Postmodernism

I selected “Intermission” and “The Final Cut”.

I think that the trailer of “Intermission” shows the postmodern (and modern) features of fragmentation, discontinuity and simultaneity. After watching this short video, I did not get a sense of “unity”-many characters are presented in different situations, as if several unrelated stories happen at the same time. These “micronarratives” or small stories(situational, provisional, contingent, and temporary), help to develop the idea of multiplicity and incompatibility, which is one of the most important characteristic of postmodernism.

In “The Final Cut”, postmodernism is clearly illustrated by the reliance on computer technology to the extent that it can manipulate and determine social practices. In this trailer, babies may be implanted a memory chip which will record every moment of their lives and after their deaths, the chip will be edited by a ‘cutter’ so that it has a certain length. In this society, the relationship between signifier/signified is non –existent (the events on the chip may be deleted). This lack of reality, also accounts for the passivity of the postmodern subject: people watching the content on the chip will take it as real, "the only reality they can know".

Postmodernism

I have chosen the videos Educational Uses of Second Life and Introduction to Pop Art to identify some of the features of postmodernism.

In the video Educational Uses of Second Life an element of postmodernism that I could identify is the way in which knowledge is distributed and arranged in a postmodern society. Here the use of computer technologies modifies the way in which learners acquire knowledge. They become part of a virtual reality and they learn from experiencing themselves, for example by being part of different periods of history. This way of presenting information and topics may be more motivating for students, and they probably will be able to remember things better.

In the video Introduction to Pop Art I could find elements of postmodernism related to mass production and consumption. Clear examples are the images of famous people produced by Andy Warhol such as Marilyn Monroe, Jackie Onassis, Mao Tse-Tung, and Elizabeth Taylor. And also the Campbell’s tomato soup can.

These images exemplify the idea of simulacrum defined by Baudrillard claiming that the world of the mass media is full of imitations and copies without original. 

Postmodernism: elements

After watching the videos on Ohio University, Virtual Classroom Project and Pop Art, I found several features of postmodernism. In the first two, this movement is shown in the field of architecture and technology, while in the third, in art. In the three of them, emphasis is placed on how visual perception takes place.

I interpret that in Ohio University and Virtual Classroom Project there is an instance of omniscient third person narrator: In this case, the buildings are seen from various perspectives by the viewer, as if they were God, so as to show the premises from various angles.

I think there is reflexivity or self-consciousness about the production of the 3D videos as well as pop art works, as each piece calls viewers' attention to its particular form of production.

I also see spontaneity and discovery in creation, especially in 'Introduction to Pop Art'. These visual works favour the idea of fragmentation and provisionality. The first stage of capitalism is evident in Ohio University as well as Virtual Classroom Project, which include, among other aspects, electronically techological developments to satisfy students' needs by including sophisticated audiovisual aids as a learning resource. And the third phase, multinational capitalism, is also evident, at least in the American college, which beckons students from all over the world to enjoy the premises. What Frederic Jameson states about the bond between postmodernism and technology -specifically computers- is applicable to the 3D videos.

Postmodernism seems to offer alternatives to joining the global culture of comsumption. Pop art integrates other cultures' features like Chinese paintings and British music albums (namely, The Beatles'). That is how we notice the influence of global trends or cultures on American artists. In pop art, there is a predominance of signifier, as there are not many possible signifieds for the images. In my view, there is no great depth in the realm of hyperreality in these artistic creations.

In Ohio University and Virtual Classroom Project, we find what Baudrillard mentions as simulacrum, consisting in the signifier/signified relationship. We can see that the exhibition of the buildings, which are the signifiers, are representations that point out to something outside themselves, having a reality on its own. They are a representation without an original to copy, being a reality in itself. This is also applicable to Introduction to Pop Art.

I feel we can also find inderterminacy. Especially pop art resists or destabilises the Enlightenment mode of thought, knowledge or action, based on reason, rationality and science as well as traditional art forms. The idea that 'knowledge must be digitalisable to be preserved' is related to the use of computers in the university and visual classroom, which enable endless oportunities for discovery.

Postmodern Culture

The videos I have selected to try to identify postmodern features are "War Games" and "Educational Uses of Second Life". 

