "eelfn- which reffecl,e all rhe ffiffiA\ ilffiffiffiother jewelo in the net,. No oingle jewel, ffi""
tffi*-:f,hen, ie self-eufficienl. lt s exiet ence de- ffi'ffipendo u?on, and reilecf'o, all the ot'hers. ffiAnd so, in Ouddhiet, l inqo, each jewel ie ffiffi
E rhis sounds a lot like deconstruc-
Empty of self-exietence' ffi
mutuolly interdependent. Neither
con exist without the other.
@ rru, And a Suddhiel would oay,
"Eoth the facee and the candle are
Empty of inherent exiatence!"
Anolher lradition capable of
accommodatring differencee ie Lhe
baudrillard, Jean(A) Amerique. (?arie: Orasset,lgSO).()ED) De la aeduction. (?ario: Gali lee,lgSO).
The Ecataay of communication. Trans. oernard and caroline)chuf,ze. (New York : Iemiot ext (e), 1g B B).For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Oiqn, Trano.Charles Levin. (9t. Louio: Telos preo6,1gb1).
(FF) For7et Foucault. Trans. Nicola Dufresne. (New York: Semiotext(e), 1gS7).(99M) In the ghadow of the Silent Majoritieo . .. or the End of the
)ocial and Other Eoeayo. Trans, ?aul Foeo, ?aul ?atton anaJohn Johnoon. (New York: Iemiotext(e),1g\b).
(9lM) ) imulat iona.Trane.Nicola Dufresne.(NewYork: Semiouexv(e) 19Sb).La eociete de consommation. (yario: Gall imard,lgTO).Le oyoLeme des objete. (?arie: Oenoel-Oonthier,1967).
Ceicery-Ronay,letavan(9R9) "Cyberpunk and Neuromanticisml' in Storming the Reatity gtudio, Larry
McCaffery, ed. (Durham: Duke Univ. ?rese,1B4).
Deleuze, Gillee and Gualtari, FelixAnti-)edipue. Trane. Kobert, Hurley, Mark )eem, and Helen K. Lane, pref aceby Michel Foucault. (New York Vikinq,1g7T).Kafka: For a Minor Literature, Trane. Dana ?olan. (Minneapolis: lJniv. ofMinnesot a 7ress, 19BO).'Khizome.'Trans.
Taul Foss and ?aul ?alton, I and C S (1951):4g-71.A Thouaand Flateauo: Capitalism and gchizophrenia. Trane. grian Maseumi,(Minne ap olie: U niv. of Minneeotra ?ress, 19 B7).
Derrida, JaoqueeOf Grammatolo7y. Trans. Gayatri gpivak. (balNimore: John Un P76).
Eco, Umberao(fNK) ?ootocript to The Name of the Kose. (New York and London: Harcourt
Drace Jovanovich, 1984\.
Foucault, MichelDiocipline and Funish: The tsirth of the Friaon. Trans. Alan Sheridan. (NewYork: ?antheon,1977).The Hietory of Sexuality, Volume I: An lntroduction. Trans. Robert Hurley.( N ew Yorkz ?anIheon, 1977).The Order of Thinqo: An Archaeology of the Human gciences. Trans. Alantheridan. (New York: Tantheon, 197 O).
158
Gibson, Will iam(N) Neuromancer. (NewYork: Ace,19B7).
Haraway, Donna"A Cyborg Vanifestoz Science,Technology, and gocialist Formation in lhe
Late Twenlieth Centuryi' in gimiane, Cybor7e and Women: The Reinvention
of Nature. (New York: Rouiledqe, 1991).
Harvey, DavidTh e C o n d iti o n of ?o etm o d e rn ity. (Dl a ckw ell: Oxf o rd, 199 O).
Hasean, lhab(TLf) The Dismemberment of Orpheus: Toward a Fostmodern Literature.
(New York: Oxford Univ, ?ress,19b2).
Hemingway, Erneet(ggEH) The thorD gtoriee of Erneat Hemin7way. (New York: gcribner'e,1925).
Jameson, Fredrlo(?CL) "?oslmodernism: or the Culf,ural Loqic of Late CaViLaliom." New Left
Keview, 146 (19 B4): 53-92.(?CO) "?ostmodernism and Coneumer gociety|' ln Foetmodern Culture, Hal
Foeter, ed. (London and Sydney:1985),
Lyotard, Jean Francois(DF)(?c)
D i s c o u ra, fi q u re, Taris: Klin cksie ck, 1971.Th e 7o atm o d e rn C o n d it'i o n, T r ano. O ennin qton an dMassumi. (Vinneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota ?rese,19B4,first edif,ion 1979).
iohwiahtenberg, Cathy(MfF) "Vadonna's ?ostmodern Feminisml' in The Madonna Connection. Caihy
5 chwichtenb erq, e d. (6 oul der, CO: W estview 7r ese, 1995).
