Introduction of My Blog

Hi, everyone. I am willing to introduce the topic of my blog here to you, which is "humors in postmodernism." 

Postmodernism is a general term which is applied to different areas, such as literature, art, architecture, modern culture and literary criticism.[1] Throughout the history of postmodernism, a lot of distinctive but attractive productions have appeared; TV Shows, art pieces, novels all act fantastically in the world of postmodernism. Fountain produced by Duchamp, Catch 22, a satirical novel written by Joseph Heller, and the Daily Show, a modern TV Show running by Jon Stewart, are those shinny stars animating in postmodernism so far.

Humor plays an important role in postmodernism because it helps people to truly express their reaction to the assumed certainty of scientific theories, and objectives. By using the method of irony under a funny thought, it indirectly implies one of the main thoughts of postmodernism to modern people that there is no absolute truth in this world, and the truth is objective.

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[1] http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/postmodernism 

Catch 22

Catch 22 is a novella written by Joseph Heller at the middle of 20th century. The whole story is set during World War II from 1942 to 1944. The novel follows Captain John Yossarian, a U.S. Army Air Forces B-25 bombardier. Most of the events in the novel occur while the fictional 256th Squadron is based on the island of Pianosa, in the Mediterranean Sea. The novel looks into the experiences of Yossarian himself and the other airmen in the camp. It focuses on their attitudes and inner thoughts to describe the environment in the war, and the way they are trying to fulfill their service requirements, so that they are able to return home. 

Catch 22 is also known for being ironic in productions from Postmodern Era.[1] In the book, the author Joseph Heller abandoned the traditional writing method of postmodernism: he not only does not highlight any characteristics of Yossarian (the protagonist) and the other airmen, but also makes the atmosphere of the story to be filled with disorder, noise and craziness. However, at the same time, Joseph Heller also emphasizes the "absurd seriousness" during the war. By using the dark humor and describing the rule "Catch-22", he successfully satirizes the whole American society from those negligible events that happens everyday in the army. In Postmodern Era, postmodern authors often treat very serious subjects—World War II, the Cold War, conspiracy theories—from a position of distance and disconnect, and choose to depict their histories ironically and humorously.[2] The novella Catch 22 truly expresses its topic by using one of the characteristics from Postmodern Era, which is irony. 

The art piece, Fountain, produced by Duchamp and the modern TV Show, Daily Show hosting by Jon Steward are also sharing the same characteristic. Irony and humor contain the essence of Postmodernism.

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[1]"What is Catch-22? And why does the book matter?". BBC News. 12 March 2002. Retrieved 11 March 2011.
[2]http://postmodernblog.tumblr.com/post/106532710/a-list-of-postmodern-characteristics

The Daily Show

The Daily Show is an American well-known modern TV show that includes the mixture of irony and humor. It is hosting by Jon Steward since 1999. Describing itself as a fake news program, The Daily Show produces its comedy and satire from modern political figures, modern news stories, media organizations, and often, aspects of the show itself.

As one of the most popular TV show, The Daily Show influences tons of teenagers and adults about events that happen in their daily lives. For example, after the start of Iraq War in 2003, The Daily Show produced a session called “Mess O’ Potamia” to discuss about those policies that U.S. was going to use on the Middle-east Asia area. Basically, it tried to tell people that there is no absolute truth in the world; the government may tell people the fake information by using a satirical but humorous tone from the host Jon Stewart.                                                                    

Fountain (Duchamp)

Fountain is an art product created by Marcel Duchamp at the early 20th century. This work basically is a porcelain urinal, but get tagged and named as Fountain by Duchamp. Originally, when Duchamp first submitted the urinal as an art product, it got rejected by the committee, even though the rules stated that all works would be accepted from artists who paid the fee.[1] However, it was presented at an art studio lastly.

Fountain, as a special art piece, receives lots of certainties and questions from the society. The basic idea of this art piece definitely contacts with postmodernism by using sarcasm and humor. First, people usually think that art is created by skills. However, the appearance of Fountain challenges the common idea of art by using a ridiculous object, an urinal, directly, which expresses one of the main thoughts of postmodernism: nothing is absolute. Moreover, it cuts the traditional connection between art and value, and creates conceptual art. A humorous thought remarks deeply in the history of postmodern era and actually makes modern people consider deeply.

The End of Postmodern Era

In the article of Dictatorship or Relativism, it says that the slippery slopes will be ended eventually because the equivalent educated person is likely to have a very different attitude towards whatever moral and political ideas—“principles” is no longer the right word—he lives by. When those ideas are challenged, deference to the challenger rather than defense of the principles is the order of the day.[1] I totally agree the author’s thought.

In my consideration, Postmodern Era will be ended after 50 more years. First, the development of human culture will meet a bottleneck gradually since now, that human cannot understand the information from ancestors. From these remained vestiges like Pyramid of Khufu and Maya, better civilizations must have existed before in the world but somehow it has been concealing for a long time in a different space. They may have the ability to blockade most of human’s brain function and stop human to find alien civilizations that exist in the galaxy. Postmodern Era will be ended because human starts to figure out that inquiring into old but brilliant civilizations and getting more information from them are more important instead of propagating thoughts of postmodernism. Thoughts of postmodernism get challenged by those antiquated cultures. Once interpreting their messages successfully, human might understand everything deeply instead of focusing on postmodernism for a long period. Ancestors will point out a limpid way for human to develop for the future. When human civilization is able to step further, people will begin to learn more new knowledge and forget about the existence of postmodernism rapidly. 

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[1] Introduction: The Dictatorship of Relativism, Roger Kimball, January 2009.