In the first video chosen there is a computer simulation of nuclear war which threatens to start a real nuclear war. The computer user, who is a young man very much acquainted with computer games, can hardly distinguish whether he is playing a video game or it is real life. Such difficulty to differentiate virtual from real life is distinctive feature of the postmodern culture. 

Regarding the second video selected, "Educational Uses of Second Life",it  presents a new way of learning through virtual reality in which learners are highly involved in their own learning process and in which an instance of functional knowledge is presented. Students not only learn to know, but they also learn to use that knowledge, which turns it into memorable as well as relevant knowledge.

I have chosen these two videos because they have in common the collapse between image and reality characteristic of postmodernism. both videos refer to Baudrillard's idea of simulacrum since while in the former the young man finds it difficult to differentiate reality from game-playing, in the latter the learners are immersed in a virtual real world.

Postmodernism

After watching the trailers of “War Games” and “Wag the Dog”, I could identify some of the characteristics of Postmodernism presented by Mary Klages.
 

“War Games”, for instance, clearly illustrates one of the features of postmodern culture- the lack of distinction between game and reality. Here, a boy finds a back door into a military central computer in which reality is confused with game-playing, possibly starting World War III.  Similarly, the film “The Matrix”, presents the audience with a new and different reality, i.e the “true” nature of people’s reality. The film creates a world which becomes more “real” than the real world, making the audience think, as Klages states, that the “real world” is itself a constructed hyperreality.

The concept of hyperreality is also presented in the film “Wag the Dog”, in which a war is “fabricated” in order to cover-up a presidential sex-scandal. In this case, a false reality is presented as true, i.e the “real” reality. What appears in the screen becomes more real than what is actually happening in the world. And this idea is clearly related to Baudrillard’s concept of simulacrum- the fact that the world has been replaced by a copy world, where people passively take that copy as the original. As Baudrillard suggests what’s on T.V. IS what is “real”, is the only reality we can know. We can’t be sure whether that reality is “really” happening.

Post-Modernism

One of the features of post-modernism that is present in the trailer “games of war” is “simulacrum”: the separation of signifier from signified (outer reality.) The plot of the movie is that a teenager hacks accidentally a government’s computer thinking that it is a video game.  The boy starts playing what he believes is just a game about thermonuclear war. On the other hand, the government receives information from their computers, which were hacked by the boy, indicating that they are under attack.  Broadly speaking, in the trailer we can see this impossibility to tell the difference between the video game (that would stand for the signifier) and the reality (that would stand for the reality). It is as if reality has no “real substance” which distinguishes it from a game.
  As for the video “the educational uses of second life,” there we can find several applications of second life in education. This video would be related to the Post-Modern idea that technology will determine social interaction in the future, and that any knowledge in order to be considered as such, must be digitalized. Another important Post-colonial idea reflected in this video is that knowledge must be functional. In second life, students can choose what they want to learn or what they think it would be useful for them.   In addition to that, students can experience learning in a more real (or virtual) way. For instance, instead of memorizing the name of certain battles in the past, they can experience them. Finally, it is important to mention that this way of learning in second life is a clear example of what happens in post-modern area: the individualization. That is to say, that one approach is not equally effective to everyone; different approaches can work with different people. And that is clearly what second life does: customize the learning experience to meet each student’s needs. 

After reading TTL

One of the quotations from To the Lighthouse that caught my attention was '[T]here is a coherence in things, a stability; something, she meant, is immune from change, and shines out. . . .'. .

Mrs Ramsay clearly represents stability, peace and unity. All through the novel up to her death, the reader can see she craves for pleasing others through her constant service. Her dinner party is a clear symbol of blissful order, even if it did not start in the best way. The hostess sees a lack of beauty in the room and feels responsible for solving this problem. Lily feels Mrs. Ramsay is worn out, cagey and remote, though unwilling to speak up her mind, probably since she preferred to maintain everything as it was.

Mrs. Ramsay feels responsible for maintaining harmony in the house. She thinks there are qualities that endure, bringing stability and peace to a world in which madness and disorder seems to rule supreme. The woman is extremely skilled at creating social order and removing barriers in order to bridge gaps among people.

Lily finds several flashes of inspirations, as to how to improve or finish her painting, although throughout the novel we see eventually fails to. She feels at ease at her marital status, going against the conventions, although Mrs. Ramsay shows eager to arrange a marriage for the painter.

