#Metamodernism

[jareckiworld]

Rafa Silvares — Carousel (oil on linen, 2024)

[morbidaughter]

Julia Soboleva (Latvian, born 1990)

[weaselandfriends]

Post-postmodernism in Pop Culture: Homestuck’s Revenge

I recently saw an excellent video essay titled Why Do Movies Feel So Different Now? by Thomas Flight. Though the title is opaque clickbait, the video is actually about major artistic zeitgeists, or movements, in film history. Flight describes three major movements:

Modernism, encompassing much of classic cinema, in which an earnest belief in universal truths led to straightforward narratives that unironically supported certain values (rationalism, civic duty, democracy, etc.)

Postmodernism, in which disillusionment with the values of modernism led to films that played with cinematic structure, metafiction, and the core language of film, often with more unclear narratives that lacked straightforward resolutions, and that were skeptical or even suspicious of the idea of universal truth 

Metamodernism, the current artistic zeitgeist, which takes the structural and metafictional innovations of postmodernism but uses them not to reject meaning, but point to some new kind of meaning or sincerity.

Flight associates metamodernism with the “multiverse” narratives that are popular in contemporary film, both in blockbuster superhero films and Oscar darlings like Everything Everywhere All at Once. He argues that the multiverse conceptually represents a fragmented, metafictional lack of universal truth, but that lack of truth is then subverted with a narrative that ultimately reaffirms universal truth. In short, rather than rejecting postmodernism entirely, metamodernism takes the fragmented rubble of its technique and themes and builds something new out of that fragmentation.

Longtime readers of this blog may find some of these concepts familiar. Indeed, I was talking about them many years ago in my Hymnstoke posts, even using the terms “modernism” and “postmodernism,” though what Flight calls metamodernism I tended to call “post-postmodernism” (another term used for it is New Sincerity). Years before EEAAO, years before Spider-verse, years before the current zeitgeist in pop cultural film and television, there was an avant garde work pioneering all the techniques and themes of metamodernism. A work that took the structural techniques of postmodernism--the ironic detachment, the temporal desynchronization, the metafiction--and used them not to posit a fundamental lack of universal truth but rather imbue a chaotic, maximalist world of cultural detritus with new meaning, new truth, new sincerity. That work was:

Homestuck.

That’s right! Everyone’s favorite web comic. Of course, I’m not the first person to realize the thematic and structural similarities between Homestuck and the current popular trend in film. Just take a look at this tweet someone made yesterday:

This tweet did some numbers.

As you might expect if you’re at all aware of the current cultural feeling toward Homestuck, many of the replies and quotes are incredibly vitriolic over this comparison. Here’s one of my favorites:

It’s actually quite striking how many elements of the new Spider-verse are similar to Homestuck; aspects of doomed timelines, a multiversal network that seems to demand certain structure, and even “mandatory death of parental figure as an impetus for mandated personal growth” are repeated across both works. The recycling and revitalization of ancient, seemingly useless cultural artifacts (in Homestuck’s case, films like Con Air; in Spider-verse, irrelevant gimmick Spider-men from spinoffs past) are also common thematic threads.

As this new post-postmodern or metamodern trend becomes increasingly mainstream, and as time heals all and allows people to look back at Homestuck with more objectivity, I believe there will one day be a rehabilitation of Homestuck’s image. It’ll be seen as an important and influential work, with a place inside the cultural canon. Perhaps, like Infinite Jest, it’ll continue to have some subset of commentators who cannot get past their perception of the people who read the work rather than the work itself even thirty years after its publication, but eventually it’ll be recognized for innovations that precipitated a change in the way people think about stories and their meaning.

Until that day, enjoy eating raw sewage directly from a sewer pipe.

(Side note: I think Umineko no naku koro ni, which was published around the same time as Homestuck and which deals with many similar themes and then-novel ideas, will also one day receive recognition as a masterpiece. Check it out if you haven’t already!)

[openworldadventurer]

How can we balance player agency and authorial control in games? And how that challenge speaks to a fundamental postmodern literary theory.

[littyngeeky]

quick question to the lit majors/scholars:

what comes after postmodernism? is it metamodernism or something else? if so, what are the recurring narrative styles/genres that sets it apart from postmodernism?

welp.

pls share this with your well-read friends who might know the answer. i wanna know everyone’s opinions.

