Tattoos?

Tattoos are definitely a form of postmodern self expression. As are piercings. I thought it was really neat that something that’s been discussed and seen in our everyday lives could be overlooked so easily. We’ve grown up all knowing at least one person with a tattoo or a piercing (not on their ears), but we’ve never stopped and thought “Hey, that right there is a postmodern guy/gal.” It’s so easy not to notice things you’re used to and it’s definitely difficult to try to look at it in a new light. 

What other things could be a symbol of our postmodern society that we miss because of our familiarity with them?

borussell13:

out of the past few things we have read out of the postmodern book, only one of them is really capable of being understood. The stories that are from other books are so hard to understand because you do not know what is going on really and you do not get any back ground information on them. It makes it really difficult to like postmodern work when you cant even understand what you are reading. We are about to get into the next book, i hope it is more like the things they carried instead of extremly loud and incredibly close, just because the things they carried is a little bit easier understanding.

It’s funny you said that, because I said the exact opposite. For me, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close was much easier to follow. The Things They Carried confused the heck out of me and couldn’t hold my interest, while the other book had me reading chapters ahead of time. I guess it just shows how much preferences differ, even within the same genre!

CAUTION: Epistemologist at work: A Grand Post About Nothing

pwh1017:

readalicious:

pwh1017:

I felt that the midterm went well. Other than the whole putting answers for Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close in the spaces for The Things They Carried. In pen.

It is rather shocking to come to terms with the fact that the class is half over. I think I have a bit of a handle on being able to…

I know! I feel like the class has gone by so fast! But you know what they say about time flys when you’re having fun! LoL. Postmodernism is still a bit difficult to pin down for me, but the handouts and the discussions we have about postmodern aspects really help me understand better. I think the one thing that would make this class more awsome would be the re arrangement of the classroom. I think it would be neat for the college to have the literature classes a few classrooms that are more comfortable with couches and beanbags. The class would seem more like a book club where you could sit back, relax, and discuss postmodernism!

I am glad to see someone agrees with me concerning the beanbag chairs!

I am currently working on the Critical Response paper at the moment. Three cheers for procrastination! I chose use the Abstractionist topic, to explore my personal understanding (or misunderstanding) of abstract thought. I never was too good when it came to writing papers strictly by the book like in the first prompt, using aspects of literature, since I tent to interpret them loosely or put a “postmodern” spin on them, questioning the accuracy or validity of such a system.

When in doubt, deny all definitions and standards! 

We should all just bring big pillows to sit on during this class! I did better on my midterm than I had actually thought I had, and I finished the Critical Response One about half an hour ago. This class has been a lot more interesting than I had initially thought, if not easier as well. I really like how much opinion there is to the interpretations of the novels. Too many classes make you afraid to answer questions with your opinion for fear of a bad grade of being reprimanded for what you think. I love that Mrs. Clark doesn’t do that to us!

(Source: sithregal, via sithregal)

amberen22:

Ok this is my last sad video doing with “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close”. I wanted to see what the real children were like that were affected on September 11, 2001. I know that probably very few were anything like Oskar, because as we have discussed, he is far from the normal 9 year old little boy. I wanted to hear how the actual children of 9/11 felt during the recent 10 year anniversary. I am a very patriotic person, so wactching this video made me tear up for sure. It is very sad to even imagine losing a loved one, but some children never even met their parents because their mothers were still pregnant. I could not imagine the void those children must feel in not even knowing who their parents were. This video said that more than 300 children lost their dad’s before even meeting them. This video also said that over 3,000 children lost loved ones. That is absolutely devastating! I hope you enjoyed this touching video as much as I did.

Its an event that will touch everyone’s lives forever.I remember doing a car wash in memory of 9-11 and a soccer coach that we lost who was a fire fighter.We put picutres and high lighted the names of some people that were listed in the news paper.A lot of people came out to support.Their were candle lightings,talks in school a moment of silence.The way I would look at the city was never the same.Just remembering driving over the bridge to my dads house in Queens and seeing the twin towers..then knowing that they werent there anymore and so many people passed was overwhelming.It’s crazy to think our children will be learning about what we lived through when their in school.I think extremely loud incredibly close will help children that lost loved ones in 9-11 maybe it will give them hope to hold on to the people they have and never forget about the memories.

That’s so awful! I couldn’t imagine losing a parent now, let alone at that age.

In class today, Mrs. Clark mentioned that the families that lost loved ones in 9/11 weren’t given time to mourn in their own ways. Watching this video, I started to wonder if these kids (the ones old enough to have known their parents) and the parents left behind felt any anger or sadness about being asked to speak on such a sensitive subject. I also wondered if anyone was asked but declined. As Mrs. Clark pointed out, the nation kind of just keeps bringing it back up.

