From: dstein@rhea.math.ucla.edu (David Stein)
Subject: Debil Postmoderns Cyberpunk
Organization: UCLA Mathematics Department
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 92 14:21:59 GMT


  Debil has been used to hearing the word "postmodernism" as an insult
or as a warning that incomprehensible sentences are soon to follow. 
Thus he noted with interest a quotation on a Pantheon (a bunch of 
auto-bio-info sheets hanging on a wall) entry of one of his co-workers 
at a job in which he slaves away playing videogames all Summer long.  

  The quotation was from Umberto Eco:

	I think of the postmodern attitude as that of a man who loves 
	a very cultivated woman and knows he cannot say to her, "I love
	you madly." because he knows that she knows (and that she knows 
	that he knows) that these words have already been written by 
	Barbara Cartland.  Still, there is a solution.  He can say,
	"As Barbara Cartland would put it, I love you madly".  At this
	point, having avoided false innocence, having said clearly that
	it is no longer possible to speak innocently, he will nevertheless
	have said what he wanted to say to the woman: that he loves her, 
	but he loves her in an age of lost innocence.  If the woman goes
	along with this, she will have received a declaration of love
	all he same.  Neither of the two speakers will feel innocent,
	both will have accepted the challenge of the past, of the 
	already said, which cannot be eliminated, both will consciously
	and with pleasure play the game of irony.... But both will have
	succeeded, once again, in speaking of love. [1]
	
   As you can see, though the quotation is long, it is nevertheless 
understandable, and, what's more, makes sense.  So Debil carefully 
queried the co-worker and the next day obtained a copy of

	What is Post-Modernism?
        ======================= 

written by Charles Jencks [0].  It is a small pamphlet of only 48 pages but 
lots of photographs and illustrations.

  Jencks's field is Architecture, and it is here that Jencks's description 
of Post-Modernism (note the spelling) is the most clear and satisfying.
But Jencks does attempt a general definition of Post-Modernism in arts,
including Literature.  In his opinion the central trait of Post-Modernism
is what he terms "double coding":

	Double coding to simplify means both elite/popular and new/old
	and there are compelling reasons for these opposite pairings. 
	Today's Post-Modern architects were trained by Modernists, and
	are committed to using contemporary technology as well as facing 
	social reality.  These commitments are enough to distinguish
	them from revivalists or traditionalists, a point worth stressing
	since it creates their hybrid language, the style of Post-Modern
	architecture.  The same is not completely true of Post-Modern
	artists and writers who may use traditional techniques of
	narrative and representation in a more straightforward way.
	Yet all the creators who could be called Post-Modern keep
	something of a Modern sensibility - some intention which 
	distinguishes their work from that of revivalists - whether
	this is irony, parody, displacement, complexity, eclecticism,
	realism or any number of contemporary tactics and goals.
	As I mention in the foreword, Post-Modernism has the essential
	double meaning: the continuation of Modernism and its transcendence.

   So it seems Post-Modernism attempts to communicate in a positive way with 
the public without necessarily lowering its artistic standards.  Just 
like Bugs Bunny may be enjoyed by both adults and children, Post-Modernism 
tries to work on both high/low level.  Further, where Modernism may seek 
to break with the past, Post-Modernism respects it and tries to incorporate 
it into its design--without, again, ignoring the present. 

  Just as Jencks does not claim that Post-Modernist techniques are uniform
in arts, neither does he claim that his definition is one generally agreed
upon.  He does claim, however, that Post-Modernism is often defined to mean
"almost everything and thus nearly nothing" (--he cites "The Anti-Aesthetic:
Essays on Postmodern Culture" as an example).  Further, he argues that 
what is often called Post-Modern could be much more succinctly described
as Late-Modern--"the continuation of Modernism in its ultra or exaggerated
form".   

  Others prominent in the theory of Post-Modernism, like I. Hassan and 
F. Lyotard, and probably J. Baudrillard and F. Jameson, might disagree with
Jenkcs's definition.  Whatever the case, however, Debil found Jencks's
definition useful because he saw how it relates to the many examples 
from architecture and visual arts in the book.  Debil could *see* why the
Neue Staatsgalerie extensions, in Stuttgart, are Post-Modern, while 
the Pompidou Centre, Paris, is not.

  By restricting his definition, Jencks was able to explain Post-Modernism
in architecture so that even Debil can now recognize it as well as he can 
recognize, say, the Gothic or the Baroque.

  Why would Post-Modernism make itself most evident in architecture?  
It is here that the break in communication between elite and popular 
art has most painful consequences.  People, after all, have to 
live in the buildings designed for them.  To cite Jencks:

	The `death' of Modern architecture and its ideology of progress
	which offered technical solutions to social problems was seen
	by everyone in a vivid way.

   While the failure of Modernism may not be as vivid in Literature
as in Architecture, the break between popular and elite culture
seems evident here as well.  To cite J. Barth:

	My ideal postmodernist author neither merely repudiates
	nor merely imitates either his twentieth-century
	modernist parents or his nineteenth-century premodernist
	grandparents.  He has the first half of our century under
	his belt, but not on his back.  Without lapsing into moral
	or artistic simplism, shoddy craftmanship, Madison Avenue
	venality, or either false or real naivete, he nevertheless
	aspires to a fiction more democratic in its appeal that
	such late-modernist marvels (by my definition and in my
	judgment) as Beckett's _Stories and Texts for Nothing_
	or Nabakov's _Pale Fire_.  He may not hope to reach and move
	the devotees of James Mitchener and Irving Wallace--not
	to mention the lobotomized mass-media illiterates.  But
	he should hope to reach and delight, at least part of 
	the time, beyond the circle of what Mann used to call 
	the early Christians: professional devotees of high art.[2]

    This and Eco's quote indicate there are some serious attempts
at postmodern literature.  

    Jencks's book is a delight to read, and I recommend it to anyone
with even the slightest interest in art. 

    However, there are still some areas, like Literature, where I'm 
unsure how Post-Modernism fits in.  I did, however, notice some
postmodern elements in certain Cyberpunk works.

    So...

    My question, then, is whether there are any science fictional
works that may be reasonably termed postmodern.  In particular, I 
would like to know if there is any connection between Cyberpunk 
or _The Movement_ and postmodernism.  


----------------------------------------------------------------------

[0] Jencks, Charles: "What is Post-Modernism?"
    Academy Editions, London / St. Marti's Press, New York
    0-312-86603-8

[1] Eco, Umberto: "Postscript to The Name of the Rose"
    Harcourt Brace Jovanich, New York, 1984

[2] Barth, John: "The Literature of Replenishment, Postmodernist Fiction"
    _The Atlantic_, January 1980

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm not a native speaker of English, so I'm not sure what I wrote.
Flames will be ignored unless you post them in perfect Czech.
================================ - David (the metamathician) - ===