[raptureburgers]

Hey everybody! In case you hadn't heard, the all new manga version of Rapture Burgers Volume One is available on Amazon and our direct site! We also have stickers and posters available!

This version of the story is a complete retelling, and was drawn by a team of professional Japanese manga artists and assistants! The level of detail and quality are top notch, and we're extremely proud of their hard work.

The book comes in your choice of softcover or deluxe hardcover, which comes with an exclusive art gallery, larger format, and a very fancy dust jacket!

Digital versions are also available on the Rapture Productions website, but the physical versions are such high quality that we think it's worth the extra cost! Every purchase comes with a sticker sheet and special thank-you card.

[enigmasandepiphanies]

can take the girl out of academic research, can't take the academic research out of the girl- a weird kind of doomscrolling

[flowerandthesongstress]

"Orion and the Dark" is about writing. It’s like "Adaptation." 2.0 This Time For All Audiences, whoah.

I mean, of course it is an allegory of writing. Kaufman makes movies about making movies, Kaufman writes about writing, and that is all that Kaufman does. Even "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" is about creativity. Y’all think it’s a love story? Sure, on the surface it is. But ju-ust below the surface it is an allegory too. It's about letting go of unwritten ideas, whether because you're not ready or not equipped to write them and give them justice or they're just too out-there for the Current You; it's about killing your darlings — and about putting them to sleep, as well. About how these ideas fade from your life and your memory, and how soul-crushing it is when they do, and yet keeping them in your memory is soul-crushing, too, because their presence is unhealthy right now, it's a torment, it impedes you from moving on and paralyzes your creative progress and your growth as a writer and a human being.

Anyway, “Orion and the Dark” is about writing. Nope, it's not about generalized anxiety, it's not about overcoming your existential fears. At its core, “Orion and the Dark” is about one specific fear: losing your integrity and authenticity as a person and as a writer via stepping out into the spotlight.

Truly writing 'for yourself' means writing for an audience of one. The ruthless beast that is capitalism, and the devaluing and self-hatred it brings upon each of us, is what pushes so many people into asking the heartbreaking question: "what even is the pOinT of creatiViTy without an audiEnCe?!" I.e. in the context of the movie "what is the point of the Dark?!" The not-straightforward answer is in this movie. The very-very personal and exasperated — and straightforward — answer is: Creativity itself. Keeping one’s mind sharp. Learning a language. Processing trauma. Celebrating a memory. Savoring a memory. Cementing a memory. Honoring a friend’s memory. Fighting back the tide of existential dread. Making peace with yourself, your past, or your future. Debating a moral dilemma with yourself. Comforting your inner child. Soothing your inner teenager. Bleaching your brain. Introspection. Self-compassion. Self-actualization. Building a structural-support frame around yourself to brace against a crippling fear; for instance, the fear of death, or the fear of losing a loved one — by creating stories or worlds where we could be together forever and nobody gets sick or dies, because we can do magic there.

Dark has many quirky, industrious, and unique companions. They are his companions. They do not belong with the Light, they are distorted in the light. Fear of the Dark (in the movie, super cleverly ‘the Fear that Dark Experiences’ and not only ‘the fear that Orion experiences as a stand-in for The Author’) is: ‘Am I truly a writer if my voice will never be heard and my word will never be read?’ (psst, spoilers: yes) but also ‘Will I be able to retain my true self, the love I hold for my creativity, and the internal benefits I reap from my creativity if/when I share the result of my creativity with others?’ and ‘Will I burn to cinders / fade into nothing / lose the drive to create when/if my creativity is rejected or misunderstood?’ and ‘If I am misunderstood, will this misunderstanding inflict lasting harm? Will the responsibility of doing this harm be my burden to bear? And just how guilty will I feel for what I did?’

The unending tug-o-war between creativity for the sake of creativity, for the sake of you — and the desire to have your voice heard. The inner conflict between your yearning for an audience — and hating your yearning for an audience (or even hating the audience itself/the audience that you get, but welp, that's often projection, albeit no-o-ot always). The conflict between looking for a genuine connection with other like-minded humans — and the desire to be admired, borne long ago in a sandbox on a playground. Between striving to keep your integrity and self-respect, to stay true to yourself — and the learned urge to please, conform and placate, because you want to fit in and/or because you can see that popularity often equals conformity and that you may never get your voice heard in any capacity if you don't conform.

