I
will admit, I have ragged a LOT on postmodernism this semester, but it really
has grown on me since I had so much fun writing my own postmodernist work, albeit
probably not as good as Doctorow. I still have my complaints about the genre,
but I also understand the appeal about it now.
What
I hate about postmodernism? I really don’t like when authors are obscure on
purpose. I can understand hiding plot points so that they can be revealed in a
big surprise, but when entire chunks of the novel make simply no sense, in most
situations in which I am not required to read by my teacher, I would probably
end up giving up and putting the book down – why bother reading something which
makes no sense, and more importantly, intends to make no sense?! I think that
the main purpose of reading should be for enjoyment and enlightenment, so if
the novel is neither fun to read and also is near-impossible to understand, I
find it obnoxious and pretentious by the writer.
However,
there are other parts of postmodernism which I love. While writing my semester
project, I really enjoyed researching people that were alive at the same time,
during various conflicts, and fitting them together so that various people who likely
had no effect on real life situations were taken through unlikely paths,
leading them to be directly responsible for various wars and events in history.
I think the ability to stretch the truth so that it could still be true, but is
almost obviously not is one of the best parts about postmodernism, especially
when used with respect to historical fiction. Overall, I really enjoyed reading
the novels that this class presented us with, and I’m also enjoying Libra, as
real and made up characters clash and interact in ways that reveal the very unlikely
story of one of the most important events in our country’s history.
Interesting post! I would have to agree that postmodernism has grown on me too over the course of the semester. Although at first it seemed pointlessly confusing, now I can see how it actually is a very effective device to present new ways of looking at the world.
ReplyDeleteIts interesting to think about how postmodernism sprung from events like the JFK assassination. The more we know, the less we understand, and I think postmodernism came in because we felt the need to fill up the holes in history with potentially true fiction.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you about being frustrated with postmodernism. I had a bit of trouble with Slaughterhouse Five and for a while I thought that Vonnegut created Tralfamadore just to seem creative and that there was really no meaning behind it. However, I think that towards the end I kind of got at what Vonnegut was saying, but I would've been able to understand it better if it was done differently.
ReplyDeletePretentiousness of Postmodern novels is a big hurdle for reading them. It takes a lot of extra thought, that very meta "what idea is the author trying to advance by doing it like this" instead of "what is the author doing" is what you have to do while reading. (This goes back to some of our first readings!!) Once you have a good understanding, it gets more fun, but I agree that it's tedious for a while.
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