After reading TTL

After reading the novel, I can say that I really enjoyed it because of its fantastic portrayal the character`s personalities, the fact that we could explore to the maximum their most inner thoughts and feelings.

What I also enjoyed was the fact that I could really feel that the personalities created by Virginia Woolf are REAL and that we can totally find examples of them on the people who surround us, Instead of many literary works which I`ve read before, which in my example, show cliche characters whom I felt I have read many times before.

Finally, I could really enjoy the descriptions of nature and specially the ones related to the sea. At times I could feel all the sensations described on this novel, which of course helped me to relax and to transport myself to other places far away from my hectic way of life.

This is one of my favourites quotations from the novel related to nature:

“so that the monotonous fall of the waves on the beach, which for the most part beat a measured and soothing tattoo to her thoughts seemed consolingly to repeat over and over again as she sat with the children the words of some old cradle song, murmured by nature, ‘I am guarding you—I am your support,"

To the lighthouse

Before I write the question that I would ask Virginia Woolf if I had the chance, I will clarify in which circumstances I would make it.  I would like to make it in the year 1937 ( ten years after she wrote the book so that there is certain “distance” which would had allowed her to see her work in perspective; 4 years before she committed suicide so that she is not completely drown in sorrow ).

The question would go like this: “To the light house was an amazing book which opened our eyes and gave us a clear view of the world we lived in: a world dominated by men; a world that was chaotic; a world in which nothing seemed to be what we thought it was. Somehow the book captured the essence of our times and it meant so much to us because we were part of that reality described in it. Now,  after ten years, Do you think that this new generation  -- and why not future generations—  can find anything new in it, anything relevant to their world, or the “to the lighthouse”  was a book meant to be a time capsule a precise snapshot of the world and time in which it was written?

I would like to ask that because I would like to know – according to the author’s opinion— if the book could be relevant for me: someone who is, let’s say, a foreigner; someone who was not part of the world that the author attempted to describe. 

After reading TTL:

There are many aspects of the novel in which I really feel identified with. First of all, Lily Briscoe´s personality is very similar to mine in that I do not agree with certain things society imposes. However, I find it very difficult not to follow my family commitments. In my family, there are many "Mrs Ramsays" so it is very difficult for me to go against their wishes since they are always giving, giving and giving, and one owes a debt of gratitude to them. I really love "my Mrs Ramsays", they are vital for my life, however with so many "Mrs Ramsays" around, it is hard for me to be completely free. 


As regards quotations, I really enjoyed this one:

Art is the ability to take a moment from life and make it “permanent".

I believe that all of us are artists, and can make moments of life permanent. Having a profession that one really loves and doing all the effort to be the best in that job, that is art too. Teaching is art, helping is also art, everything that gives happiness and makes us feel alive is art. I believe that dreams are the first step to achieve art. That is why I am always insisting in that one should try to do the best to achieve one´s dreams and so become an artist.

You are never given a dream without also being given the power to make it true. You may have to work for it, however. 
Richard Bach

Don't be afraid of the space between your dreams and reality. If you can dream it, you can make it so. 
Belva Davis

    "What does it mean then, what can it all mean? Lily Briscoe asked herself, wondering whether, since she had been left alone, it behoved her to go to the kitchen to fetch another cup of coffee or wait there. What does it mean?-a catchword that was, caught up from some book, fitting her thought loosely, for she could not, this first morning with the Ramsays, contract her feelings, could only make a phrase resound to cover the blankness of her mind until these vapours had shrunk. For really, what did she feel, come back after all these years and Mrs. Ramsay dead?Nothing, nothing-nothing that she could express at all."
   
This quotation makes me feel peace and tranquility, as if it was the aftermath of a painful process.
After experiencing a sad event, one tends to feel relief. And that feeling may lead to a period of reflection on that terrible happening. In this case, Mrs. Ramsay's death makes Lily reflect upon the meaning of life.

     The novel made me conclude that the thoughts and feelings of a simple moment may become unforgettable, eternal. For example, Lily will never forget the thoughts and feelings that she had when she could finally end the painting.

listen to ‘After reading TTL’ on Audioboo

Here's my Audioboo. Hope you can understand it! In case you didn't, I´ve already posted the script...