Sometimes it feels like the healthy balance between the two can’t ever be achieved, that they can never overlap, should not; that it should be either one or the other.  

Btw you know who else recently expressed this inner fight super well while also hiding the subtext under a whole pile of distracting 'entertaining' and 'comedic' text? Bo Burnham in his exquisite and poignant and heart-wrenching Kanye Rant. 🙏 🌯

The truth is frighteningly simple, and the truth is frighteningly hard to remember, and the truth is simply hard to stay true to, because the glimmer of the spotlight somewhere far ahead is too blinding, and its veneer is too distracting and enticing. The truth is: separate your damn laundry the purpose of writing should be Writing. That's it. Creativity is about creativity. Writing should be in the moment. Writing should not take into account anyone else other than the writer themself. The purpose of writing is the writing; this process should be free of any and all outside influences. Night and Day, Dark and Light should remain apart at all times. Writing is not about/for sharing that writing. Not about obtaining the strangers' praise for that writing. Not about placating and pleasing an ephemeral 'reader'. Not about the junkie rush to obtain some dopamine hits through getting patted on the head by strangers via pleasing them 'correctly'. None of these things should matter, and it's tragic that they do matter so much and to so many, and it's tragic that they have taken over so many minds so fully and so quickly, replacing and pushing out the bliss of the Simple Truth. Well... Capitalism is tragic. Every aspect and consequence of it, direct or indirect. At times, capitalism and its reach and scope feel like a void of hopelessness.

Even before consciously realizing the metaphor, I was bawling my eyes out when Orion was fighting to save the Dark, when he was grieving the Dark. This is one of my biggest fears too: losing my authentic self by succumbing to the enticing brightness of daylight. In the fight against this fear, I was doing, and continue doing, all of the irrational and oftentimes harmful things Orion does, and more: hole up, bristle up and snarl, push away, erect defenses, withdraw, and even fawn, etc. Mostly withdraw.

Only when we embrace the essence, the joy of sheer creativity — embrace the Dark, make the Dark our friend — when we discard everything superficial, when we forgive ourselves for our weaknesses and learn self-compassion, only then can we remember why we're writing, why we started writing, what we write for, and only then can we create unimpeded. The struggle itself towards the heights There's so much peace in the Dark. Truth is, this balance can rarely be achieved in reality; life is not a story, and humans are infinitely flawed. Truth is, the fight remains a constant fight, with good and bad moments, with losses and wins, and the fight persists for decades, throughout our lives. But that's why fairy tales exist, right? Why children's stories exist. In them, there's magic and blasters and time machines and everything is simple and everything is always resolved.

I love every manifestation of Kaufman’s creative mind and I loved this movie. The script is based on a picture book of the same name that is a thing on its own.

P.S. In light of the above, might I also suggest "Why You Should Read Children's Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise" by Katherine Rundell.

[knkanzapaint]

"Emoji" Acrylic on canvas, October 2024

[514ckj4w3d]

epistemology is easy: if A doesn’t practically satisfy your desire don’t use A or justify A.

use B instead, something that is practically distinct from A but of the same origin

[jareckiworld]

Azuki Furuya — Procession of Courtesans (mixed media, acrylic and oil paint, on wood panel, 2023)

[lawfulgoodness]

Experimental campaign idea

I’ve been trying to figure out how to explain my next campaign setting/idea in a brief, sensible way.  It’s really silly, but also really ambitious, and we’re about to have the second session, which means I really need to get a firmer grasp on all the moving parts.  To that end, here are the 3 main things I’m doing with it:

Self-insert PCs - All Player Characters are self-insert, so everybody’s just literally themselves.

Reality is a simulation - The players are “pulled out” of our world, and “plugged into” another one.  They are thrown back and forth with little explanation, hopefully motivating them to investigate why.

A Multiverse of RPGs -  Initially the world they are thrown into will be Shadowrun, since it already has an understanding of “jacking into the matrix.”  However, the goal is for them to try and find a way to escape from the world of Shadowrun, only to find themselves trapped in the world of Earthdawn instead.  The levels of reality are nested, so escaping one simulation leads them to discover what they thought was “reality” is in fact another simulation.

It’s basically “Sliders” meets “eXistenZ”

If you’re interested in the currently planned nesting realities, click the “Read More”:

World 0x0800:  Fake Shadowrun, but a very glitchy VR video game, simulating the world of Shadowrun.  It is so glitchy, that the players are able to exploit it in a way that creates a rift in the underlying simulation of all worlds, allowing them to begin traveling between worlds.  