Venturi, Robert;5oott brown, Denlee; and lzenoun Sbven(LLV) Learnin4 from Laa Ve7ae. (Cambridqe, Maoe.z MIT 7ress,1977).
AadverAieinq,l44aesLhetic of coqnitive maVVing,40African sculplure, lSAge of Reason, g-13,15,2b-29
Aqee of Moderniem, Toelmoderniem, Kealiem(Jameoon),36-37
Allegoric al Claeeicism, 92Andrejevic, Millel., Apollo and Daphne, gbanthro V omo rphiom, B B-Bganl i -arL ,1Barboresence, 10B-14architecture, 72-02, B4-B Bart
for arL's sake,13ae moderniet, ree?on6e to the void, lb-14
au di o anim alr o nic p ap arazzi, 135
obach, J . 9 . ,11OOacon, Francis,9Barbie Lib erat ion Orqanization, 144baroque era,11BbarLhes, Roland,93b au drill ard, J e an, 41-7 1, 95, 11 4, 123-24, 13O,
149America,6T-69The Ecotaoy of Communication, 69-11For a Critique of the Political Economyof the )iqn,450n )eduction,65-67The )rders of the gimulacra,4B-64
thadow of the 1ilent Majoritiee,64-65The )ociety of Conaumption,4SThe ?yetem of )bjecto,45
bauhaue 5chool ,72Oecket t , 1amuel ,7ODhaqavad Gita,155binary oppooiteo, lol-3, 105-7, 13O, 139, 147binary requlalion, 52-53"7lade Kunner" (film), 122-Zb,133b on avent ure HoIel (Loe Anqelee), 57 -b BBorqeo, Jorqe Luie, SBDrown, Deniee 1colt, B5O u d dhie m, 147-4 B, 15 6-57burke, Edmund, IDurrouqho, Wil l iam, Tb
cCa4e , John ,1B ,7B ,79CamVbell , JooeVh,156cap i t a l i om,35 ,116cenLr al oymb ol e, 1 O O-1 O 4, 1 O 6Cezanne, Zaul, 121
Mont 1aint-Victoire, 21Chriol ianity, 11, 12, 29Cl a s ei c al I enoibi l i ty, 93codeo, of Vower,95Commun ism,19 ,90com?uter6, and knowled qe, 22-23conoumVtion, 45-47CoyoLe (Snyder),14OCoiceery -Ronay, letavan, 137Cubiem,13-14, 121cyberpunk, 123, 128, 130-38, 149, 156cyb er op a c e, 3-4, 134-35cyborqo,l29-3O,134
DDeath of the Real (Oaudrillard),59-64deconstruction, 96, 99-107, 157D eleuze, Gilles, 93, 10 b-15democracy,1l9d e n ol atriv e ot at e m ent, 26Derrida, Jacquee, 93, 96, 99-107
?tructure, Sign and Tlay in theDiscourse of the Human Sciencea, gg
deterrence model,53Dionyouo, lOdiecourse, ecientific v s. n arralive, 25-33Donne, John,11Bdouble codinq, 01-83, 89, 126, 13O, 15Odreame,20,112Drumheller, Grant, Li7htni nq Th rower, 92Durkheim, Emile, Elementary Forms of
Keli7ioue Life,121
Eeclect icism, B1-83, 84, BBEco, Umberbo, BOe6o,3BEinstein, AlberL,121Elior, T. 9.,14
The Waateland,16Enlight enment, 28, 97, 11 B-19environment al ism, 147-4Bexchanqe value,46existential ism, 99
Ff alsi f icat ion, rule of,27feudal era, 4b-49, 116-17fi\m,145-46Fischl, Eric, 1ad boy, 91Flaubert, Gustave,121Fouc aull,, Michel, 93, 94-96freedom,29-30F rench inlellectuale, 2O-29, 97 -99
French Revolution, 9, 2BFreud, 9 i6mund,14Fu I ler: 7uckminsf'er, 7 O, 79
G6ender roles,13942Generat ionX,155Genel, Jean,TOGeorge, ?aul, My Kent )lale,91Gibson,Wil l iam,136
N e u ro m a n c e r, 123, 132-34Gogh, Vincent van, ?eaoant thoeg, 36, 37gr an d n arr af'iv ee. I ee metran arr atives
(Lyorard)Graves, Michael, B2-O3
?or\ land Tublic )ervices bui ldin4, B2
Gropius, Walter,72Guatt ari , Fel iz, 93,1OO-14
