The time of small stories. (or: the death of idealism?)

Another possible reason for the focus on smaller themes is that the world is getting "smaller", in a way. If you want to know what's going on in England, you put on the BBC any time of the day and you know. Want to know what Korea is like? Watch CNN or the international channel, go out and buy one of the dozens of books about it. Larger themes don't excite people anymore because it's so common, news from the whole world is avaiable to anyone at anytime. Anyone can get their fill of huge, epic themes whenever they want, so it's not as interesting as it was back when it was a lot harder to get information about other parts of the world.

It's still pretty mysterious what exactly goes through other people's heads though, how individuals deal with and perceive their lives, so that's what authors write about now.
 
welsh said:
eom I have asked you about your sig.
.
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link, please.

the top aof is a board that started a few years back as sort of a response to the order overrunning interplay's boards.
it was put up as a board where all the flaming and bickering could roam free w/o trashing interplay.

the 2nd aof is some place called the asshelmets that we sort of colonized, as our home planet was dying.
I'm still waiting for the superpowers.
 
Jebus said:
*Takes off his pants, puts a trashcan on his head and goes dancing into the streets*
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Damn... Jebus over in Gent dancing naked in the street and here I am stuck in the US *sigh*

I mean... :look: Hi Dove...
 
WaterGirl said:
Damn... Jebus over in Gent dancing naked in the street and here I am stuck in the US *sigh*
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Don't worry. It'll be all over CNN tomorrow...
 
The problem with the post-modernist camp though, is that perhaps it has helped in support the christian resurgence.

Post modernism- a desconstructive idea would look at the bible and it's advocacy of universal truths as a system of power that is used to dominate (as all power systems must). By denying the existence of an ultimate power or universal truths, it challenges the basic notions of Christianity.

This is also one of the reason why there has been a rise in anti-intellectualism. The post-modernist belief would make intellectual pursuits little more than the creation and advocacy of systems of empty power.
 
Post Modernism's past it's peak. Honestly, Critical Realism man. I can't see a great postmodern work being wiritten after Dave Eggers.
 
Sad thing, but one might ask: what exactly were those great stories about in the first place? What exactly was there value to humanity? Did they answer the 'Why?' question in a sufficient way? Apparently not, since they disappeared. So is it a bad thing that they have ceased to exist? Meh.

The only great story that makes any sense is this: we are on a little planet in a place called the universe, which is a big place, maybe even the biggest place there is. Why? There is no why. We just are, and we got to make the best out of this life since it's most probably the only life we have. Everything that comes after this (i.e. death) can only be worse. (Trust me on this one, I've given this a lot of thought.)

Projects? What for? And what exactly should these ideals be? The spread-throughout-the-galaxy-story? The-make-love-no-war-story? The there-is-a-god-watching-over-us-story? We've heard them before. None of them has a good ending. Except in Hollywood studios which is the only place where we will ever accomplish these things to some extent.

There's just no other big story left, but this one: it's all in vein.

Oh, and maybe this one: we only have this one little planet, and it's most probably all we will ever have, so we should take really good care of it, because our lives depend on it.

Now, this is in se, a sad story. Not a small one, mind you, but it just won't do for way too many people: 'You're insignificant, make the best of it. Even nature denies your existence.' People who have given up on the other big stories (the projects of humanity: religion, science), have only one possibility left: make themselves seem more important than they really are. Turn their own little story, their priivate project into a big one, one that they can believe in, but also one that is perfectly doable since it's following their own standards.

Fall in love, get married, make unnecessary children, buy plastic garbage and wear a fake capitalist smile, for instance. That's doable, and if you manage to do a little sport on a semi-professional level (so your name gets into the papers) or you join a choir, you can actually have the feeling that you mean something after all.

No more heroes anymore.

There are still big stories in the east, though. Stories people believe in, with morals and values and symbols and all kinds of funny stuff. Which they don't properly understand, of course.
 
I thought the meaning of life was to get someone pregnant before you're 20 so it ruins your life so you hack at her vagina with a coat-hanger.

Or something. Sexy B)

Why ask Why.
 
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