#Postmodern realism

[hygieiahelper]

need this for pigtails to prevent aggressive fellatio

[laurachouettepoetry]

Let your love bleed all over those pages;  in the end, all it can be is a work of art  (- but never a mistake). - Laura Chouette (Profound Reverie, 2023)

[electronicgallery]

Art by Noah Verrier

[postmodernart81]

Nicholaas Chiao, Admirers, 2024, oil on canvas, 13 x 20 inches

[coolgirlsareslightlyugly]

me the second someone says life feels monotonous and devoid of novel cultural significance

[sex-ray-spex]

Scientists estimate that approximate ninety percent of the cells in the human body belong to non-human organisms (bacteria, fungi, and a whole bestiary of other organisms). Why shouldn’t this also be the case for human thought as well? In a sense, this book is an exploration of this idea – that thought is not human.

Eugene Thacker, In the Dust of This Planet: Horror of Philosophy 

[pitagorasprocrastinante]

the thinker

August is the month of last chances, Nigel Van Wieck

[modernliterarytheories]

Jean-Francois Lyotard - Realism

"But capitalism inherently possesses the power to derealize familiar objects, social roles, and institutions to such a degree that the so-called realistic representations can no longer evoke reality except as nostalgia or mockery, as an occasion for suffering rather than for satisfaction. Classicism seems to be ruled out in a world in which reality is so destabilized that it offers no occasion for experience but one for ratings and experimentation."

From 'Answering the Question: What is Postmodernism?' in The Postmodern Condition, R. Durand tr., (1986), pp. 71-82. Contained in Modern Literary Theory edited by Philip Rice and Patricia Waugh

I found this quote particularly interesting (in fact it was the first that made me reach for my highlighter) not only because of the commentary on the derealization of representations to the point that only the ironic is left, but that nostalgia is one of the remaining two options under realism. In a world where we seem to be increasingly reliant on nostalgia--via reboots, sequels, prequels, re-emerging fashion trends, reactionary political views, and a turn or, in some cases, return to esoteric theories and ideas in already niche communities--it seems to drive late-stage capitalism in such a singly-powerful-yet-consistently-denounced way as to emphasize the position of postmodernism as a theory often used to decry this realism without being aware of its influence.

[penhive]

Postmodern Existentialism

The progenitors of existentialism have been the literary and philosophical heavyweights like Heidegger, Sartre and Camus. What I have done here is to revise their contributions and through it I would like to lay down my own interpretations.

Heidegger

From the ontological point of view, Heidegger defines being as Dasein (meaning being there). He also mentions that being is throwness of meaning. I contradict him by saying that being is the possession of meaning. And being possesses meaning as:

Appropriation

Catharsis

Affirmation

Negation

Celebration

Cognition and Perception

Appropriation

Appropriation means to take hold or to possess and it’s a way of authenticating the presence of meaning. Reality becomes qualitative as lived presence of meaning.

Catharsis

Catharsis is the most beautiful state to experience meaning of being. Catharsis from the Aristotelian meaning of purging or cleansing the soul has also the modern meaning of beatific experience. We are in the state of beatification and beautification.

Negation

Negation as a presence of meaning is to express Sartre’s ‘nothingness’, a technique to annihilate negativity. Negation is the broom with which we sweep the dusty corridors of the human mind.

Celebration

My existential view unlike Sartre and Camus is life is the celebration of meaning meant to live with cheerful optimism. Life is the carnival of heaven and poem of celebration on earth.

Cognition and Perception

Cognition and Perception are the intellectual tools for gaining data from the world of senses. It is a process which I call as transcendental realism. It is a blend of the concrete and the abstract idea. It is the pedagogy of living experiences.

Camus

For Camus existentialism meant that life is chaotic, absurd, meaningless, monotonous and repetitive. He compares absurdity to the myth of Sisyphus and in it Sisyphus is condemned by the Gods to roll a boulder uphill only to find that it rolls down and he is forced to do this meaningless task. For me Camus’ metaphor of the Sisyphus is to be rewritten and  as each times he rolls the stone, Sisyphus does it creatively and differently and this way he avoids repetition and monotony. Sisyphus is a hero who celebrates life’s meaning.

Sartre

Sartre in his enigmatic statement said: ‘we are condemned to be free’ as we are sole responsibility for the choices that we make. If we put our responsibility on others or on God we are acting in bad faith. He terms the obstacles that we face as facticity. Revising Sartre, I would like to say we should we wise and prudent when we make choices with the keenness of perception and discernment so that our choices don’t fall to folly and ruin. I say that the choices we make in life makes privileged beings.

[afantasyoffiction]

virginia woolf and arnold bennett can rest easy knowing their age-old debate has finally been laid to rest

what makes a novel? characters who feel real

how do you make them feel real? is it heavy handed description of their environments like bennett and the realists? is it bewildering explorations of their inner mind and thought process like woolf and the modernists?

no. its clinical insanity and obsession

hope that helps!

EDIT: ive realised this entire post sounds super sarcastic its not im deadly serious OP is 1000% correct.

i love both realism and modernism but i am in fact currently microwaving all my current wip OCs on high heat

Imo in order to finish your writing project you need to be unhealthily obsessed with your characters to a point where you question your sanity

[laurachouettepoetry]

My love is so fragile; and yet it chooses your hands to bloom.

- Laura Chouette (Profound Reverie, 2023)

[historicity-was-already-taken]

Since my slightly batshit last few days of posting have attracted a new influx of followers, I thought I’d post this question (as I do once or twice a year).

I’m looking for Holocaust fiction recommendations (books) which are heavy on such elements as: magical realism, maybe magic maybe mundane, surrealism, postmodernism, eternalism, and general ethereal vibes. As a Holocaust Historian, I’m turned off by fiction which does the most to capture realism in setting and context. Realism is my job. I want artistic interpretations of the Holocaust which embrace the shocking, unrealistic nature of the events, and use that “how is this real” vibe to create the rest of the world of the piece.

Some pieces which capture the ~vibes~ I’m attracted to/looking for in books include:

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

Jerusalem by Alan Moore

Inglorious Basterds (2009)

Jojo Rabbit (2019)

Big Fish (2003)

Philip Pullman’s HDM and Book of Dust trilogies

Oh Brother, where art thou? (2000)

NOT

Benjamin Button (2008)

[noosphe-re]

Magical realism's most basic concern [is]--the nature and limits of the knowable. Magical realist texts ask us to look beyond the limits of the knowable. Magical realism is truly postmodern in its rejection of the binarisms, rationalisms, and reductive materialisms of Western modernity.

Lois Parkinson Zamora, Magical Romance/Magical Realism: Ghosts in U.S. And Latin American Fiction. Magical Realism. Ed. Zamora and Faris, 498 (https://www.public.asu.edu/~aarios/resourcebank/definitions/)

[postmodernart81]

aka Nicholaas Chiao

Nicholas Chistiakov  — The Burial of Count Orgaz with Meat    (oil on canvas, 2012)

[jeaninelatragedia]

my aspiration as a writer in my twenties is to be the most insufferable autobiographical postmodern solipsist individualist artist since miss andrew hussie took the crown in 2009 from previous holder miss charlie kaufman who held it since 1999. eventually i will burn out and explode crashing so hard i have to learn to write from scratch and focus full time on perfecting the synthesis of socialist realism and latin american magical realism (without just copying gabriel garcía márquez).

[postoctobrist]

On Zadie Smith - would you say that criticism of White Teeth as 'hysterical realism', and in general postmodern writing, is valid?

I would say that you don’t want to hear my opinions about Zadie Smith