HHaraway, Donna,l2B-3O
gimiana, Cyborgo and Women: TheKeinvention of Nature, 129
Harvey, David, The Condition of ?ootmodernity,116-22
Haeean, lhab,17-1b" ? OOT m o der nl)M A Taraari l ic al 9ibl io qr a -
phy" (eeeay),7OHe6el, G.W. F.,29-30Heminqway, Ernest, 12, 34, 3B-39h eter o q e n eify, 21-22, 15 Ohelerolopia, l4B,152hierarchy, vs. non'hierarchical (rhizomatic)
th ink inq, lOB-15" Hiqhbrow' culture, 16, 37H indu i sm,156 ,157hiot ory, awareneoo of, 40Hitler, Adolf,11,15H ol oc aust', 15, 20-21, 3OHotWired,136hy p erre alily, 60-64, 13 B
Iiconoclaem, S6lndependent, GrouV,Tblnduet r i al Kevolut ion, 50, 51lntern ation al 7tyle, 7 2-77, b4int ernet,l14lzenour, St'even, b5
JJ ameeon, F rederic, 34-40, 140-49
Fostmoderniem, or the Cultural Logicof Late Capitaliom, 35-30
Jencke, Charlee, 7 O-b4, OO, 90, 92, 149, 15O
The Lan6ua6e of ?oet-modernArchitecture, TB
Johneon, ?hilip, AT&T Fuildinq (New York), BB
Joyce, James, 14, 7 B, 121Finneqan'e Wake,16,79?ortrait of the Artiet aa a Younq Man,
15,144Ulyeeee,16
" Juraeeic Zark" (film), 54
KKafka, Franz,112-13
"Letter Io His Falherl' 112Th e M eta mo rphooi e, 16, 112-13The Trial,113
Kandineky,Vaeoily,T2Klee,?aul ,72knowledge
and comouters,22-23an d p o etetr u ct'ur ali sm, 9 4and ecience,29-31
Krier, Leon,91Krieteva, Jul ia,93
LLacan, Jacquee,20lanquaqe
an d V o otetr uclur alism, 94an d e cientifi c inv eetiq ation, 22-23tyVeo of ,26,32vg. the unconec ious,20
Lagcaux caveo, simulacrum of,60Lawrence, D. H.,14Learninq from Lao Vegae (Vent'uri, Orown,
lzenour), B5-BoLeary, Timothy,155Le Corbueier,36,73-76
Liqare, David, Woman in a Greek Chair, g2lo6 i c ,9"Lowbrow" cull,ure, 16, 37LyoIard, J e anF rancois, 19-33, 148
Diacouree/fiqure, 20The Toat-modern Condition: a report onknowledqe,22
Mmachine aqe mythoo,15Madonna, lSb-42,156
"JuoIify My Love" (video),140-41"make i t , new" (?ound),13,74M an del, Ernest, L aLe C a pital i o m, 35-bOManet, Edouard,14,121Mao Tee Tunq,11market, capitaliem, SSMarx, Karl,9Marxism,19,29, 40, 42, 43, 45-47, gO
Masaccio, Trinity, 2lmaoo cu l ture ,41,7BMcLuhan, Marehal l .TBmeaninq
in lanquaqe,45-47in p oeLmo dern archif,ecf,ure, b9-9O
Medieval era,117m e l an chol i c Cl ass i c ism, 91m et an a r r af,iv e o (Ly oI ard), 29 -33, I 4, j 4 b-O7metaVhor, Voetic,22M et aphyeical Cl aesiciem, 91mic ron arrativ es, 32-35modele,5l-52
of power,95modern iem, lT-18
artiet ic etylee in, 13-16meaning ot, B-16v e. V ostm o der niem, 17 -1 B
M0Np0 2000,136Monet , C laude,14monopoly caVilal iom, 35Morrieon, Jim,155Mosee, Grandma,92M'N,leJ-aa,66mul t icu l tura l ism, l -4Munch, Edvard, The gcream,36
mus i c ,24Museo l i n i , 15myrLhe, 24-27,32, 59
Nnaive rea l iem,92nano-rover,135N arrative Cl aeeicism. 91Nazia ,20,3ONew Aqe movemenle,155
NewWave of French theory,42Niet zeche, F riedrich, 10-11, 12-13non-ar l ,1Bnovele, modernieL ve. VoeLmodern,144, i4b
oobjecLe, ae commoditiee, 45-47)ediVue comVlex, 110-13Onie, Federico de,7Oother , the,15O