(via msliberty1990)

A few weeks ago I made a post about Postmodern advertising techniques. As I was looking for a topic to write about for this post, I came across an article titled “Postmodern Advertising? Don’t Buy It” by a guy named Patrick West. I was curious, so I started reading it.

In that particular post, I’d used Sprite as an example of Postmodern advertising. So, when West said that “Sprite once had the ironic slogan: ‘Image is Nothing. Obey your thirst.’” I found it pretty ironic also. The article gives other examples of businesses switching their techniques over the years as well; especially cigarette and alcohol companies. 

The attached video is an example that West uses in the very beginning of the article. West makes a lot of sense saying that advertising is becoming too abstract. In my experience, the commercials I see almost always leave me in confusion with no desire whatsoever to buy the products.

I think that West’s closing statement says it best: “In any case, I don’t actually like chocolate. But had Cadbury’s put out an advert saying: ‘Buy our chocolate, it’s lovely’, I might have bought some - instead of simply staring at the television, wondering what that bloody gorilla was banging his drums about.”

The article: http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/boxarticle/4088/

HeartItRaces: Not gonna lie...

graham-l:

jessicaellyn:

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close made me cry a little bit. I’m an extremely sensitive person, and this book kind of touched me. I remember 9/11, but I wasn’t old enough then to really have a strong reaction of my own. I remember hearing about it in aftercare and being angry at the people who…

I’m going to have to agree with you. This book is very sad, but it is not only Oskar’s story that really made me feel this way. When the Grandma was writing her last letter to Oskar in my feelings it really was just flat out sad. Both her story and the whole story about his Grandpa and everything he went through in the bombing of Dresden really just brought the level of sadness to a whole new level for me. I remember being in 4th grade when 9/11 happened and I just didn’t understand how it touched everyone, and even countries over the world. I knew it was bad though, but didn’t realize at the time how massive it really was.

Honestly, the grandparents made me mad. Even going through as much as he had, the grandpa leaving and then coming back and leaving again was stupid. I know it’s fiction, but as I was reading that, I was thinking “Are you kidding me?! Twice?” And the grandma made me mad by suggesting that they live at the airport. All I could think about was Oskar when I read that decision. I know she wanted to keep the Thomas around, but still. That was just weird.
I do know what you mean though when you say you hadn’t realized how far 9/11 traveled and touched people of other countries. The scene the Foer painted for the reader of the attack shown on t.v. in Germany showed the reader just how horrific it was for everyone, not just the U.S.  

Not gonna lie…

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close made me cry a little bit. I’m an extremely sensitive person, and this book kind of touched me. I remember 9/11, but I wasn’t old enough then to really have a strong reaction of my own. I remember hearing about it in aftercare and being angry at the people who did it. I’d thought about the families who lost loved ones in the attacks, but it’d never felt that real. I know Oskar is a fictional character, but his feelings and fears because of what happened to his dad were more than real. I couldn’t imagine losing anyone like that, especially a parent. It’s an amazing book.

blr1059:

gtaylor2004:

I put the trailer to the movie on here.  I feel that after just seeing this little clip, helps me realized some parts or even picture scenes in my head.  I cannot wait for the movie to come out and see how different they are from each other.  I can already tell that there are certain parts that will be difference from what I have already read, but we will see.  The image of the Towers beyond the mother’s eyes is very difficult and sad to watch even through the previews.  I hope the movie sticks close to the book, as most don’t.

After seeing this trailer I am also definitely going to go see this when it comes out! I think the choices of Sandra Bullock as the mom and Tom Hanks as the dad were both really good choices. I haven’t seen Thomas Horn before but from the preview he seems like he’ll do a good job. It does bother me a bit that I didn’t see the grandmother in the trailer because of how important a character that she is not only to the novel but to Oskar as well. Also I have a feeling that the opening scenes showing an overview of 9/11 is going to be pretty hard for some people to watch and I just hope that they do the book justice in the movie and don’t butcher it like so many other books-to-movies have been.

It looks sooooooo good! The preview makes it seem like they’ve captured the same balance of sadness and humor that the book manages to encompass. I’m pretty sure that this movie is going to be just as good as the book has been for me. It may even clear up the book for those who have read it and never really understood it.
I was thinking today, most of us had never heard of postmodernism before this class. I think introducing the concept at the end of 1102 with this book would be awesome. Not in depth, but just giving students a new way to look at the material. I had wished we’d known just a little about it coming into this class just so I wouldn’t have felt so lost in the beginning!
Postmodernism isn’t really that difficult of a concept and I’m really glad that I took this class and got to learn about it at all!