After reading TTL:

After reading TTL:

“Could the body achieve it, or the mind, subtly mingling in the intricate passages of the brain? Or the heart? Could loving, as people called it, make her and Mrs. Ramsay one? for it was not knowledge but unity that she desired, not inscriptions on tablets, nothing that could be written in any language known to men, but intimacy itself, which is knowledge, she had thought, leaning her head on Mrs. Ramsay’s knee.” Book I, Ch. IX

I’ve chosen this quotation because I feel identified with Lily’s wondering about how one comes to know truly another person, and what bonds people together… Is it intellect or emotion? It makes me wonder what makes me close to people I love and like… In my opinion Lily’s idea that intimacy is knowledge, and that it can´t be put into word is a very feminine way of understanding relationships. What a wonderful quotation! It reminded me of a quotation by Emily Bronte because this same idea of inexplicability is present: "Whatever souls are made of, his and mine were the same".

TTL: Time Passes

Time Passes

Chapter 9

“The house was left; the house was deserted. It was left like a shell on a sandhill to fill with dry salt grains now that life had left it. The long night seemed to have set in; the trifling airs, nibbling, the clammy breaths, fumbling, seemed to have triumphed. The saucepan had rusted and the mat decayed. Toads had nosed their way in. Idly, aimlessly, the swaying shawl swung to and fro. A thistle thrust itself between the tiles in the larder…”

I have chosen this quotation because I think it is really interesting how Virginia Woolf succeeds in dehumanizing the Ramsays’ house, portraying a world where death and desolation reign supreme. Human agency seems to have been superseded by that of natural elements- night, winter, waves, wind, storms. We, as readers can see, through the eyes of the house, how these elements interact and affect the house leaving a sense of emptiness and devastation.

 Woolf experiments with space and time. She makes the reader sense the span of ten years going by before the house is occupied again. As she does not present a definite account of ten years passing, we must actively perceive the text and move into a different frame of mind beyond the absolute of knowing and into one of sensing and perceiving.

I believe that the scene in chapter 7 “In spring the garden urns... and so terrible” is quite effective. By describing a setting that is really contradictory, Woolf makes us feel both, the stillness of the day and the chaos of the night. This scene clearly leaves the reader with mixed feelings.

After Reading TTL

The character of Mrs Ramsay makes me think of my grandmothers, both of whom are still alive. They are not also devoted to their husbands and families, but also ready to help when necessary and without waiting anything as a reward. Giving, giving and giving seem to be the only action they think about. I am absolutely convinced that when they will no longer be physically present, I will be able to understand Lily Briscoe's mourning feelings towards Mrs Ramsay' death.  

253 - Hyperfiction

After reading 'Weaving Textual Webs' and '253'

We can see the novel 253 creatively disrupts textual linearity, being an instance of hypertextuality. By gaining  access to the different links, we get an insight into the lives and thoughts of each passenger in the seven carriages. As one link leads to the others, we can see the story of one passenger is somehow related to another, their lives being interrelated.

What is amazing about this kind of fiction is that the reader has the freedom to decide what to read next (which link to click on), thus unfolding a different plot each time, and weaving a web of intertextual parallels. We as readers feel excited to see a new world of meanings being created. The decision taken will influence the development, and we can decide when to put end to the narrative.

As regards the questions posed at the end of the article, answering to question 1, I feel that to read an inconclusive work is a really thrilling experience, as the reader feels intrigued as to which of the countless endings they will come across. Finding the same lexia again and again can lead the author to consider it in a new way each time, as the same choice of words can convey a wide variety of meanings in the same context.

About question number 3, I don't think hyperfiction really challenges our concept of narrative but, even if textual linearity is disrupted, we can reconstuct some form of narrative line, as there will always be a start with a setting, a conflict and some resolution.

For question number 4, hyperfiction can be very innovative in the pedagogical field in the sense that, when making Ss predict, teachers can be aware pupils are more likely to read a plot that matches their expectations, as they can go thought the same 'hypernovel' more than once in order to unfold a different story each time.

After reading To the Lighthouse...

The character of Mrs Ramsay in To the Lighthouse, reminds me a woman I know, a neighbour. She is always giving not asking anything in return, like Mrs Ramsay. She does this especially with her husband, son and daughter. But also, she is always ready to help any person she knows. She gives more importance to her family than to herself.

She is also in control of her family and home because she is the one who takes decisions and try to make life easier for the ones who live with her.