World 0x0700: Real The world of Shadowrun.  The players were hired to pull a series of jobs in a popular video game, but after the first few jobs, the world of Shadowrun started to demonstrate weird glitches just like the video game.  Players try to escape to get back to their “real lives.”

World 0x0600: Spawn point.  No system/setting.  This is the world players initially find themselves in when the campaign starts.  It is clear that 0x0800 isn’t real, it is also implied that 0x0700 may not be real.  All but one player is currently assuming that 0x0600 is probably “real.”

World 0x0500: Earthdawn  After finally realizing 0x0600 is not real, the players escape and find themselves in Earthdawn.  In the world of Earthdawn, the players are welcomed as rescued heroes that had been trapped by the Horrors of Barsaive.  They are finally awake, and all of their previous adventures are considered nightmares, but not real.  Other nightmares and astral adventures will occur from here, throwing the adventurers into 0x0610 (d&d), 0x0620 (pathfinder), and 0x0630 (Golden Sky).  Once the players find out 0x0500 isn’t real either, they escape to...

World 0x0400: Trail of Cthulhu  Players find themselves to be mental patients in a late-30s mental asylum, locked up for their insane ramblings about the future, and for being suspects in the murder of a local business magnate.  Lovecraftian Whodunit to follow, giving them the ability to travel to other worlds, such as 0x510 (Solomon Kane) and 0x520 (Castle Falkenstein), which forces them to collect powerful magical items in order to escape to...

World 0x0300: GURPS Cyberpunk - Players find themselves to be unwitting contestants on a reality game show, where their simulated adventures are a form of public entertainment.  In addition to worlds 0x4000 - 0x8000, the players will now be throw into additional fictional settings for one-shot adventures to entertain the masses.  These adventures include 0x410 (Star Wars), 0x420 (TMNT), 0x430 (BtVS), and other popular franchises.  If they are able to escape this world, they find themselves in...

World 0x0200: Android RPG by Fantasy Flight Games.  They are recently activated androids, designed to replace a series of violent malfunctioning androids.  They have to hunt down their counterparts and stop them.  If they succeed in escaping the world the enter....

World 0x0100: A Tron-like world, probably using d20 mechanics of Horizon:Virtual, unless I can find something better.  Players find out they are each distinct AI/ML processes being groomed for placement in the “real world” to infiltrate & replace humanity.  All of their adventures up to this point is to help them simulate being actual humans, but able to understand why humans must be replaced.

“Ascend” as AI/ML constructs in synthetic bodies and step out into the real world for the first time.

Destroy the Master Control Program that’s been pulling the strings behind the entire campaign, but trapping themselves in the simulated environment in the process

Return to what they originally thought was the real world (Planet Earth in the 2020s)

Something else that I haven’t thought of that the players do instead.  Obviously, this is going to be the one that actually happens and I can’t wait to find out what it is.

Root 0x0000 // The game’s actual reality.  

[wosted]

Instrucciones para mantenerse vivo

Cada vez que las hojas caigan

a tu lado, respira profundo.

Cada vez que los ríos se sequen,

aprende a nadar en el vacío.

Cada vez que los pájaros se olviden

de cantar, inventa una melodía.

Cada vez que el sol se esconda,

enciende una estrella en tu pecho.

Cada vez que los muros se cierren,

busca un camino en la penumbra.

Cada vez que la noche te abrace,

deja que tus sueños sean tu refugio.

Cada vez que te sientas perdido,

recuerda que la vida es un laberinto.

Cada vez que te duelan los recuerdos,

báñalos en el río de tus lágrimas.

Cada vez que la muerte te susurre al oído,

grítale que aún no estás listo para partir.

Cada vez que sientas que todo está perdido,

mantente presente, porque la vida siempre encuentra una forma de renacer.

[freeformfemi]

recent musings

I’ve been pondering reality 

I thigh this world has been forever and never ends 

I think we humans are an amalgamation and akin to the flux in the movement of a chewing gum 

We are everly dancing circles in the mind of the all

Which is an unknowable and unfathomable mass of quantum understanding beyond what the material world is aware of 

We are the everflowing mind of the all, filled with the drama of all creation with its stories, emotions and intensities 

[sleepyimpulse]

the sunrise and a poem i wrote about it 🌅 hang in there everybody