7paradox,31, BBparody, 3B-39, 02, 09, 92, 127?arf,henon,75
? aetriche, 3B-39, 82, 89, 126, 127Tearlotein, ThiliV, Two Female Modele on
Brentwood LoveeeaL and Ru6,92perlormativity, 31phil o e o phic al n arcat iv e, 2B-29piazzao,9 l? la to ,74,11Oplura l iem, BB
Voli t ical art,22
V olili c al n ar r af,iv e, 20-29?oV Art,37,70Toef,modern Claeeicism, 90-93
Voolmoderniemin architeclure,7B-9Oin t rhe arLs,5beqinnin7 of movement, 7 Blanquaqe of ,6-7meaninq of ,7 ,14O-57ve. modernism,17-1b
?oet et ruct uralism, 93-121?ound, E2ra,13,15,74
"Canl,og," 16
?oweran d knowl e dqe (F o u c ault), I 4of Madonna,141-42microVolitice of, 94-96
?roqreoo, idea of, b-13,15,29-307roust,, Marcel,121Tlolem aic m aV - m akin q, 117Tynchon, Thomae, O ravity'o Kai nbow, 22
RKeaqan, Ronald,95Realiet Clasaicism,92reagon, 9,20-29reinforced concret e, 50, 74Ren aiee ance, 50, 117 -1 BKenaul t , Cami l le ,50
I1ade, Marquie de,9
t o l
SarLre, Jean ?aul, 42, 9b5aue6ure, Ferdinand de, 43-44oceVliciom,36)cheer, Leo,114ochizophren ia ,1O7sc ience,9
and tranemission of knowledqe, 22-25science fict ion, 71, 136-37seduction,6ffi7eemiotics,43, 45-46eex and oexuality, 6MT, 92, 96, 135thell ey, M ary, F ra n ke n stei n, 132Sherman, Cindy, Unbitled Film ?tills,142-43simulacra, 95, 123-27, 136, 138s imulacrum- ism,56Snyder, Gary,147-4bSocial ism or Darbariem (left iet qroup),19e?ace, perceplione of, 116-22op ac e -tim e comV reaoion, 1169t al in, Jogef,11gtee l ,74
eNorytel l ing,lMstream of consciougnegg, 16stucco,SOstudent uVrioinqe, 42-45, I Oeubject, SBsubverLieinq,l44Superman conceVt, 10-11, 12-13?uperRace concept,lS
Tt eledi ldonics, lSStelevieion,l4Sf,im e, p erceptiono of , 116-22Tocqueville, Alexis de, Democracy in America,6TToynbee, Arnold,TB
Uunconscious, the,20Unity of Knowledge (Heqel),29-30urbanism, BBuse value,45utoViao, 36, 77, 79, 83, 119, 147, 148, 152
vVenl,uri, Kobert, B5verification, rule of, 27void, the, 8,11-13,32
WWarhol, Andy,37,7B
Diamond Duet thoea,37Weben Max,9Wenders,Wim,"Winqs of Desire" (fi|m), 145-46Williame, William C arlos, 15Wil l to 7ower,10
Wired,136Witt genet ein, Ludwig, 26Wolff, RiDo,91Wood, Granl,92
YYeaf,s, Willianr bur,ler, O,14
163
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CanadaPublishers Group $7est250 A Carlton St.Toronto, Ontario M5A2LIPhone: 800.747.8147
U KLittlehampton Book Services LtdFaraday CloseDurringtonVorthing, West Sussex BN13 3RBPhone:01903 828800Fax:01903 [email protected]
South Afr icaReal Books5 Mortlake St.Brixton,2092Phone: 2711 837 0643Fax:271.1. 837 0645
Aust ra l iaTower BooksUnit 9119 Rodborough Rd.French Forest NSW 2085Phone:029975 5556Fax:02 9975 5599
s H I P T O ( N A M E )
COUNTRY
TELEPHONE (DAY)
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STATE
(EVENING)
SUBTOTAL
New York City residents add 8.25o/o sales tax
Sh ipp ing & Hand l ing : Add $3 .50 fo r 1s t book ,i .6o for each addit ional book
TOTAL PAYMENT
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